Business

8 Ways To Make More Money As A Consultant

June 30, 2014 by Marc Guberti 1 Comment

Consultation Session

I have been exploring more ways to make money through my expertise. There are plenty to choose from such as creating training courses, writing books, and other options as well. However, I recently tapped into another source of income that has many benefits: consulting others. You get to charge an hourly rate, and as you get more people, you will become more successful. However, many people who say they are consultants struggle to make a respectable revenue from their job. While some consultants make thousands of dollars every month, others are struggling to get 1 person to consult with every month. In order to make more money as a consultant, follow these 8 tips.

Charge more for your consultations. This one seems like a no-brainer, but it is this kind of attitude towards this method that prevents people from getting better results. Think about it this way. Consultant A charges $50 per 1 hour consultation and gets 6 people every month for an hour each. Consultant B charges $100 per hour and gets 3 people every month for an hour each. Consultant A got more clients than Consultant B, but Consultant B was able to make the same amount of money as Consultant A by only spending three hours talking to clients instead of six. You have three extra hours to do things that will boost your credibility.
Boost your credibility. There are many consultants that clients can choose. They are only going to choose the consultants who are the most credible or charge the lowest price. If you want to turn consulting into a full-time income or at least five figures every year while living a comfortable lifestyle where you are in control of most of your schedule, do not rely on lower prices. Lowering your prices will result in too many clients and divide your time into too many segments amongst each client (which results in less quality).
Ask for the money up front. Many consultants make the mistake of asking for the money at the end of the consultation. That’s when some clients decide to call it quits and act as if they never heard of you before. This results in many consultants chasing their clients around for the money those consultants deserve. It’s like the teacher in elementary school chasing students around for homework. That doesn’t happen in as many middle schools or high schools, and it almost never happens in college. What encourages students to hand in their homework (even when late) is avoiding the F. However, your client does not have that reason to give you the money. That’s why you need to ask for the money up front instead of having battles with some of your clients so you can make your money. If you have good credibility, clients will be more willing to pay up front before the consultation.
Only be a consultant for specific aspects of your niche that you are good at. If you know how to come up with an Instagram strategy, but you don’t know how to come up a GooglePlus strategy, then both do not belong. Only be a consultant for the specific aspects of your niche that you can do a good job at. This will encourage more returning clients.
Make the consultation process smoother. If you get the money up front, it will be easier for you to create reports for your clients. The fear of sending a report that normally costs $100 won’t bother you anymore because you already got the money. In addition, you want to know about the person before you do the consultation. If you spend 10 minutes in the consultation catching up with the person and that person’s goals, then that person will feel as if he/she is wasting money at your consultations. What you need to do is provide a questionnaire for all of your paying clients that consists of 5-10 questions. This process will make you more prepared for the consultation and allow your clients to get their money’s worth. This process will entice people to pay you up front the first time and then become returning customers later on.
Offer a discount for returning clients. You can tell your clients that if they do two of your consultations then they get the third one 50% off. If you price your consultation sessions correctly, you will be still be able to make more revenue with the 50% discount. In addition, some of your clients will have a 4th and 5th consultation with you just to take advantage of the 50% deal again (and to learn, of course). This discount will look attractive to potential clients, and you will be able to develop strong connections with the people you consult with three or more times.
Give your clients an enticing but unexpected free prize. When a client is consulting with you, you have their undivided attention. Clients are not going to be surfing the web, reading through emails, or checking what time The Big Bang Theory is on tonight. They are only going to be paying attention to what you are saying to them. Since you have their attention (and an extra $100 or so), you can spend some of that money on your client. Tell your client that you are really proud of him/her for sticking with the consultation and showing up, and for that you will ship over a free copy of one of your books at no additional cost and you just need their address. You must be sure to promise that the address will never get shared. No one would like for their address to get posted online, especially Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg. Most clients will give you their address on those conditions and be happy to get the free product. Sending a free copy of your book gives you a distinct advantage because you are able to sign the book and leave a personal note. That personal note can further congratulate the person for showing up to your consultation and ask that person to leave an honest review for your book on Amazon. Now you client is more likely to become a returning client and your book gets another review with one transaction. The best part is that you will still have a good amount of money left over if you price your consultation sessions right.
Tell your clients in advance that you will record the consultation. For all forms of consultation, you have the option to record an audio version of the consultation. All you need to do is have a smartphone and record an audio when the consultation starts. If you have a computer, the audio still works, but you also have the option of recording your computer’s screen. No matter how you record the consultation, this will mean your client won’t have to waste time taking notes and instead will be able to focus more of their attention on you (which in most cases results in a returning client, or at least a client who is going to leave a good testimonial).

Getting clients to go to your consultation sessions is important. However, you also want to make as much money as possible with your consultation sessions. Those are 8 ways that you can make more money as a consultant and reach 5 figures every year from consulting. If you are not there already, it is possible for you to get there by following these tactics in less than a year. A big part of your success as a consultant depends on your credibility. You may not want to have consultation sessions right now (I didn’t for a while), but it is still important for anything that you do to boost your credibility and become an expert in your niche.

