Even Consultants Get The Blues!

A long-term assignment is wrapping up and you’re about to saddle-up and mosey down that dusty road into the warm, golden sunset.

Hold it.

What’s wrong with this picture?

If you’re a consultant, instead of being that stoic, lean and mean stranger, who rides into town, sets things right, or who stirs them up, depending; you’re more likely to be, at the end of that engagement, a wobbly basket case who can barely summon the gumption to press the elevator’s down button.

How come?

Well, man or woman, as I see it, you’re going to have a case of the postpartum blues, partner.

What are those, you’re wondering, especially if you’ve never been a parent? They’re the odd and often radical emotions you feel after you have carried a baby to term, introduced it into the world, and your hormones are in a transitional state.

You grew and bonded with this marvelous organism and now it is much more independent.

That’s exactly the feeling you get when a big-time consulting assignment is approaching “term.”

You have separation anxiety. How are you, soon to be two, going to get along without each other?

“But they’re not ready!” we wail, when we’re really speaking about ourselves.

What are WE going to do without THEM is really the question.

If you’re a good consultant, you do bond with clients, creating lots of identification in the process.

When I was part of the largest civilian Navy management training program in history, 18,000 senior managers trained in 18 months; members of our consulting team actually identified so much with our client that they joined-up at the end of the assignment.

My U.S. Navy coffee mug, in fact, is about eighteen inches to my right as I type this article. What does that tell you?

Where we stop and they start, where dependency turns into independence, is never clear to the consultant. Saying goodbye is especially hard when we’ve inaugurated an entire unit or business function or when we’ve saved a ship (pardon me) from sinking.

Having consulted for more than 20 years, and running a seminar for consultants and coaches at UCLA Extension and elsewhere, I console myself and my colleagues with these three thoughts:

(1) This is the life we have chosen for ourselves, and being able to have a big impact and then to leave in a timely way to engage the next challenge is exciting and rewarding.

(2) Consultants aren’t marathoners, we’re sprinters. Great in the 100 or 220 we FLY cross-country, we don’t run it.

(3) We should be like those teachers that say: “At the beginning of the year I’m happy to see students coming, and by the end of the year, I’m happy to see them going.”

Still, when we’re the ones riding all by our lonely into those sunsets, we need to buck-up and say: “Hey, it’s ok; even consultants get the blues!”

Small Business Consulting Services: The Advantage of Professional Experts

Accessing Knowledge and Experience of Big Businesses:

Small business consulting services provide you complete information on different aspects of running small businesses smoothly. Services of experienced and professional small business consultants can make a great difference to the growth and success of your business. By hiring their services you get the advantage of knowledge and experience of big businesses customized to suit your requirements. When you hire a small business consulting services, you get more time to concentrate on the core activities of the business, thereby increasing the productivity.

Get the Competitive Edge and Increase Productivity:

Small business consulting services not only work as short-term business advisors but can also be your long-term aide. Moreover, you get competitive advantage and even compete with big corporations that have support staff on site. Another advantage is that hiring small business consulting services helps in increasing the employee productivity. This is because there are several one-time tasks that can be performed without involving employees who are running your business smoothly. In addition, you get the advice of experts whenever you need it without having to keep someone permanently and pay for it.

Professional Business Plan:

Small business consulting services help the small businesses right from starting a new business to achieving their ultimate goal. When you start a new business you need funds for it. For managing the finance for starting a new business or expanding an existing business, you require a professionally prepared business plan. In fact, a business plan is the document that makes the first impression on people or institutions interested in financing your business. Professionally managed small business consulting services can make this process hassle free for you.

Sound Marketing Plan:

Similarly, when you wish your sales to increase, you require a sound marketing plan. Small business consulting services can provide you a comprehensive marketing plan by performing a detailed market analysis. They will prepare the marketing plan after making a thorough analysis of the size of the market, competitors, customers, growth, segments, and the behavior of customers buying your type of product. With the help of a marketing plan and further assistance from small business consulting services, you can develop effective strategies for marketing your products or services and reach your goal.

Designing and Managing the Web Site:

In this age of Internet it has become essential for every single business to have a professionally designed and managed Web site. Small business consulting services will help you not only in designing the website but also in growing your business on the Internet.

What is the Secret to Building a $100M Consulting Practice?

Imagine if you were no longer threatened by consulting commoditization and the resulting loss of firm revenues. What if you could leverage technology in a way that would increase your profit margins and open doors of unlimited add-on consulting opportunities?

