Small business consulting - advanced technique (internet)
I founded an internet company that provides help in the form of small business management and accounting software tools and know-how to thousands of startups and small businesses worldwide and whenever I explain to folks I meet what I do, I always get asked the same question “Given my years of experience, how could I use this and make regular money by becoming a small business consultant”? I am always happy to supply wisdom as I am fortunate enough to spend a major amount of the time of my day talking to small business owners and employees ready to communicate their problems and needs.
Here is my response:
The digital world is the perfect medium for finding customers and it makes it straightforward to communicate with them and sell your expertise. A lot of small businesses turn to the internet to find knowledge or trusted advisors who can provide them with new knowledge and help them address problems.
Information marketing - repurpose and sell your expertise to small businesses everywhere via the net
Now I know I have focused on small business consulting but what I share with you here is just as relevant to any size business. You can repackage and sell your expertise in a digital format such as video, audio or documents. The systems to make professional standard material are readily available on the network. Making a course in simple to use web ready formats is now easy and affordable. You just have to be prepared to dedicate a bit of time getting to know the tools. material] that you can either sell or give away to get your target customer’s attention.
You have to decide what you want to achieve. Consultancy and Information marketing compliment each other and if you do both can be very profitable as the consultancy will provide you with the questions, the answers to which could be turned into content and sold over and over again.
If you are starting from scratch with no customers but have expertise you know would be needed by others then plan to create a two minute video to promote yourself and your expertise to your prospect(s). Unless you know the prospect(s) exact problem then make the video generic and adhere tothe following format – S.T.A.R (Situation or Task, Action, Result). Keep it short, interesting and sweet. Now upload the video to your website/blog or even YouTube if you don’t have the former and send the target(s) an invitation by e-mail containing a personal message and a link to the video. Follow this up with a phone call. If you know the specific nature of the marketproblem then don’t make the video public, just put it somewhere away from prying eyeson the Web or even on a disk and post it, again follow up with a call.
This approach is ideally suited to situations where you are individually targeting potential client(s). You should always focus on growing a list you can interact with and make sales to. Regular interaction with your list will help you discover people’s needs that will help you define what to sell. The bigger your list the more opportunities for consulating and selling information products you will uncover. If you would like to understand more about how to do this then visit any of the links in this article. I would be happy to help you.
Mail this post
Tags: business management consultant, small business consultant, small business consulting, small business management consulting