You may not realize it but you might have the potential to become a business consultant. You don’t believe me? Search within yourself. What is the thing you are most passionate about? What is that thing that you do best? Once you have determined what that is, ask whether there are people who might need some assistance in that area.

The next question is, can you help them? Of course, you can! You are an expert on it! So why not do it as a business? Earn money helping others with something you know and do best - and that is business consulting. You can start small. Do it in the comfort of your home as a freelance consultant. There are a lot of organizations and executives out there who are in need of expert consultants. Believe me, with a little fine tuning, you can become a high-paid advisor.

So what do you need to do? Follow these steps:

First, you have to determine your area of expertise first. Are you an accountant? Do you have the required certification to claim that you are an expert in your field? If you don’t, you must secure that first. An expert without credentials is just another person next-door, who has the ambition to be an expert. People believe in the written word, so you have to have that. However, there are also professions or areas of expertise that doesn’t require certificates like fund-raising consultants. Expertise in this area only needs experience. However, you have to have vast experience in the field you are planning to advise on.

Second, your office. Since you are starting small, your first office can be your bedroom, or your study room, if you have one. All you need is a table and chair, an internet connection and a telephone line, and voila! You are almost ready to start your consulting business. Almost, because you have to understand that though you are starting small, of course, you are also looking to becoming big someday. So you have to be organized. Consultants are advising on management and that includes time and things management. You have to practice what you are advising.

Third, set your goals and limitations. Why limitations? You are only starting your business, so don’t shoot stars. Set your goals to a realizable scale or level. Do not target too many clients and end up failing with your commitments. So be realistic. Do not bite off more than you can chew. Maintain your clientele to a manageable number.

Fourth, develop and make a record of your plan. You need to have a tangible reminder of the path you are taking so you would not go astray. It’s easy to get distracted and side-tracked from your goals. So it’s best to have it formally written down and give it a professional feel. This way, you can also have something to show possible clients, proving that you are serious in your business.

Fifth, create your lesson plans. Of course, before you can advise, train, or teach, you have to have a lesson plan. You have to know what you are going to tell your clients. Write it on your own. Think of all the possible weakness people might have in your chosen field. Focus and write about that. If you don’t know how to start it, begin with the definition of your profession and everything else would follow. The field you are going to write about is your forte, so things should flow easily once you have begun.

Done with the five simple steps? Now, you’re ready to call and propose to prospective clients!

Image via WikipediaThe late great copywriter, Gary Halbert, said that his competitive advantage is a “hungry market.” It almost doesn’t matter what type of product or service you market, if you can get your offer in front of the right group of people, you will make sales. This “group of people” was referred to by marketing people as the “herd.” Get in front of a hungry herd and you will be rich.

In the last couple of years, marketing to the herd lost it’s appeal; not because it doesn’t work, but because the term is no longer acceptable given the rise of political correctness. Who wants to be known as a part of a herd? It sounds like rancher talk. The proper term to use in today’s marketing world is “tribe.” Now they say that you should market to the tribe. Whereas “herd” implies livestock, “tribe” implies people.

Aside from the change in terminology, there is something else going on. I think that we as marketers are digging deeper into the hungry market. Consider the auto market as an example. Marketing to people who prefer European cars is a good segment. However, it is still a little too broad to craft a laser target sales message. After all, European cars include Jaguars, Range Rovers, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Volvo, Rolls Royce, Bentley, and so on. The smart marketer would do well to pick a particular European brand to go after. I’ll say, “BMW.”

People who buy BMWs are part of the BMW tribe. They are attracted to the brand because it represents performance and luxury with an emphasis on performance. Compared to people in the Mercedes tribe, the emphasis is on luxury. So when we market to the BMW tribe, we know to emphasize driving experience above niceties.

The other characteristic of a tribe is that its members are loyal to the tribe. They see themselves as belonging to a unique club. They will defend their membership. Smart marketers can also use this mentality of exclusivity.

These are just some of the things to consider as the marketing world moves from herds to tribes.

