About Us
PCS helps small businesses become more efficient in their daily operations, more cost-effective and more competitive, by matching their needs with the appropriate technology, teaching them how to use it effectively, and helping them get it implemented as well as support after the fact.
We do IT consulting and that includes anything related to the Internet, as well as the most potent & useful AI tools.
One of PCS specialties is designing custom business systems tightly matching business needs and then developing them, implementing them and providing support.
We offer a number of flexible plans, to ensure affordability with even the smallest businesses. For example, a business can have an equivalent of their own IT dept for as little as $500/mo.
For more info and to answer any questions - please feel free to contact PCS at your convenience. We can be reached via email (oleg@pcs-works.com) or by phone (425.654-1120).
If you have a small business, feel free to join our growing IT/AI community at https://knil.us/IT. Your business will thank you :)
How We Got Started
After dealing with small companies - it became apparent that many could significantly benefit from technology, but few actually had the resources and/or know-how on using tech properly. Thus PCS was born to bring the immense & unmatched benefits technology can bring to a small business, in a proper, consistent & affordable manner, concentrating on aligning business needs with tech solutions. And now using the latest AI tools - we can bring even more value for any small business looking to maximize their revenue while minimizing time, effort & resources.
The products and services we offer
Recommendations Received (149)
"Here is a man with a service almost EVERY Small Business Owner NEEDS!!! I would call him, "My own..."
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"Here is a man with a service almost EVERY Small Business Owner NEEDS!!! I would call him, "My own on-call I.T. Department"."
"Super nice video chat software!"
Products & Services
Full Information Technology and Internet support for small businesses, including consulting, systems design, business intelligence, custom systems ...
Painfully simple to implement and use, both for businesses and their customers. Requires nothing more than cell phones and there's nothing to downl...
Looking for reliable and affordable IT support for your small business? Look no further! Our computer consulting service offers comprehensive IT su...
Gallery
Recommendations Given (145)
"Very nice lady, has some very beneficial services to offer to small businesses and just pleasure..."
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"Very nice lady, has some very beneficial services to offer to small businesses and just pleasure to talk to. I've only met her once, but that was enough to leave a recommendation. Follow and connect with her, I certainly will."
"One of our American heroes. I had the privilege of talking to Shane. Very nice man with an..."
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"One of our American heroes. I had the privilege of talking to Shane. Very nice man with an amazing story. Huge thanks to him for his numerous sacrifices, big kudos for doing what he does to help his fellow Veterans. Uplift your connections by connecting with him. "
Recent Activity
Bidenomics - the 'gift' that keeps on giving.
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Bidenomics - the 'gift' that keeps on giving.
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Elections matter!
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Elections matter!
I'll try to stay positive here - we live in an insane world of the future. The good news is that it's not even close to be as bad this year as it promises to get in the future years.
P.S. Ok, now you can start throwing your rocks at me ;)
P.P.S. As for top 3 lessons from this year: 1) Use...
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I'll try to stay positive here - we live in an insane world of the future. The good news is that it's not even close to be as bad this year as it promises to get in the future years.
P.S. Ok, now you can start throwing your rocks at me ;)
P.P.S. As for top 3 lessons from this year: 1) Use AI, 2) don't forget step 1, 3) if you're not using AI for business, you need to revisit steps 1 and 2.
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I'd have no business if it wasn't for technology.
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I'd have no business if it wasn't for technology.
First, probably your wife... to make sure the problem doesn't get out of control ;) Seriously though - whoever you're advertising with - they have support typically, either phone or chat or email, not sure which ad service you're using, but I'm sure they have a way to contact them. If their...
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First, probably your wife... to make sure the problem doesn't get out of control ;) Seriously though - whoever you're advertising with - they have support typically, either phone or chat or email, not sure which ad service you're using, but I'm sure they have a way to contact them. If their services is set up to automatically continue - they may or may not refund your money. If they do - thank them, if they don't - I'd recommend not using them any longer. In the meantime make sure you remove your payment method with them, so they can't charge you again, if this negotiation process takes longer than expected, so at least you won't have to pay anymore. Hopefully they'll resolve your situation to your satisfaction. I wish they all used opt-in approach to continue with ads, but unfortunately that's not how many run these ad environments, so you need to keep an eye and cancel accordingly. Good luck!
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I'm sure those VHS tapes will do the trick ;)
Seriously though - you need to adapt with the times. Nobody watches VHS today and nobody ever will. As for DVDs - we live in the world of streaming, so it's no surprise that you didn't make a lot of sales. However, DVDs do exist and some do buy...
