Like all plans, there is an ultimate goal to achieve. The goal in a business continuity plan is simply that: to continue your business in the face of a disaster or a disruption. A business continuity plan is not just for a disaster. It’s also for the smaller things in life, like your friendly neighborhood burglar who decides to borrow all of your computers or the small power interruption, which causes loss of data and downtime or the fire five floors below you, which causes a 5 hour building shutdown. These are a few of the many things, which do occur every day and do happen to companies like yours.

Disaster recovery has traditionally been associated with computing systems and data storage and recovery of data. Different than business continuity, disaster recovery is focused more on after the fact, quickly and effectively recovering from a disaster or disruption.

There are many good sources of information on both business continuity and disaster recovery. Some of the more authoritative sources are: Disaster Recovery International (www.drii.org), Disaster Recovery Journal (www.drj.com).

It’s, of course, not realistic to think that you can guard against every risk. However, through risk analysis, business impact analysis, selecting effective strategies, documenting detailed recovery plans and testing your plans, you can significantly reduce many of your risks, often in a very cost effective way. You have an important management responsibility to safeguard company assets. Reducing your risk profile through a well thought out business continuity and disaster recovery plan is an effective way to do so.

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Do you own or manage a computer consulting company? Would you like to achieve greater small business success? If so, then get ready to learn why most computer consulting companies get IT (Information Technology) wrong and what you can do about IT.

The Problem: Why Most Computer Consulting Companies Get IT Wrong

Most owners of computer consulting companies make their jobs much harder than need be. Why? Because these computer consulting business owners fall in love with the technology… and view their small business clients as a distant second priority.

However, if you get this part of “IT” wrong, you will doom your computer consulting company to “clueless geek” status. It’s crucial that you understand one extremely important principle here: Recruiting and retaining small business clients is your #1 computer consulting priority. Keeping up with IT should never get in the way of the mission of your computer consulting company.

In other words, don’t get seduced by the hardware, operating systems or applications. Fall-in-love with the business opportunities surrounding how you solve your clients’ biggest business problems with your recommended IT solutions. That’s the real mission of a computer consulting company.

The Solution: Blend Computer Consulting and Virtual IT

To put this all in perspective with your computer consulting company, you need to understand and embrace the concept of virtual IT.

Virtual IT is what allows your computer consulting company to function as an extension of your small business clients’ companies. Your computer consulting company essentially becomes the outsourced IT department for your small business clients.

As owner or manager of a computer consulting company in this role, you will most likely become the de facto CIO (chief information officer), CTO (chief technology officer), or IT manager for your small business clients.

And just like any well-rounded internal IT department, your virtual IT computer consulting business will need to provide, or arrange for, a complete soup-to-nuts solution that includes services like help desk, desktop support, network administration, engineering, security, training, procurement, and asset management… because anything short of the complete virtual IT solution will leave valuable computer consulting money on the table.

The Bottom Line

Most computer consulting companies are making a huge mistake when it comes to their small business engagements… because these computer consulting business owners fall-in-love with the technology, at the expense of the business opportunities. In order for your computer consulting company to flourish, make sure that you understand the concept of virtual IT and build virtual IT into every major business decision for your computer consulting company.

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