Business Consulting Firms – 4 Intermediate Ways to Grow Your Business Consulting Firm

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Gone are the days when you can count the number of business consulting firms using your ten fingers. Today, as more and more people are building their own businesses, consulting firms become very in-demand.

If you are one of those people who have built a business consulting firm to meet the current demands, this article is for you. In here, I will share some tips on how you can easily grow your firm so you can position yourself as industry leader while you maximize your revenue in the process. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Hire the best people. What they say is true; the success of your business will largely depend on your people. So, make it a point that you only hire those who are competent, highly skilled, and motivated. During the hiring process, look for people who have relevant experiences, trainings, and educational background on running or managing a business. Also, make sure that these people are easy to work with, result-driven, and reliable to make sure that they’ll be able to offer your clients with great experience.

2. Make your marketing campaign more aggressive and more targeted. As I have mentioned before, the field of consulting business is very stiff at the moment. Thus, it is very crucial that you invest time, effort, and even money to make your marketing campaign more effective, more compelling, and more targeted. Do a thorough research about your prospects and know what can push their buttons. You will need to target their emotions and convince them that you are the best firm for the job to get them to sign up in no time. Make your marketing messages more powerful and benefit-driven.

3. Impress your clients. If you want to easily create a good reputation in this industry and if you want your customers to keep on coming back, you’ve got to do all you can to make these people happy in doing business with you. You must assign to them competitive and very knowledgeable consultants who can meet their needs and demands. You need to make sure that your firm will be able to give these people everything they need to reach their goals or to grow their business exponentially in as little time as possible.

4. Develop an effective consulting team. Invest on giving your consultants relevant trainings and seminars that can help in improving their skills and their knowledge in this field. Take this as a wise investment as this can help you promote 100% customer satisfaction.

Marketing Consultants – 5 Things to Look Out

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What if you discovered the exact qualities that a marketing consultant should have that will have a positive impact on your Internet business? Do you want to know what it takes to make a huge income online hiring help from a marketing coach? The purpose of this article is to get you started making easy money online setting up a highly profitable Internet business.

Here are 5 simple steps to get you started.

Step 1 – Should have a high powered personality.

Step 2 – Must have very powerful communication skills.

Step 3 – Should be motivated and energetic.

Step 4 – Should be available when the clients are in need to solve specific problems.

Step 5 – It is important that your marketing consultant is approachable through teleseminars, webinars, chat, etc on monthly basis.

The purpose of this article is to show you exactly what it takes to make huge income step by step starting today. Here are step by step details that you can apply quickly and easily.

Step 1 – Should have a high powered personality.

Personality of marketing coach shines in the success of his clients. The expertise and credibility that a marketing coach has helps him to achieve massive success in his coaching niche. Your marketing consultant should have very good communication skills because he will be communicating with his clients on a regular basis.

Step 2 – Must have very powerful communication skills.

It is extremely important that a marketing coach has very powerful communication skills. This is because the coach will communicate with his clients on regular basis through telephone, webinars as well as other mediums. Your consultant should be highly motivated and energetic because this will have positive impact on his clients.

Step 3 – Should be motivated and energetic.

He should be extremely motivated and energetic because this will have a positive impact on his clients. The client will see his energy and they will get inspired and motivated to achieve the same results the coach has achieved. Marketing consultant should be easily available whenever the clients are in need.

Step 4 – Should be available when the clients are in need to solve specific problems.

The clients are purchasing consultation is because they want one-on-one support from an expert in their niche. Therefore it is highly important that the coach is available whenever the client is in need to help them solve their problems. Here are some coaching sessions that you have to take advantage of if you’re planning to hire a marketing consultant.

Step 5 – It is important that your marketing consultant is approachable through teleseminars, webinars, chat, etc on monthly basis.

There are many coaching modules that consultants can provide to boost the ultimate coaching experience. Some of them includes setting up highly targeted coaching sessions through teleseminars, webinars, chat session, etc. With such kind of coaching sessions it becomes easy for the coach to provide training and content on regular basis to the members and provide them solutions to their problems. Make sure you get started today with a coach who can help you out in your niche.

Consulting Companies – Revealed – 4 Effective Methods to Build a Profitable Consulting Company

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Are you trying to build your very own consulting company to get closer to your financial freedom? Then, these effective methods are for you!

1. Do your research. I am pretty sure that you would want to make a lot of revenue in this field. So, don’t just jump into this endeavor without doing your assignment. After identifying the niche to target, determine how many people are offering the same consulting services. You may want to stay away from stiff competition by avoiding niches that are targeted by the big dogs. By doing this, you’ll increase your chances of attracting more customers which will obviously mean more revenue for you.