What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional tips on making more money as a consultant? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

There’s A Big Difference Between 90,000 and 100,000

June 28, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

When most people think about the difference between 90,000 and 100,000, they think of 10,000. When it comes to business, blogging, and social networks, the difference between 90,000 and 100,000 is an entire digit, and that difference means a lot. The moment I reached a combined total of 90,000 followers on all of my social networks combined, I included a widget with all of my social media icons that said, “Follow Marc and Join 90,000 Other Readers.” A few weeks later, I had a combined total of 100,000 followers on all of my social networks. That’s when I changed the widget from “Follow Marc and Join 90,000 Other Readers” to “Follow Marc and Join 100,000 Other Readers.”

The results were huge, but in a way that I did not expect. Originally, I only saw this as a way to boost my credibility, but something else happened as well. I got more blog subscribers. On the day I made the change, I got four times as many subscribers as I get on an average day. The 100,000 boosted my credibility and resulted in more people wanting to subscribe for updates.

The main reason that 100,000 is different from 90,000 is because few people make the six figure club. Everyone who is not in the six figure club wants to be in the six figure club. 90,000 may be close to the six figure club, but in the end, it only has five figures. Real numbers are becoming more important than ever because they highlight potential, and if you have the big numbers, people will follow you so they can learn how to get those big numbers as well. What are your thoughts about the difference between 90,000 and 100,000? Please share your thoughts below.

How To Create The Best Free Prize Possible

June 12, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Giving away a free prize will encourage people to subscribe to your blog, like you on Facebook, and do other things as well. While the free prize encourages these actions to be performed, it is the best free prize possible that makes people take you seriously and buy your products. If you do a good job with the free prize, your potential customers will buy your products primarily because they believe that your products are much better than your free prizes.

Although it is important to create a free prize that would be worth something, many people only create a free prize just for the sake of saying that they have a free prize. These people create a bad free prize that does encourage more subscribers and Facebook likes, but the bad free prize does not encourage anything after that. Potential sales never happen, and some people go as far as unsubscribing or unliking if the free prize is really bad.

A free prize is just that. It is free, but it is also a prize worth winning. In order to make your free prize worth winning, you first need to decide what your free prize will be. If you want to provide a digital prize (so you don’t have to pay for shipping), you can offer an eBook, Power Point, video, or audio. Those are the options that most people use for their free products. For this blog, the free prize is a video about Pinterest.

Your free prize needs to be a lengthy one. The longer your free prize is, the longer you will be able to keep someone’s attention. A free eBook with 10 pages can be read in under 5 minutes while a free 50 page eBook takes 10 minutes to read. Free 30 minute videos get more attention than free 10 minute videos because the person can watch the free 30 minute video for an additional 20 minutes. By keeping someone’s attention longer with a lengthier prize, that person will think more and more that they need to buy some of your products.

Offering a lengthier prize also shows people that you went the extra mile to provide more free content. People love it when others go the extra mile to help them. Some of the people who get your free prize will eventually return the favor by buying one of your products.

While length is a big factor towards how good your free prize is, the quality of the free prize also determines how much attention it gets. If the free prize is a 50 page eBook with low quality content, then most people will “x out” of the book without saving it or bothering to read it any further. In addition, a poorly performed 30 minute video will lose attention as the seconds go by.

Your free prize needs to be lengthy and contain quality content. It is the job of your free prize to answer all of the readers’ questions about a particular area in your niche. That is all you need to do to create a free prize that entices people to buy your products.

What are your thoughts on the free prize? Do you have any tips on creating a free prize? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

Reanalyzing The Day After The Super Bowl 48: Was The $1.5 Million Giveaway Worth It?

May 19, 2014 by Marc Guberti 1 Comment

The first commercial after Super Bowl 48 cost $1.5 million less, and that was the amount of money Esurance gave away. The giveaway took over Twitter for the next two days. Fake Esurance accounts were created to get more retweets and followers, hundreds of thousands of tweets were sent out containing the hashtag, and there was even a $5 giveaway at some point that trended on Twitter as well.

Esurance gained over 200,000 followers in one day, and at its peak, Esurance had over 250,000 followers. Esurance’s growth was remarkable. At certain points, the account gained more than 50 followers every second. Esurance took over Twitter for two days, but two days only.

While Esurances tweets got retweeted thousands of times, people were in it for the money. The people who followed Esurance those last two days only followed Esurance for the giveaway. Once the giveaway was taken out of the equation, there was no longer a good reason to follow Esurance. As a result, the thousands of people who followed Esurance for the giveaway unfollowed Esurance when the giveaway ended. After the giveaway, Esurance was just another insurance account, and people did not want to read those tweets.

