I congratulate you on being able to reduce the average time it takes to be a successful consultant by doing some work during college and building a strong case for your experience by getting provable results, a strong network of contacts, and working with other professionals to expand your offerings. But I really think that your experiences are the exceptions that prove the rule for the most part when it comes to traditional business consulting and it would be a mistake for most people to assume otherwise. On the other hand, you bring up an interesting point regarding new marketing channels (e.g., the internet) and the fact that few, if any consultants, have a depth of experience with such a new channel. Back in 1984, when I started a significant telemarketing operation for a B2B software start up, I was told that it had never been done and would not work. When I grew that company to $30 million plus, it had only been three years and I suspect that I would have been in quite a bit of demand had I wanted to go into business consulting. Nowadays, of course, it is old hat.
I will give you two examples of individuals that took over their niche by brand awareness and now can ask the price they want for their services simply because it is now like getting the brand name over the generic: Jon Olsen, Known as the "Traffic Exchange Guy": http://www.hitexchange101.com/consulting.html He actually has to limit the items he sells to two a month, and there is one item over 1,500!!! Sean Lowery, see all those cool marketing pages with awesome graphics? This guy is responsible behind many of them and is a name passed around by the pro's: http://www.minisitegraphics.com/mini-site-design.html $290 a pop for a professional site design that will be recognized and excepted by the pro's! THIS is the power of branding, it takes time, patience, and dedication in your online marketing strategies. This is the kinda stuff you CAN'T learn in school, but instead you simply have to see it work in real life and in turn make it work for yourself.
This was the stuff I was talking about! Thanks for the links (It gives me some hope). I've also just got another idea for my new site!
It really depends on how great you are... but the thing is how can you get his "TRUST". For me start charge lower after you have the results and the site has continually covert. Afterwards you can start to ask higher to your clients because you have ready the results and totally proved...
See you don't have to charge anything. Not at first, your going about it the wrong way if the first thing your thinking about is making money. Instead focus on establishing yourself. Mcdonalds didn't offer a lower price then they offer now, they simply offered great service and established themselves. Kind of a "make it and they will come" deal. The trick is to become a go to guy, I recently had someone contact me about helping them build a marketing campaign for their business. They said they contacted me solely because of some posts I had made in a forum! Work on providing evidence that you are, and you will be.
Haha.. sounds similar to me! Mind telling me which part of the world you are? Let's blame the educational system which did not allow us to actually understand what we're up to before we choose a course A little bit of advice (and also a reminder to myself), when you're doing 2 totally different things at one time, you really need to have a very good focus & enthusiasm on either one of it. Or else, u just fail to grab both. So if you're thinking of doing this, make sure you didn't forget about ur study (no matter how you hate it). And anyway, launching a consultancy company isn't that easy, at one point or another, you'll need to fall back on something to help you (especially in funding). Even if you have the passion on the subject, you'll bound to give up or just let go when things are just too difficult. That's where you'll need to divert your attention for a while to the other thing. It's actually a good thing that you're trying different things (bravo!) 'coz not many people can do that. But not many can succeed in both either. Like someone (a tennis player) said, "If you want to be a pro, choose one game. If you're involve in 2 different things, you'll be amateur in both forever" - something like that la.. i only remember the gist hahahahah
I'm actually from Canada lol, does demography matter? Thanks for the advice, I must agree you can only concentrate on one or the other. I have a problem from concentrating on one for a long period of time (neglecting the other) and then switching up my focus again.. it's really hard to balance both. BTW: haha good quote, who's it from I love tennis!!
Hey John! Thanks as well! I've been trying to remember Sean Lowery's name and site for like a week already. Trying to google but cannot quite get to the right place There's too many Sean out there! Have to agree with you. Branding is important. And that you can start looking for a private label e-books at the link I gave you (talking to 8everything), customize it to be yours and give out as FREE so that it'll viralling spread as YOUR BRAND. Remember, private label, not resell right. Or else you'll be promoting other people's brand You can also start using the same ID for every forum you join, so the world recognize you as the ID anywhere they found you. Like me, I started using this ID a few years back and stick to it. Unique enough not to be stolen by anybody (OK, I really NEED to get that domain now that I've said it out loud) And keep on posting advices (not only questions), shares any small thing you have in mind here. It's also a way to introduce yourself to the world. I can't wait for the 7th day, need that SIGNATURE so much! *hint*.