To start a computer consulting business, first you should have the preliminary knowledge of computer systems. Other important requirements to start a computer consulting business are powerful problem solving skills and of course an inner feeling of helping the people in difficulty. Here are some useful tips to starting computer-consulting business. Make Survey Regarding Prospective Clients Make a survey of the potential clients living near your office. You should be able to reach them within an hour or so. This is a very important factor, particularly from the point of networking services. Also, gather information regarding the number of computers the prospective customers own. Ideally, you should start with the clients having between 10 and 50 computers. Talking in terms of the annual turn over, the client should have annual sales between $1 million and $10 million. The Client Should Be Serious About IT Requirements Before you start computer consulting for clients make sure you know how serious they are about the information technology. Prospective customers, who do not have their own dedicated server and are accessing the Internet using dial up lines, are not suitable for consultation. However, those who are interested in focusing more on their IT requirements are definitely ideal clients. Far Better Than Traditional IT Jobs Being a computer consultant is definitely more rewarding than joining a traditional job in any IT company. In traditional IT jobs, there are several hurdles in the progress that are not under your control. For example, you may not grow as fast as you deserve because of incompetent colleagues, dull management, and a system where seniors get the priority whether they are competent or not. On the contrary, when you start a computer consulting business these things comes under your control. For example, if your colleague is not able to keep pace with you then you are always free to part with that colleague and invite someone better. So, if you have the talent and ambition, no one can stop your income from skyrocketing. Increasing Scope The scope for the computer consulting business is increasing with the growth of information technology. It is very difficult to run any business today without using computers. Almost any business organization is looking for some kind of help regarding computers. You also have the option of whether you want to become an outsource consultant or internal employee. Either way you are choosing a winning career with bright chances of success and profitability. Furthermore, the computer technology is changing at a very fast rate. This fast change is also creating new and better opportunities for the computer consulting business.