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I'm sure those VHS tapes will do the trick ;)
Seriously though - you need to adapt with the times. Nobody watches VHS today and nobody ever will. As for DVDs - we live in the world of streaming, so it's no surprise that you didn't make a lot of sales. However, DVDs do exist and some do buy them... but only in certain situations. 1) it has to be an outstanding movie for me to buy it (so stock ONLY outstanding movies). 2) price is always a factor, can you source your DVDs and sell them for better price than typical retailers (read: Amazon)? If not - you're in the wrong line of business. 3) Rentals are still alive and if you're in a location where you can become the local RedBox - that's an ongoing stream of revenue... provided there aren't any RedBox stations in the same area. If there are - we're back to price - can you rent your movies for less money than them? 4) Some people might want DVDs of something not typically available (like certain documentaries or biographies, ie nothing you'll typically find in RedBox) - so this is your opportunity to server the market and last, but not least 5) are you selling your DVDs online, via a great-looking, properly-functioning (amazing how many companies get this part wrong) website?
Also don't forget another incentive - rewarding your customers with a Loyalty program of some sort. Your best (and least expensive to you) customers are existing customers. They're the ones that spread the word of mouth, they're the ones who give you business and keep coming back. That must be rewarded, especially in today's world of perks everywhere. If you're not offering a Customer Loyalty program - you're missing out! You could offer the old paper punch card approach, but most people don't like such these days, especially when far better digital versions are available. It just so happens that my company provides such services, which not only includes Loyalty program using nothing but mobile phones and without downloads or installs of any kind, but it also comes with full statistics and a marketing piece that enables you to text and/or email your customers, right from your mobile phone, at any time. Very powerful tool for engaging with your customers and communicating with them on an on-going basis. Best reason of all - it's also very affordable. If you have an interest - contact me and we'll get into the details etc.
Hope this helps. Good luck to you in 2020!
On a basic level - need always trumps want. However, you're dealing with people and you're dealing with trust issues. That's the key. If they trust you - they'll do business with you. If they don't trust you - well, they won't. Nothing new here, but that's how it works.
So, you need to look...
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On a basic level - need always trumps want. However, you're dealing with people and you're dealing with trust issues. That's the key. If they trust you - they'll do business with you. If they don't trust you - well, they won't. Nothing new here, but that's how it works.
So, you need to look at the 'trust' factor as the main criteria as to how navigate these waters. If you're talking to clients that know you and trust you - they'll listen to you and follow your advice. If you don't have that trust yet - you need to build credibility in their eyes, so that the credibility will turn to trust and subsequent sales. Obviously that's easier said than done, but certainly doable.
I don't believe there is a single 'right' or 'wrong' answer, it's highly dependent on who you're talking to. People are people, ie they're all different, with wide variety of preferences, history, ideas, etc. In other words you need approach each encounter with an open mind (and open ears) and see how things go. If you gently suggest something and see pushback - don't bother with anything else, just sell them what they want and move on. However, if they seem to be receptive and listen and agree with your logic and explanation of 'why' (that's key here, don't just tell them that this other brand/product will be better for them... that won't work... you need to explain to them why you're suggesting what you're suggesting, in a language that they'll comprehend and then decide which way they want to go). Hope this helps & Happy Holidays :)
You forgot to add Pinterest and MeWe and... :)
Actually, I'm joking, but there's a reason behind the joke. There are plenty of channels to utilize for Social Media and everyone will tell you how important it is and that you "must" be on there and you "must"... and you have no clue of how to get...
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You forgot to add Pinterest and MeWe and... :)
Actually, I'm joking, but there's a reason behind the joke. There are plenty of channels to utilize for Social Media and everyone will tell you how important it is and that you "must" be on there and you "must"... and you have no clue of how to get it done.
So, you hire a consultant, who's supposed to be an 'expert'. Expert on what exactly? Social Media? Perhaps... Although certainly NOT an expert on your business. And what is the primary purpose of spending resources (time/money) on Social Media? To promote your business, right? So, how is that some 'expert', who knows little or nothing about your business would successfully promote such? Well, the general and honest answer is - (s)he can't!
You get a few likes here and there, perhaps a comment or two, some ratings/reviews... maybe and nothing really substantial in terms of growing and thriving, but it does cost you money. Due to the nature of the beast being an unknown (most of the time) - you don't really know if it helped you or not. In other words - did your sales jump recently because it's Christmas season or because of Social Media? Nobody knows for sure, because the only way to know is to run an equivalent of an A/B test - you do one campaign without Social Media and the other with, they need to be identical, hitting the same (or at least similar) groups of people and then you can tabulate the outcome and see. Well, most small businesses don't have the time nor luxury to do something like that... although certainly people run A/B tests in their PPC campaigns.
