Government Grants for All

Consulting Start-Up and Management: A Guide for Evaluators and Applied Researchers

Consulting Start-Up and Management: A Guide for Evaluators and Applied Researchers

Looking to start up your own research and evaluation consultancy? For almost 20 years, Gail V. Barrington has run popular workshops to help professional researchers determine if they have what it takes to succeed as consultants. This book makes that helpful guidance, and more, available to a wider audience. Barrington shows readers how to: get started, set fees, find work, manage time and money; set up an ownership structure and business systems; manage contracts; and work with sub-contractors a

List Price: $ 35.00 Price: $ 30.13

Tags: Applied, Consulting, Evaluators, Guide, Management, Researchers, Startup

Consulting on the Side: How to Start a Part-Time Consulting Business While Still Working at Your Full-Time Job

Consulting on the Side: How to Start a Part-Time Consulting Business While Still Working at Your Full-Time Job

• ISBN13: 9780471120292
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Build a thriving business while holding down a full-time job.

Do you yearn to strike out on your own, take charge of your destiny, and create a better, more independent lifestyle for yourself? Read this book and learn how to start your consulting business while you still have the security of a regular job.

Consulting on the Side is for the professional who longs for independence but can't simply walk away from a steady paycheck and company health benefits. Successful consultant and

List Price: $ 36.95 Price: $ 5.49

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Tags: Business, Consulting, Fulltime, PartTime, Side, Start, Still, Working

Field Casework: Methods for Consulting to Small and Startup Businesses (Entrepreneurship & the Management of Growing Enterprises)

Field Casework: Methods for Consulting to Small and Startup Businesses (Entrepreneurship & the Management of Growing Enterprises)

For those engaging in fieldwork in a business setting, this invaluable book offers guidance and support from the initial project assignment and client meeting to the closing presentation and exit meeting. Practical advice is provided throughout the consulting process with chapters devoted to establishing client relationships, conducting information searches, maintaining a cohesive student-consulting team and developing recommendations for the client business.

List Price: $ 76.00 Price: $ 45.00

Tags: Businesses, Casework, Consulting, Enterprises, Entrepreneurship, Field, Growing, Management, Methods, Small, Startup

Business Really Rolling, Entrepreneur Launches Successful Tour Business With Business Plan Assistance, Free Consulting and $40,000 in Financing

It takes more than a roll of the dice to build a profitable business, let alone a beloved business. But Danny McDonald’s tactics have been right on the money and straight from the heart. The Portage la Prairie-based entrepreneur started Triple Seven Tours in 1995; ten years later, he knows the first names of his 1,800 regular customers and rings in annual sales of 0,000. At age 56, he has no intention of retiring, simply because he truly loves what he does.

Leisure travel has been this entrepreneur’s career staple. He has owned both a hotel and a motel, and he worked as a travel company sub-agent before coming up with Triple Seven Tours. McDonald recognized a niche in Portage la Prairie and its environs and went for it.

“I saw a real need for a bus tour company that could offer day trips to seniors who live in smaller towns,” he explains. “They really have no other way get out. They’re mostly widows — they’ve worked hard, now the husband is gone, and they just want to go somewhere, spend some money, have some fun.”

Corporate tours and sports team transport provide Triple Seven Tours with additional streams of revenue, but it’s this senior segment that puts the bread and butter on McDonald’s table. The company ferries the merry widows to destinations of their choice — from garage sales to nearby national parks. But most trips target the two large casinos an hour away in Winnipeg. Each of the eight communities Triple Seven serves has an appointed organizer who gets the ladies together and plans outings. It’s easy to understand why McDonald’s customers keep coming back. “In the winter or after dark”, he says, “I let the gals off at their doors. When they toggle the porch light switch, I know they’re safely inside.”

McDonald attributes his start-up success to Manitoba’s Heartland Community Futures Development Corporation. Assistance from CFDC included a week-long course to develop his business plan. (He’s proud that his exemplary plan was integrated into instruction materials.) He also received management consulting help and ,000 in financial assistance to purchase his 25-seat bus. By 2000, he had paid off his loan, bought a second bus and established a satellite office in nearby Brandon.

