How many different kinds of local business consultants are there?

From what I’ve read…

– lead generation
– marketing(which I guess can be broken down into social media, offline… etc)

Is there a such thing as business process consulting?

Related Articles

I took the strengthfinder test and I think the main 4 strengths it determined are very correct

1) Restorative> Find problems and fix them(SIX Sigma as an example
2) Analytical- self explanatory
3) Deliberative(lots of planning that pays off)

The last one was competitive which I think is true too(If i’m not winning I’m not having fun)

Does such a thing exist for consulting? I’d imagine I would have plenty of fun tearing apart of the lame systems or lack thereof of many small businesses.

Making them more efficient and saving the manager time in the process.

This idea just appeared to me btw…

To start off I’m going to do lead generation(many businesses websites are “ok”)

But for later, i’m definitely curious

You can consult on just about anything. And I found that once I got started and proved myself to the client, I ended up helping in many different ways.

First, I would caution you against thinking of any business owner’s systems as “lame” or a total lack of systems. Here is why:

I used to think the same way. But I can promise you that if they have more than 5 employees, they are not total idiots. If they have been in business more than 5 years, they are more intelligent than you may suspect. And if they hire you, as you go along, you will discover things are in place that will surprise you. You will find they have knowledge and reasons that you did not suspect.

This discovery will completely expose you. All of your assumptions will be based on your previous thought that there are no systems. When you are learning what is really happening in their business, and discover that they have more in place than you thought – it will be very obvious to everyone involved that you thought you knew it all and you were wrong.

It will be very obvious that you thought they were not good at running their business. At this point you can kiss the trust goodbye. Your contract with them is very likely to end soon after this enlightenment. Just trust me on this. You will not be able to avoid this happening if your mindset includes the word “lame” when thinking about your clients business.

I would encourage you to think of it another way. Not trying to bust your balls here – but have you ever built a business? Have you ever generated more than $500k in one year? Or a million? I am assuming this is the size business you will start with.

If you have not done what they have, you need to approach with a good degree of humility – they have done something you have not. If they have been running their business more than 5 years, they have made it through some very significant challenges that you have not experienced. Be sure to have great respect and admiration for these people. They are the backbone of any economy and have accomplished something most people only dream about, including you.

Yes, maybe you know something they do not – but they also know many things you do not. So look at this as an opportunity to help someone who has already accomplished something great in their life and is very much worthy of your respect. I have made many friends and landed plenty of referrals this way.

If I were you, I would pick a specific business niche that you already understand fairly well, and begin helping with issues facing them. Your first few clients, charge a fair price but keep it low. After all – in reality you have no idea what you are doing. You will be doing lots of testing and refining with their money. It is not as if you are implementing a proven system in their business.

Document everything very well and create a system from it – then target other businesses in the same niche.

For example, I had a manufacturing client. I knew very little about manufacturing when they hired me. I still do not. But, I was able to work closely with them for a price they could easily afford. We examined every system. I created diagrams analyzing the workflow from sales to delivery. Diagrams analyzing the client flow from first contact, to order placement, to invoicing and collection. We examined their production workflow from raw materials to finished product. We identified points in the process that were slowing things down, causing a bad customer experience, or hurting profits. We then fixed those things.

We identified a few opportunities for products they could advertise for a decent return. I then created product mock-ups, ads for catalogs, tested a PPC campaign, worked with the sales team to contact past clients etc…etc…etc. I was a general marketing consultant.

At the end of this process of streamlining processes and launching new offerings – I had a system. I then contacted other manufacturing clients and charged them more money because I had a proven system which increased profitability and customer experience by a large degree. I landed two clients directly from this manufacturer. We had worked so closely and had so many lunches that we know each other well to this day. The owner’s mother died and I found out where the service was and sent a large bouquet and make a donation to their favorite charity in their mother’s name.

Take the attitude that these people are very valuable to you – because they are. There can be a much larger exchange of value than just them paying you money to do some work.

