Small business consulting - advanced technique (internet)
I manage a web company that supplies help in the form of small business management and accounting software tools and education and support to thousands of startups and small businesses across the globe and whenever I explain to people what I do, I constantly get asked the same question “Given my years of experience, how could I apply it and make regular money from small business consulting? I’m always prepared to offer my opinion as I am fortunate enough to spend a significant portion of my day interacting with small business owners and workforce happy to to share their problems and needs.
This is what I tell them:
The web is the best way for finding customers and it makes it simple to reach 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 wisdom and help them resolve issues.
Information marketing – package and sell your expertise to businesses through the Internet
Make no mistake this opportunity isn’t just to be found in small businesses it’s equally applicable to large businesses. You can repackage and sell your expertise in a digital format such as video, audio or documents. The systems to create excellent content are readily available on the web. Constructing a course in easy to consume web ready formats is now simple and inexpensive. You just have to be prepared to spend a modest amount of time mastering the packages. The goal here is to produce some valuable content that you can either sell or give away to customers to encourage them to do business with you.
You should start by deciding what you want to achieve. Consultancy and Information marketing can work together and if you do both can be very profitable as the consultancy will provide you with the questions, the answers to which repurpose for sale through the internet 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 market. Unless you know the prospect(s) exact problem then make the video generic and stick tothe following format – S.T.A.R (Situation or Task, Action, Result). Be creative and concise. 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. Always follow this up with a phone call. If you know the specific nature of the prospect(s)problem 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 method is ideally suited to situations where you are individually targeting target(s). You should always focus on growing a list you can interact with and make sales to. With the right interaction with your list you should easily be able to discover what people want and deliver it. The more people on your list the more consulting and information marketing opportunities you will find. If you would like to find out more about how to do this then visit any of the links in this article. I would be very glad to help you.
