Written two years ago.
This idea just hit me, something I could dedicate everything to eventually. I need a smack of reality, and a dose of hope. The concept, “Onstar for Online Business” minus the bad connotation of outsourcing.
A type of software as a service, or “support team in a box” specifically for online businesses, small business (1-20) people, coaches, solo-entrepreneurs. There are variations of this but the model would work as a monthly cost, which gets you a dedicated agent/team of tech genius who aren’t super specialized but wear a lot of tech hats, can field anything in WordPress, research well, act as filters for ideas, and then all the easy crap your mom asked you to do that most clients still can’t do, like use Google Apps.
It’s delivered via an accessible OS menu bar, an always on type message box, not necessarily live chat, but close and an online portal. Submissions get funneled into an online per client forum of sorts where they get their support answers, or call, or chat via Google chat, or whatever platform they’re on. Accommodating their means of communication, not mine.
The focus would be on intelligent support, an outsourced IT department for a specific niche, obviously needing some parameters to avoid abuse.
Money models would need to be played with so staff could respond while trolling facebook, this couldn’t be a 40 hour a week job, and charge would fall around $2-500 dollars a month perhaps.
Heck I’d enjoy doing this, it wouldn’t scale beautifully, but say you can manage 10 clients paying $500 a month, there’s enough to give it a try. The idea isn’t incredibly new, but support sites out there just plain suck, and I’m sick of seeing people ask questions on quora, linkedin, and so on that are clearly screaming, I need technical help. Hit me.
The Online Business Lifeline is the current iteration of this, and looking back on this silly description, how it’s dripping with optimism, will fuel me to continue advancing this idea to the next level. It’s also my biggest source of IT Arsenal income. Look back and fuel going forward, go figure.