McDonald is a devoted family man; his daughter and son both work full-time for Triple Seven. Every spring, he treats about 20 members of his extended family to a fishing trip in northern Manitoba. “Customers appreciate the two-generation tone of our business,” he says. “They never call us the second week in June — they know the McDonalds have gone fishing.” He applies his family values to the business; most of his tour traffic comes from repeat customers. New customers sign on through word of mouth. McDonald is amazed by the customers who write him signed blank cheques each year, with the instruction to fill in the necessary amounts.

With such a devoted customer base, there’s no need for general advertising. Three times a year he sends out a mailer to his database of 1,167 households, outlining upcoming events. Twice a year he runs a customer appreciation tour to the casino, with a Happy Hour and contests to win free trips and merchandise. McDonald also organizes cross-border tours to destinations like California, New York and Branson. He takes a few seats out of the back of the bus and sets up a lounge where passengers can play cards. About two months before a trip, he visits customer’s homes to take pictures and create biographies about their families and interests. He compiles these into a book that profiles each passenger, and gives it a relevant title such as Cruisin’ California or To the Bayou and Back. On the first day of the tour, each passenger receives a copy. “The book is a great ice-breaker,” says McDonald. “By the time we’re heading home, they’re getting each other to sign their books—just like high school.”

The appreciation is mutual. Customers invite McDonald to barbecues and family events. Each Christmas the gals swamp him with gifts and well-wishes. “Their cards mean everything to me,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve ever thrown one of them out.”

McDonald could write the manual on customer relations. He exudes integrity when describing what works. “Don’t try to smoke ‘em or gouge ‘em. Be honest,” he says. “I think that’s the most important thing to do. If there’s a problem, explain it to them. It’s the lie they’ll remember, not the glitch. And don’t paste on a smile. Your customers can detect when you’re not enjoying what you’re doing.”

Would you like to receive money to launch and grow your own business too? There are monies available now for qualified existing & start-up small businesses. Visit The Small Business Finance Centre for more information.

www.grants-loans.org — Cheryl Petursson, owner of the Purple Poodle, explains how the Canadian government helped her start up her new small business through a grant from the Youth Entrepreneurship program and a loan from the Women’s Entrepreneurship program.
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Tags: $40000, Assistance, Business, Consulting, Entrepreneur, Financing, Free, Launches, Plan, Really, Rolling, Successful, Tour

How to Start and Run a Successful Consulting Business

How to Start and Run a Successful Consulting Business

"The consulting industry is one of the fastest growing business sectors worldwide with new opportunities emerging continually in hundreds of different fields. Whatever your area of expertise--engineering or employee relations, computers or customer service--there's likely to be a demand for your consulting abilities." --Gregory Kishel and Patricia Kishel from the Preface

Who needs consultants? The answer is simple: everyone does! Consultants are no longer viewed as a luxury. They've becom

List Price: $ 24.95 Price: $ 3.47

Tags: Business, Consulting, Start, Successful

Start and Run a Consulting Business (Start & Run a)

Start and Run a Consulting Business (Start & Run ...)

This book offers practical hands-on help for anyone wanting to start their own business in a range of disciplines. If you are one of the thousands of people who have expertise you think you can turn into your own business, the "Start and Run" series shows you how to set about achieving your dreams. Written by experts in their respective interest areas, but always easy to read, these books provide step-by-step coaching for businesses as diverse as bed and breakfasts to teaching English as a secon

List Price: $ 17.95 Price: $ 14.50

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Tags: Business, Consulting, Start

Small Business Computer Consulting: the Sweet Spot

If you’ve previously delivered your service B2C (Business to Consumer) and now want to switch to B2B (Business to Business), you may think that you’re ready to run out there and just get some small business clients. It’s not that simple. In this article, you’ll learn how to define the “small” in small business computer consulting.

If you focus too much on home-based businesses and micro small businesses, you’ll have a tough time selling a lot of services. While “micro” small businesses (under 5-10 employees) are technically small businesses, micro small businesses may not be a good fit for your small business computer consulting company. Why not?

