How to Make Clients Perceive High Value in Your Consulting Business

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Clients are very particular people and it takes a lot on the part of the business to gain their loyalty and respect. These clients are not only particular but they can be easily swayed form one business to another with just some minor errors in the handling of their operations. This is even more factual in the business of using your expertise to add value to individual or corporate clients. The perceptions that are held clients towards a business have to be carefully steered to the point where they will be beneficial to the business. This can be achieved through a number of ways.

First, a client will perceive a consulting firm highly if there is the assurance that the passion and drive of the experts are in line with the goals and objectives of the individual or corporation that is in need of help. An individual or business client will only settle for those consultants that exhibit signs of being able to not only understand what the goals and objectives are but they should also be able to work around them easily so as to achieve the desired result. Only when the assurance of this match has been made known to a client will he or she be able to look at the experts in high regard and value.

Another way to make clients perceive high value in using your expertise is by ensuring that there is an assurance that no risk will be involved. Acquiring the services of consultants is not only a good idea but it can be very risky to a business because the final value that is rendered determines the success or failure of the company. With this in mind, clients will only perceive high value in consultants if they are comfortable and they do not have to worry about making losses in terms of time, finances, or company image.

A product package that is offered by a consultant should not only be easy to use but it should also be within the understanding of the client. A consulting firm will be perceived in high value the recommended and implemented solutions have been understood by the staff in an organisation. The advice and solutions that are offered by consultants to clients should be broken down to simple and easy to understand terms that will be of no difficulty to the client. Otherwise they will not perceive the consultants highly.

Is Consulting a Good Career Move?

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Many people are unsure if consulting is a good move for them to make. Fears around security, being able to sell and market themselves, the need to work alone and be solely responsible for their own financial success. You may have some or all of these concerns.

Let’s start by having a look at the three basic options to make a living.

Having a job (working for someone else)
Contracting
Consulting
Having a job is the traditional “safe” approach. For many people it is still the best approach after all, if you’re not actually that good at what you do then it’s a lot easier to hide in a big company surrounded by other people who all have a part to play in your success (or failure).

If however you are really good at what you do then having a job can be frustrating and limit your freedom, creativity and earning potential.

What are the important areas for you?

Control of time

As an employee or a contractor you will have little control and will, in the most part, have to fit in with the professional working day’. As a consultant you be able to choose when you work..

Control over what you work on

As an employee there will be little choice over what you work on. You could potentially shape this by being selective about the job you accepted but it would still be down to what the company you work for wanted done.

As a contractor you may have slightly more choice as you could specialise in the areas that interest you the most however there would still be a lot of specific direction set by who you contract with.

The need to sell and market yourself

There is very little need to do this (with the exception of the actual job seeking process) if you decided to stay as an employee.

As a contractor you would need to do more of this but most contractors get their work through agencies so it would not be a massive requirement.

If you went the consultant route you will need to do a lot of this, developing strategies to get your business recognised, attract leads and turn them into paying clients.

Potential for higher income

Remaining as an employee offers the least opportunity, Contracting will certainly offer better potential but consulting is far and away the best opportunity to earn big money.

Benefits

Many people who are employees enjoy a wealth of company benefits (health insurance, company cars etc.) As a contractor or consultant the benefits will be next to none.

Job security

As an employee, particularly if you been employed by the same company for a number of years, you have a degree of job security and, even if your job is cut you may be entitled to redundancy payments. As a contractor or consultant you will have no such security.

Career security

While you have some job security as an employee your career is in the hands of other people. If your employers company merged with another, or if they suffered some other kind of major financial issue, you could find himself with no income. If you have your own consulting business you can arrange that your business was not linked to a single company and therefore you are in more in control over your overall career.

Social Media Consulting: Is It Very Expensive?

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Everybody seems to be into the Internet these days. More particularly people are overwhelmed by the number of social networking sites that they can use to communicate with the people special to them. For most businessmen, they use these social networking sites to increase the number of visitors in their main website page. Most of them have asked the help of social network consulting firms to help them improve the social media campaign that they have already started. And so they search for the best social media consulting companies in the web.

The search may be quite easy. All that they need to do is to go to the search engine and type the key term to search for social media consulting firms. The results will show the top consulting firms that there is in the market today. However, once the results are in, the only problem that most business owners have is which to choose. Of course as an investor, businessmen will always have the idea of which one could work for them and which one could not. It is their initial investment after the money they spent just to get their company website up and about. That is why it is very important that they choose the social media consulting firm that can do the job but will not charge them as much.

This could be quite difficult because ever since the world began to see that social network particularly social networking sites can be very helpful to their business, a lot of social media consulting firms have sprouted and most of them charge so high. Well, they are in demand so they are in power. They think that since businesses need their help, they can charge very high prices and people could not complain about it because they need the assistance of these experts. But is it really very expensive to hire a social media consulting firm to enhance the traffic that gets into your main company website?