2. Learn from the experts. I highly recommend that you work together with people who own successful consulting companies. Although most of them will surely not be willing to share all their secrets and techniques, I am pretty sure that they’ll be able to give you some amazing pointers as to how you can get started on the right foot. If you are willing to spend at least $12,000, you can learn the ropes of building a profitable consulting company by simply signing up to coaching programs or advanced online classes that are being offered by some of the experts in this field.

3. Hire competent consultants. Before you advertise your company, I recommend that you hire at least 3 consultants to work for you. You can start by visiting freelancing sites where you can find the best freelancer workers from all points of the globe. You can also visit blogs and forums that are frequented by these people. Lastly, you can post an ad on your website that contains all your requirements.

4. Plan an effective advertising campaign. Learn the basic of internet marketing in order to easily promote your consulting company. If you are trying to save on your advertising cost, you may consider writing and distributing articles online, building and maintaining a blog, or promoting your business and your site’s URL on blogs or social networking sites that are frequented by your potential clients. However, if you have the money to spare, I recommend that you use banner ads on relevant sites. You may also use search engine marketing, paid links, and PPC advertising. In addition to these marketing tools, you may also think about launching marketing gimmicks like giving out discounts or freebies that can surely capture the attention of your target market.

Debt Consultants of America – Should You Become a Client of Debt Consultants of America?

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Debt Consultants of America (DCOA) seemed to just pop on the scene and become somewhat of a major player in the debt settlement industry. They have a professional looking website and regularly run advertisements in the Texas region where their offices are located. But irate clients are starting to post complaints about this company on various consumer advocate websites. We decided to look at why. This will help you answer the question, “Should I Become a Client of Debt Consultants of America?”

DO NOT skip over this step or take this warning lightly; read over the Debt Consultants of America’s contract from top to bottom, line upon line. DO NOT lightly glance over one single solitary line or paragraph. After you read the entire contract, get two other people to read it; if at all possible, one of those persons should be an attorney.

Why do we strongly suggest this step? People who signed that contract and later cancelled essentially stated in their opinion that it contained a full page of client obligations and rights that serve only to benefit DCOA. Here are some basic components of that contract…

#1) Apparently No Creditor Gets Paid Until Debt Consultants of America Gets all their money – People who sign up for debt settlement programs administered by third party companies don’t realize that this is a standard policy. Once you sign up for most of these programs and start making payments, the assumption is – the debt settlement company starts paying your creditors. NOT SO! They don’t start paying your creditors until you have paid their administrative processing fee in full. That’s why you hear of horror stories of people getting sued by creditors while they are signed up with certain debt settlement companies.

Be advised, VERY FEW if any of these companies will make any payment to creditors until their initial administrative start up fees are paid in full. That means, although you are making payments to the debt settlement company, NONE of those payments are going to ANY of your creditors. It also means you are getting further behind and additional penalties and fees are being tacked on.

#2) Debt Consultants of America Charges a $299.00 Cancellation Fee – BE ADVISED: after you sign up as a client and later decide this was a bad mistake, you MUST pay them $299.00 to cancel your contract. Once you become a client, you have to pay your way out of the contract. Even if the company doesn’t deliver as promised and even if you are not satisfied with their service, you are still going to pay that FEE.

Although the cancellation fee information is evidently placed somewhere on their contract, past clients are saying they weren’t aware of the fee until they decided they wanted out. If you don’t have money to burn, don’t sign that contract. If can’t afford to lose three hundred dollars, don’t sign that contract. If the thought of paying $300.00 to cancel a service you decided you were displeased with ruffles your feathers, don’t sign that contract.

#3) If You Have OK or Good Credit Then You May Want To Find Another Option! – If you have OK or good credit, it’s probably best to find another option other than Debt Consultants of America. Some consumers are great financial planners and when they see trouble on the horizon, they take preemptive measures to insure that their financial outlook won’t be terribly impacted by such things as a downsizing or a layoff. They might move to consolidate their debts or push their creditors for debt settlement.

This way they don’t have to go through the pain of facing late payments or watch their credit score drop dramatically. Some choose the (DIY) Do It Yourself Debt Management, while others choose to have a third party debt settlement company to handle their issue. If they end up becoming clients with companies like Debt Consultants of America, there is a huge problem.

