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A consultant works with the management of a business to
improve the profitability of the business. Working with the
top management, you can rest assured the consultant is a very
highly paid individual. Some consultants charge $100 per
hour. Others charge $1,500 per day for their services, and
still others work on an annual retainer fee of $12,000 to
over $30,000 per year from any number of large corporations.
Until a few years ago, the title "consultant" was
more or less limited to retired diplomats and top corporate
officers. In other words, until recently, the consultant's
position was honorary than actual. But that has all changed
dramatically in the past few years.
The number of consultants for almost any problem in life has
increased by tenfold or more during the past ten years! And
the field of consultants is continuing to grow. In fact,
independent consulting is one of the fastest growing
businesses in the country today!
Reaching for a consultant is an expert at recognizing
problems and shaping solutions to those problems. The need
for problem solvers for business problems---among large and
small businesses worldwide--has never been greater. The ever
changing moods of the buyer plus the myriad of crisis
situations faced by businessmen almost daily, have created
this "seller's market" for the alert consultant.
Another side of this need for consultants is in the case
of the over-enthusiastic entrepreneur who rushes headlong
into a business in which he has little or no experience. Many
such dreamers invest their life savings in questionable
projects without even considering the idea of bringing in a
competent business consultant to analyze and evaluate their
plans.
Even experienced people are prone to overrate their own
ideas. The image of the end result, and dedicated enthusiasm
toward the attainment of one's goal are the prime
prerequisites for success; however unmerited enthusiasm and
dedication can also be very dangerous as well. Unless it is
based upon solid research, it may cause people to chase
headlong after nonexistent rainbows. And that's where you can
fit in as a business consultant.
It is not necessary for you to have owned or operated a
successful business to become a successful business
consultant. Nor is it imperative that you have been in
management or have held a titled position. You will, however,
need the ability to sell yourself, and an up-to-date
understanding of the area in which you intend to assist
others.
The first step is to make a honest evaluation of your own
training and experience. You might be an ambitious tax
consultant who was never recognized for your abilities. You
might be especially good in such areas as system design,
marketing, scheduling, expediting or productivity. There are
hundreds of consultants across the country specializing in
Direct Mail and Mail Order operators. Most of these people
enjoyed some measure of success in those fields, and then
discovered the easier way--advising others on how to operate
successfully. There are consultants for people who want
success with a garage sale, party planning merchandising, or
even multi-level operations. The important thing is to choose
an area in which you've had some experience; an area that you
have spent sometime learning about; and of course, an area of
work that you enjoy.
Almost everyone is afraid of the responsibility involved.
They claim they don't have the experience or the knowledge.
Such was the case of a young lady we know who was seeking
work as a personal clerk. She had worked five years as
assistant to the personal manager of a large manufacturing
plant, yet when we advised her to become a consultant to
people looking for work or to start her own resume writing
service, she pleaded lack of knowledge, experience and
ability.
Just about everyone has had special training in a certain
line of work, and they've gone on to absorb special studies
or education along the same lines, and most people have
worked all their lives along or very close to a specific line
of endeavor. So, why shouldn't a woman who has worked 20
years as a waitress represent herself as a consultant to the
training program for waitresses within a restaurant
organization? A shipping and receiving clerk would be a
natural for setting up efficient operations and for solving
problems for businesses just beginning or expanding
production output.
The point is, most people don't realize how much expertise
they really have, or the probable marketability of their
training, knowledge and experience. The important thing is to
look over your educational strengths, combine that with any
special training or on-the-job experience, and then offer
your expertise to help others with their problems along the
lines you know best.
You don't need a big, fancy executive type office in order to
get started, especially if you start your consulting business
on a part-time basis. A spare bedroom, a section of the
basement, or even a corner of the dining room, will do very
nicely. If you handle your own bookkeeping/filing, you will
need a ledger of some kind, and a file cabinet or two. You
will need a good typewriter if you plan to do your own
correspondence. An alternative is to do all letters, etc. in
longhand hire someone to put them in final form for you.
Check the local high school or college. They may be happy to
post your ad for a young lady looking for part-time work.
Instead of going to the expense of paying for a business
phone, use your residence phone and train all members of the
family to answer it in a business-like manner during normal
working hours. Save copies of all the sales letters you send
out, and of course, all job proposals you submit. Set up your
file system with your final plan in mind, and you'll save a
lot of time as well as frustration. Get the kind of file
folders that hang from the sides of the file cabinet's
drawers, allowing you to position the file folder title
anywhere across the top of the folder. Then as you add
clients to your file, you can keep them in alphabetical order
without a jumbled-looking file drawer in which you have to
search for each title. It's also a good idea to keep your
active accounts in one drawer, your "hoped-for"
accounts in another, and master copies of all letters,
proposals, business contact information and records in still
another drawer. You'll also need business cards. Your nearest
quick print shop can usually order these and help you in
selecting wording and design.
Whether to rent, lease or buy a copy machine is up to
you, but virtually no business can get by without file
copies. Carbon paper means a loss of efficiency, and running
over the corner shop to get copies is going to cost you time
and money, so be sure to fit some sort of copier into your
business start-up costs. If impossible at the very first, use
the old carbon paper--you must keep a copy for your file.
Just how good a typist you are, how well you can write sales
letters, and how busy you want to be, should be the deciding
factors about the typewriter. If you type at all--there will
always be at least a few letters that you should type
personally---we suggest again that you go for the long haul
probabilities and rent, lease or buy the best and most modern
typewriter you can afford. Later on, when you do move into
that "dream" office, that will be one less piece of
equipment you will have to be concerned with.
