The good folks at CMIT Solutions' office in Sacramento, Calif. From the CMIT Solutions website.

Wondering how to start your own computer business?

It’s a growing industry filled with opportunities for dedicated entrepreneurs who approach things the right way — by identifying market needs and pursuing them with smart strategies, superb customer service and an eye to the bottom line.

It’s also a career path you can’t approach lightly. Technology continues to advance, and it’s getting more and more difficult for a sole proprietor with some skill in maintaining and repairing computers to get by with a limited budget and skill set. Here are some things to consider before you make the move to start your own computer business:

Who are your customers? Would you aim for the crowded field of individual computer repair vendors, the “break-fix” crowd in branded vans and Volkswagens, or try to identify a more lucrative target market? You might be able to find some clients operating by yourself, but you’re assuming a tremendous amount of risk for mainly low-paying jobs, and it’s a crowded field with a ton of competition.

What’s your business model? Would you run the business out of the house or open a storefront? Would you aim to scale and add managers and technicians after a certain period of time or stay on your own? Would you model yourself after similar businesses or offer a new approach to service that would distinguish you from the pack?

How big is your budget? Do you have enough operating capital to run the business for a while — say, three or four months — without income? Are you confident you’d be able to win enough business in the first few months to be able to pay for equipment and operating costs, office space, employees (if needed), and any unexpected expenses?

Are you up to speed on all the latest hardware and software? Are you solvent and flexible enough to adjust? The IT world moves with lightning speed, and the skills you mastered three months ago might not be as valuable today. You have to keep learning.

Do you want to go completely on your own, or would you consider buying a franchise? Starting your own business, regardless of the field, can be an incredibly risky undertaking; you’re really banking on your own skill, expertise and capacity to work, and even then nothing is guaranteed. A franchise system allows you to take charge of your own enterprise and grow it the way you want, but with proven systems and support that can offer guidance when you need it.

CMIT Solutions is a national network of locally owned IT franchises that serves a specific and growing market with demonstrated demand: small businesses that employ between five and 99 people, businesses big enough to need outsourced IT support but generally not big enough to have internal IT departments. It’s an ideal market for managed service providers like CMIT Solutions, and we’re always looking for skilled, driven entrepreneurs — even those who might not be tech experts — to open and run CMIT locations. Interested? Take a look at www.cmitsolutions.com or www.cmitfranchise.com.

Evan Stein, 44, spent his whole career in information technology before his 2001 layoff from a service provider. He then spent six years working as a “freelance IT consultant.” He explains what that means: “When IT people get laid off, they look for jobs, and while they’re looking, they refer to themselves as freelance IT consultants.” Stein eventually discovered the job he was looking for in mid-2007, when he attended yet another in a long line of Manhattan networking breakfasts.

Q. How long have you been a CMIT franchisee?
A. Four-and-a-half years. They’ve gone very, very well. It’s definitely been the best four-and-a-half-year stretch of my career.

Q. How did you hear about CMIT Solutions?
A. It was a random meeting at a breakfast networking event at this place in Manhattan in 2007. I was a freelance IT consultant at the time, and most of my freelance work was filled by going to events like this. I met this woman named Renee Colwell, who said she was a franchise owner for CMIT Solutions. We struck up a conversation that basically revolved around, “What do you do?” …  We followed that up with breakfast to compare notes, and we continued doing that over the next few months. Finally she came to me and told me she was thinking about getting out of this and going back to what she was doing before, and she wanted to know if I was interested in buying her out. I was, because the more she was telling me about CMIT, the more interested I became.

Q. Why CMIT Solutions?
A. I was struggling to get over a certain hurdle, and it seemed like the CMIT main office would help me get over it. I had worked at a couple of different corporate jobs, and one of the things really holding me back was that I missed having colleagues. Everyone I dealt with either worked for me or was a client. I needed a system that could provide me with that support. One of the things that impressed me about CMIT was the culture, which seems to run throughout the owners, of collaboration and teamwork. I’d looked at a couple of other opportunities, neither of which had that kind of culture. The CMIT home office uses the concept of mastermind groups, such as the Pacesetters, who are free to get together and function however they want. It became very clear to me that the people participating in these groups were committed to putting time, energy and money into developing their businesses, and that impressed me. I was very impressed with the discovery process. I got to speak with other CMIT owners and learned that the northeastern owners get together once a quarter, and they invited me to one of their meetings. They gave me a very open, honest view of what CMIT was about. I heard about owners helping each other by sharing sales leads, technicians. That’s not something you find with every franchise system.

