IT Rockstars "uber of IT support" diary

[goldmercury]

Hi guys,

hope all is well in the world of technibble forums. I've been on and off the site for a number of years and thought I'd try and contribute with my new venture.

Having just left my employer of 5 years to start our on a new company I thought I'd publish a diary. With the aim to help any fellow technibble users win more business customers.

My 3 year goal is to release an app to the market that is kind of like an Uber for IT support for small business that require adhoc services. It will more than likely take some form of IM/messaging platform as this is the big growth area in mobile just now.

There are already a handful of companies attempting this model however none of them have any real traction that I'm aware of.

How you can benefit from this:

First off I'm not even attempting to launch the app for at least 18 months. I plan to build an audience first. I've spoken to a few of the other guys in the space and the real problem they have is finding the techs.

There's also the problem of getting it into the hands of the users.

I've just spent the last 2 weeks building an online directory for UK IT providers. If you are in the UK you can list your IT business for free. The domain (www.itrockstars.co.uk) will be heavily promoted on Linkedin and a large SEO project is on going. You can benefit from having your business listed on here and reap the SEO & traffic as a side effect.

The next step I'm planning is to build an audience of business owners and decision makers that are trying to figure out what technology to use in their business. At the moment they will have an IT supplier in hand and looking for them to advise. The problem I see with this is the advice might not always be in the businesses best interest.

As such I will be performing video interviews/IT masterclasses with people that have a story and are passionate about a certain technology. The whole point of this is to allow the business owner to make a better-informed decision about a technology or IT provider.

(copied the idea from Mixergy.com for IT masterclasses)



The other piece to the puzzle is the local side to the business. All this online activity will act as a form of marketing for my offline business which is managed services. I'm specifically going down the IT security route (ransomware victims) to get my foot in the door locally. Been following some of Robin Robins direct mail (Dan Kennedy) style marketing tactics.

(Robin Robins - has taken a lot of Dan Kennedy's tactics of marketing to MSP's in the US)

I've got around 100 letters going out to businesses in the next 2 weeks which I'll be following up on.

The plan is to win some business - but more importantly for you share my results and how I am getting new business locally here on Technibble.

I'll post my letter here once I've completed it. Stay tuned -

Scott Millar

PS would love some feedback on my ideas here!

 

[goldmercury]

Week1: Alright guys as mentioned in the thread title this is a diary of where I'm at. Just done my first interview with a gentleman that has just went through the process of replacing a large oil & gas operators voice systems with on-premise Lync/Skype for business. They literally took away all the desk phones and gave 10000+ users headsets. Here's a clip:

Anyway as mentioned above I'm looking to speak to people with a passion about IT/technology that have a story to tell how they've implemented a bit of tech that's help a business in some way. If you know of someone that should be on the show or a topic we should cover fill in this form: http://www.itrockstars.co.uk/suggest/

 

[oldtech]

Maybe I'm just grumpy today but I fail to see why you would (seek?) expect support and interest here in your attempt to further commoditize the service that most here depend upon for their livelyhood. Just like Uber did to taxi services your intended program will undercut the prices of those truly qualified business men and women with decades of experience. I also did not see any mention of a vetting process so I guess one question is other than being app based, how is this different from aggregating pizza techs?

 

[goldmercury]

Oldtech - I totally see your point - however when I've finally figured out the app I plan to have quite an advanced algorithm. Techs will be rated (just like my online directory just now) - the ones that know what they are doing will naturally be more in demand, and as a consequence be able to charge more. I've heard too many times of businesses having to go though 2-3 IT people before they get the right one - I'm sure you have to. The app will just make the process quicker and help everyone as a consequence.

The pizza techs will still be at the bottom of the market - it's the laws of nature but just in a digital form.

 

[trevm999]

I think you should stop comparing to Uber if you want businesses to be interested.

 

[Krynn72]

The pizza techs will still be at the bottom of the market - it's the laws of nature but just in a digital form.

Tell that to Angies List, Thumbtack, etc.

Unless you're doing some serious vetting, you're going to attract pizza techs like flies to ****. The average joe is going to look at two people who say they can do the same things and promise to fix their issue, and go with the cheapest offer. That offer will always be a pizza tech.

Therefore your company will need to do the vetting to ensure only professional, experienced techs get the work so that pizzas can't even make an offer. Considering no other service like this has successfully done that, I don't personally feel encouraged by a vague promise of "advanced algorithms" when you "get it figured out".

Don't get me wrong, I would love to see something like this done right, but so far there's not much real substance to get excited by it. Its also kind of confusing. I still don't get the point of doing interviews, like how do they help your service? Are the interviews to promote the business doing the interview, or to promote yours?

 

[glennd]

No, you're not being grumpy. Thank you for saying what we were all thinking.

The deafening silence after @goldmercury's first post was everyone being too polite to say anything.

I thought it was just me.

"Rockstar" and "masterclass" are marketing buzzwords that came and went in the 90s. Online directories are a dime a dozen. Photos of well known but unrelated people is misleading at the least. The only phone "app" you need is google. I haven't read anything that would entice professionals to get involved.

 

[callthatgirl]

Apps are throw away in my opinion.

edited due to my post below.

