Printed in the Sun Sentinel January 23, 2006

Firm provides fast tech support for small businesses

Marilyn DeMartini thought she had bought some peace of mind when she purchased a technical support contract for her new laptop back in September. But when the laptop soon began sending multiple copies of her outbound e-mails, DeMartini's calls for help resulted in help-desk run-around, hundreds of dollars in charges and no solution.

So a friend gave DeMartini the number for a local tech support company specializing in home and very small businesses. Three hours and less than $150 later, her laptop was fixed and DeMartini was sold on where to turn for her future tech support needs.

"Knowing I could take the computer in to the retailer's tech support desk and get it fixed was a comforting myth," recalled DeMartini, an independent writer and publicist in Fort Lauderdale. "The first time I had to call on them, I didn't have the computer for a week."

Many businesses have tech support on call or on staff. But micro-entrepreneurs -- those working from home or in businesses with just a few employees -- often don't have the skills to troubleshoot tech issues, or the ongoing needs or finances to keep tech support on the payroll. Some find themselves in the niche of being too small for corporate support, and too busy to do IT support themselves.

Enter the small technical support provider. Often sole practitioners working from home or small storefronts, these IT providers are skilled enough to troubleshoot small business problems, but small enough to be priced right for other small businesses.

"You can use a national company like Geek Squad, but they don't know you from Adam," said Eric Reivik, owner of PCLauderdale.com, which specializes in computer installations, upgrades and support for businesses with fewer than eight users. "There's not a lot of support for that audience from a provider that knows your needs, habits, trends and tendencies."

Often a technician's first step when signing on a new customer is to audit all the hardware and software running on the user's PC. A tech also might inquire as to whether the PC is for personal or business use, and what applications are used most. This snapshot can help diagnose a problem, assist with new installations and build customer trust, said Gary Herbstman, president of Byte Solutions Inc., a Boca Raton IT firm.

"You have to earn their trust for someone to let you into their systems," he said. "No manufacturer or national tech support firm can know a customer's system inside and out."

Looking for a tech support person or provider? Ask clients, peers or fellow small business owners, or visit the local chamber of commerce for a list of companies. Ask for references and pricing. Reivik charges around $75 for the first hour for a visit anywhere in Broward County, and $100 for Palm Beach or Miami-Dade. The second hour is $49.

In less than two hours, Reivik discovered the 40,000 e-mails DeMartini had imported to her new laptop had caused her Outlook Express to malfunction. One hour and $173 later, the problem was fixed.

"My learned lesson was, forget the tech support phone people," DeMartini said. "I'd rather pay for help from a pro who knows what he's doing. It's like having a good doctor on call."

Jeff Zbar is a free-lance writer. Reach him at jeff@jeffzbar.com