In reality, these companies can very well help your company and their expertise in social network could be the secret that will make your company improve its overall popularity status which also means improving the amount of money that gets into the business. If you consider the amount of money that you can get into the business, you will realize that the amount of money you spend to pay for consultation could not par with it. Social media consulting firms are not expensive. They are simply worth it.

Social Media Consulting: How To Choose The Best

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Social media consulting has become such a popular search term in the leading search engine today. Most businessmen would depend on the websites that come out of the first three results pages. They think that these companies must be worth the chance since top search engines think that they are way better than all the rest because they are part of at least the top 10. Most of these companies may be top-ranking social network consulting firms who have indeed helped a lot of businesses make their dreams come true. However, you cannot discount the fact, that there could be some companies who just claim to be good in social media consulting but are not really as functional when you hire them to work for your business marketing campaigns.

It is at this point that you should consider thinking twice not about getting help from a social media consulting firm but from which one. The option is just so varied that it has made the choosing part a difficult task to begin with. But then again, how does one know that a particular company or firm that calls itself a social network expert is indeed an expert is the field that uses social network.

Well, it all begins with your goal. It will help you determine whether or not the company that you have found in your search online could truly help you reach your goals without asking for so much. Once you have set your goals, all your marketing campaigns whether traditional or online should work hard to achieve that. It may sound easy but it could be very tough if you don’t get all the help that you need. That is why entrepreneurs should seek the help and guidance that social media consulting firms can provide.

And then you consider the person you have talked to that claims to be an expert at social network marketing. Age should not be the basis of whether or not a person is good at something or not. When you talk about social media consultation, you talked about the ability of a person to lead the advertising campaign in social network by a particular company. It is not just about the use of Facebook or Twitter but it is the understanding how these sites can be used that will make them beneficial for the business. If you are wondering just how much social media consulting is, think about how much you’d be earning with their help.

The Beauty of an Initial Consultation

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Not long ago, I got a call from a prospective patient. It was a woman who was suffering from hearing loss, who had never had acupuncture before. She initially sent an email from the contact form on our clinic site. I responded that the best way to proceed would be to set up a time for a free half hour consultation.

Shortly after the email exchange, she called our clinic, and I spoke with her. She was willing to come in for a consultation, but the more we talked, the less optimistic I became that I or acupuncture could help her particular problem, and I told her so. She was grateful for my honesty and shared that she had talked to another acupuncturist who wanted to charge her $100 for a consultation.

I kept my opinions to myself, but will share it freely here. An initial consultation can be your best friend, but not if you charge for it. Here’s why: If you can get a prospective patient into your clinic for whatever reason, you are far more likely to convert them into a patient than if you just speak on the phone. If you offer a free initial consultation, prospective patients have absolutely nothing to lose. They’re just coming in to talk about the possibility that acupuncture may be the answer to their problem. No needles have been inserted (a frequent source of hesitation), and no money has been charged.

Once you have a prospective patient in your office, it’s up to you to sell your fabulous self, this incredible healing art, and the probability that you can heal their pain. Needless to say, if you don’t think you can help, be honest. I have turned a handful of people away because I didn’t think I could help, and every single one voiced their appreciation of my truthfulness.

There are a few steps to a successful initial consultation:

First of all, listen. In fact spend the first five or ten minutes listening. Do this because you are showing your soon-to-be patient that they will be heard. Do this also because you need to hear as much as their story as you can in a short period of time.
Can acupuncture help them? This is the primary question they need to have adequately answered. If you don’t do this, you’ve blown it.
Answer all their questions. How many treatments? Will it hurt? What’s involved? What about herbs? What’s your training?
Give them a mini diagnosis, if possible, but keep it short. This may be as simple as describing a channel obstruction if they’re experiencing pain. It lets them know that you were listening and you pretty much know what you’re doing.
Schedule them. Or not. At this point, 95% of the people will have made up their mind to book their first appointment with you. There may be a few that you don’t feel you can or want to treat, and there will be one or two who after getting information on acupuncture decide not to proceed.
If someone decides not to go ahead with treatment, you haven’t lost anything other than a little time. The idea behind meeting for a consultation is for both of you to decide if a therapeutic relationship is the way to proceed.

My point is this: an initial consultation is an incredible marketing tool if you use it as such. Much more often than not, if you can meet someone for a consultation, they will become your patient.

Drupal Consulting – Key Ingredient to a Great Website

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What are the chances of you not hearing about Drupal? I’d say minimal. For the simple reason that Drupal of today has grown in leaps and bounds from what it was earlier, today the technology has revolutionized the way websites are designed. Drupal is a free to use and open-source Content Management system which offers a wide variety of advantages to its users. Drupal is robust, secure, evolving, scalable and a technology which is being adopted by the top websites of today.