Q. What’s your professional background?
A. I’ve been working in IT my entire career. I have a degree in electrical engineering with a concentration in computer science from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City, where I graduated in ‘89. I then went to work in IT at JP Morgan, then a couple of other banks, Deutsche Bank … I was let go in the summer of 2001 from USinternetworking right as the bubble was bursting.

Q. What do you like best about CMIT Solutions’ franchise opportunity?
A. I think it’s what I was saying about the other owners, the support system. It gives me an opportunity to share group resources and spread work around so I don’t need to take it all on myself. I can collaborate with other local owners and develop rollout strategies. It really drives my costs down.

Q. What has been the most surprising thing about owning a CMIT Solutions franchise?
A. Probably how much I’ve grown professionally in the last four years. We’ve grown by about 1,000 percent since my last year as a freelancer in terms of revenue. My take-home has probably grown by 500 to 600 percent in that time. I would not have achieved those numbers without CMIT. Also the amount of free time I have, the success I’ve seen, the money I’m bringing home, the fact that I feel like I’m in complete control of the business.

Q. What keeps you active in your free time?
A. I’ve got three kids, all under the age of 6. That was actually the big kick in the pants for me. In ‘06, I got married and my first daughter was born, and my wife decided she wanted to stay home and take care of the kids, and I needed to transform my little freelance consulting business, which was enough to keep me fed, into something that would support a family. It was right around then when I met Renee. Since then, we’ve added two more kids to the mix.

Q. What kind of person makes a good CMIT Solutions franchisee?
A. You have to enjoy technology — you don’t need to know it all that well, but you need to like it. You need to invest time. Your payday is not immediate. You start making money after you’ve been in it a couple of years. It’s a deferred payday. You have to wait a year or two until you can build some equity in the business, then you can kick back a little bit. You also have to have ridiculously thick skin. We deal with clients at their worst, when the stuff’s hitting the fan. Nobody calls and says, “Hey, my server was up all month.” They’re going to call when something goes wrong. We keep things up and running, and we do a good job, but nothing stays up and running 100 percent of the time. Things are going to break from time to time.

Q. Why would you recommend a CMIT Solutions franchise for someone interested in opening a business?
A. A lot of the aspects of opening a business that you would ordinarily have to figure out yourself are already provided for you. Opening a business for yourself can be one of the loneliest things you can do, and CMIT takes that right out of the picture. It’s a great industry. Technology is already so ingrained in how small businesses operate, and it’s just going to get bigger. No one’s going backward away from technology; small businesspeople are never going to turn around and say, “I’m too connected. I don’t want email going to my phone anymore.” Especially as business technology becomes more consumerized and moves away from the desk and becomes more mobile, there’s an opportunity for small businesses to compete more directly with larger ones to a degree they haven’t been able to. For companies that do it right, technology offers an opportunity to become much more competitive.

InFocus' MondoPad. From the CMIT Solutions website.

Imagine a world in which people had to use the same wireless carrier to talk, text or email by mobile or smart phone. Only Sprint users could contact other Sprint users, only Verizon users could talk with Verizon, etc. It’d be a gigantic mess, wouldn’t it? What do you think the over-under would be for mobs to hit the streets in masses that would make the Occupy protests look like company taco parties?

But that’s exactly the kind of technological jungle small business owners have traditionally had to hack their way through if they wanted to communicate with clients or each other via video.

The problem is that the need for effective video communication — more than that; visual collaboration — has grown with the years and with technological advances. Even small businesses are using more strategic partners and telecommuting freelance workers to meet their needs, making effective visual collaboration not just a luxury but a critical component of any business’ operation.

The best way to accomplish it is with a “bridge” that can accommodate multiple users and integrate them into a platform with high-quality visual collaboration — video, whiteboarding, file-sharing, all the functions of a high-end corporate video conferencing system — regardless of which video chat tool people are using: Google Talk, Apple FaceTime, Skype, what have you. When it works right, it transcends devices. Users could attend a conference via a desktop, laptop, tablet or smart phone.

