My New Company - Dara IT
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@Breffni-Potter said:
Having read though the...almost insane level of typing in such a short space of time, I'll lay out a few items for clarity.
Welcome to this thing called @scottalanmiller
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@thecreativeone91 said:
IMO most businesses not looking for low end support will avoid a MSP providing any level of support to home users. I know I would.
Is there a business decision behind that? Surely that's the same as saying "Oh I won't use that level of internet provider, I want this provider" and pay £££ for a connection. I'm not targeting the average PC world user. I'm trying to aim elsewhere.
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@Breffni-Potter said:
Is there a business decision behind that? Surely that's the same as saying "Oh I won't use that level of internet provider, I want this provider" and pay £££ for a connection.
I would not avoid an IT firm that supports home users just for that reason, but I would be skeptical of their ability to support my business.
The difference in service types supported is huge.
@Breffni-Potter said:
I'm not targeting the average PC world user. I'm trying to aim elsewhere.
What you are targeting is not relevant. The key thing is simply that the word "residential" exists at all. This means you are not a B2B focused provider. I would much prefer to only hire firms that are focuse don business support because based on that being all they do, I will have a much higher chance of getting quality service.
This does not mean that your company cannot provide quality service to both markets. But you will find yourself being ignored for other choices simply because of it.
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I'd take this company as en example http://www.computer-rescue.ca/
They provide Home support. Yet they are on spiceworks and ask so many simple questions about adding new DCs, DNS configuration etc there.
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@Breffni-Potter, how are you planning on getting clients? (I don't have any advice, I'm just nosey!)
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@JaredBusch said:
@Breffni-Potter said:
Is there a business decision behind that? Surely that's the same as saying "Oh I won't use that level of internet provider, I want this provider" and pay £££ for a connection.
I would not avoid an IT firm that supports home users just for that reason, but I would be skeptical of their ability to support my business.
The difference in service types supported is huge.
@Breffni-Potter said:
I'm not targeting the average PC world user. I'm trying to aim elsewhere.
What you are targeting is not relevant. The key thing is simply that the word "residential" exists at all. This means you are not a B2B focused provider. I would much prefer to only hire firms that are focuse don business support because based on that being all they do, I will have a much higher chance of getting quality service.
This does not mean that your company cannot provide quality service to both markets. But you will find yourself being ignored for other choices simply because of it.
I agree here. Adding residential as an option really changes how people see you (IMHO.) It's okay to cover residential and just not put it out there as advertising. NTG's policy, for example, is we will do residential but you have to treat it like a business (business billing, business rates, business account.) Only makes sense if you are talking about a remote residential office that is part of a corporate contract - when needed we don't want to not offer it, but we don't want home users thinking that they can get service from us.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@Breffni-Potter, how are you planning on getting clients? (I don't have any advice, I'm just nosey!)
Always a point of curiosity for me too.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
I'd take this company as en example http://www.computer-rescue.ca/
They provide Home support. Yet they are on spiceworks and ask so many simple questions about adding new DCs, DNS configuration etc there.
No comment as to their competence, when you have a look at my profile do you get that same impression?
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Good luck with it! That's a tough row to hoe
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
@Breffni-Potter, how are you planning on getting clients? (I don't have any advice, I'm just nosey!)
Always a point of curiosity for me too.
Yep, hardest thing for any new business.
I already have a confirmed set of clients, My personal reputation for delivering a great service, with professionalism in very high pressure situations is high. They know who I am and what I can deliver.
As for residential, I have a paticular profile of customer in mind, These are very much home office based clients, who are used to business level service and they will be paying business rates.
On a borrowed laptop so can't write an essay but does that help clarify?
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Had a re-think.
Changed a few things, let me know what you think.
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Logo is definitely way better.
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Yep, logo is nice and simple.
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And is not the same logo of any major product that I know.
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Spent quite a long time sitting with a drawing package, eventually drew that. Fairly pleased with it.
What do you think about content?
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Consider a sans serif font. Admittedly, I'm not much of a designer, but web sites with Times New Roman or similar fonts always look as though they're incomplete, even if the rest of the site is very well done, and I think that's the case with this one. It could be an issue of font availability, in which case in your CSS be sure to list multiple font options, including system independent ones like sans-serif.
font-family: 'Open Sans', Verdana, Yomama, sans-serif;
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@tonyshowoff said:
Consider a sans serif font.
Just don't use Comic Sans It's unprofessional to use it in most professional work.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@tonyshowoff said:
Consider a sans serif font.
Just don't use Comic Sans It's unprofessional to use it in most professional work.
More like ever.
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So https://darait.co.uk is well over a year old.
A lot of lessons have been learnt, some very exciting projects worked on with clients and actually the offering available, the culture, the methodology, is one of the most unique approaches for an IT company in the UK. Every time I have this conversation, it is something people are wanting, completely different to the MSP model which has saturated the market.
Bumping the thread because actually it's taken a good year of developing that foundation so it might be interesting for others to read about where things started and how it developed on.
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@Breffni-Potter said in My New Company - Dara IT:
So https://darait.co.uk is well over a year old.
A lot of lessons have been learnt, some very exciting projects worked on with clients and actually the offering available, the culture, the methodology, is one of the most unique approaches for an IT company in the UK. Every time I have this conversation, it is something people are wanting, completely different to the MSP model which has saturated the market.
Bumping the thread because actually it's taken a good year of developing that foundation so it might be interesting for others to read about where things started and how it developed on.
You should post a thread about the new MSP model.