Questions to ask a computer consultant before you hire him

Today's office run on information, and for many businesses, a significant amount of this information is vital and confidential. Therefore, it's vital that you hire a competent, responsive, trustworthy computer consultant, and you should do your homework on your options before you experience a major system crash or potential data loss.

Despite the challenges constantly changing technology poses to the casual computer user, computers are much more user friendly and versatile than they used to be with a plethora of different built-in programs to help recover data, restore programs, quarantine viruses and address a host of other problems that used to be much harder for the average person to deal with. More intrepid users have never had lower or cheaponer technology hurdles as open source software is free and continuously being expanded. Still the average business owner is knowledgeable about his business, not necessarily about computers or technology. And as he would want to find someone trustworthy to work on his car, as his life literally depends on the work done, he needs to find a quality computer "mechanic" for his company's needs as well. Customers who have

Vetting computer consultants is, in many ways, like vetting other employees; you need to determine if they are dependable, trustworthy, responsive, responsible, and comprehensive. Here are the things you must determine:

Responsiveness: You should ask if the consultant has a live operator, or if there are only scheduled hours for customer service. How soon will they respond to telephone or email inquiries? How soon during a data or systems emergency? Do they take the time to explain to their clients what is wrong with their computers or systems and how this might be avoided in the future? Will they give details as to what the problem is, in everyday English that people who are not technical will be able to understand? Is their customer service based locally or is it outsourced to another country?

Diligence: Will the consultant be proactive with your system, avoiding problems before they crop up, maintaining and updating hardware, software, virus definitions, and backups, regularly checking them all to make sure everything is functioning and there are multiple copies of important data? Is the consultant's organization large enough that it can function just as smoothly when someone goes on vacation or gets sick?

Liability protection: Is this consultant's company fully insured so that if, in the unlikely event mistakes happen, your business is protected from financial harm and could be compensated for lost time and productivity?

Trustworthiness: How does this consultant's company vet their own employees? Do they do full background checks? Are they required to remain current on their certifications? Have they had any previous incident with breaches of data?

Comprehensiveness: The consultant will take responsibility for the functionality of which systems, networks, or machines, specifically? Which will remain your responsibility?

Obviously, you should never hire based on brand recognition or price alone. Plenty of people think they know computers and can fix whatever you need for cheap. How much your data worth to you? How much is your data's security worth to you? The neighbor's kid may know computers; if so, hire him for smaller projects, not your overall system security. But big names are no guarantee of good service - ask the woman who sued Geek Squad for leaking her nude pictures online. Or the owner of the missing laptop Geek Squad tried to cover up.

Don't Be Ashamed of Asking for Help as a Startup

Is your city struggling to survive? It might not be the next Detroit, but a number of metropolitan areas like Oakland, California, are having a hard time, still leaking funds and people through the bullet holes left over from the machine gun fired by the recession. According to Jack Dorsey, a founder of the social media giant Twitter, small business may be what saves these cities. Another company he founded has been sponsoring a series on local entrepreneurship called "Let's Talk" and it recently visited the largest city to ever declare bankruptcy: the Motor City.

It's hip to be Square | Photo courtesy of Square

There, the conversation turned to several local business owners who use Square, a device that allows owners to accept credit card payments on their tablets and smartphones. This has given many companies a convenient way to facilitate operations, allowing them to grow much easier. Speaking of growing, one of the women spotlighted on the panel at "Let's Talk" owns several cupcake shops in downtown Detroit. Her sales have grown from when she opened her first shop--called Just Baked--in 2009 to more than $3 million as of late, making her one of the most successful female business owners in the nation. Interestingly, all of the other panel participants were women as well. One of them owns a boutique, another runs a letterpress studio, and the last makes jam. Each of them have taken a chance at doing what they love and have been successful so far. Though they are all successful now--partially due to innovative devices geared toward small businesses--they have all probably been through their fair share of failures. Successful entrepreneurs do not let failure scare them from chasing success--they use it as a learning experience and move forward with their new knowledge, instead.

Back to that founder from Twitter, though: Dorsey was also in attendance at another small business conference called Techonomy Detroit on the same day, as was Rick Snyder, the governor of Michigan and former head of computer hardware company Gateway; Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans; and Chad Dickerson, the CEO of Etsy. These goliaths of business were talking about startup boosters and how they could contribute to the recovery of a city that is known throughout the country as troubled. Their goals include bringing the style of entrepreneurship seen in Silicon Valley to the Motor City. Gilbert is already doing this, using his venture fund to contribute to the furthering of several startups located in the downtown area.

The moral of the story is that if your business is struggling, you should seek out assistance from other entrepreneurs and organizations that focus on bringing small businesses out of the home and into the neighborhood. Getting that little boost could be what you need to keep your operations flowing and growing for years to come. Who knows? If someone who sells cupcakes can cross the $3-million threshold, you too could have a chance at denting whatever market - green transportation, family portraiture, office furniture - you are considering.

Thinking About Hiring? Be Sure Not to Discount the Millennials

When a business begins to grow, it may mean that it's time to begin hiring people. Sure, your partner or your children may have been able to pick up some slack here and there, but a part-time or full-time employee can be much more helpful, considering the dedication they must have to the business. But how do you select the right employee from the candidate pool? The obvious answer is to interview the candidates and consider each of them individually, but what if your own thoughts about people--specifically, those in regard to age--are getting in the way of your selection? Your biases could be holding your company back, so you better get past some stereotypes that are floating around largely thanks to media.

Some of the most ridiculous stereotypes out there right now surround millennials, people born between the years 1982 and 2000. Considered to be lazy, apathetic, and prone to mooching, the millennials are getting a bad rap for reasons that escape many of those that are included in this demographic. Like baby boomers before them, the news media has put millennials under the microscope and dissected them bit by bit, typically reporting findings that are negative. For instance, a number of articles have highlighted the fact that some millennials are still living with their parents. Though this is true, wasn't it true for previous generations like Generation X? People fall on tough times and with the massive costs associated with college--and the social expectation to enroll--countless teenagers have been groomed into educated, indebted twentysomethings.

An infographic explaining some of the intricacies of Generation Y. | Courtesy of Flowtown

Combine this with the economic downturn and, suddenly, many of these newly graduated college students couldn't find a job, let along afford an apartment. When the media started asking why, they began examining and blaming the personality traits of those who had received the short end of the stick. Of course they found negativity and apathy and angst: Wouldn't you be upset if you were told that college would get you a great job and those expectations fell flat? So, now there is an educated class, eager to work toward and for their passions, but many people have been convinced that they are lazy good-for-nothings, further complicating the debts they cannot pay. These stereotypes are false--many millennials possess entrepreneurial spirits and tend to be marketing savvy. They know that quality of product matters and that success takes hard work--their life experiences so far have largely convinced them of this latter understanding. Moral of the story is this: Do not underestimate millennials when considering them for a position. In fact, don't underestimate any applicant based on your own assumptions--it could mean the difference between your business succeeding or failing.