MINDING YOUR BUSINESS
Filling an untapped niche offers best shot at success
Defining business vital to planning

By Ann Meyer
Special to the Tribune
Published February 23, 2004

Excerpt....


Helen Gallagher, owner of 7-year-old Computer Clarity, a Glenview-based computer consulting firm, agreed. "It's helpful to focus on what other people need rather than what you have to offer," she said.

By listening to what her customers want, Gallagher reshapes her business as needed.

"The business evolves as technology evolves," she said. "People are so much more skilled today that it's allowed me to grow the services I offer."

In addition to her core goal of providing software consulting and training to small-business owners for about $90 an hour, she draws on her prior 30 years of corporate experience to provide advice on how to boost productivity, improve organizational management or manage business from a laptop while you're out of town.

"There's definitely a need for more people who go beyond the technical side and will sit down and figure out the best way to help people get their work done," she said.

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