That’s what we mean by “any-to-any.” It’s a dynamic platform that can seamlessly and easily integrate multiple platforms and lose nothing in quality. With an effective any-to-any system, companies can engage each other, clients, strategic partners and industry connections regardless of where they are without having to fall back on the dependable but inadequate conference call.

It’s just a fact: Business owners who engage people visually solve problems more effectively. When people can tie information with images of people and documents, they have much higher levels of comprehension and knowledge retention. It’s an amazing thing to see, and true visual collaboration, made possible through an “any-to-any” platform, finally makes it possible and affordable for small businesses.

Recently, CMIT Solutions formed a partnership with a pair of technology providers to launch CMIT Impression, a managed monthly any-to-any visual collaboration service for small businesses. The partners are California-based Vidtel, whose cloud-based, high-definition MeetMe video conferencing system accommodates up to 12 users on a conferencing “bridge”; and Oregon-based InFocus, whose 55-inch giant tablet has a touch screen, digital white boarding and high-quality audio and is powered by an integrated Windows 7 Pro PC.

CMIT Impression can connect with any video endpoint, meaning a hodgepodge of networks no longer needs to impede small business communication. CMIT Impression includes collaboration features such as a shared whiteboard, annotation and document sharing, which allows multiple parties to share documents through an intuitive, user-friendly interface that small business clients immediately gravitate to and begin using, in addition to a flexible video conferencing component.

It’s the first system of its kind for the small business community, and it’s an idea whose time has arrived. Interested in seeing how CMIT Impression can transform your clients’ capacity to communicate and share ideas with the people who can help their businesses flourish? See www.cmitfranchise.com.

Washington couple gained recurring revenue, freedom to travel through CMIT Solutions franchise

Mondopad Wall Tablet

What is visual collaboration, and why should small business owners care?

More and more businesses are looking for ways to cut costs by reducing travel and using telecommuting freelancers rather than in-house staffers. This drives the need for high-quality video communication — but not just traditional consumer-grade video conferencing. We’re talking about a system that can reach across multiple video chat tools and allow for interactive presentations, document sharing, whiteboarding and more.

With CMIT Impression, our new visual collaboration package, CMIT Solutions has done what until recently seemed impossible: Construct a video conferencing system with the quality and flexibility of enterprise-level video conferencing systems but at a cost suited for small business — and open to all the varied video chat tools small businesses use.

The opportunities for savings in travel costs and time for small business owners and employees are enormous — and can fundamentally alter the way small businesses communicate and operate.

CMIT Impression starts with one of the most exciting pieces of hardware we’ve ever encountered: InFocus’ Mondopad, a giant, touch-optimized tablet with a 55-inch high-definition screen. The Mondopad transforms conference rooms designed for one-way presentations into dynamic visual collaboration work spaces, allowing for document sharing, interactive presentations, white boarding and other features.

By using Vidtel’s MeetMe service, CMIT Impression will allow as many as 12 users to participate fully in visual collaboration via a conferencing “bridge” that operates on the same principle as a conference calling platform — but has the distinct advantage of being open to any popular video-chat system, from Skype to Google Talk to Apple FaceTime.

And if you’re a CMIT Solutions franchise owner, CMIT Impression represents an outstanding value proposition, for all the rational, practical reasons. But Impression also carries a big emotional hook, too; simply put, the Mondopad is just cool. InFocus’ sales folks report that once people come across a Mondopad and start playing with the features — including its digital whiteboard with complete array of writing and drawing tools, plus multi-touch capabilities, camera, microphones and remote monitoring capability — they literally can’t keep their hands off it.

The core value proposition, though, is that visual collaboration offers small business owners the potential to radically change the way their businesses operate. It can help them save time and money, make better client presentations and foster tighter and more productive collaboration among staff and clients.

Visual collaboration is the future of small business communication. Interested in finding out more? See www.cmitsolutions.com/services/visual-collaboration.

Small Business IT Needs Grow, Creating Expansion for CMIT Solutions

CMIT Solutions Launches ‘CMIT Impression: Visual Collaboration Made Easy’ for Small Businesses

Use of Mondopad, MeetMe Video Conferencing, Any-to-Any Platform Will Revolutionize Small Business Communication

AUSTIN, TX, Dec 13, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — CMIT Solutions, a leading managed service IT provider for small businesses, has unveiled a new package that will transform the way small businesses communicate and operate.

