In the past most small business owners never thought they could afford to hire a consultant. Today the Internet is totally changing that. When you look at answering the question, who needs consulting for small business, the answer is really everyone does. Here’s what we mean by that.
Usually the best potential customer for consulting is the one who does not think he needs it. There are business owners who are out there doing it all to build a successful business around that philosophy.
They may have branched out on their own years ago and today are one of the most successful small business owners in their community. People go to them because they have been doing it for as long as they can remember.
The problem with this type of philosophy is even in a small rural community there are people who do not know who you are. There are potential customers living in other communities who have not used you in the past.
This type of business really does need consulting, because the chances are very good they are not properly utilizing the Internet. As a matter fact most of them may not be utilizing the Internet at all.
There is a pretty good chance that they do not have a website, or the website that they have is poorly designed. It may look flashy and present itself, well, but is it really doing the job from a search engine standpoint.
A small business consultant who understands Internet marketing can help even the most established business. One of the first things they can do is target longtail keyword phrases designed to help an established business develop an online presence.
People search the Internet today using longer phrases. For example, if you have a landscaping company in McCook, Nebraska, a sharp small business consultant can help you put together a marketing campaign to target phrases such as McCook Nebraska landscaping company, landscaping company in southwest Nebraska, and so on.
The business owner who has always done it all by himself is not going to be able to do this. Even if they have the time, they probably do not have the knowledge and could use some help from a consultant.
One other key thing consulting for small business must entail it is list building. Every small business owner needs to quickly be able to access a list of their customers and contact them for various reasons. Today this is done via an autoresponder and most business owners do not know how to set those up and properly utilize them.
When adults ask children in elementary school what they want to be when they grow up, the answers usually vary between doctor, ballerina, police officer, vet or all the above. When asked the question again in middle school, the answers are usually a little more refined but when people ask high school students what they want to be when they grow up and where they are going to college, the answer is a big deal. As a student, what you respond to that adult sticks with you, you start to think you are tied to that college even though you only told Aunt Sally that you wished to get into Stanford. The search for finding the right college can seem like a monumental task that will affect every day of your life, but it will be OK. If you do your research correctly and thoroughly and apply yourself during school, there is no reason you should not succeed, but back to the searching. If you feel that searching through the million colleges just in the US is too much for you, then hiring a college consultant may be the best route.
What Do College Consultants Provide?
Many college consulting companies offer a number of packages. These packages are not limited to the graduating senior. There are often packages that pertain to the middle school student. These packages include a focus on bolstering a strong vocabulary, a look at what needs to be done between that time and college application time, and looking for athletic, volunteer, and summer activities that will improve a college resume. Packages pertaining to high school level students can be broken down to freshman/sophomore packages and junior/senior packages. Freshman/sophomore packages offer a chance for the student to begin looking at colleges and areas of study. This is in no way a concrete decision but instead gives the student an opportunity to change their mind and a chance to look at all of their options. This way, when the student makes their final decision, they know they have looked at all other possibilities and are satisfied with the path they choose. They will also receive consultation that will help them start a good resume, prepare for the SAT/ACT, create a list of awards received throughout high school, and look for positive summer jobs and opportunities. The junior/senior packages highlight certain tasks that students should focus on at certain times to insure that they are not overwhelmed by the entire process all at once. They will receive help with their college applications, resumes, essays, and much more as well.
But Wait… There’s More
Many college Consulting companies also offer help with finding the best college for a student-athlete and attain the student’s dream of playing their sport collegiately. Consultants help the student-athlete find camps that will increase exposure, create letters to send to colleges, and anything that needs to be done to assure academic and athletic success for a student during their years in college.
The benefits of hiring a college consultant may never be known to you as a student or your child because you did not look beyond the box or were not able too. College consultants insure that you explore all possibilities for your college education.
Your company needs to run as efficiently as possible. Depending upon the industry of your business, this may ensure that you maintain happy customers, reduce the amount of unhappy clients and even make more profits. IT consulting can improve efficiency in a number of ways. By taking advantage of consulting, you can boost efficiency and productivity in order to see greater profits.
Learn About Phone Solutions
Without IT consulting, you may be going about your business the way that you always have. Technology is improving rapidly and you could be missing out on a number of features that can improve the way your business runs. When you look at how efficiently you are handling calls, there may be significant room for improvement.
