People and businesses today need help and advice. This is where you can come in. “But what do I know?”, you might be saying. Well, that is the answer, What do you know? Or maybe what do you like?
With all kinds of information and educational resources available at the tip of our fingers through the internet, you can turn something you know or even like into a lucrative business. Consultants can earn from $1,000 to $10,000 a month just by sharing their wisdom and expertise. Sound good? Ok – then let’s take a closer look.
Here are a few simple ways to help you evaluate if there is a consulting business that would work for you.
- Identify your strengths and passions. As has been famously quoted, “follow your bliss” and you shall be successful. By doing something you truly love, you significantly increase your chances for success right there because you are going to devote more time and energy happily into it. Plus your passion will be seen by your potential clients who will then be more eager to do business with you. So what are your strengths and passions?
- Do some research. Search the internet for companies doing what you are doing. Perhaps it is marketing, the internet or fashion. Search Google and Yahoo to see if there are other companies set up to do what you want to do and then learn as much as you can from how they are doing business. What is their experience, what are they offering, what is their price structure?
- Analyze what you have found. Perhaps you saw that the companies doing what you like have a lot of education and experience that you do not. Is there a way that you can get educated either by going back to school, taking online courses or buying and reading every book you can find on the subject? Also, can you offer services that are not as in-depth as theirs, but because of your expertise, you can at least offer it at a price that is less than theirs? Often, the big firms are extremely expensive which means that there are many people and businesses that cannot afford them. That leaves a nice open door for you to enter. You can offer lower prices but still great service.
- Research some more. Researching is something that you will want to do not only at the beginning of your company, but also every step of the way. Looking into new business opportunities or starting your own business is important and you want to make sure you have the best information possible. Some great resources for ideas are the Small Business Administration at www.sba.org and SCORES which is a group of professionals offering advice to small business owners at www.score.org.
- Incorporate and set up shop. This is often the most unsettling part of starting a new business for people, but don’t let it intimidate you. You can go onto your state’s division of corporation website and look up company names to make sure the one you want is available. You can then use an incorporating service to make sure you follow all the steps properly such as www.mycorporation.com. It is fairly inexpensive but worth the cost. You also want to make sure you have a website name that matches your business or industry. You can do a simple search on sites such as www.networksolutions.com or www.godaddy.com.
- Taking care of business. You will also need to get a bank account and track your finances. You do not need to get a full-time accountant, but it is a good idea to use a professional software such as QuickBooks (www.quickbooks.com) since it can save you a lot of time and headaches later. You can also open a virtual office which allows your phone to be answered by a professional person as well as give you a business address without having the large expense of having a full office. Check out Regus at www.regus.com and RingCentral at www.ringcentral.com.
- Describe your new business. You will now need to define exactly what it is your are going to do and create the marketing materials you will need. You can get many ideas from your competitors but make sure you do not plagiarize and you will want to describe what makes you different and better than them in some unique way. If you have limited funds, you can create beautiful brochures using software such as Microsoft Publisher and pre-folded brochure paper from Staples (www.staples.com) or Office Depot (www.officedepot.com ). You can create brochures, letterhead, logos and business cards all from the same software.
- Get your website. Your website is the single most important part of your marketing artillery. This is your 24/7 advertisement which explains all about you to the world. A good website can be very expensive to setup and make sure it gets listed properly in the search engines, but there are a few inexpensive but phenomenal tools that can save you thousands of dollars, and make your company very profitable at the same time.
- Do a test run. One of the most important things you can do to ensure your success is to test your services. Pick a couple of friends to provide your services to and ask them for honest feedback on what you can do to improve. Remember, don’t get upset at their comments as their input is critical to your success. Take their recommendations to heart and improve your business. You can also ask them for referrals and testimonials after they have received a positive experience from your work.
- Let the world know about you. Of course you will want to reach out to friends and family and their friends and family, but you will likely need to do m ore marketing to truly get a steady stream of business. Internet advertising and marketing is the most affordable of all and well-worth the work. There is a great free course which will give you more than enough tools to market your company online at the Thirty Day Challenge at www.thirtydaychallenge.com.
Yes, it is ten steps and it is quite a bit of work. But when you compare it to the work you will probably be doing anyway in some other job, the rewards are big. You are the boss, the income goes to you, you can work from home and on your own schedule and you will have the flexibility to take on as many or as few clients as you want.
I wish you the very best in your endeavors and please let me know how things work for you!
We all have opinions, but wouldn’t it be great to get paid to express yours! Most people don’t know this yet, but there are a few ways to make thousands of dollars every week by getting paid to take surveys and participate in forums all done from the comfort of your home. The beauty of these systems is that they are at no risk to you because you do not need to set up your own business or sell any products. Your opinion helps national companies understand how to market their own items better and they are willing to pay well to hear from you. There are a few companies set up to be a constant source of great surveys and forums to participate in, but our favorite is Express Survey because they are the easiest with great results. Feel free to check them out yourself: 
After reviewing many internet business opportunities, one stood out as a leader in that it was extremely easy to do because the producer helps you duplicate exactly what he did first on a small bite-sized scale and he then helps you expand it multiple times, increasing your income multiple times. This work from home business opportunity is truly a turn-key way to earn money either part time, as a hobby or even as a full time way to pay bills. 
I have the funds and I can go studying but I’m wondering what to be, in which jobs I can be my own boss? or at least when I can work alone, with my own schedule if possible?