CMIT Impression combines enterprise-class collaboration — including video conferencing, whiteboarding and interactive presentations — with a 55-inch, touch-optimized tablet and a conferencing bridge that transcends operating systems. The bridge allows users to see each other, talk, share documents and view presentations using any video platform from anywhere in the world.

CMIT Solutions calls it “Visual Collaboration Made Easy,” and it represents a massive step forward for easy-to-use technology available to small businesses. Traditionally, small business owners have been slow to adopt video conferencing because of the inconsistent quality of consumer-grade systems and the prohibitive price of enterprise-level offerings, causing them to rely on the traditional conference call.

Small business owners and employees are traveling less and relying more on telecommuting, driving the need for a superior version of video conferencing: visual collaboration. CMIT Solutions is leading the market’s adoption of a higher-quality visual collaboration tool previously out of reach for most small businesses.

CMIT Impression solves the problem through a pair of technology partners: California-based Vidtel, whose cloud-based, high-definition MeetMe video conferencing system provides up to 12 users on a conferencing “bridge”; and Oregon-based InFocus, whose 55-inch Mondopad giant tablet has a touch screen, digital whiteboarding and high-quality audio and is powered by an integrated Windows 7 Pro PC. CMIT Solutions has worked closely with InFocus in recent months in preparation for the company’s general Mondopad launch, demonstrating CMIT Solutions’ growing influence in the industry.

The combination allows small business owners, colleagues and clients to easily talk, share documents and take part in interactive presentations without being in the same location. CMIT Impression offers everything an enterprise-class video conferencing system does, at a competitive price and across any popular video-chat application. CMIT Impression includes collaboration features such as a shared whiteboard, annotation and document sharing, which allows multiple parties to share documents through an intuitive, user-friendly interface.

For more information about CMIT Solutions, visit www.cmitsolutions.com .

CMIT Solutions President and CEO Jeff Connally.

CMIT Solutions’ same-office sales figures rise consistently every year.

Over the past year, from October 2010 to October 2011, revenues for CMIT Solutions franchises that have been open for two years or more rose an average of 36.5 percent. For franchises that were open before the end of 2007, revenues over the past year rose an average of 29.4 percent, a strong indication that CMIT Solutions’ services satisfy a nearly insatiable demand.

So how has CMIT Solutions, the managed IT provider for small businesses, thrived as the overall economy slumped in those years?

CMIT hasn’t grown despite the economic downturn, says President and CEO Jeff Connally. The company has grown because of it.

“In late 2008, just as the economic crisis came to a head, we told all our franchisees — 108 at the time — to call their top 10 customers and ask them what the uncertain economy meant for their businesses,” Connally says. “Within hours, we received 1,000 reports. The common thread was that small and mid-sized businesses expected to have to do more with less.”

Unlike their corporate counterparts, most businesses employing five to 99 people couldn’t slash their staffs and expect to remain efficient and competitive. The only way to increase efficiency was to improve their technology.

“That’s really what’s driven business in the last four years,” Connally says. “Technology is the only thing businesses trying to stay afloat have had in order to do more with less.”

That need will only grow. Advances in cloud computing and other other web-based platforms will make outsourced IT — CMIT Solutions’ specialty — a necessity for small and mid-sized businesses in the years to come.

Many small businesses have been able to scrape by with internal servers and an inefficient “break-fix” approach to IT. But as increasingly complex enterprise-level technology becomes affordable to small and mid-sized businesses, they will find it more and more difficult to operate their IT in-house and stay competitive.

“Small business owners don’t have a choice or even options. Small businesses have to be successful. No one’s going to bail them out,” Connally says. “CMIT Solutions has positioned itself to meet this critical need. We are doing something really transformational for small businesses.”

Are you looking for a technology franchise opportunity that lets you build a thriving business on this fresh and growing market? Visit us at www.cmitsolutions.com or email us at franchise@cmitsolutions.com.

A Monarch School of New England student enjoys a new computer provided by CMIT Solutions. Photo courtesy of Wayne Demers of CMIT Solutions of the Merrimack Valley.

The Monarch School of New England, which serves children with special needs, had about 24 aging computers at its Rochester, N.H. campus, ranging from seven to 10 years old.

