I havent done an “Ask The Readers” post in a long time and its about time for another one. We always end up with tons of amazing answers in our comments so I would love all readers to take part in this because the more you put in, the more you will get out of it.

Everyone has that one main piece of advice that changed their life/business that they wish they knew when they were first starting out. So, I want to ask the readers:

What is that one piece of advice you wish you could have told your past self as a Tech/Business Owner?

Your comment can be as long or as short as you want and as always, you dont need to sign up to anything make a comment and you can even reply anonymously if you want.

To the people reading this via emai, RSS or any other non-site: Please leave a comment on the site here. I want everyone to be able to read your response.

Look forward to hearing your responses!

Just a reminder that CallThatGirl’s $29 eBook sale ends Midnight Feb 26th 2014 American EST. So grab it before you miss your chance!. For those of you who havent heard about this sale, you can read the article I wrote about it last week on why they are worth getting.

Many Techs started out by simply providing services, and eventually a business built up around it, and they searched for business solutions such as CRM software and finance software as they needed it. Later down the road, you might find yourself tiring of switching from one CRM to another, and then back to your finance software, and then back to your CRM, making excessive use of text clipboards. CRM integration could save you a lot of time. What CRM solutions integrate with popular finance software models?

I have been keeping an eye out for computer technician related deals and I have found another great one. Right now, CallThatGirls three ebooks, “CallThatGirls Guide to Remote Support”, “CallThatGirls Guide to Social Media” and “CallThatGirls Manual of Operations” are currently on sale for just $29 USD (previously $49) and well worth snapping up while you can (ends Midnight Feb 26th 2014 US EST). For those of you who dont who Lisa (CallThatGirl) is, or anything about her books, let me explain both and tell you why grabbing these is a smart business move.

It seems your client’s power supply failed on their desktop computer. They need it back up and running now. Not tomorrow, not ‘next Monday’, and certainly not ‘three to five business days’ later. Do you have a spare power supply unit in your shop? Can you run down the street and grab one from a hardware store, or are you the only hardware store in town?

If you have ever had a Chromebook land on your workbench, you will see that they are fairly different to PC and Mac laptops. While they look similar, their operating system is a very stripped down Linux build focused around Google Cloud services. The majority of it is based around the Google Chrome browser and they work more like a thin client than a regular laptop. This makes doing troubleshooting work on them a little different.

Someone named Ray Nolan has recently created a basic troubleshooting flow chart for Chromebooks that some readers may find handy. Keep in mind, this contains some very basic troubleshooting steps that any computer technician should know, but does show you some ChromeOS specific steps and some good links to find more advanced information.

You can check out the Chromebook Troubleshooting Flow Chart Here (1400×3551, 830kb)

[Alternate Link]

MalwareBytes has recently announced on their forum that they will be switching to a subscription model for the next version of their popular Anti-malware software. It will cost $24.95 USD per year and will begin with the upcoming launch of version 2 of MalwareBytes Anti-Malware.

MalwareBytes have said they will honour existing lifetime licenses meaning if a user has a lifetime license for version 1, they will continue to have a lifetime license for version 2.

Now would be a great time to buy up multiple V1 lifetime licenses to get the V2 lifetime licenses. Luckily, AntiMalware Pro version 1 Lifetime licenses are currently on sale for $14.95 (50% OFF) at Newegg.com (Maximum of 5) for the remainder of February 2014. You can find the link and coupon code on our Deals Forum here.

Many times Tech services fall into the category of ‘break/fix’ solutions. When something goes wrong, we’re called to fix it. While this is standard operating procedure for many services, like home repair and vehicle repair, it doesn’t have to be the procedure for your business. How can you break out of the simple ‘break/fix’ work and build up recurring income for your business, and why is this a good idea in the first place?

The Tech industry is a vast field, with a wide spectrum of devices. Mobile devices, proprietary machines and operating systems, server management, networking… if you have the experience and tools to cover every contingency, that’s great. But is it profitable to cover every angle of the Tech industry? How can you determine whether or not it would be profitable to step into a new field? What are profitable services for Techs in your community?

If you have ever done phone support, you know how hard it can sometimes be to visualize the steps your client needs to take in order to solve their problem. What would really help is if you had that operating system or application in front of you.

This is where Chasms.com and NetworkOverload.com comes in.
These two sites are basic emulators that allow you to go to the common areas of the operating system and various applications. Both sites contain most of the major computer operating systems as well as common antivirus and email applications.

Chasms.com has more operating systems and applications than NetworkOverload.com. It includes Ubuntu, Tablets, Router Webmins, Phones and Gaming consoles which NetworkOverload doesn’t cover. While Chasms has a terrible website design, the meat is still there.

NetworkOverload.com seems to go a little deeper into the operating systems and applications allowing you to access more menus than Chasms, but there are less overall operating systems and applications.

While doing phone support this way is not as robust as having a full blown virtual machine, its a great in-between, especially for operating systems and software that you don’t actually own.