The Five Reasons to Avoid Targeting Micro and Home Businesses:

1. Lots of consumer grade PC’s
2. Pirated software
3. Reluctance for paying for services. A lot of micro small businesses want to look for volunteers to help them with their computer problems like someone’s niece, brother or friend. You can’t compete against free! You’ll also have a tough time competing against moonlighters; these people are on someone else’s payroll during the day and don’t have to fund their own certifications and benefits. They can undercut your price tremendously.
4. IT isn’t that important to their company, so they don’t need a great response time.
5. Too small to afford a “real” dedicated server and “real” network.

These five reasons are why most computer consulting firms doing really well with services are looking at prospect companies that have at least eight or ten PCs. At that point, it becomes really difficult for these companies to continue running a peer-to-peer setup, or wait for the sometimes glacier-like response time of volunteers and moonlighters.

When a small business is “big” enough

Usually small businesses with more than 8-10 PC’s start to get serious about putting in a real client server network, putting in a real tight back up solution, putting in a real UPS, and a real firewall. In order to do these things correctly, small business decision makers typically understand that the systems need to be designed by a more sophisticated IT services or network integrator firm.

In other words, as a small business goes through growth spurts, the stakes go up. And these businesses generally recognize the need to use IT more strategically. Also, typically the small businesses have made the decision that IT is actually important to the company, and that they can’t afford a lot of downtime. So they need someone to coordinate everything computer-related. These small businesses want someone to take ownership of the whole problem, and that’s where your small business computer consulting comes in.

The Bottom Line about Small Business Computer Consulting

In this article, you’ve learned which size business you should target for small business computer consulting. To learn more about small business computer consulting, click here now to get access to a free one-hour audio training program on 5 Easy Ways to Grow Your Computer Consulting Business.

About the Author:

Joshua Feinberg has helped thousands of computer consultants get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for Joshua’s free Computer Consultants Secrets audio training at http://www.ComputerConsultantsSecrets.com/blog/

Tags: Business, Computer, Consulting, Small, Spot, Sweet

Small Business Computer Consulting: Appropriately Setting Your Rates

In small business computer consulting, $100 an hour can be a reasonable and livable rate. Why can setting your rates at $100 an hour make all the difference in the world?

Take the $100 an hour and multiply it by 1,500 hours a year. This is reflecting a 75% utilization rate; or 75% of a typical forty hour work week as billable time. Now you’re at $150,000 a year gross.

Salary and Affordability

As a small business computer consulting firm, you will want to take a third of the gross and plow it into sales and marketing. Therefore you can afford a $40,000 base salary for your sales account executive. So, of that one third of your gross small business computer consulting income, $40,000 can go to the base salary and $10,000 can go to related marketing expenses.

Additionally, one third will take care of taxes, insurance and overhead items for the most part, and you have a third of it or $50,000 left to pay a technical staff salary.

Surpassing $100 an Hour

You may be considering exceeding a rate of $100 an hour for your small business computer consulting firm. At that point, you can hit what we call the not-so-imaginary-hourly-billing-rate ceiling.

Needless to say, if your small business computer consulting clients are paying $110 to $125 an hour, it gets even easier to be able to afford really bright, motivated, highly qualified sales and technical staff.

Higher Rates Equal Bigger Businesses

However, if you want to charge above $100 an hour in your small business computer consulting firm, you’ll almost always need to move above and beyond sweet spot small business clients into really large small businesses, medium size businesses and enterprise-sized accounts that require a different business model and technical skill set.

Once you do that, you’re going to be operating under a completely different type of business model. And you will need even more polished and seasoned salespeople to be able to handle those accounts.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved.

About the Author:

Joshua Feinberg helps computer consultants get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for Joshua’s free Computer Consultants Secrets audio training at http://www.ComputerConsultantsSecrets.com

Tags: Appropriately, Business, Computer, Consulting, Rates, Setting, Small

Small Business Computer Consulting: Finding the Right Prospects

If you are starting a small business computer consulting firm, you should know that the small business accounts that have 10 to 50 PC’s are going to have at least one branch office.

Prospects of this size are used to using professional technology providers and this isn’t the first time they’ve had to hire a small business computer consulting firm. Organizations like this have a willingness to pay for support.