Phone solutions come in the form of a hosted phone system. Ultimately this means that a computer is programmed to answer the calls. A caller will be given a recoding and be prompted to choose the department that he or she needs to speak with. The computer then transfers the person. If you currently have a front desk person doing this, it can be automated, thus saving you money and allowing you to handle all incoming calls more efficiently.
While customers may not like receiving a phone message when they first call, they will like that it will ultimately take less time to talk to a real person. They won’t be set on hold if you manage the phones correctly and this is again where IT consulting can help you.
Email Solutions
IT consulting can also assist you with your email. If you have email for all of your employees, you may not thing that you need a consultant to help you. If you don’t have email for all of your employees, a consultant can show you the benefits. Regardless of what situation describes yours, you can work with a consultant to learn about all of the options that can help your business run more efficiently.
For example, you may need to offer a way for your employees to check their email through a mobile device. By doing this, you stay in better connection with your employees.
A Better Website
If you’re smart, you already have a website for your business. However, it may not be enough. Through IT consulting, you are going to learn how it needs to be improved. It may not have enough features to provide your customers with what they need. There may also be features lacking in the back-end that can make it easier for your employees to process orders and get orders out the door to customers faster.
A good website is going to bring in a lot of traffic, give customers what they want and simplify the work load of your employees. When you work with an IT consultant, they can tell you what your website is lacking and provide you with the web development to be able to fix it.
With so many ways for IT consulting to help you, it’s important to use them to boost your company’s efficiency.
Formed in 1997 and located in Houston, Dallas and Austin Texas and in Dubai, ERGOS is an IT solutions provider that stays ahead of the curve, providing innovative IT services. We provide our clients the kind of service that we would want. ERGOS provides managed IT services, IT infrastructure, Cloud IT and business solutions that Power Your Business and empower your work force. Our three technology divisions, Managed IT Services, Cloud IT Solutions and Business Solutions (Web Hosting and Development, Search Engine Optimization, Business Process Analysis) will address all your IT needs.
Information technology is something that every business uses in the day-to-day work that they do. Whether it is keeping in touch with clients and associates or marketing their services, business owners rely on IT for many reasons, and therefore hiring the help of an IT expert is often of great value.
This is also true of start-ups, which can sometimes struggle to know exactly what they need in regards to an IT service or which technology and software can help them in their endeavours. With this in mind, here are some of the main areas that an IT consulting company can help any new business get off to a good start in.
As mentioned above, it can be difficult for new businesses to know where to start when it comes to implementing IT solutions in their fledging company. For this reason, hiring an independent IT expert can help a great deal in installing this essential infrastructure that will pave the way for business success.
Some of the services that an IT consulting company can provide include advising on cloud computing solutions, network installations, software and hardware choices, as well as delivering remote and on-site IT support and carrying out computer repairs.
Having this expert perspective on what exactly is needed is valuable for any company, but especially for start-ups as they attempt to establish themselves in their chosen field or industry. This alone can be a very compelling reason to hire the help of an IT professional for an initial assessment and tailored advice.
The second point that needs to be made is that hiring an independent IT specialist can often provide excellent value for money to starter businesses, as they will not be paying out for in-house technical support instead. Indeed, the cost savings that can be made are one of the main reasons that any business hires an IT consulting company instead of employing an in-house specialist.
Furthermore, many IT consultants will tailor their services and packages to suit the businesses that they are working with. If they are working with a large business with a very large requirement of support, this can be done for a higher price rather than a smaller budget. For small and new businesses, packages of services can be tailored accordingly.
This can mean that IT solutions are available within smaller budgets and without unnecessary extraneous services or the need to hire extra staff. This can have many financial and practical benefits for any start-up.
One of the major benefits of hiring a IT consulting company to help get a new business running smoothly is that having a professional on hand to help solve difficulties and issues can mean that any technical problems will not cause potentially disastrous downtime for the business in question.
Whereas this is true for large and well established businesses as well as new and smaller companies, technical issues can be potentially devastating for a fledgling enterprise that is trying to make its mark in a saturated global economy.
Issues with internet connectivity, software issues and systems failures can all derail a small and new business that is trying to establish itself, and having IT experts on hand to help overcome these issues can make a huge positive difference for start-ups. With specialists just a phone call away, potentially disastrous problems can simply become minor hiccups.
These are just a few of the ways that an IT consulting company can help a start-up company. From advising the new enterprise on the best IT practices and tools to implement to helping overcome technical difficulties without any major problems, there are many great reasons why this kind of service can be valuable for any company that is just starting out.