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The Challenges of Starting a Consulting Business

As in any case, starting a consulting business isn’t easy. It takes a certain character, drive and passion to be able to stick through the roughest of times. Starting a consulting business, however, is very different from simply being a consultant at a firm. At that point, you are no longer an employee – you are a business owner in charge of clients, business operations, finances, and much more. Consider these 3 obstacles before getting started.

“Strong expertise and solid reputation do not guarantee success in the consulting business. Never make the mistake in believing that your reputation can sell itself on auto-pilot mode and that you can simply sit and wait for work. As a consultant, you need to aggressively sell your product – you!” – PowerHomebiz.com

Getting Clients

The first hurdle you’re likely to encounter is getting clients. This is a difficult task, as it could take years to build a strong, profitable client base. However, coming into this business, you have likely had experience with clients via your old or current job. This will be a great starting point in tackling this first step of the process.

Old clients: Clients that are no longer with your current or old firm are your best starting place. Because they no longer have an attachment, it should be a non-issue to contact them in regards to your own business.
Partnering: You can consider partnering with your current or old company. If you’ve had great recommendations from clients and an excellent track record, you can make a case for why the two companies should come together, in a long distance working relationship. This will help with name recognition, as well as client attraction.

Being Unique

In any business, it’s a struggle to be unique. It seems as though everything has already been done, so it can be hard distinguishing yourself in a sea of other consultants. Regardless, there are a number of ways you can be sure to stand alone that is both effective and beneficial.

Be diverse: Don’t just do business consulting, change up your range of services so you will appeal to a larger audience. Some companies may need help with more than one issue, and you’ll be the person that can fix that.
Be open: While you may not advertise certain services, it’s critical that you are open to various needs. If a client is looking for you to aid in something different, consider it before saying no. This makes for a happy client, and great referral.

Marketing Yourself

One of the toughest transitions may be adding marketing to your list of duties. If you’ve worked in a well known firm, they have marketing and years of experience in place to attract new clients. You, on the other hand, have minimal experience as a business owner and perhaps very little experience in the field of marketing. Luckily, the online world makes it a cinch for newbie marketers to get their business out there.

Social media: You are already on Facebook and Twitter, so just cater them to your business or start new accounts. Be active, engage with potential customers or old clients, and build your reputation.
Email marketing: If you have been able to compile a list of emails from current or old clients, begin your email marketing campaign. This is a very effective way to reach potential clients and get some word of mouth marketing.

There are many challenges you’ll face when starting your own consulting business. However, there are always techniques and tactics you can use to side step them. Becoming successful as a business owner is all about remembering, “When there’s a will, there’s a way.” So take advantage of networking opportunities and old relationships to start off on the right foot.

About the Author: Sara Fletcher is interested in emotional intelligence in leadership and understanding her DISC assessment. She loves to explore psychology, business, and sports in relation to eq tests.

How To Market Your Small Business on Facebook

In recent years, there has been a phenomenal increase in the number of social networking sites. These sites are now not only being used to connect with friends, family and business contacts, but also being used to market products and services. Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites and many small businesses market their products and services through it. However, these businesses are still struggling to gain expertise in this area. Here are a few things to consider when using Facebook to market your small business:

1. Share Useful And Updated Content With Potential Customers
Many small businesses set up a profile page instead of a business page, while also starting a group for their business. As a result, your fan base may get divided and you can struggle to engage with the audience. It is very important that the business shares meaningful and updated content with the people, which creates a difference in their lives. Broadcasting your message is a big turn-off for people as it sounds too pushy. You should only share updated and engaging content with the audience, and seek their feedback. You should also plan your posts well so that your content does not become too boring or predictable. The shared content should be a mix of multimedia and other useful articles. Sharing exciting and new content increases the chances that people will talk about you with their friends and family. It is also advisable that you do not publish most of your content directly from your blog or other platforms.

2. Take Facebook Seriously
While many small business owners realize that social media, particularly Facebook, has changed the marketing landscape, they are simply not investing enough time to leverage its power. By not investing adequate time in social media campaigns, the business is losing out on marketing opportunities. Facebook should be central to any social media campaign and, therefore, engaging content should be regularly shared with the audience. You should use Facebook to establish strong relationships with your customers and ensure a timely response to their queries.