So, philosophy aside, should you be on Social Media (since obviously I'm sounding somewhat negative on the subject, based on many personal experiences of my clients and my own business)? The answer is - Yes! You should be, if for no other reason than your competitors are and that you may get a benefit from it.
The key word here is 'may'. I've seen many businesses start a Social Media presence with a fury, consultants, bloated budgets... and only to whimper after a few months, with last post date being 2 years ago. This is when your efforts are actually creating a negative impact on your business. In other words, think of your FB ratings. If you have good ones mostly - it's great, people will see it and give you more business. If you had bad ones - they won't. Simple and logical enough. However, if you have none - that would be better than having bad ones. You simply don't have them. Same with your Social Media content. It's far better to have no presence, than to have bad presence. And considering how simple it is to create a post, if I look at someone who hasn't posted for 2 years - why would I want to give them my business? If they can't be bothered to do something this simple right - what's my guarantee that they'll do right by me if I give them business? There isn't any... so I walk away and go to a competitor, who does take the time and effort and I appreciate up-to-date content, relevant to my needs and it registers that business in a positive light, at least according to me and many people appreciating the same sentiments.
So, yes, do Social Media, but either hire someone and work with them (because they don't know the business and you do), or do it yourself (it's not that difficult). Should you be everywhere, on every SM service? Heck no, we only have 24 hours a day... Should you post consistently? Absolutely! How often? Twice a day would be great... kidding :) Do it best on your availability of time and also based on relevance of content. So, set up 5-10 minutes once per <fill in the blank based on YOUR preferences>. Perhaps do it once a month to start with and then bump it up to twice a month or even once weekly. Whatever you pick - be consistent.
Also, post things that are relevant to your business, post things that are useful for the reader (you're NOT doing this for you, you're doing this for them, so always think of your current and potential customers when creating the content... it's ALWAYS for them). Even if you're not posting things specifically for marketing purposes - make sure it's always useful, friendly and helpful content. You're not just trying to sell because you can (although that's an underlying idea of why you're even considering doing this), but you're trying to built a rapport with these people, no different than meeting someone at a party and striking a conversation with a total stranger.
In other words - your content must bring VALUE to the consumers of your SM posts! If you build a rapport and you bring value - you will undoubtedly be better off doing Social Media than not doing so. However, if you don't and you're just posting (as countless businesses do, unfortunately) - you're wasting your time and money, it's as simple as that.
We've run Social Media campaigns for some of our clients and (speaking of selling things ;) - will be happy to assist you and your business, if you'd like. However, be mindful of the fact that if we partner on this - it will be a partnership, you will need to be involved to some degree because as I stated earlier - you know your business and we do NOT, so that's why it's essential for the success of the effort to be synergistic. We'll do the heavy-lifting, in terms of what tools to use, best practices, when... what... statistics etc. - you won't have to worry about that. We'll do all of the tech stuff, you'll just need to take a little bit of time to educate us on your business, so we can create the content that super relevant, useful and beneficial to your SM followers... so they can turn around and benefit your business going forward. That's what it's about, it's not hard... and yes, in today's world - it's a must.
Happy Holidays to you and your families, I hope you found this mini-novel helpful and take care!
There are plenty of options out there. A lot of it depends on your level of need and your budget. CRM has a somewhat different meaning when talking to different people (we won't get into why here, but it's just the way it is).
I won't give you a huge list, because it'll only answer your...
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There are plenty of options out there. A lot of it depends on your level of need and your budget. CRM has a somewhat different meaning when talking to different people (we won't get into why here, but it's just the way it is).
I won't give you a huge list, because it'll only answer your question with a non-answer. I'll give you 3 potential choices to look into. One is SalesForce, which is a very popular cloud-based CRM. It has a ton of users, lots of integrations with other systems and is very well supported. The downside - it's not cheap, and can be somewhat clunky, again a lot of it would depend on number of users and what features you'd need to use. Another choice to look at, which would be quite a bit less expensive is Insightly. They have a pretty good product. It's available as desktop and mobile and they have both free and premium versions, so you can try it before committing.
But most of these companies know that once you start using their software - you're unlikely to jump ship, because you have data you've invested time in entering and now it'll need to be exported, imported into the new home etc. - too much hassle for most people. So, I'd definitely recommend doing your homework and perhaps trying a little, but don't get married to any one solution unless you're pretty certain - it'll do what you want it and need it to do. Remember, it's not about what it does, or features or anyone selling you on anything related to it - it always should be about 2 things - what you need and what you want, in that order. Everything else is irrelevant!
If you're needs are relatively minimal and you don't want to spend any money, you could actually get away with using something as simple as Google Keep Notes. It's an app that is FREE, with all of its features being... FREE! So, that's a big plus there.
