I lead a web company that delivers help in the form of small business management and accounting software tools and education and support to thousands of startups and small businesses in all corners of the world and whenever I explain to folks I meet what I do, I always get asked the same question “Given my working knowledge, how could I monetize it and make earn a living by becoming a small business consultant”? I am always happy to offer advice as I am fortunate enough to spend the majority of my day talking to small business owners and employees ready to discuss their challenges.
Here is my response:
The digital world is a great place for finding customers and it makes it easy to interact with them and sell your expertise. A lot of small businesses turn to the internet to find knowledge or trusted advisors who can provide them with education and help them tackle key challenges.
Information marketing – package and sell your expertise to businesses through the Internet
Make no mistake this opportunity isn’t just to be found in small businesses it’s equally applicable to large businesses. You can repackage and sell your expertise in a electronic format such as video, audio or documents. The software to construct professional standard content are widely available on the net. Producing a educational piece in simple to use internet formats is now simple and inexpensive. You just have to be prepared to spend a modest amount of time understanding the tools. The objective here is to produce [content.
You should start with thinking through your objective. Consultancy and Information marketing compliment each other and if you do both can be very lucrative as the consultancy will provide you with the questions, the answers to which you can repackage and sell in digital format and sold over and over again.
If you are starting from scratch with no customers but have expertise you know would be needed by others then plan to create a two minute video to promote yourself and your expertise to your target(s). Unless you know the prospect(s) precise problem then make the video generic and stick tothe following format – S.T.A.R (Situation or Task, Action, Result). Make your messages as interesting as you can and keep the narratives short. Now upload the video to your website/blog or even YouTube if you don’t have the former and send the target(s) an invitation by e-mail containing a personal message and a link to the video. Always follow this up with a phone call. If you know the specific nature of the prospect(s)problem then don’t make the video public, just put it somewhere privateon the Web or even on a disk and post it, again follow up with a call.
This approach is ideally suited to situations where you are individually targeting potential client(s). The one objective you should be constantly pursuing is the creation of a list that you can converse with and sell product to.. Regular interaction with your list will uncover people’s needs that will help you define what to sell. The more people on your list the more consulting and information marketing opportunities you will unearth. If you would like to know more about how to do this then click on any of the links in this article. I would be happy to help you.
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