Your ability to FOCUS your efforts, with laser precision, will largely determine whether you succeed or not.Most new computer consultants, VARs, network integrators, solution providers, and managed services providers are to put it simply... ALL OVER THE PLACE!

It's almost like IT-entrepreneurial ADD (attention deficit disorder).

But it doesn't have to be that way when you're starting a computer consulting business IF you know what's most important and what's least important.

So many new computer consulting businesses emulate (a) Fortune 1000 competitors and (b) completely clueless competitors. Basically they make the potentially fatal mistake of trying to be ALL things to ALL people.

Trying to be ALL things to ALL people doesn't work for small computer consulting businesses that don't have the resources of industry-giants like Best Buy, Circuit City, Dell, Office Depot, and Staples.

So yes, the scary reality is that if you don't focus your efforts when you're starting a computer consulting business, you'll end up staring down the barrel of direct-competition with Fortune 1000 giants... who'll spend more on advertising before lunchtime on January 1st, then you'll spend on your marketing and promotional activities all-year-long!

This means you must work smarter... MUCH smarter... and focus your marketing and lead generation activities squarely on more substantial small businesses, generally with 10-100 workstations, who are not well-served by impersonal, mass-market, commodity-oriented, one-size-fits-all efforts.

When you're starting a computer consulting business, you also must know how to carefully qualify ALL of your leads BEFORE you waste time going out on sales appointments... so you can work as efficiently as possible and not get distracted on wild-goose chases.

You also need to have a concrete plan of attack for what you'll say and do on your sales appointments, so you can move your qualified leads from "free" to "fee"-based new paying customers right away... and so your sales process doesn't drag on for weeks and weeks of mooching, brain-picking, and free proposal writing.

And of course, what good is getting a new customer for your new computer consulting business if you can't sell your services to that new customer on an ongoing, steady, repeat basis!

So you'll also need to know how to properly structure your first paying projects with your new customers so you exude professionalism and credibility right-off-the-bat... and plant the seeds for a very long-term, mutually-beneficial relationship.