To the core of Drupal lies its LAMP heap in the form of Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP which is very robust, secure and scalable in itself. Also, Drupal is being constantly enhanced by its growing community of developers. Today, Drupal is being used extensively to launch any type of website including corporate websites, personal websites, community portals, discussion forums, blogs, e-commerce platforms, etc. Having explained the immense benefits of this ace technology let me now come to another important and related aspect which is Drupal consulting.

Despite the fact that Drupal is a free to use software, Drupal consulting makes sense for the simple reason that to explore the best of Drupal functionalities and incorporate those neatly into your dream design would require the expertise of a professional web design and development company with years of experience and specialization in Drupal technology. Drupal consulting is an important investment and key factors such as the following must be carefully weighed in before engaging a Drupal consultancy company: Cost-effective services, proven track record, array of services, client references and contributions of the company towards the online Drupal community which is the backbone of Drupal. A confident and smart Drupal consultancy company would definitely give back what it takes from the community in order for it to develop further.

Great websites don’t just happen overnight. Why experiment and loose the plot? Go for an expert Drupal consultancy company now.

Benefits of Procurement Consulting Services

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The challenges businesses face when dealing with procurement processes, can seem insurmountable. Especially when requirements can vary greatly, from a rigorous application process to a more lenient, easy going bidding approach. If your company is not familiar with methods of obtaining goods or services, it is easy to get lost in the abundance of options. This is particularly true of procurement dealing with governmental services and products of large companies. The administration process can be simplified with the support of a smaller consulting organization.

This is where procurement consulting services can be of great use. Procurement specialists are usually economic experts or have specialized knowledge of specific procurement areas. These professionals will help your company determine the best course of action to take in regard to the particular products or services being acquired. In addition, they will provide invaluable advice on how to participate in the procurement process.

A fee is typically in place when receiving procurement consulting, however, it is well worth the cost, particularly when a company does not have in-house specialists. The consulting service professionals you hire will not only assist in the arduous procurement process, but predict market trends and study current market conditions. This type of knowledge will place your business in a better position when products or services of a similar nature will are procured in the future.

Procurement consulting services are beneficial. Despite the fee, these consultants will save you money by determining the best way to cut costs and pursue profitable agreements. This advice and direction is priceless to companies that rely on these contracts for their survival.

Perhaps the most important component of working with these businesses is that they take the stress off of your existing staff. To ensure that your employees don’t take on an even more burdensome workload, consider hiring a company to assist with your procurement consulting needs.

Corporate Consulting – How to Make $7,500 Monthly by Being a Corporate Consultant

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Corporate consulting is practically a professional service offered by the experts to assist businesses (regardless of their size) in achieving goals or in developing processes that can lead to their success. Corporate consultants can offer training people that can lead to a strong corporate structure, fine tuning the company’s processes and operations, evaluating of the existing structure, etc. Corporate consulting can target specific areas within the business or can address the overall function of a particular organization or company.

Here’s how you can make $7,500 monthly by sinking your teeth into corporate consulting:

1. Provide training and develop skill sets for the management team. As a corporate consultant, you need to be able to train key people within an organization so they can perform better. Start by assisting them in understanding their roles in the business and offer them great advices as to how they can maximize their effectiveness not only to boost their potential but also for the good of the company that they are serving. You will need to train and develop the skills sets of the management team to make sure that the abilities and talents of the member of the management will be utilized to best advantage in the task of reaching the goals and objectives of the company.

2. Ensure efficiency. As a consultant, you can also address the cohesion or efficiency of a particular department or section within an organization. Let me give you an example; if the company wishes to improve their training programs, you may be called in to analyze or evaluate the efficiency of their training programs. You may attend some of their trainings to figure out the flaws or areas of opportunities. You can then offer suggestions or recommendations as to how the business can make their training programs more effective. They may need more effective trainers, more visual aids, more training time, etc.

3. Increase sales. Another role of a corporate consultant is to help businesses when their products or services begin to lose market shares. As a consultant, you will need to investigate the reasons behind any loss and provide great ideas as to how business can turn the situation around. You may also need to help in developing sales and advertising campaign to make sure that the company can easily reach out to their target market that can lead to more sales and revenue.

Knowing all these things and more can make you the best or even the highest-paid corporate consultant out there.

The Role of Business Consulting Firms in Boosting Your Business’s Competitive Advantage

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Putting up a small business today is just like gambling using only a slingshot to topple down Goliaths out in the market. Thousands of established companies in the industry of manufacturing, retail and wholesale can be a hindrance to the success of your business. You are lucky because today, there are people who are more than willing to lend a hand to you-business consulting firms. These firms can guide small business owners to achieve a winning move against the many rivals in the business world.

