RE: SMB Linux approaches?

Right now your approach sounds too broad, and most of the
information in your brochure is not going to be interesting
to non-geeks.  Business owners care about solving their business 
problems; the hardware and OS are irrelevant.  What software are 
you going to give them in addition to linux?

I would find segments of this business community that have
pain and budgets, and figure out how to solve their problems
using a linux-based solution.  For example, use some open
source CRM package to address wine clubs, health club memberships,
or real estate customer databases; or some low cost document
management solution for law offices.

You may also find your biggest objection is the fact that QuickBooks 
doesn't run on Linux.

-----Original Message-----
From: Karsten M. Self [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2004 8:36 PM
To: Free Software Business
Subject: Re: SMB Linux approaches?

> Whom _are_ you trying to address?

Literally:  walk ups in my geographic area (Napa, CA).  Businesses I can
walk into.  In my case, that's going to be small professional shops,
some area non-profits, wineries, etc.

Preferably:  local businesses, rather than franchises / chains which
would have a centralized IT function.  Businesses whose IT needs are
current and on-site (read:  not offshoreable).  If I can land a couple
of ongoing support contracts, initially, it would be sufficient for
where I'd like to be and grow.  I'm also looking at raising awareness of
GNU/Linux in the area.  I know of other independents I might be able to
affiliate with for associated services.


The local business mix is a lot of ag (mostly wine), some healthcare,
real estate, newspapers, education, aviation, some industry, small
professional corporations (law, engineering, other services), retail
(both chain and local, mix of practical and boutique).  Within a
45 - 60 minute travel radius, a broader range of companies, still mostly
smaller.


What I'd like to address are small servers, desktop migration, network
services, some data analysis (e.g.:  wine club membership management /
targeting), etc.