The problem being this; their debt settlement systems are set up to negotiate with creditors only after a person is behind on their payments. So why would these companies sign contracts with clients who have good credit and who are not behind on their payments knowing their system is for people who are behind on their payments? Especially since the client would have to pay a cancellation fee?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Remember the initial question, Should You Become a Client of Debt Consultants of America?” To help you make an informed decision, we’ve provided you with the basics on what to expect. Ultimately, the decision is yours, but at least you won’t go into this type of contract not knowing the reality of what you are signing for.

What We Have: Clear and Concise Paths To Help You Get Out of Debt and Live Debt Free without Losing Your Sanity and Dignity. You Won’t Find This kind of Guidance Anywhere Else. Not For FREE!

Why You Need a Financial Consultant

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Handling money responsibly is a major topic in the conversation of the economy today, and many individuals as well as businesses are mismanaging their resources. Even the auto industry in the U.S. is struggling with the management of money and avoiding bankruptcy, so the need for a financial consultant can be in both large or small scale. They provide advice to clients for a fee, usually with the creation and implementation of a plan that will help that client to efficiently manage their money. Some who offer this service provide advice for the reduction and management of debt while others provide advice for investing and creating assets.

Many organizations create lasting relationships with their consultants and work with that specialist for many years, trusting their opinion and using them to coach, guide, mentor and be a friend. Finding the right fit for a financial consultant can be a difficult undertaking because building this business relationship requires an assessment of a company´s needs that targets current obstacles while providing future benefits. A specialist that provides a plan based upon that company´s particular needs is valuable, and many times the commission becomes a factor for a consultant´s commitment, and not the desire to create a continuing relationship.

Matching yourself to a financial consultants weaknesses and strengths, their choice in what they offer as well as their specialty can take you through a lot of interviews, so be prepared to see several advisors before settling on someone who you will keep for the long haul. Do you due diligence and check references, any credentials that they claim to have and compare their fees with other financial consultants that offer the same products and services.

As the advisor speaks to you and answers your questions, ask yourself how you feel about that person. Do you respect what they say? Do you like they way they present themselves to you? Do you trust their opinion? These questions should be the very root of your decision to create business relationships with organizations. If the financial consultant you are meeting with approaches you like a used car salesperson, that is probably a sign that their techniques are not meant for you.

Determine what the focus is of a financial consultant is important as well. You want to be sure all of your needs can be assessed and the best plan for your goals can be created and built upon. What kinds of clients does the analyst specialize in? Does that sound like the focus you need for your specific goals? Be sure to do your research and ask questions.

What Makes a Good Marketing Consultant?

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I spent over thirty years of my life as an advertising consultant and I must say it’s been an amazing experience. I’ve met terrific businesses, people, and made many friends. But the single most reward was the knowledge I gained from all their stories. These interactions made me a better consultant as I was able to pass this insight onto my clients. Yet, this alone, did not make me a good consultant. Rather, it was my attitude toward the customer.

Sure, I did the usual job of researching the business, asking all the: who, what, where, why, and how questions that were expected of someone delving into their background. I also uncovered all the features and benefits of the product or service, Above all that, I had a goal of actually helping the client succeed. This simple plan is the basis for everything that was to follow. It’s not as obvious as it appears.

A consultant is in business to make money. They get paid for their time, talent, and expertise. They are sought out as a physician might be to cure an ailing relative. They provide solutions to problems and long-term treatments. But they can also be greedy. It’s like the mechanic asked to fix a car that manages to also find ten other troubles that you never noticed or probably don’t need attended. The best consultant is one that listens to the client and makes recommendations based upon their current or future needs.

It didn’t take long in my early days to realize how much my clients relied on my input and how I could affect their bottom line. I also realized that we were forming a partnership where they and I could benefit from calculated and well-informed decisions. In some cases, it meant quite a lot of trial and error. I would explain that advertising and marketing was not a science or an art. Instead, it was a series of exercises using past historical examples and case studies that may or may not predict the future results.

Once the client understood the risks, as if they were investing in the stock market, we were both in agreement. I would have them establish a realistic budget, explain ROI, or return on investment procedures, and a reasonable timeline, If they were comfortable with the risk versus return, we could move forward. I also gave them an escape route. If, at any time, a change in business or a change, in their own mind, dictated a new path, I would carefully evaluate their concerns. They were the ones paying the bill and it was their business at stake.

It might be tempting for a novice to extract a large sum from an unwitting business person, but, in the long run, they are hurting themselves. A good consultant will always make money the old-fashioned way: providing excellent customer service. They don’t need to gouge or overcharge. They should always have the best interest of the business first and foremost, forming a partnership and hopefully, a friendship that will prove their value and worth. Payment is a bonus

Achieving Supply Chain Fluidity Through Supply Chain Consultants

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A supply chain is the system that delivers a product or service from the manufacturer to the consumer. The system includes organizations, people, resources, and processes in order to achieve its goals. These chains can be simple in theory but are almost always highly complex in practice due to the numerous moving parts. Even in small supply chains, total synchronicity is unrealistic, so real-word systems require modeling that integrates flexibility, fail-safes and efficient redundancies.