You are painfully aware that service-capability selling by a consulting organization no longer works. Clients are increasingly seeking productized consulting solutions to common business problems.

Now absorb this information: Gartner reports that the consulting organizations that will ultimately survive in the future will be those that create standard, repeatable consulting services.

What then, is the secret to building a thriving consulting practice in the face of commoditization?

1. Do This to Stand Out in a Commoditized Crowd
Al Ries, author of The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding observed that most professional service firms are good at generating prospects, but not at branding. The key is not what you do (the commodity) but the way you do it (your brand).

Just imagine what would happen if you productized your common business services and then competed on the merits of your brand.

2. Do This to Profit From Commoditization
You probably already know this, but productizing services with pre-defined project plans not only accelerates project completion but also increases firm profit margins.

Think of how many of your current services could be pre-defined and delivered as a solution package. What affect would that have on your profit margins?

3. Do This to Move Beyond Commoditization
Most experts agree that it costs 6-12 times more to acquire a new customer, than it is to expand your offering into existing customers.

Can you imagine the doors of add-on opportunities that will open to you as you successfully deliver a productized commodity service?

Now for the best news of all: productizing your services couldn’t be easier. Software technology exists that allows firms to quickly productize services with project plans, resource plans, billable hours and even client collaboration.

But be sure to select a software partner that provides:

1. ASP software (the last thing you need is technology hassles)

2. Cross-platform software (you need a solution that fits in any environment)

3. Customization (you are the business expert, not them)

4. Commissions (you should be making money with their software)

Learn more about wining the commodity game; get your free copy of the guide “3 Steps to Build a $100M Consulting Firm” at [http://www.attask.com/partner/consult-signup.html]

Chad Perry has held key executive positions in the high-tech industry both small and publicly traded organizations. His background includes sales, customer service and operations. Mr. Perry has led large-scale business redesign efforts encompassing field sales, inside sales, channel sales, consulting, system engineering, and field marketing organizations.

Idea From Marketing Consulting

All of us have heard of marketing professionals. Some of us have even worked as marketing professionals ourselves. And some of us have probably heard of marketing agencies. But how many of us can, in all honesty say that we have heard of the term marketing consulting? I for one hadn’t. Of course I had heard of consultants and IT consultants to be more precise, but I had never before heard about marketing consulting as a field and what’s more, hadn’t the faintest idea who would be involved in such an activity.

All that changed when I got onto a domestic flight and found someone sitting next to me. When we made our introductions, I was pleasantly surprised to know that he worked for one of the largest organizations in the region. I myself had some dealing with them and wanted to know how he figured in the scheme of things. Which is when he told me that he worked in marketing consulting. More intrigued than anything else, I carried on a conversation with him.

Seeing that I hadn’t the faintest idea about marketing consulting as a field, he proceeded to brief me about the industry. (Yes! It had become fashionable enough in the recent past to call the thing an industry by itself. I wonder how many people out there actually work in the industry of marketing consulting [http://www.first-finance-magazine.com].

According to my friend, they numbered in the hundreds of thousands!) But what exactly did someone in the marketing consulting industry do? Well, they did marketing like anyone else. What made their professions consulting as opposed to most of us is that they brought an element of analytics to the field.

In traditional marketing, for long people believed that if the product was good, it sold itself. This changed when it was observed that a few salesmen with the right ideas were able to sell a whole lot more than all the others put together. Thus was born the field of marketing. Soon, manufacturers discovered that marketing activities took up a whole lot of their time, leaving them with precious little to do research and development. Thus, they began to seek outsiders who could do their marketing for them. These outsiders were pure play marketing consultants. And the one reason they were hired and paid highly is because they came armed with several years of knowledge and acumen that they could use to enhance the profits of their pay masters.

Why Become A Legal Nurse Consultant?

Why Hire A Legal Nurse Consultant?

The president of a major law firm that represented roadway construction companies in the Southeastern United States once said: “I don’t need to know the nuts and bolts of paving a road as long as I have an expert who does.” And thank goodness he did have such an expert because, as I informed him, you don’t pave a road with nuts and bolts.

What he meant by his comment was it is better for an experienced expert witness to explain complicated issues to a jury than for an attorney to stumble his way through them. That is certainly the case when it comes to explaining complicated medical issues at trial.

