Sunday, July 15, 2012
Offline Business Consulting - Part 1: Six Proven Steps To Success
Running a business can be very rewarding - and taxing.Most business owners want to run their businesses, the daily operations, and not be concerned with forming an online marketing plan.This is your magic opportunity.The service is badly needed.You can do this on a monthly basis.You will be helping others grow their businesses.You will be growing your own profits.It does not get any more 'win-win' than this.1.Starting Up.This will be simpler than you might be anticipating at the moment.Beginning expenses are actually quite small and you will be able to conduct your whole operation from your house office.You can even do the "pool-or-beach" thing, sitting in the sun with your notebook making your clients happy (note. I personally have never been able to do this, but I guess it may be possible).You would probably be wise to begin part-time and build up to full-time - people who have jumped straight in say this can mean a lot of stress.2.Which Services? This series of articles will go into greater detail on the many services you can provide to your clients, but for fast access follow the links in the dialogue box below.With the right knowledge you can decide just what services you wish to provide.To begin it is a good idea to stagger your services and create solutions for any business.Email follow-up, lead capture, website optimization and sales funnels are a few of the services that you can offer.As you grow you can outsource some of these and that will allow you to focus on finding new clients and building your business.(The thought of finding clients very possibly frightens you, but you will learn how).3.Services Agreement.Once you have a client, it is absolutely vital that you create a services arrangement.And as has been often said, you will need to learn how to listen attentively to your prospective and actual clients to learn what they actually need - not begin by assuming you know.The right questions are essential for providing a worthwhile and reputable service.4.How Much Do I Charge? A decision that really taxes many people is how much to charge.The temptation is to be "Mr.Nice Guy/Ms.Kind Woman" and charge far too little.You need to charge what is fair to both you and your client.Remember, you are almost certainly happy to pay a fair price for goods or services.Good clients are just the same.They want a good service at a fair price - make sure you charge it.5.How Much Do I Charge - Example.Begin by using a 12 month time span.If aiming for a $29,000 contract, first charge a setup fee of $4,997.The remainder of $24,000 becomes $2,000 a month for the next 12 months.You can build a very worthwhile income with not too big a client base.6.Keep It Simple.This pricing is for a total marketing plan.You may wish to please your clients by providing totally individualized plans, but eventually this will become too complex to manage and result in smaller profits for you and your clients.Roll all your services into one contract.By concentrating on just one item (such as website optimization) you may well be sacrificing chances to increase the clients' sales funnel.An all round and fully developed plan will always give better returns than a piece-by-piece attack.
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