Apart from size, the number one difference between a big business and a small business are systems. I’m talking about how-to guides that are documented and followed by most employees. More than that, these systems are so ingrained into the big company that it has essentially become intertwined with something known as company culture.

Don’t get me wrong. Small businesses follow systems too. However, many small businesses remain small because they have to reinvent their systems over and over again. In essence, they don’t have a system; at least not one that they can package and sell.

A number of years ago, I was worked for a very small business. My boss at the time asked me to complete a mini-assignment. I went to work on it and turned in my finished project in a flash. I was proud of myself for being speedy. In exchange, the trade-off that I made was that my finished project was not exactly reusable.

Wouldn’t you know it? My boss snapped at me and said, “We are a small business. The last thing we can afford is to rewrite code every time! Make your code reusable and document it in a binder so that you can step away.”

I was in my early twenties at the time, yet his words stuck with me to this day.

If a small business wants to become a big business one day, the small business owner would be wise to start writing down systems. The goal of every small business owner should be the ability to step away from his business and have it still hum along fine.

One more thing, if your business is even smaller than a small business, creating and following systems becomes even more important. This is because you need your systems documented in order to outsource. A really small business can only survive for so long with it’s owner doing everything. Eventually, as in, soon, the owner will crash and burn.

Don’t risk crashing and burning. Create systems, outsource, then grow to the next level.

f you are using the Internet as a marketing channel, then you must understand this allegory: “Paypal and 2Checkout are to Ebay and Amazon like NCR and VeriFone are to Walmart and Target.”

Just as most bricks and mortar merchants understand the cash register as the point of sale machine, most online merchants understand the importance of having a reliable online payment processor. If you are just starting out marketing online, Paypal is the easiest to setup. In addition, opening an account at Paypal is free.

Once you have a Paypal account, you can receive payments and make payments. Paypal allows you to transact via debit cards and via credit cards. Their fees are typically higher than you’d expect from a direct merchant account. However, some individuals and small businesses may not be ready to open a merchant account.

The other choice that you have for online payment processing that includes credit card processing is 2Checkout or 2CO. This company handles both physical and digital goods. 2Checkout handles one time payments and recurring payments. Their fee structure is comparable to Paypal. One main difference between the two companies is that 2Checkout is not as “fidgety” about sudden transaction volume as Paypal. For example, if you normally process 5-15 orders per day on Paypal and experience a surge to 300 orders per day, Paypal will shut your account down without warning. They do this because it is their way of protecting against fraud.

This presents a problem for your online business if Paypal were your only way to accept payments. 2Checkout, on the other hand, has a different fraud prevention system. They check for each transaction against fraud as they come in. As far as I know, they don’t shut you down without warning.

The other difference between Paypal and 2CO is that the later charges a $49.95 sign-up fee per account or website. If you sell your goods on multiple websites, this fee could add up. But there is good news on this front.

This coming Tuesday, May 6th, 2Checkout is allowing you sign-up for an account for free. You will save $49.95. If you have considered trying 2CO in the past but was deterred by their sign-up fee, here is your chance.

Go here to sign-up:

http://www.alextran.com/2checkout

Oh, by the way, 2Checkout also accepts Paypal.

When most folks think of sales and marketing, their minds envision someone who runs around peddling goods and services. You’ve seen the stereotype on TV, like the door-to-door salesman trying to convince housewives to buy his “Vacuum Deluxo-Rama.” This sales model works. I read a report that companies made $28B last year in door-to-door marketing. There is nothing as effective as selling a product face-to-face. . . Or is there?

The benefit of selling door-to-door is that the salesman can adjust his marketing message according to the cues that his prospect gives him. I don’t have exact numbers but I suspect that the response rate is about 10%-15% for a trained salesman. I based this number on my personal experience having sold door-to-door when I was a teenager. For the sake of simplicity, I’m using the word “him” to signify both he and she sellers. The reality is that most door-to-door marketers today are females selling MLM types of products.