Over the course of the next 3 years – I worked with more small manufacturers in similar businesses. Some were not even in my local area. I charged somewhere between $1500 – $3000 per month each. It took less and less time because I already had much of the system worked out. By the 3rd or 4th client, I had added a lot more great content.

Now – this was me just doing the work myself for the most part. I did hire freelancers for the very boring or easy tasks like copying old customer files into the CRM I helped them setup.

Since you want to start in lead-gen, I would focus very heavily on businesses that are thirsty for leads. Any business involved in direct sales fits here. Roofers, insurance, real estate (very, very crowded), brokers of all kinds, banks, cleaning companies – and many others. Create your first lead-gen system, then begin selling the same system as a service to businesses in various geographic areas.

Since you have no experience in this, I would approach the first client very honestly. Do not act like you know everything or you will eventually be exposed. Instead, be someone who wants to do a certain kind of work, has studied it for a while, and will figure out the things they have not had time to work on. It is an easy sell. If you get appointments with 10 local businesses and make this offer to them, you will definitely land your first client.

Do not worry about what you are paid at first. Just get a client and kick ass for them. You can raise your rates for future clients.

Most important of all – do not keep track of how much time you spend at first. They are taking a gamble on you. Work your face off for them. Deliver in a major way. Be the best investment they ever made. Even if they are giving you $250/mo – screw it – work full-time to give them value. Even if you do it on spec with some sort of pay based on results – do whatever you have to do to land those first clients. Then – your job is to not suck.

You have no other clients so really come through for them. You aren’t an employee, you are starting a business so forget hourly value. Build equity in yourself, your knowledge, your results, and your reputation. You can raise your rates and more effectively structure your time later after you actually have a business.

You want to sell lead gen (inbound) but your top 2 ideas to generate business are cold calling and networking (outbound). Followed by direct mail which is quite a process and has a large expense.

If you know how to do lead gen, you need to eat your own dog food and do lead gen for yourself.

Watch the next 10 minutes of this video for great B2B advice. You are planning to sell B2B. Accountants are B2B service providers. You should be doing the exact same things to generate your leads as you will be for them.

https://youtu.be/DPbOjZsC_hc?t=13m50s

You should definitely be creating videos and advertisements and running them on FB targeting your audience. This is so easy to do.

If you create educational content that actually helps them you will have more client meetings than you can handle.

If you know how to generate leads for accountants – start teaching them how it works! Literally give away your info. Just tell them how to do it themselves. They will not use it anyway.

Accountants don’t want to be marketers. If you can show them how it works, they will want to hire you.

Using FB lead ads and carousel ads is dead simple. You don’t even need a landing page. They click “Learn More” and FB actually sends you their info directly. Then they can watch the video or tutorial you made for them.

Do it now – come up with a very simple marketing plan to lead gen for accountants.

Make a simple short video telling exactly how the marketing plan works.

embed the video on a webpage somewhere.

Run FB ads with the first 30 seconds of the video. Use captions so the accountants can read along.

Set the campaign up as a Lead Ad. This means no forms for them to fill out. They click learn more and FB sends you their info. After they click learn more they go to the video.

Target small business owners and accountants with this ad. “Accountants – Watch how Facebook can bring you a TON of new clients” or something similar. I am no copywriter. Honestly, these captioned video ads are so powerful the headline above is good enough.

This WILL get you clients once you get it figured out and get your target audiences built.

https://www.facebook.com/business/help/community/question/?i…

The cool thing about video ads, is FB creates a custom audience including everyone who watched it. So even if they don’t click the learn more button and send you their info – they have just told you that they are an accountant by watching the video! Amazing power here.

Your future campaigns – you target that custom audience with more and more helpful info. They will see you as a guru. They will want to hire you before you even know their name.

Most important, don’t hide behind the internet. Let them see you. Tell your real name. Talk to them as if you were meeting in person. Most of your job will be done before you even meet.

The post Becoming a Local Business Consultant appeared first on Filmmaking Lifestyle.