3. Explore Facebook’s Tools
Businesses can do a lot more than merely setting up fan pages and groups on Facebook. To maximize the marketing potential offered by Facebook, you should explore all of its functionalities and tools. This will help you in creating a great online experience to engage your audience. As a small business owner, you may utilize the info tab and also create a custom welcome page to create better awareness about your business. By using Facebook Insights, you can benefit from the medium’s built-in analytics system and analyze what type of content caused the greatest stir among your audience. This can be of great value when publishing content in future.

4. Follow Rules of The Game
When using Facebook to market your business, you should be careful not to violate the terms and conditions set by the site. By violating these terms, you may risk your reputation and remain ineffective at building a helpful community. Some of these common violations include setting up a personal page instead of a business page, tagging people in images without seeking their permission and sharing abusive content.

By keeping in mind these simple Facebook marketing tips, you can develop strong personal connections with your audience and grow your business.

About the Author: Donna Hays works full-time as a marketing consultant for an online advertising company. She writes for several sites including Degree Jungle a resource for college students. She takes keen interest in social media marketing and is a regular contributor on social media marketing topics.

Image: GOIABA (Goiabarea) / Flickr

Buy online electronic products with discount coupons

When you shopping for electronic products online for your business, it is always great to find a good deal to reduce your costs. Electronics products can be very expensive, and because technology is always changing and growing.

Every small business needs certain electronic products to support its operations. However, it’s often that small businesses need to find ways to reduce purchase prices. It is often better to try out a few services and find out how it all works, and whether you get quality with savings.

There are different plans to save money while shopping products for your business on the internet. Since many shops and merchants are displaying a huge range of electric products for selling purpose, there is obviously a scenario of cut-throat competition. Most retailer and merchant offer discounts and best deals to attract more consumers. More recently discount coupon codes are which can help you get the best deal on your purchase products over the internet and make your shopping more affordable.

electronic products

When looking online electronic items, you have the chance to view more products in lesser times so you never know just what you will find. However, if you are set on one particular brand, you will have a greater chance of finding that particular brand with great discounts by shopping online. Compare brands for the best bargains. You may be looking for a Samsung plasma TV, but if you keep your options open, you may find a bargain on Sony plasma, Panasonic plasma, or any other major name brand electronic manufacture.

Here’s what every small business owner should do: Find out the best quality and top branded electronics items or equipment gadgets and purchase them at the lowest possible price. You should browse through the online to arrive at the best source from where you will be able to get the best products at the best value. A discount range of offers and promotional coupons are there for your advantage and can save you big while shopping online.

There are many electronic items such as LCD Monitors, computers, Laptops accessories and many more. Choose the best store or merchant to shop with to get the best offers. While placing your order over the internet at the checkout, do not forget to use promotional code and other discount coupons to save money on your shopping budget. You can purchase high quality electronic products from Buy.com, CompUSA, Abt.com, Kmart, Meritline and many others.

About Author: Lois Martin is the author of guest post. She writes about how to avail Newegg Coupons and save money on electronic products using Promo Code while online shopping.

The Importance of Background Checks

The increasing competition amongst candidates is causing many to lie on their resumes, a step potentially dangerous for any business. Performing background checks on future employees is an essential step that all organisations must take to ensure that their business is protected against theft and fraud.

Failure to perform such checks can lead to several legal complications and cost your company a lot of money in the long run. Investing in thorough employee checks today can help you save substantial long term costs.

Potential risks of negligent hiring

As many organisations are in a hurry to hire professionals, experts advise businesses to take background checks seriously. Some of the most common facts that are tweaked in a resume include education level, university attended, job responsibilities, skill levels and previous salary drawn. Most candidates include falsified information in their resume to either gain advantage over other candidates or to mask their intentions. The risk of employee fraud increases if the hiring company fails to conduct its due diligence.