On the surface, it's a note-taking app (and it is). But, if you dive a bit deeper, you can see that you can easily enter people's contact info and their emails, phones and web sites automatically turn into links, which means when you drop in someone's email address as text - it'll automagically making a link to send them an email. If you drop a phone number - it'll automatically make it a link that will allow you to call them with a single tap.
Google Keep is available on desktop as well as mobile, so regardless of where you add the data - it's always going to be in sync on all your devices. Also, you can collaborate with other people and work on the data AT THE SAME TIME!
You can enter free-form text, checkboxes, color-code notes and use a limited number of labels (hashtags). It has a very comprehensive search capability, even includes searching for colors. For example, let's say that you change the color (background) of prospects to be blue (there are 12 colors to choose from) and sales to be green. Well, you can do a search to see what's in the pipeline just by using a color selection. You can add dates and then type a date you're interested in, to see all notes with that date in the note.
You also have ability to notify you on specify date/time about this note, so for example you could add a notification date/time for follow-ups. That way each day you'll come in and see all of these notifications what people you need to deal with today. You set it and forget it, and Keep will notify you when you need to do something.
You can add drawings, images, photos. For a simple (and it is very simple) little note-taking program - you can sure have it be a pretty potent CRM.
P.S. One more thing, you can also search for text within graphical elements, since it has built-in OCR!
So, hopefully this helps you. Certainly feel free to contact me if you have any other questions. And if you want a video version of this - check out the video I did on the subject at URL
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Getting Killed by a Takeout Bag - a Delivering Nightmare My company, PCS, developed online ordering tech way back in 2000 and thousands have been using it and fulfilling their hunger dreams simply and deliciously. In 2010 we offered delivery, since demand seemed to be coming. One day one of my...
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Getting Killed by a Takeout Bag - a Delivering Nightmare My company, PCS, developed online ordering tech way back in 2000 and thousands have been using it and fulfilling their hunger dreams simply and deliciously. In 2010 we offered delivery, since demand seemed to be coming. One day one of my drivers wasn't available, so what to do? I jump in the car and go to deliver an order from a local Chinese restaurant. The delivery was to an apartment. I whip out my trusty mobile device and navigate to the place. Found it easily enough and then - there's a huge sprawl of buildings, none of which have any visible insignia for what the building numbers are and there must have been at least a dozen or more buildings, big, multi-story ones. After driving around for a few minutes and getting nowhere - I call the customer and apologized for slight delay, but inform him that I can't find his building and perhaps he could help me. The guy mutters that there are garbage cans next to the building, and they're on the 3rd floor. So, I thanked him and continued on my drive, now hunting for garbage cans. By this time dusk turned into darkness. In 5 more minutes or so - I did find some garbage cans, I walked up to the 3rd floor and... wrong building. There's no apartment in the address there. I come out and call him back, now he sounds irritated, and tells me it's there, I'm just in the wrong place (no kidding, Sherlock, how about telling me something I don't know, Capt. Obvious). Anyway, another 5 or more minutes went on and finally I found the right place. I trek up to the 3rd floor with this large bag of takeout. Knock on the door, a weird dude comes out, smelling like 10-yr old pack of cigarettes, with torn shirt and messed up hair and when I extended my usual smile and wanted to wish him to enjoy his dinner - he looks at me and says "you're late", as if this was news, and for the kicker - "I don't want it, take it back". He says he called the restaurant and demanded a refund. So, trying to be nice accomplished nothing, I called the restaurant owner and she said to just refund the order and move on with life. I told him we'd refund the order and again apologized and gave him the bag. I turned around and as I started to leave... I hear this sound, then a bark "I said I don't want it now" and as I turn around, I see that huge bag of food is flying from his hands and in my direction, I just barely had time to duck so it wouldn't hit me. The bag wasn't as lucky, hitting the wall and then tumbling down the stairs in pieces. Then I heard someone screaming from the apartment "take the food, don't give him a hard time..." and some such, but obviously the guy couldn't care less. And that's how I almost got killed ;) by a bag of takeout. Obviously I survived, in 19 years of doing this - it only happened once, but it's a war story that always gets wider eyes and many chuckles, so it's worth telling. Now my system has been transformed into mobile ordering environment, with built-in customer loyalty program, eGift cards and more, but all the new tech still doesn't solve the problem with delivering to a hard to find apartment, nor does it solve the problem with... well, let's use the word 'unreasonable' people. Of course most people aren't like that, in fact one thing still fascinates me... how is it that people are willing to order a $8 food item, pay $8 delivery on it and leave a $10 tip? Believe it or not - some do... and repeatedly so, and as long as people want to use my services to give them what they want - who am I to argue? :)
