Selling Computer Training – A Quick Guide

If you have been in the onsite repair business for a while you have probably had someone ask you whether you do computer training. I get these a few times a month and I nearly always take these jobs. You can take these training jobs at your regular repair rate or create a new “teaching rate”. Personally, my teaching rate is a little cheaper just because this type of work is so incredibly easy.
In this article, we’ll cover a little bit about getting into computer training.

Most of the time the clients want to know how to do things that are almost second nature to us but are new to them. Here are some of the teaching jobs I often get asked to do:

• Visit a web page
• Use a search engine
• Send and receive emails (including sending digital photos)
• How to use Word and Excel
• How to scan and download photos off digital cameras
• How to use the Windows file structure (saving, navigating folders etc.)
• How to buy and sell on eBay

As you can see, these are all fairly easy for us. The key to teaching someone something on computers is to always put them in a drivers seat. Most people learn faster by actually doing it themselves instead of listening to you tell them about it.

My process is to talk them through the task the first time while they drive and then ask them to do it again, but without my help this time. You must be patient when doing this as it can take them time to find the icon they pressed just a few minutes earlier. Never take over the keyboard and mouse “just to do it quickly”. If they cant find what they need after 30 seconds or so, start reminding them but don’t give them the actual answer. If they still cannot find what they need, talk them through that step again.

When some of the harder tasks are involved like downloading photos from digital cameras, I try to make it as simple as possible for the client by making things happen automatically or making the correct settings as default. This way all they have to do is connect the camera, open the program and press download.

The way I decide what to teach them is I ask them what they would like to and what they want to use it for. For example, if the client wants to learn a bit of Excel to keep track of golf tournament scores down at the local club, the task will be creating and using this scorecard.

Instead of showing them every option in Excel I would cover the basics of how the cells work (A1, B2 etc.) and ask them to put the names of some example players down in the A column and the round numbers across the 1 row.
Once I felt they mastered the basic layout of a spreadsheet I would show them how to do sums so that Excel can automatically add up the scores.

As you know, Excel has many more features, but I showed the client what was important for them to do what they want to do. By the time I leave they are happy because they feel that they have learnt something and got their monies worth.

If you find you are getting lots of one-on-one teaching jobs you might want to look into making up some basic copy-shop materials covering the useful basics. It makes you look more professional, saves you some time and you can make a few extra dollars on the side by selling it.