 

[callthatgirl]

Ok I missed this in the above post. I had to read it again.

Driving a taxi does not take skill.

Being an IT Rockstar does

Are you serious saying this? You must never travel or need to take a taxi/cab. I have been in some awesome trips with taxi and cab drivers who know what they are doing, they are PRO'S. They don't have the GPS and know the faster back roads. They don't over charge you for traffic and other crap. They talk while driving and entertain you if you want to be entertained. They don't talk if you don't want to talk.

These guys are TAXI Rockstars, respect an industry pal.

 

[goldmercury]

Interesting opinions - love having some critical feedback.

Krynn72 there will be serious vetting.

Lisa - the point I was trying to make - what you do for your living I believe requires more skill than driving a taxi.

 

[oldtech]

Ok I missed this in the above post. I had to read it again.

Driving a taxi does not take skill.

Being an IT Rockstar does.

Are you serious saying this? You must never travel or need to take a taxi/cab. I have been in some awesome trips with taxi and cab drivers who know what they are doing, they are PRO'S. They don't have the GPS and know the faster back roads. They don't over charge you for traffic and other crap. They talk while driving and entertain you if you want to be entertained. They don't talk if you don't want to talk.

These guys are TAXI Rockstars, respect an industry pal.

Well said Lisa. I had to step away for a bit before responding since OP's comment lit me up.

I was raised with the understanding that A skill was A skill regardless of what it is in - they are all equal. A person who masters his or her profession be it janitor, coder, street artist, taxi driver or pilot all deserve the same respect. Do all these require the same level of education, critical thinking and decision making? Clearly not. All however require a dedication to being the best at what they do. One profession is not above the other.

 

[callthatgirl]

Your comment doesn't make any sense to me.

A person needs a job and they like driving, so they think that getting a job at a taxi company would be a good fit. After a few months, they either really like it or don't. Some just do it because they need to support a family. Those that really like it probably learned that they make better tips by being a better taxi driver. That is a skill. It's a sales and human behavior skill. They need to learn how to read people, how to react, how to make good judgement calls, how to avoid traffic, how to open the doors for people, how to drop them off at the best location, how to cater to the disabled, can you see where I am going with this? I have had some really great long cab rides while traveling, I tip based upon how my experience was. This is no different than how we should service our clients, even though the majority of us don't get tips, we do have the option of being our best so our clients can call us back, the taxi driver usually gets one shot to earn a good tip.

what you do for your living I believe requires more skill than driving a taxi.

You believe wrong. I could be the best taxi driver in Vegas if I wanted to be. I haven't challenged myself to that task, but I might consider it.

 

[goldmercury]

I see your point - I guess as I cycle a lot I've got a biased view on taxi drivers as they cut me off all the time. Listening to your most recent podcast excellent show - internal DNS has caught me out a few times to

 

[callthatgirl]

Back when I lived in Minneapolis, I lived in the city and the people on bicycles were pretty bad on the streets, they didn't stop for stop signs and cruised through cars like they owned the road. I never hit one, but came close many times.

That internal DNS was a good lesson to learn!

Consider this post your "Shark Tank" and I'd really think hard about going ahead with your project.

 

[goldmercury]

Appreciate all the comments thus far. It's good to get critical feedback as it helps shape the success. Shark Tank sounds about right

Anyway as mentioned this is a diary so update for this week.

1st

Launched the first episode of the new "Friday show" on youtube. This is specifically targeting business owners/decision makers.

The problem I have is that I know these people are not on youtube so may well plan a direct email campaign. I have considered posting this to linkedin but not sure if it will have the correct effect? If you have any ideas on how I could promote to business owners / decision makers that would be a big help.

2nd

Preparing the direct mail pieces. I don;t have the money to buy Robin Robin's toolkit but have watched her videos and I am going to implement what I have taken from the free stuff.

3rd

Reading through managed services in a month, luckily I have some time for this as I'm on Jury Duty this week so plenty of waiting around to read Karl the author was on Call That Girl's show - that's how I heard about him. I'll comment further on what I've learned from the book once I've finished.

 

[callthatgirl]

Did you read the 4 hour work week?

 

[goldmercury]

Yes read it a few years back. It is not a reality - you got to work if you want to make $$$

I know most tech will not be in a position to check emails only twice a day

 

[callthatgirl]

ok, you need to stop lol

You wrote this This is specifically targeting business owners/decision makers.

but then you say in the video to check email twice a day.

Then tell us "I know most tech will not be in a position to check emails only twice a day"

 

[goldmercury]

This video is not aimed at tech's - it's aimed at managing directors/finance managers/office managers that make the decision on IT contracts. The non-technical.

The types that need to stay focused - and limit distractions.

 

[goldmercury]

This week's marketing update:

Released a new video, attempted to gain greater exposure for it using Facebook Live - which is fairly complicated to work from a desktop. As such by the time I managed to get the video "live" it was 5pm and a lot of the business people I'm targeting will be offline now.

It has given my facebook page a boost though and I think next week I'll do a targetted audience display ad on facebook. Has anyone done facebook targeting? I'm really looking for some suggestions on how to target. I know I can do age/location & things like facebook page admins.