How to start as a small business consultant using the Internet
I work for an online 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 worldwide and whenever I explain to people what I do, I consistently get asked the same question “Given my what I know, how could I apply it and make earn a living from small business consulting? I am always ready to offer advice as I am fortunate enough to spend at least 75% of my day interacting with small business owners and staff who are always willing to share their problems and needs.
Here is my advice which I hope you will find useful:
The web is the ideal place for finding customers and it makes it easy 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 coaching and help them fix issues.
Information marketing – package and sell your expertise to businesses through the Internet
What I am about to tell you doesn’t just apply to small businesses. You can repackage and sell your expertise in a multimedia format such as video, audio or documents. The tools to create superb content are widely available on the network. Producing a educational piece in easy to consume web ready formats is now straight forward and doesn’t cost much to do. You just have to be prepared to dedicate a modest amount of time studying the software. material] that you can either sell or give away to get your target customer’s attention.
Commence by determining your overall goal. 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 you can repackage and sell in digital format and sold over and over again.
If you are starting from scratch with no customers but have expertise you know would be attractive to others then make a two minute video to introduce yourself and your expertise to your potential client(s). Unless you know the market precise 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 potential client(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). The one objective you should be constantly pursuing is the creation of a list that you can converse with and sell product to.. Treat the people on your list well and they will tell you their needs to which you can match and your content products. The more people on your list the more consulting and information marketing opportunities you will uncover. If you would like to discover more about how to do this then follow any of the links in this article. I would be happy to help you.