What is a Legal Nurse Consultant?
Many attorneys who practice personal injury law have no firsthand experience with the healthcare system and don’t even know how to read simple medical records. I will refrain from naming the dozen or so friends of mine who practice personal injury law as medical record illiterates. So how do they have any idea whether they have a valid medical malpractice, slip and fall, whiplash or other personal injury case? They rely heavily on Legal Nurse Consultants.

A Legal Nurse Consultant is someone with a nursing degree who reviews, analyzes and summarizes medical records for an attorney. As a Legal Nurse Consultant you may choose to work for plaintiff or defense attorneys, governmental agencies, insurance companies or private corporations. You may choose to work in the geographic area where you are currently located or to move around the country. Many agencies will pay for your move should you choose to do so.

What does a Legal Nurse Consultant Do?
A Legal Nurse Consultant advises attorneys both prior to, during and after trial (usually on appeal) on medical issues. If you are a person who does not like to give live testimony at trial you do not have to. There are a number of consulting opportunities that do not require trial testimony. If you are (like many attorneys) a frustrated actor, then expert trial witness testimony may be right up your alley.

Most Legal Nurse Consultants deal with cases involving medical and nursing malpractice, personal injuries, products liability, toxic and environmental cases, worker’s compensation, workplace injury, criminal and family law issues. You can find more information on becoming a Legal Nurse Consultant on this website.

What Does a Professional SEO Consultant Do For a Living?

Ok, so you wish to know more about what a Professional SEO Consultant does for a living? Specifically, you wish to understand what type of work is involved in a typical Web Site SEO and what Search Engine Optimisation Services are provided.

Well it basically comes down to a four step process

* Find the Current Web Site SEO Baseline

* Develop Search Engine Optimisation Services Plan

* Develop Web Site Link Building Strategy

* Monitor and Maintain Website SEO

Before elaborating further on the four step process, a Professional SEO Consultant should allow complete transparency in regards to their process. Basically, it is your money and you should always have a clear picture of what is going on and what step of the process you are at.

Current Web Site SEO Baseline

This is where you are, right now! Before you even came to this web site – your site has a current state.

That is, before even an Professional SEO Consultant starts to construct and implement a plan base on your site. They must observe and review your site for both good and bad points.

Once this has been established and written in stone then both parties (that is, you and I) can proceed.

Develop Search Engine Optimisation Services Plan

1. Competitor Analysis

Do you really know who your competitors are?

Fair enough, you might be able to throw out a few names however what and where is the data to back up these assumptions! The beauty of the web is that you main competitors do not necessary have to be global companies, they could well be a cottage industry located right next door to you.

One of the first things to happen in your Search Engine Optimisation Services Plan is to establish who your competitors are and why do they rank highly in search engines.

2. Outline Search Engine Optimisation Services details.

Firstly, a Web Site SEO Consultant will research good keyword / phrases that will bring prospective clients to your site.

Just for your information, keywords are search phrases that people like you and me enter into a search engine to find particular information or services. For instance, you may have entered in “SEO Consultant” or “Search Engine Optimisation Services” to find this website. So a Corporate SEO consultant will gather for you the most powerful keywords in terms of your site subject matter. These keywords will be based on the highest number of daily searches, relevance and low competition against your main competitors. These keywords will be communicated to you, thus allowing you to know what exactly is going on and how we are going to proceed.

From here site optimisation will be built around the agreed keywords – this consists of many other technical SEO optimisation techniques that will be explained and highlighted in the plan and will be discussed between both parties.

Develop Web Site Link Building Strategy

Not only does your website need to be optimised; it also needs some coverage within the web community. That is, you need news / buzz generated about you and as a result inbound links will point to your site (which brings potential customers). Therefore good content / links must be generated from outside your website. For example, news articles, references in online directories, subject matter experts discussing you on their blogs must be explored.

Monitor and Maintain Website SEO

Ok, so everything (that is, SEO optimisation and Link Building) has been planned and executed. So what now?

Mary Kay Cosmetics Consultants – Helping Or Hurting Women? – Scam Or Legit?

Mary Kay Cosmetics and most Multi Level Marketing (MLM) companies say they offer the world’s greatest business opportunity which is based on selling products. Mary Kay Cosmetics $2 billion a year enterprise where hundreds of products are sold through word-of-mouth advertising. Mary Kay is another recruiting scheme in which they try to get their consultants to purchase a boat load of cosmetics and then resell them. Their hook is how can you sell cosmetics if you don’t have an inventory to sell?

