Get value from what you already pay for
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace both include far more than email. Shared files that do not live on one person’s desktop, proper calendars, Teams, forms, and simple automation.
For business owners
Computer training for small business
Get your people genuinely comfortable with the tools you already pay for, and stop losing hours every week to the same handful of avoidable problems.
The pattern
Most small businesses are not short of technology. They are short of training.
The subscriptions are paid. The laptops are fine. There is a backup somewhere. And yet every week a few hours disappear into the same problems: the file nobody can find, the spreadsheet one person maintains by hand, the process that stops entirely when a particular staff member is on leave.
Almost none of that needs new software. It needs somebody to sit down with the team for an hour and show them the parts of the tools they already own that nobody ever demonstrated.
That is what I do, and it is worth saying plainly that I have nothing to sell you. No hardware, no licences, no commission, no monthly contract. If the honest answer is that your setup is fine and you have one staff member who needs an afternoon of help, that is the answer you will get.
Where the hours go
What small businesses actually ask for.
Backups you have actually tested
Not a backup that says it ran. One you have restored from, in front of someone, so you know what happens on the worst day.
Security basics that matter
Multi-factor authentication, a password manager the team will genuinely use, and how to recognise the invoice email that is not from your supplier.
AI for the team, with guardrails
Where these tools save real time, where they invent things, and what must never be pasted into them. Increasingly the training people ask for first.
Staff who stop needing rescuing
One patient session with the person who always asks for help usually costs less than a month of everyone else stopping work to assist them.
Straight buying advice
What to buy, what to ignore, and when the honest answer is that your current setup is fine. No commission and nothing to sell.
If you read nothing else
Your backup is not a backup until you have restored from it.
This is the one thing I would push every business owner in Lake Macquarie to check this month.
Nearly every small business I speak to has a backup of some description. Very few have ever restored from one. Those are completely different situations, and the gap between them only becomes visible on the day it matters most, which is also the day it is far too late.
Backups fail quietly. The drive filled up eight months ago. The sync stopped after a password change. The folder that mattered was never included. Every one of those looks exactly like a working backup right up until you need it.
So we test it. We pick a file, delete it properly, and restore it from the backup while you watch. If it works you can stop worrying, which is worth an hour on its own. If it does not, you have found out on a Tuesday instead of during a ransomware incident.
Being clear
What I am, and what I am not.
I am a tutor and trainer. I am not a managed IT service provider, and I will not pretend to be one, because a business that needs 24-hour support deserves a company set up to give it rather than one person with a phone.
Good fit:
- Training your team on software you already have
- Setting things up properly once, then teaching you to run them
- Reviewing and testing backups
- Security fundamentals and staff awareness
- AI training, with sensible rules about what goes into it
- Independent advice before you spend money
Not a good fit:
- Around-the-clock support contracts
- Managing your servers or network on an ongoing basis
- Line-of-business software development
- Compliance auditing or certification
If you need the second list, ring me anyway. I will tell you honestly what to look for and what a fair price looks like, which is worth knowing before you sign a three-year agreement.
Straight answers
Questions people ask
Are you an IT support company?
No, and it is worth being clear about that. I am a tutor. I train your people and help you set things up properly. If you need someone on call at 2am when a server dies, you need a managed service provider, and I am happy to tell you what to look for in one.
How much for a team session?
The same $65 an hour, whether it is one person or six around a table. Group sessions work well for software training and especially well for AI, because most of the value comes out of the discussion.
Can you train staff during business hours?
No, and I would rather say so plainly than waste your time. I work in IT full time, so tutoring runs after hours: weeknights from 4pm to 8pm, and weekends from 8am to 3pm. For a lot of small businesses an early evening session actually works better, because nobody is being pulled off the counter or the phones. Saturday mornings are the easiest slot to get.
We already pay for Microsoft 365 and barely use it. Can you help?
This is one of the most common things I see. Businesses pay for licences that include file sharing, backup, Teams, forms and automation, and use them as an expensive email account. An hour or two spent on what you already own usually pays for itself several times over.
Can you help us work out whether our backups are any good?
Yes, and please ask. Most small businesses have a backup nobody has ever tested. We test it by actually restoring something, which is the only way to know. It is the single highest-value hour I can spend with a business owner.
Do you sell hardware or software?
No, and that is deliberate. I have nothing to sell you and no commission on any recommendation, so when I say you do not need the thing a salesperson quoted for, there is nothing in it for me either way.