Re: SMB Linux approaches?

"Stephen J. Turnbull" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.misc.free-software-business
Organization The XEmacs Project
Message-ID <[email protected]>
>>>>> "g" == DV Henkel-Wallace <[email protected]> writes:

    g> On 19 Mar, 2004, at 17:36, Karsten M. Self wrote:

    >> on Fri, Mar 19, 2004 at 04:56:13PM -0800, DV Henkel-Wallace
    >> ([email protected]) wrote:

    >>> I don't know how many people think of themselves as having a
    >>> "small/medium-sized business."

AFAIK only the SBA thinks in those terms.  I don't know what the odds
are, but IT is an issue that all businesses have to address, and the
SBA might very well put an SMB-oriented support business in touch with
SBA clients.  (This might take a while, until you've built up a rep
independently of the SBA.)  They might also give _you_ aid.

Check with the Chamber of Commerce, too.  I doubt they would like you
spamming their members, but if you seem on the up and up they might be
able to help with referrals (at least the US and Canadian CoC's do in
Tokyo, but that's a different kind of problem from yours---your
clients will mostly be English speakers like you ;-).

    g> I think you should look at how _other_ businesses advertise to
    g> the same clientele:

    g> - yellow pages
    g> - cleaning services
    g> - etc

Lawyers, accountants especially.  Maybe you should cozy up to some
accountants; if someone's accountant does a good job and recommends
you as an IT guy, she'll listen, I think.

-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.
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