I have heard from friends of mine that were former Mary Kay Consultants that the problem is that a consultant never has exactly what their customers need when the customer wants it. It is nearly impossible to predict at the level how many of each product you are going to need after the first few months. Hence, after the first few months, you end up making smaller orders at a much lower discount level on a more frequent basis. Furthermore, that lower discount level equates to a smaller profit margin for you.

What ends up happening quit often is that by the time the new consultants purchase their cosmetics, factor in the costs for promoting their business, delivering them or working with customers, it outweighs the small pofit earned. Also, the requirements for purchases are greater than most people can meet, hence most of the consultants wind up with a lot of unsold goods. Hence, the vast majority of the products sold to the consultants are never resold to an actual customer. Is it because the consultants really don’t try to sell? Perhaps, but a majority factor is that It’s because the products are of mediocre quality and are overpriced.

With the internet and large department stores in the mix, cheap substitutes for these cosmetics are everywhere and have similar if not better quality. Here’s something else to consider. Where are you going to find your new customers? Mary Kay encourages their consultants to begin with their friends and family and then branch out from there to strangers. Even the most supportive family and friends only need so many cosmetics. Hence, after an initial order when everyone generously buys some items to help you get started, it will be many months until they need to replenish.

Then the next step is moving on to strangers. You’ll try to rope in some of the people you meet through giving skin care classes into having a party and your friends and family will probably may also do that for you but their friends and family probably won’t. Ask yourself how many women you know are just desperate to get their friends together for a Mary Kay party, probably not too many.

Is Mary Kay Cosmetics a scam? I would say no. This critique about Mary Kay Cosmetics concludes that they are a lawful organization that allows individuals to generate an income by selling to their friends, family and anyone they can get in front of to try to grow their “business”. If you enjoy recruiting friends and relatives and hosting home event parties than this may be right up your alley.

Personally, I’ve completely avoided these types of programs altogether and have advised my friends and family as well as I have been able to make a comfortable living from the internet at home much more easily.

Consulting Via Social Media

Consulting

Selling consulting services is very appropriate to Many social media sites since you are first selling based on how you appeal to someone’s identity. They will figure out whether you are attractive based on the image you project, and this makes selling consulting services much easier on Many social media sites than products and services. There are even applications like Ether that can make telephone consulting easy to track and bill.

Don’t limit your consulting services just to one area. You can build multiple streams of income by offering various consulting services. The only thing to remember is that your income will be limited by the number of hours in the day. If you are selling personal services, you will have a hard time increasing your income unless you increase your rate or find some way to offer those services electronically via pre-packaged tutorials and courses that don’t require your presence when they are being viewed. Or, you can hire other people to work for you, through sub-contracting, as long as you are honest with your buyers that you aren’t doing all of the consulting services. This can detract from your commerce model if you don’t train people to be the type of consultants you trust to carry your name and reputation.

On the other hand, if you can train people and have a good way to check the quality of your consultants, then you can build a very profitable commerce in a short amount of time using other people’s time to increase your bottom line. Then, your role becomes more of a marketer and less of a consultant.

How to Make Clients Perceive High Value in Your Consulting Business

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.

Professional SEO Consultant to Increase Your Website Traffic

Creating a website is just like constructing a building for business and if you want to bring targeted audience to your website you have to optimize and develop your website properly. A professional SEO consultant offers practical and effective search engine optimization and marketing solutions to help increase your website traffic and overall performance in Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines.

Provides Systematic and Advanced SEO Services

SEO or search engine optimization is in fact an effective solution for internet marketing and it helps to improve your business. SEO consultants provide systematic and advanced SEO services to make a website both search engine friendly and user friendly. A professional SEO consultant offers a range of benefits including:

o Increases website’s exposure
o Enhances online business sales
o Provides a corporate identity
o Global market access

Benefit from a Website with Optimal Performance

Search engine ranking is influenced by various factors including website design, website content and optimization. In order to get high traffic to websites, websites should have a well organized design, persuasive and keyword-rich content and proper link exchange with various social sites and directories. To design and develop a business website with optimal performance in search engines, SEO consultants maintain highly skilled and adept SEO specialists, website designers, content writers, copywriters, marketing experts and project managers. The services of a professional SEO consultant include:

o Initial industry analysis
o Keyword exploration and selection
o Website design and redesign
o SEO copywriting
o Keyword focused content development
o Article submissions
o Website optimization
o Strategic link building
o Website evaluation and monthly reporting
o Follow-up service
o SEO consultancy

Besides search engine optimization service, a professional SEO consultant provides several highly effective internet viral marketing, blog marketing and web development services to increase your website traffic and online sales.