How to get started as a small business consultant using the net
I run a Saas company that provides 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 consistently get asked the same question “Given my background, how could I put it to use and make an income from small business consulting? I am always willing to give guidance as I am lucky enough to spend the biggest part of my day communicating with small business owners and staff happy to to tell me about their issues.
Here is my response:
The online world is the best way for finding customers and it makes it easy 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 direction and help them resolve issues.
Information marketing - repurpose and sell your expertise to small businesses everywhere via the net
What I am about to tell you doesn’t just apply to small businesses. You can repackage and sell your expertise in a electronic format such as video, audio or documents. The systems to construct superb material are readily available on the net. Creating a tutorial in simple to use web ready formats is now straight forward and doesn’t cost much to do. You just have to be prepared to dedicate a small amount of time playing with the packages. 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 are great bedfellows 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 valuable to others then make a no longer than 120 secs video to introduce yourself and your expertise to your potential client(s). Unless you know the potential client(s) exact problem then make the video generic and usethe 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 approach is ideally suited to situations where you are individually targeting prospect(s). The one objective you should be constantly pursuing is the creation of a list that you can converse with and sell product to.. With the right interaction with your list you should easily be able to discover what people want and deliver it. The bigger your list the more opportunities for consulating and selling information products you will unearth. 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.
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