Esurance’s statistics from January 1st and on look like a roller coaster. Their growth in January was very slow. Their growth gradually picked up until the day after the Super Bowl when their growth skyrockted. Just like roller coasters, Esurance experienced a noticeable downward trend. Within 4 days, Esurance lost 40,000 followers. Esurance has not had a net gain in followers since that giveaway ended. Esurance has been consistently losing hundreds of followers every day. Here are some of the statistics that give you a good summary of what happened (for the people who view this blog post 6 months later and can no longer see the TwitterCounter statistics for Esurance during the Super Bowl).

In addition, Esurance’s tweets get no more engagement than they got before the Super Bowl ad. Even with over 100,000 followers, Esurance’s tweets barely get retweeted or favorited. All of the engagement for Esurance’s tweets died away along with the giveaway. Esurance was successful in its quest to gaining hundreds of thousands of real followers, but it was not successful in the quest of giving those real followers a reason to stick around after the giveaway concluded.

Esurance’s fame lived and died with the giveaway. Right when the giveaway ended, Esurance lost its fame. If you want to host your own giveaway, you need to give people a reason to stick around. Esurance could have offered 3% discounts to all customers who tweeted with #EsuranceSave30, a 3% discount for following the Esurance Twitter account, and a 3% discount for engaging with one of Esurance’s tweets (with an appropriate response, not something just for the sake of getting the discount) for an entire year. In total, that would only be a 9% discounts for the customers every year, but that would have allowed Esurance to keep its followers and enage with those followers as well.

The big problem with Esurance’s strategy is that they had no strategy after the giveaway. If Esurance had a decent strategy after the giveaway, they might still have over 200,000 followers. It had great potential, but Esurance did not execute it properly. There’s always next year.

3 Reasons Why You Need A Business Buddy

May 17, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Business Teamwork

Many entrepreneurs believe that going solo is the best approach towards being successful. When working alone, an entrepreneur has more power over their business and gets to implement all of the ideas that he/she wants to implement. Although there are several advantages associated with going solo, every entrepreneur needs to have a business buddy. Whether your business buddy is a friend, a colleague in another niche, or someone who owns half of the company, having a business buddy is very important towards the growth of your business. These are the 3 reasons why you need a business buddy:

You will encourage each other to work harder. If you and your business buddy work side by side, you will encourage each other to work harder. You would not want to take your break if your business buddy was still working, and your business buddy would not take a break if you were still working. As a result, both of you will be more productive.
Ideas get enhanced. Maybe you are trying to think of how you can implement your idea or some ways to make your idea better. Your business buddy may know a method to make your idea better. You can do one to one brainstorming with your business buddy, and one to one brainstorming is the best version of brainstorming available.
You get more referred customers. If your business buddy knows a lot about architecture and you are a blogging expert, you can exchange connections. If someone who comments on your blog is looking for an architect, you can tell them about your business buddy. If one of your business buddy’s clients needs help with blogging, then your business buddy will refer that client to you.

Although going solo is the easier approach, it is better over the long-term to have a business buddy who you can exchange ideas with and help each other out. Having a business buddy will allow you to get more connections and be more productive at the work place. If you know multiple people who qualify, you can have multiple business buddies and meet with one of those people every time you work. Who is your business buddy? If you do not have a business buddy yet, do you plan on getting one? Please share your thoughts below.

6 Characteristics That Every Successful Entrepreneur Has

May 16, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

There are millions of entrepreneurs in the world. Some entrepreneurs own thriving businesses while others are creating startups. Successful entrepreneurs possess characteristics that separate them from the average entrepreneur. These characteristics allow successful entrepreneurs to get better results and get more accomplished in a shorter amount of time. In order to become a successful entrepreneur, these are the 6 characteristics that you need to have.

Persistence. There will be a complaint. There will be a day (and a string of days) when your product does not make any sale. You need to stay strong during these times and know that your business has a positive future. You just need to take it there.
Dedication. This characteristic decides how many hours you are willing to put into your business. By being dedicated and loving what you do, you will spend more hours working on your business than you would if your business was something that you did not like at all. Having a lot of dedication makes going through the bad times easier.
The champion attitude. In order for your business to be successful, you need to be a good champion for your business. You need to be the role model for others to follow and raise the bar higher. Every successful business has a good champion, and you need to be the champion of your business.
Effective time management. It takes a lot of time and effort to create a business. Making that business successful takes more time and effort as well. By having effective time management, you will increase your productivity, get more done, and move your business farther.
The desire for success. We all want and need to be successful. However, the successful entrepreneurs are the ones who have a strong desire for success. This desire inspires successful entrepreneurs to get more work done every day so their businesses become successful faster.
Connections. Every successful entrepreneur has strong connections. In order to be successful, people need to know about your business. Making the right connections can get you referred customers, appearances in newspapers, and more. In order to get more connections, you need to use your social networks.

Those are the 6 characteristics that every entrepreneur has. By implementing these 6 characteristics, you are more likely to become successful and own a thriving business. You will not have a successful business overnight, but by consistently living by these characteristics, you will thrive. What are your thoughts on the list? Do you have any additional characteristics you would like to mention? Please share your thoughts below.