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Following are a number of actual success stories, mostly from my work with local businesses.
A Pleasant Surprise
A laptop owner's computer would not start, and the hard drive was not recognizable for data retrieval. The obvious solution was to do data recovery if needed and possible, replace the hard drive and do all the other appropriate things to produce a good result: reinstall Windows and all the appropriate drivers, get all of the appropriate security updates from Microsoft, install antivirus and anti-spyware software, copy any saved data back to the system, install other software and do various other system tweaks to produce the desired result.
With a new hard drive and 3 hours' labor, the job was estimated at $250, which the customer agreed to. However, with further testing, I determined that the hard drive could in fact be fixed and that this would likely produce as good a result as the more expensive option already accepted by the customer. Instead of a bill for $250, the customer ended up with good results and a bill for $65 -- an enormous savings of $185.
They Saved Big $$$ on a Server
A service business in Strafford needed a new server for their office. For under $1000, I provided a name brand server comparable to similar machines costing $2000 and more.
Two Months of Frustration With Expensive Machine Ended
A Springfield manufacturer had spent two months trying to get a half million dollar machine working with computer remote-control. I had it up and running in two hours.
A Bigger, Better Web Site -- AND Savings To Boot!
An organization hired me to redo their ugly web site. Their new, expanded, and far more professional site will actually cost them less over 3 years -- including redesign and expansion -- than if they had stayed with their previous site and provider.
The Entire Business Totally Dead in the Water -- But Not For Long
An entire law office moved to a new location. They took all of their computers, printers, networking equipment -- everything... then suddenly realized they were dead in the water because they had no idea how to put the whole system back together! I was able in this case to provide same-day emergency service... and had their business back up and running in less than 3 hours.
They Were Totally Overrun With Viruses -- and Clean Setup Was Not an Option.
A Springfield sales organization's main computer became overwhelmingly infected with literally dozens of viruses and spyware. Since they had no installation cd for their key, irreplaceable software, it wasn't an option to simply reformat the hard drive. Using a dozen different tools and approaches, I stamped out every last bug.
QuickBooks Support Couldn't Make QuickBooks Work!
After 4 hours on the phone with QuickBooks technical support, a local plumbing company still could not get their QuickBooks running in multiuser mode -- and QuickBooks technical support seemed powerless to resolve the problem. I was able to get them up and running quickly.
He Couldn't Change His Web Site for Seven Weeks -- Until...
The owner of a local property management business had been unable to make changes to his web site because his hosting provider had changed their hosting, and his software didn't work with the new setup. The hosting company had even sent a technical support person to his office, but the technical support person basically said, "I don't know how to make this work." After 7 weeks of being unable to update his site, the owner called me. I had him up and running again in half an hour.
A Better Strategy by Thinking Outside the Box
A small-business customer came to me wanting to increase his website visibility.
I asked a few questions and proposed a better plan: His best strategy was first to increase his Yellow Pages presence. My charge in this instance: no charge.
Nearly 3 Hours of Work, Almost for Free!
A home customer got a new laptop, and wanted a wireless network so that she could access the internet without wires. I brought with me an inexpensive but excellent wireless router that when installed, gave her a "five-bar" signal from every point in her apartment. While there, we covered some other issues as well. Most notably, she needed security and office software for her new laptop. She had Norton 360 and Microsoft Office on her other computer, but no install disks.
Even though the first thing her Norton account reported was that she needed to buy a new activation key, I was able to determine that in fact both her Norton 360 and Microsoft Office license agreements legally allowed her to install each software package on her second computer -- and was able to get the appropriate installation packages to do it.
By so doing, I was able to save her the $60 she would've spent on the Norton activation key, and approximately $100 that she'd been prepared to spend on Office for her new laptop. When you deduct the savings, the almost 3 hours in all that I spent installing the new router, securing and testing her wireless network, and helping her with her computer issues effectively only cost her $20!
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