Crashes were common, Internet service was spotty and software was years out of date. Worst of all, children with learning disabilities struggled to learn when computers were slow or unresponsive.

That’s all changed because of a technology makeover worth more than $100,000 from CMIT Solutions, a managed IT provider for small businesses, in partnership with Dell and Microsoft. The school won the prize in a Halloween-themed contest: Tell Us Your Technology Nightmare. The school began using the technology in spring 2011, and students are excelling.

The Monarch School serves 33 children, ranging in age from 5 to 21, with severe physical and developmental disabilities. The project illustrates how CMIT Solutions and its area franchisees can provide value not only to their small business clients but their communities.

“We’ve been able to provide them with services the school would never have been able to afford and that sentiment comes out every time we walk into the building,” says Wayne Demers, who co-owns the CMIT Solutions of The Merrimack Valley franchise with Steve Gesing. “They couldn’t be happier with what CMIT has been able to provide for their school.”

Gesing and Demers started their careers as educators, so working with The Monarch School has special resonance for them.

“For us, coming back and getting into this business and working with this school that absolutely needed our services was a real plus,” Demers said. “We’re a couple of old football players. We don’t cry much. But when they got that award, there was not a dry eye between us. We got a little verklempt, I think is the Yiddish word for it.”

The Monarch School of New England's vocational building. Photo courtesy of Wayne Demers of CMIT Solutions of the Merrimack Valley.

The makeover included 15 Dell work stations with Microsoft software; a Dell server; 42-inch monitors in each of the school’s five classrooms; and one year of CMIT Solutions IT services provided by the CMIT Solutions of The Merrimack Valley franchise.

“Enjoyment and passion are definitely what I see,” says Dr. Tom Grebouski, the school’s chief of psychology. “We see them smile, their eyes light up. The technology makeover not only made a difference in the kids, it affected the staff. It makes an enormous difference in the kids’ learning.”

The makeover has had three immediate, measurable benefits, Grebouski said:

• The students get exposure to advanced technology that helps narrow the learning gap between them and their peers in public school.
• The students’ engagement in their learning has “improved dramatically.”
• Teachers can adopt Internet-based educational programs that previously would have been unthinkable and “expose children to a wealth of learning opportunities.”

CMIT Solutions technicians are continually monitoring and upgrading the school’s IT system and will do so in the coming months, Grebouski says. “We are by no means done working with CMIT.”

CMIT Solutions President and CEO Jeff Connally.

CMIT Solutions, a franchised network of IT consultants to small businesses, expects within a few years to expand from 130 locations to 500 and from units in 32 states to all 50.

Here’s why, says President and CEO Jeff Connally:

“Research shows that more than eight of every 10 small businesses handle their IT needs in-house,” Connally says. “But as technology becomes more complex, with cloud computing and other web-based platforms, they’ll have to adapt by outsourcing their IT packages — and CMIT Solutions is in a perfect position to fill that market niche.”

Consider these data from the Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA):

• Market research has identified 2 million U.S. small businesses that meet three key criteria: They earn at least $2 million each year; have been in business for at least two years; and are in industries that rely on IT. Of those, 82 percent handle their IT needs in-house.
• Of the estimated 18,000 U.S. vendors providing managed IT services, no single company has more than 1 percent market share.
• Small businesses estimated that their technology expenses increased by 65 percent from 2008 to 2009 and another 24 percent from 2009 to 2010. Expenses are projected to increase indefinitely.

CMIT Solutions estimates that within the next five years, 75 percent of the small businesses that handle IT in-house will have to pay for the kind of managed IT services CMIT Solutions offers — such as the 24/7 monitoring and maintenance service CMIT Marathon and the business continuity package CMIT Guardian.

“That 82 percent that handles its IT in-house — it’s not that they want to do that,” says Frank Picarello, CMIT Solutions’ COO and a member of CompTIA’s executive board. “They’d much rather run their businesses than manage their IT needs, but most don’t think they have world-class alternatives. They’re looking for the kind of affordable, consistent IT services that can help them stay competitive. You realize, ‘Oh, my God, there’s an enormous opportunity here.’ The market is ripe for a franchise model like ours.”

Are you looking for a franchise opportunity that can build business from this virtually untapped market? Visit www.cmitsolutions.com or email us at franchise@cmitsolutions.com.