Does Your Prospect Have In-House IT?

However, if they have in-house IT, you should learn what they need you for. Is it for a very deep specialty or for an extremely unusual case where they want to outsource everything?

Researching Prospective Clients

To find prospects for your small business computer consulting firm you should Google towns in your area, ZIP and postal codes, area code and telephone prefixes. Additionally, these prospects will usually belong to a local or regional chamber of commerce or similar organization.

To meet some of these people and market your small business computer consulting firm, you can join the organizations or attend as a guest.

Know Where to Find Your Prospects

Your prospects will likely have presence at business to business events, so you can also attend these events to market your small business computer consulting firm.

Since your target clients will often be covered in the business section of your local publications, you’ll want to subscribe to these or read them at the library.

The Bottom Line about Small Business Computer Consulting

If you want to narrow down your focus to the best small businesses in the area, consider networking at local events and reading up on these businesses in your local publications. You want to pay attention to the criteria above and ensure you can identify your prospects right off the bat.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, PC Support Tips .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved.

About the Author:

Joshua Feinberg helps independent PC Support professionals get more steady, high-paying PC support clients. Learn how you can get more monthly recurring PC Support revenue with Joshua’s free training recording now at http://www.PCSupportTips.com

Tags: Business, Computer, Consulting, Finding, Prospects, Right, Small

Starting a General Consulting Business

At present, the consultation profession has been recognized as a fast growing industry with the demand for consultants by businesses and individuals ever soaring. Even though the word “consultant” is mainly associated with businesses, there are consultants who provide their services to every aspect of human life.

Tax consultants, auto consultants, beauty consultants, event consultants, travel consultants are to name a few of the many consultancies existing presently in the market. A consultant is recognized as an individual who has expertise in a given field and is able to provide advice to others in that area. So if you posses knowledge or expertise in a particular subject, chances are you could start your own consultation business. Of course you would also require an undying passion and a strong commitment to ensure success in yours.

The services of consultants are sought after by businesses large and small as well as non-profit agencies, government organizations and individuals. There are many reasons why the above mentioned groups prefer to hire consultants. One of the main reasons is the consultants’ expertise in a particular field. The clients are bound to receive a professional and successive service because of the expertise that the consultant has obtained already.

Also for professional organizations or businesses it is an advantage to hire a consultant for a given time period as opposed to a full time employee. Consultants are also employed to identify existing problems in an organization which are not visible to the employees, to teach and train the staff of the organization, to bring in new ideas to the business as well as to make changes in the work process of the organization.

Although it sounds very appealing and easy to launch your own consultation venture, there are many other aspects you should also consider in addition to the up-to-date knowledge in your selected area, before starting off. Confidence, organizational skills, leadership qualities, self motivation and good interpersonal skills are essential for you to succeed in this profession.

You should also posses a competitive edge in order to aim high and achieve your goals as well as to sell your services in the market. Furthermore you should be willing to invest more time for researching in order to identify your target market as well as their expectations. To survive and expand your venture it is vital that you should familiarize yourself with information such as the market size, sales potential, existing competition, market practices, prevailing price structures and the type of customers you would be servicing.

The biggest advantage when starting a consultation venture is that it doesn’t require a large capital investment. You can start operating your venture from the comfort of your own home. Your initial investments would mainly be for stationary, supplies, basic communication and electronic equipments and for marketing and advertising of your services. Marketing plays a major role in the establishment of your venture and the build up of your clientele.

To spread the word regarding your venture you should utilize a marketing strategy which suits you and your business best, be it online marketing, offline marketing or a combination of both. Also pay close attention when fixing your price. It is always advisable that you check out the charges of your competitors before settling down with the final price. Consultants are known to charge their customers hourly, by project or on a retainer basis. You should select a pricing scheme which you would be comfortable with to manage your venture.

Bizymoms.com has been helping women start work at home businesses for over 10 years. Their General Consulting Kit includes everything you need to start your General Consulting Business including a basic business start up guide and an easy start program, which provides step-by-step guidance on how to build up your Jewelry Store business within 29 days!

Tags: Business, Consulting, General, Starting