Stuck in a Loop

In a perfect business world, a company operates via a closed supply loop that is versatile, financially efficient, and environmentally friendly. Most chains, however, are not optimal. There are often built-in inefficiencies or inadequacies that have emerged due to changes in the market or business infrastructure. The remedies for such defects are often simple in theory, but the practical execution of those necessary changes is often a logistical nightmare. This is what is known as being stuck in a supply chain loop, since there is no simple way to make even a minor change without throwing a wrench into the works.

Specialized Consultants

Supply chain consultants specialize in supply chains. They can design them, but they can also find ways to fix and upgrade them while ensuring that the wheels of productivity never stop spinning. Ideally, every business would have a specialist on staff, but the reality for most small businesses is that they cannot afford in-house consultants.

Seeking Assistance

When it comes to supply chain problems, the biggest issues that most small business have are, first, recognizing that there is a correctable problem and, second, being willing to reach out for assistance. In order to overcome the first problem, a business should perform a yearly reassessment. If the business is not able to perform this assessment in house, then it should hire a consultant. It can be very beneficial to have the same consultant or consulting firm perform the yearly assessment and be directly involved in the repairing and upgrading of the chain.

Conclusion

Businesses can often have difficulty assessing and correcting their supply chains because they are a part of the system. This often leads to an objective perspective that is too narrow. Supply chain consultants, on the other hand, are more easily able to see the big picture. They also have the advantage of familiarity with other similar chains. They know what works and what doesn’t, and they are able to achieve efficiency without the trial and error that hamstrings so many small businesses.

Best IT Recruitment Consultant

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IT is an extensive filed and it revolves around different areas with the most common being hardware engineering, IT training, IT sales, mobile engineering, system management and also network administration among others. People train under these areas with the intention of becoming professionals. Firms relying on IT are also constantly looking for employees hence the field has offered careers for many.

One of the simplest ways of making sure that you get the right job in relation to the area of IT study you have is by choosing a recruitment consultant. The consultants are numerous today and you will definitely find a firm that will help you in finding the right job and position for your expertise. The consultants also help employees find the right people for the jobs they have open and it has therefore become easy to fill gaps within organizations.

The best IT recruitment consultant will not only help you find a job, but will also make sure that it is the right one for your area and also that the salary is rewarding as it should be. The main objective should not be to just get you a job but to get you one that satisfies all your needs and keeps you looking forward to the next day of work. This means therefore that even the working environment that you are exposed to needs to be a motivation for you.

When recruiting job seekers for your company, a good consultant will ensure that he gets you well trained and qualified people for the job so that you meet with all organizational needs that you could be faced with. Only well trained professional can meet with your needs and hence you will need to ensure that you settle for a recruitment consultant that has your best interests at heart. The recruitment experience that the consultant has will determine how well he manages to get you the right people.

The consultant should also be in a position to find you the right people for the job within a short period of time. This is because with a good reputation in the market, he should have people ready and waiting for the positions to pop up thus easily meeting with the needs of companies looking for IT specialists in the different areas. It is important that you take the time in choosing the best IT recruitment consultant to keep frustrations at bay.

Business Consulting – How to Use a Business Consultant to Facilitate Competence Motivation

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Many in the business consulting world have found that competence motivation involves a concern with mastery. Research in the organizational setting has revealed that employee engagement and willingness to exert effort on job-related performance tasks can be enhanced by social motives, such as the desire to work with friends and peers, to please their supervisor and to please their family.

When you were being raised you hopefully received praise from your parents, teachers, friends, and peers, and you felt competent, worthwhile, and good about yourself. What motivates you possibly is when individuals who know you best tell me you am not capable of doing a task, which in turn makes you want to prove them wrong.

As an example, and one which many consultants who focus on business consulting face routinely is when a person moves to another state, say California, and as the desire to start their own clothing boutique. One of the main areas the prospective entrepreneur or faces is dealing with competence motivation, that is, motivating themselves to learn the skills needed to achieve business success.

Their family, mother and close friends may not support the idea and said they would fail. They ignored their family and friends negative outlook and proceeded to use their education and put it to good use. Not only was the business a success, they continued on to open two more boutiques, which totaled to three beach city locations. It was not until they were a success that their family and close friends said they were proud of them.

