I started my home based IT support business more than four years ago. There are many advantages to a home based business, from lower overhead and monthly operating cost to a more appealing image to your residential customers.

If you intend on serving small business clients though, you better have your stuff together. Many small businesses are hesitant to go with a provider that works from a home office, so you will need to be on your game and VERY likable, personable and stand behind your word/work 110%. If you can manage to get just a few small business service contracts, the rewards from referrals will be what enables you to take off.

In computer support, the real money is in commercial/small business service contracts. I, myself, am trying to step away from residential customers, as there are just too many "fly-by-night" wannabes who will show up for $20-30.00, and unfortunately the home user mindset will almost ALWAYS go with whoever promises to be the cheapest... even if they are not a real licensed small business or even certified.

When I started I almost immediately quit my "job". My reasoning was that if I could book 2-3 service appointments a week, I would make more than I could working 40+ hours. Everyones situation is different, and everyone is afraid of the unknown. If I could do it over again, I would of stayed employed for another year or two, but only putting some money back for advertising my IT support business. Advertising is the single greatest expense, aside from general liability insurance. "Strongly Recommended"

Trial and Error.

Protection. First and foremost if a good attorney to write up your contracts, disclaimers and such. Second is General Liability Insurance. Third is Don't get in over your head trying to do anything you are un-experienced in, like Data/RAID recovery without the knowledge to do it properly. Stay within your comfort zone and acquire the skills you need before advertising and serving clients with those services. Nothing could be worse than goofing up on a companies Data recovery project and loosing or corrupting potentially invaluable data. Signed disclaimer or not, you're likely to end up in court.


As far as your company image; I am still building my own image. It has taken time for me to do so. I have changed my image several times, as I have freely experimented with different ad styles and different "Identities" to see what works the best. Maybe I have done things just a little back-wards, but I have found what works for me.

You will too, just don't rush it and don't be afraid to try out ideas and experiment.

Cory - Beyond Communications LLC