One you've decided what area of business consulting you
want to be in, and have your office or working space set up,
the next thing is to let people know you're available for
work. Definitely use some common sense and applied knowledge
before spending any money on advertising. Generally speaking,
you will pick up some customers regardless of the problem
area you specialize in, by advertising in your own area's
most popular newspaper. However, we wouldn't recommend much
more than a small ad in the Sunday editions, unless you're
direct mail, multi-level or garage sale consultant.
Check with your Chamber of Commerce for a list of trade and
specialized business publisher in your area. Either pick up a
sample copy of the business journal at the local newsstand or
write to the publisher and ask for a sample. Look through
those catering to the type of business you want to serve.
Check the editorial styles and types of advertising they
carry, then select the one that corresponds with your needs.
Basically, unless a publication reaches the people you are
trying to sell to, don't advertise in it regardless of the
style, quality, or advertising rates.
Radio or television advertising would probably be a complete
waste of advertising dollars, unless you're offering help
with direct mail, multi-level marketing or garage sales. The
best time for any broadcast advertising in order to reach
your best prospects seems to be in the evening hours after
the late-night news, when these people are either still
laboring over their special projects or relaxing before going
to bed. If you do use broadcast advertising, the commercial
is very important. Really concentrate on this, and use lot of
common sense in writing the message. Even if you engage the
services of an experienced broadcast copywriter, make sure
the message speaks to your potential customers, and convince
them that you can help solve their problems or improve the
profit picture of their business.
Finally, where to advertise. Go with a quarter-page ad in
the yellow pages of your telephone directory. The space
salesman will help you with the ad, but remember, you want it
to catch he eye of your particular client, and offer a
promise of an end to his problems. Always talk to your kind
of people, emphasizing the benefits of your services. It's
not good practice to quote or even discuss prices in either
you advertising or on the phone when people respond. Always
get name, address and telephone number, then explain your
services in general. Set up an appointment to look over their
operation, analyze their needs, and make a written proposal
to solve their problems.
There may be a number of factors involved in establishing
your fees, but starting out with beginning and small
businesses, and until you line up 50 regular clients, your
best bet would be $50 per hour. Count on two to three hours
per client per day, and devoting 10 days per month to work on
their needs, you're talking about $1,000 to $1,500 per month
from each client. Multiply that times 50 clients, and you'll
be grossing $5,000 to $7,500 per month. As a one-man
operation, you'll be plenty busy.
Insiders in this business say a person can leave his regular
job on Friday, start a consulting business on Monday, and
within six months, have an income of more than $100,000 per
year. Suffice it to say that a beginning business consultant
should earn from $30,000 to $60,000, before taxes and office
expenses, in the first year of business.
There's still another very important method of finding new
clients, and that is via Direct Mail solicitation. This is
done either by postcard or sales letter mailings. For a
mailing list of local businesses, check the yellow pages of
your telephone directory, under the heading "Mailing
Lists." Tell the advertiser the kind of mailing list you
need---if they don't have it, ask them the names of suppliers
who might be able to supply your needs. Alternately, you
could compile your own mailing list of prospects most likely
to be interested in your services. Mark the names you want in
the area business directory, and pay someone to input these
names onto a computer for you. The computer should be able to
supply you with peel-and-stick address labels at a nominal
cost. Putting your list on computer from the start will save
you thousands of dollars in money and countless hours of
work.
Your postcard solicitation should basically be an
elaboration of your printed advertising. In other words, an
ad for a Direct Mail Consultant might be transferred to a
post card along these lines:
ARE YOU HAVING TROUBLE GETTING RESULTS
WITH YOUR DIRECT MAIL BUSINESS???
I can help you! Show you how to double, maybe
even triple the response from your mailings!
Expand your market! Increase your profitability
Whatever your needs, I can HELP! Whatever your
problems, I can SOLVE THEM! Call now, and let
me explain.
After the message on the postcard, add your telephone
number and your name, followed by your identification as
Direct Mail Consultant.
A direct mail solicitation sales letter simply uses more
words than the postcard, reads smoother, and forces the
reader to respond as you direct him. Your sales letter can be
any length needed to tell your story and achieve the
objective. To be successful, though, it must embody and
follow the "AIDA" form: A=Attention; I=Interest;
D=Desire; A=Action; on the part of the reader.
Another point to remember when writing sales letters:
Always appeal to the needs and wants of the person who's
going to be reading the letter. He will start reading to see
if your services can benefit him. He is looking for answers
to his most pressing problems. Keep these elements in mind
when you write a sales solicitation letter, whether for
yourself or for a client.
People receiving sales letter are somewhat more responsive to
a letter that is typed as opposed to one that is typeset. But
the typed letter must be "letter perfect," and not
of a different or unusual style of type. As a consultant your
letterhead should be simple while still conveying to the
reader a sense of class. Your paper should be the best
quality you can afford---not flamboyant, but sending a subtle
message of success. Direct mail surveys show what slightly
better numbers of responses are received when a light beige
or off-yellow paper is used.
Basically, your letter should do what the postcard does for
you---move the recipient to call you and allow you to set up
an appointment to discuss his needs as your client. Whether
you're writing an advertisement or a sales letter, it's
important that you have the objective clearly in mind---what
you want the reader to do. With this in mind, you needn't use
the "hard sell" approach quite as forcefully as
someone asking for money on the first contact.
All that's left is meeting with the prospect, listening to
his problems, and hearing what he wants, then write out a
proposal to solve his problems and satisfy his wants. This
means selling yourself to the prospect---assuring him you
know what you're talking about, and that you can make him
more successful.
There you have it--a plan that can lead you to success as a
Business Consultant. Remember, though, no amount of research,
reading, listening or investment can make you successful
until you do something with them. Action on your part is the
absolute ingredients that must be added, and that's up to
you. Your future is in your own hands.
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