In business consulting, consultants routinely assist business owners with not only forming strategic plans and goals, but also creating the mindset needed to achieve them.

If you are out to increase the effectiveness of your online exposure and attract prospective online customers, you owe it to yourself and the financial future of your business to learn everything you can about effectively using a business consultant to facilitate company growth and competence motivation.

Do you want to increase the effectiveness of your online marketing techniques to dramatically grow your bottom line?

If so, read about and download my new free ebook How A Business Consultant Can Increase Your Marketing Effectiveness.

Consulting Case Interview Preparation Guide Part 1

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In general, case interview is very common in interviews with consulting companies, interviewer will measure a candidate’s attitude toward risk and comprehensive logical analysis ability with some cases, to see whether a candidate is flexible and can adapt quickly.

There are two stages of case interview: preparative stage and formal case interview stage. During the preparative stage, you may need to introduce yourself. Then answer the interviewer’s question about your resume and some broadly issues about personal considerations.

The next stage is a formal case interview. Case interview is to draw a conclusion about some business issues with analysis. Unlike other kinds of interviews, case interview is an interactive process. You will get some business issues from the interviewer and are required to provide an analysis and advice on these issues. Your task is to put forward some logical questions to the interviewer in order that you could have more comprehensive and detailed realization on these issues, and finally give a conclusion through systematic analysis.

Please keep in mind there are not absolutely correct answers in case interview, interviewer concerned about your analytical ability and creativity exhibited during the interview, but not the answer.

Purpose of case interview

Consultant will spend lots of time with their clients and colleagues for the purpose of intercommunion, and they were required to have some special qualities in order to succeed in consulting projects. These qualities include: ability to remain calm under pressure, ability to quickly established an assumption according to the details of projects, and make a conclusion depend on strong logical analysis capability and so on. Therefore, the cases interview which highly interactive and tight bounds for practical as well as strong requirement analysis skill would let interviewer evaluate the qualities of candidates effectively.

Which qualities are crucial in case interview?

Leadership

Consultant must be able to work independently and lead a focused team to achieve common goals. Therefore, the leadership is very important to a consultant. During the case interview, you need to grasp the initiative and ask target questions confidently in order to embody your leadership potential.

Analysis ability

Analysis is the core competency in consulting industry. In case interview, your task is to put forward assumption depending on the facts, understanding the meaning of the data, and then form a set of analytical framework, reached the conclusions and recommendations finally. During the case interview, you need to put effective and purpose questions in order to embody your analysis ability.

Expression ability

Once the consultant has carried out a detailed project analysis as well as work out best strategy, he need to demonstrate the solutions and recommend it to the consulting team and discuss it with clients. Therefore, the ability of expression is also very crucial to a consultant. For this reason, in case interview you should always spend some time think before speak, would rather to slow down a bit than stammer.

Energetic

Consulting firms want their consultant still energetic enough when them appearance before customers even after 12 hours aircraft time. So give your interviewer a firm handshake, a genuine smile with self-confidence and clean appearance will leave the interviewer a good impression and get a good start in case interview.

Calm

In case interviews, sometimes the interviewer will deliberately create a very tense atmosphere, for example, ask constantly aggressive questions and always deny you. These does not mean that you have come a wrong way, In fact they want to inspect whether or not you could stay calm under pressure. You should know that when a consultant face to face with clients, it is very important quality of thinking deeply under pressure and resolve the problems calmly.

Types of case interviews

There are three general types of cases interview: guesstimates, business cases and brainteasers. Let’s discuss these in detail:

Guesstimates

These kinds of questions are always referred as market assessment, you need to estimate the size of a market even though the details are not available, such as: you may be asked to estimate the elevation of rocky mountain.

Same as the other case interviews, it is not very important to get a correct answer, but the method you decomposed a large-scale project into several small-scale projects and resolve each one respectively is really the most crucial, as well as you should have some common sense to answer these kinds of question.

Business cases

For business cases interviews, the most common case is that interviewer ask you how to analyze an project according to the description of project background such as market entry, profit decline, industry analysis, sales decline and so on. The interviewer always doesn’t provide you enough detailed information, so you need to keep on asking targeted questions in order to get more useful information.

Brainteasers

Brainteasers are often very hard and very tricky questions that include mystery question and numerical estimates question. The purpose of these questions is to inspect your creativity and ability to analyze and resolve issues under pressure.

In general, case interview will include either a long time business case, or two short time cases: almost inevitably one should be guesstimates and the other one might be brainteasers or a short time business cases.