Market leaders in industries we see today once started as small businesses too. Through time, they realized the need to change for the better. Upon knowing this thing, they found ways to make this change possible and develop better product and service quality. This is where business consulting firms are expert on. They help you realize ways to enhance or change the practices in your business. These people know exactly what you should do to boost your competence as a small David entering the territory of the Goliaths.

Business consultants know the tools, workers, or facilities you need for your business. They can also assist you in improving many features of your company like the procedures in communication, accounting and production. This enables your business to have a quick process without compromising quality of the product or service.

Many people have so much confidence they can manage on their own. They think dedication and hard work are enough to make their venture successful. Today, it is not enough to rely only on your skills and values. You need outside help to see practices that are not effective. This also allows you to identify key areas where your business could improve.

Business consulting firms have the experience and expertise that will help you achieve the necessary changes. The transition process in applying these new techniques and applications can be time-consuming and complicated. These people know how to do this so there is really nothing to worry.

When choosing business consulting companies, it is wise to check out their present and previous clientele. This will allow you to have insights on the quality of service they provide. Verify the efficiency of their services. This will help you in choosing the most efficient company that would bring the change you need.

Other companies can give consultancy services online. You need to fill in some documents and forms, and provide them the details of the problems encountered by your business. Usually, it takes them at least two days to provide you with analysis and solution. They can also set up online accounts to hold meeting details with you. Through accessing you accounts, you can check and review details as often as you like. Services you get here is just like having an ever ready on-call consultant.

Many business consulting companies are out there waiting for you to get their services that are fast, efficient and specially designed for your company’s unique needs.

The Real Story Behind Independent Internet Consultants

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So you have 20 years of engineering and business management experience under your belt. It is logical that you will have a level of tacit knowledge many companies will pay for.

In the years following the Dot COM meltdown I remember encountering many consultants. Guys we’d worked with for many years, and knew the telecommunications business cold. Everybody thought when the Dot COM meltdown occurred, these guys would do great with their new consulting careers. I mean, with that amount of experience young companies should be throwing money at these guys with all the experience.

In a recent post on a cloud computing mailing list, an old timer from the telecom days admitted that for him “being an independent consultant means about the same thing as “being unemployed.”

That’s impossible. The old guys are needed, and young companies cannot survive without their experience and leadership. Right?

Or is it also possible that technology is changing so fast right now, that like the old telecom guys who could quote the process of determining minutes ratios, settlement, allocators, and all those other tremendously complicated telecom negotiations just fell by the side as really smart younger guys who were tremendously Internet-savvy blew past them?

Yup – that’s pretty much what happened.

Over the past few years the joke was “you cannot swing a dead cat over your head in downtown LA without whacking an unemployed telecom engineer.” Guys that are struggling every day trying to figure out how to squeeze minutes out of Internet phones. Guys who are trying to grasp the idea of losing everything they understood and worked for in the good old days of Nortel DMS 250/300s and AT&T 4E/5ESS telephone gateway switches.

Guess what… it is happening again. The current economic meltdown, and huge unemployment numbers are hitting the telecom industry. Lots of newly established independent consulting companies on the street, established with a couple hundred dollars and a do-it-yourself LLC incorporation website. The old guys are trying desperately to throw together snappy websites with basic static HTML pages that discuss their ability to provide “powerful solutions” to “all your business needs.”

It is almost painful to see. While at the same time energetic young serial entrepreneurs aggressively hammer away at the emerging cloud computing industry, entertainment and content delivery industries, social media sites, and Internet service providers. Ooops, well maybe the guys running the ISPs should start looking at taking a couple extra courses on cloud computing at their local technical schools, as the ISP business may also be providing us with a new community of consultants during economic difficulties…

There is a need for consultants. Developing countries still lack the basic knowledge and skills needed to bring their country infrastructures up to at least “entry-level” global speed. Smaller cities in the US and Canada are still under served by both telecom/Internet services, and local adoption of Internet-enabled services into the business and local communities.

LA does not need consultants. New York, Northern Virginia, the Bay Area – all those places have passed the late stage worker generation, and left them behind in a heap of wandering consultants. Consultants who were CTOs, CEOs, VPs, …KEY MOUSEs.

The older generation (those of us past 35) need to stop, breathe, and assess where we are with our industries and professional communities. We can either go for the next generation of technology with reckless abandon (cloud computing….), or eventually find our way to the telecom “fossil” bar to talk about the good old days and whine about the indignity of our current situation.

Independent consultants are the same thing as being unemployed… Damn… We won’t stand for that… Watch out cloud computing community!