If you compare the response rate of selling this way versus selling by email blasts (0%-0.3%) or direct mail (0-0.7%) or radio or TV (1%-10%), the peddler method wins hands down. But there are three major downsides — selling door-to-door or peddling has limited reach. A salesman can only knock on so many doors per day. The other downside is that this is an expensive marketing channel for the product owner. They have to pay a hefty commission to the salesman for each sale. Some product owners also cover the salesman’s expenses as part of the cost-of-sales. The third major downside is “cold-call burnout.” This is when the salesman cannot take another rejection. They simply cannot get out of bed in the morning anymore to knock on another door of a total stranger. Cold-call burnout also afflicts telemarketers. Imagine being mandated to make at least 50 cold-calls a day, only to be rejected by 49+ people. When this happens, the product owner needs to hire and train a new salesman.

Alas, there is a better way. Instead of peddling, where you are constantly chasing a prospect, you might want to consider have the prospect come to you. Yes, it is easier said than done. But consider this: How much did that last referral cost you in marketing dollars? How hard was it to close on that prospect? Not very hard at all, was it?

How do you get more prospects to call you? Besides building a network of referrals because you become know as the provider of quality products in your niche, you might consider how you established that reputation in the first place. Let’s get to the point: You built yourself up as the expert in your niche. Nowadays with the Internet, it is easier than ever to build yourself as the expert. When you get recognized as the expert, prospects will come to you. Even better, they will refer other prospects to you. Now isn’t that easier than being a peddler and chasing all the time? I thought so.

Instead of going door-to-door trying to sell the “Vacuum Deluxo-Rama”, seek to become the recognized expert in high-end vacuums, the ones used in fine hotels like Ramada. Seek to become the Oreck of the high-end vacuum niche. When you want an Oreck, you’ll have to call or go to his web site.

When you have poorly defined your contract with a business outsourcing company, the quality of the project may suffer severely.

There are many things you can do to verify the project maintains the expected quality when you are using a company other than yours. When you define the objectives for the project you want completed, they need to be defined clearly and everyone needs to acknowledge and sign off that they agree to them.

Double check your requirements and try not forget anything. Being too picky is better than not being specific enough. By forgetting certain things and not specifying them you are opening a door for poor work to be done.

When this happens, you cannot request it be changed and done a different way because it was not specified in the contract. What will happen, is that you will have to pay additional money to have things done the way you want because you didn’t properly specify your requirements in the contract.

One person should not write the specifications for the project. Projects need to be written by everyone who will be involved and affected by the project.

Many people can be affected by poor quality in a project such as your employees who are using the equipment. Remember that shareholders and stakeholders also have a vested interest that the money being spent on an outsourced project is spent well.

You don’t want to be out of a job because you were not clear about how the project needed to be done and now you have a completed project but it makes your customers very unhappy.

Image by joshdamon via FlickrWhen you decide upon business outsourcing for project needs it is important to verify who the people are who will be working in your business. You should verify the employees as you would your own.

If you run backgrounds tests on your employees, then you should do the same with an outsourcing business’s employees.

It will be hard for you to demand that outsourcing employees agree to a background check or a drug test.

What you can do is use only a company who will provide the proof to you the people are acceptable. You should get a name of every person who will be entering your business working on the project.

Sometimes when there are a lot of people entering the business from an outsourced company it can be confusing who is with the company and who is in the building without authorization.

Be sure you know each employee who works for the outsourced company and provide them with temporary badges to wear. This way, anyone who is not wearing one of the temporary badges can be questioned with reason.

Your employees have a right to feel safe at their place of work. You cannot bring in people who have dangerous backgrounds to work on an outsourced project for you.

You should verify all of the provided information and know every person who will be working on an outsourced project. All of these employees from the business outsourcing company should be properly introduced to your staff so everyone feels comfortable with the people walking through the halls.

Here are some reasons why you might consider outsourcing for your company. Even if you have a small company, you can save time and money by using smart outsourcing.If you are a growing company you might have many projects you need to complete for your expansion. If you are upgrading systems you might have projects you need to complete.

You might not have a staff that knows how to complete the project or your staff may not have enough people to complete the project in the time frame you would like it to be done.