Negligently hiring employees could result in violence and assaults at the workplace. It also increases the risk of employee turnovers and job related accidents. Any liability charges filed because of the employee’s actions may cost the company millions owing to negligent hiring. The possible influence of drugs and alcohol can tamper employee productivity, leading to more losses. Theft and fraud committed by employees can cause a company millions. It is estimated that embezzlement costs companies billions each year.

Responsibilities of the employer

The potential risks of hiring an employee without performing thorough checks can be damaging to a company and its reputation. As an employer, it is your responsibility to know your employee. Employees with past accounts of violent incidents, alcohol and drug abuse and criminal records should be carefully dealt with. Any damage caused by an employee’s known or unknown past record will make the company liable.

If an employee has a past record of negligent driving or drunk driving, the organisation should not allow him/her to use company cars. Similarly, candidates with a history of violent outbursts are not suited for client interaction or personalised home visits. It is every employer’s responsibility to learn of any undesirable traits the candidate may possess. Performing a background check on an employee is not considered a violation of privacy.

Using professional services

Instead of spending days on performing background verification, many companies opt for the services of businesses that specialise in gathering such information. Professionals in background checking offer concise and detailed reports regarding the authenticity of information provided on the resume and interview. Detailed background checks include clarification in criminal history, illegal activities, financial background, educational background, credit history, and reference verification.

Benefits of background checks

One of the biggest benefits of performing detailed background verification is the satisfaction of hiring a promising employee. Including productive employees in your company not only boost your revenue but also reduces employee turnover (the ratio of employees that were replaced in a specific time period). Background checks help candidates be more honest about their qualifications and create a transparent relationship between the employee and the organisation.

About the Author: Penny is an expert associated with CV Insight, a leading group of employment screening specialists. If you are looking for services like background checks on candidates, contact our professionals for helpful advice. CV Insight also specialises in screening your employees to help you hire qualified candidates.

Opening An Online Business Store

Internet has significantly revolutionized the way of doing business by introducing more efficient and simpler ways of trading. The virtues introduced include expansion of market, payment simplification and real time transactions amongst others. These features have consequently created numerous chances for different forms of online businesses. Amongst the best and successful online businesses include a makeup and cosmetics store. The popularity of this kind of business is mainly because nowadays there are many people who buy makeup and cosmetics online since they do not live near where their favorite boutique or a beauty shop is located. But there are several requirements and guidelines in which this kind of businesses needs to follow so as to start and run successfully.

online store — How to start an online business

Opening an online business store requires one to have an internet connectable gadget such as a computer. This is the primary requirement because it’s what will be used to market, take orders and sell the products. Furthermore, it is advisable to use a comprehensive ecommerce internet services which provides template designing, processes payments, shopping carts and edit web pages amongst others. This eliminates the necessity of subscribing to many subscribers for services which would have otherwise been provided by just a single or a few service providers.

It is paramount to obtain the relevant permit and license before starting the business even though the business will be operating online. This is because different regions have diverse regulation and they also needs to account for every trading activities in the relevant authorities jurisdiction. Amongst the probable documents that might be needed include; use tax permit, assumed name certificate and employer identification number amongst others. It is paramount to obtain these documents before the business officially commences so as avoid surprises and closure due to non compliance.

Starting a successful online store also requires ample preparation in marketing. The best marketing channels include starting promotional blogs and opening related social networking accounts amongst others. The blogs and accounts should have links where visitors can be directed to the website in which to find the products on sale. To entice the visitors, they can be offered discounts and offers if they visit the website or if they purchase a product.

The business also requires that the products be readily available where they can be delivered to the customer immediately they make their order. This is important because the first impression in such businesses is significant in creating a customer base. Thus a delay or a failure in delivery can give the business a negative image. This can be achieved through several alternatives including opening wholesale accounts with distributors. This is especially helpful to those who do not make the products on their own, instead they buys from companies and other manufacturers. Consequently, opening a wholesale account ensure that the products can be delivered even with short notices. The products should be packed and braded in a way that customer can identify them with the online business.

About the Author: This post is written by Maya Zajacko.

Image: ernohannik / Flickr