Half a Dozen Things a Small Business Consultant Could Do for Your Business

You want to succeed in business, especially online. All entrepreneurs who are paying attention to the potential that exists on the internet do. Is it worthwhile to invest in a small business consultant who will help you? Read on for five areas you might hire a consultancy firm to help you succeed in: #1 SEO Search engine optimisation is vital for any business wanting to succeed online. A consultant can help you learn what search engines are looking for when they categorise companies for highly searched terms. You could quickly move ahead of your competition in terms of search engine rankings and this equates to targeted traffic landing on your website. In many cases, that traffic is ready to make a buying decision and your position being ahead of competition could help you get that sale. #2 Process Improvements Another area many consultants are well versed in is in streamlining processes. A skilled consultant has a wealth of business experience that puts him or her in a position to help you see areas where you could reduce redundancies via process automation. Very often an outside source can see areas for improvement and you could see results in a matter of weeks. Process improvement doesn't even need to be extensive to make a difference. You might be surprised with advice given by an experienced professional. Sometimes a few minor tweaks can make a major difference. #3 Missed Opportunities Business owners who run their business like a well-oiled machine may not see potential growth opportunities. They often get caught up in the existing setup. A small business consultant may see quite a few areas that you could delve into. Whether this is in new areas, complimentary products, or getting more business from existing customers, it can all equate to more profit for you. A great part of a growth strategy is to expand on your existing customer base and strengths and a consultancy firm can show you how to do that. #4 Competitive Analyses Analysing competition is something that can help you make wise business decisions. You may not know how easy it can be to actually do this --- especially with the internet. A consultancy firm can help you do this in a way that helps you gather market intelligence that will enable you to forge ahead and win more market share as well as prevent competition from wooing your customers to their side because they do things better than you do. Competitive analysis is essential in the 21st century! #5 Lead Generation Generating new business via leads is a great way to expand. Website visitors, for example, can be turned into a lead. Every single person who visits your website is a potential customer and you can be taught how to take maximum advantage of that. #6 Customer Retention Do you know why some customers jump ship and find someone else to do business with? Your small business consultant can help you market more effectively to new customers but he or she can also help you retain loyalty of your existing customers through relationship management techniques that can help substantially. However you run your business today and however you plan to grow in the future, you can get coaching, business advice and mentoring to help you reach the next level of success. A trustworthy advisor could make a huge difference. Why do it alone when a specialist could help you achieve your goals faster without costing you more time that you don't have. The results could provide a huge return on investment.

Low Cost Marketing - How to increase sales

Many businesses are asking for help and business advice on how to improve sales and gain more customers. For most businesses at the moment it is about finding low cost and cost effective solutions to marketing their products and services. Some have told me that they have been talking to marketing and advertising agencies and finding that everything is possible at a price, a new logo or a new design for your brochure, you need to advertise, update your web site, you need to do a direct mail campaign etc etc. Does this sound familiar? And are you confident that all this will deliver a return for you? Marketing has changed. You don’t need to spend large sums of money in the hope that someone will see your message and more importantly act on your message- think about it- how many adverts do you respond to? When was the last time you rang the number on a glossy sales letter that came through the post? Wouldn’t it be great if you could get your product in front of a customer right at the time that they want to buy? This is where skilful use of the internet comes into use. This isn’t hard to do and doesn’t cost. All you need to do is to think a little creatively, with some simple steps: 1. How are my potential customers going to be looking for what I provide? 2. What messages will they want to see? Write an article about your product or service. Make it interesting to the reader and include keywords and phrases that you have considered in step 1 above. The use of keyword phrasing will be more beneficial. This is because as you have probably found that single and double word keywords are very competitive in search engine rankings. Once you have written your article you then need to get it published on the internet. There are many free Press Release web sites that allow you to easily submit your own articles. By following these two steps you could suddenly find that you are gaining the sales and new customers you want, all at very little cost. Does this work – Yes! Not so long ago I submitted an article through this web site and others for one of my clients, entitled ‘Got a problem floor.’ Within days the keywords ‘problem floor’ on Google came up with my article as the number one search and not surprising inquiries and sales for my client. The article has now dropped in ranking, but by continuing with fresh articles you can maintain an internet search presence that appears when your customers are looking to buy what you sell.