Outsourcing is an excellent idea when you face these types of issues. An outsourcing company can come into your business and complete the project on your required deadline.

Another reason you might consider outsourcing is to save money. You might currently have full-time employees in positions that only require them to be around for certain times of the year.

It is cheaper to eliminate the full time employee position and bring in the outsourcing company only when you need them to work.

When you bring in an outsourcing company to complete a project rather than hire a full time employee you are saving on the yearly salary and the benefits you would have to offer that employee.

In most cases, it is usually cheaper to hire an individual or team of people on a temporary basis then it is to use your own staff.

As a business owner, the last thing you want your customers to do is to compare apples with apples. As soon as they compare apples with apples or oranges with oranges, you enter a marketing state called “commodity” pricing. This is a dreaded word in business because selling commodities means selling on price. The vendor with the lowest price wins the business. Unless you like to employ slave labor and make little to negative profits, don’t go there.

Human brains are wired to compare things. We instinctively want to pick the best between two or more choices. If we see two oranges, we want to pick the prettier one. If the two oranges are identical, we tend to pick the cheaper one. As the seller of oranges, we’d be wise to sell orange juice if there are too many orange vendors. The smart marketer wants to steer clear of the masses with their product. Some people call this differentiation. I call it the principal of comparison.

The principal of comparison is simple enough to understand. Yet businesses screw this up on a regular basis. Let’s look at a recent example. We all know that hybrid cars are hot right now. The marketing machines created a demand for green products so it’s cool to be green. It started about three years ago when Toyota got a few movie stars to drive their Prius Hybrid car. Celebrities tend to make things cool; even a car as homely as the Toyota Prius. But that wasn’t the main reason why the Prius took off and left their competitors like Honda in the dust.
Wanting a piece of the action, Toyota’s arch-rival, Honda decided to get into the hybrid car market by creating the Honda Accord Hybrid. What, you’ve never heard of the Honda Accord Hybrid? Of course you haven’t. Honda introduced the car and had to scrap it shortly after because it didn’t sell.

The Accord Hybrid didn’t sell because it looked like the regular gasoline powered Accord. The only difference was price. The hybrid car cost about $8K more than the regular car. Even with gasoline prices at $4/gallon, it would take about 10 years to get your $8K investment back in gasoline cost savings. And this was exactly what potential customers did — they used the principal of comparison to compare the two models of Accord. This was an easy exercise for them. The two Accords looked alike. Remember how our brains are wired.

The Toyota Prius, on the other hand, didn’t look like anything else in the Toyota product line. It wasn’t a Corolla nor was it a Camry. The Prius was a unique car. Consumers had nothing to compare it with so they accepted the hybrid car along with the premium price. Viola, Toyota created a hit with shrewd marketing.

What about the Honda Civic Hybrid? The answer is that Toyota outsells that car too. I’ll let you figure that orange comparison out for yourself, now that you understand the principal of comparison.

In order to understand how Latent Semantic Indexing is achieved, it is important to know some basic high school math, particularly Cartesian coordinates.

Typically when a search query is sent a term-document matrix is created. The pages that have been previously processed send back results that contain the correct semantic meanings.

All formatting from the pages including capitalization, punctuation and extraneous makeup are removed.

Also, the conjunctions, common verbs, pronouns and prepositions are removed. Lastly, the common endings are removed and what you have left are the stem words.

In order to plot the position of the web page, you need to think of the page in terms of a three - dimensional shape.

Using three words instead of three lines, you are able to achieve this image. The position of every page that contains these three words is known as a term space.

Each page forms a vector in the space and the vectors direction and magnitude determine how many times the three words appear in the structure.

With three words, it is easy to imagine what the resulting form may look like, and the resulting query would turn up a good number of correct searches.

Instead, if every word and every page were represented, then the dimensions would be endless. But it is not practical to assume seeing every web page in existence. This is just not possible, nor is it probable.

Typically a term-document matrix is created from pages that have been pre-processed. This is so that only the words, which have the semantic meaning, remain. All formatting of the pages include capitalization, punctuation.