Consulting in the New Age – Page 6

Team Building Activities – Guarantee Increased Work Group Effectiveness

As strange as it may sound, team building is one of those vague and misused terms which managers occasionally call into play as a solution for sluggish work unit performance. Just so you know, the rise in popularity and use of team building parallels the growing perception of work as the output of teams of workers rather than compartmentalised tasks on an assembly line. Recent reports have clearly demonstrated the importance of effective team structures to the overall performance and effectiveness of the worker. Read More

Building project manager

If you are having a building project done then you may consider hiring a project manager. Some people think that having a project manager is just another cost that they can do without so take on the role themselves. A good project manager should have a lot to offer for any project and if taking on the job role yourself you will need to ensure you have plenty of free time to do it and have a good idea of what you need to do.

A project manager can often save you money on supplies etc. as they often have contacts within the industry that will offer them a discount. They are also there to keep an eye on your budget and on time scales, meaning your project is more likely t be completed on time and within the budget you originally set up. Before dismissing a project manager, find out the exact costs and see if it may be worth using one.

Making the most out of your office space

If you have an office then you will want to make the most out of your space to allow you to get a certain number of staff in and all the equipment / filing space you need.

Planning out your office is very important and you need to consider not only the practical side of it but also health and safety plus fire regulations to make sure you adhere to all of these. It may be that you only have one or two employees at present but you will need to consider if you may need to expand in the future and if the premises will allow for this or if you wold mind if you have to relocate.

You may wish to hire an office bigger than you will initially need so it already has room for you to grow your business as and when you need to.

Strategy consultant

A strategy consultant may be required in a number of incidences. Some companies looking to evolve more in to the technology world, employ a strategy consultant to help them discover how they could take their business to the next level and offer their customers the latest in terms of the technology they can use with their brand or to view information, place orders etc.

If you have a long term goal in which you want to meet, then I would strongly recommend a strategy consultant. They will work backwards from your goal telling you what needs to be done and when in order to achieve it. They will also help you along the way should you come in to any issues and will check that you are on target to achieve what you set out to do. Without a consultant, it is easy to spend too much time concentrating on the wrong areas.

Consultant training

If you are a newcomer to the consulting world or if you have a certain level of experience and are looking to learn new skills and gain experience then a consulting course may be for you. Many people go in to consulting having worked in a similar role i.e. in a managerial situation previously. This may have given them a good insight in to how a business is run and what areas you may need to look in to if you are hired as a consultant for a business.

Some businesses hire a consultant for one area i.e. finance, staff training and performance, etc. whereas others may be called in to give overall consulting advice on many different areas. Often these areas overlap so it may be unesseccary to look in to more than one anyway.

Regardless of it you have been in the consulting business for a while or if you are going in straight from college or uni, it is worth taking additional courses to show you how to carry out a professional and thorough examination of our client’s business.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a collective concept of people who pull their resources and money together. This is mostly through the internet in order to support the activities of other people. It is a concept that has greatly assisted entrepreneurs, filmmakers, authors, and musicians to complete projects that could have otherwise fallen by the wayside.

With crowdfunding, an individual can attract a big number of people, who can contribute towards a certain funding target. At the same time, the contributors will retain a small stake in the business that they are contributing towards.

With the current tough economic times, business crowdfunding services have quickly gained popularity, acting as an alternative method of raising funds for a business, ideas, projects, or real estate investments. It has been popularised by online sites such as Wefunder, Crowdfunder, Kickstarter among others. Read More

Business improvements

If you are looking to improve your business on the whole there are many ways in which you can do so. Some companies start by looking at their costs and sales prices and trying to establish if they can make more money by reducing purchases and/or increasing sales.

Other business want to look more at the business in-depth, so will start to analysis staffing and training and even staff morale. All of these things can have a positive and negative affect on how well a business performs so it you want to really improve your company, ideally you will look at all of the above and more.

A business consultant will be able to speak to you about the different elements of the business and advise you on where they believe changes need to be made. You will of course have to pay for this service but their advice can often make a massive difference.

Sales consulting

If you work in a marketing environment then you may need to also offer sales advice. You may find that you actually become a consultant to a business in terms of their business sales tactics, as the marketing and the sales are linked. If for example, you are marketing a business and finding that you are getting the traffic to their website and converting the visitors in to enquiries but these enquiries are not converting then you may want to spend some time investigating this process to see what happens.

If the prices of the products of services are higher than you anticipated and they cannot lower them, it may be that the traffic coming through to the site is not qualified. For example you may be marketing the phrases cheap and low cost rather than quality and bespoke. Seeing through the whole sales process and having a good background knowledge on the company will help you best advise them on their marketing.

Do I need a marketing consultant?

Many companies take on their own marketing of their business. It may be that they employ internal marketing staff or often they just use other members of staff who are not trained in marketing to implement strategies.

If you are employing staff to work on your marketing and they have experience and or qualifications in this area then that may work well, but if you are utilising other members of staff that do not have the qualifications or experience then you are not only taking them away from the other work they have to do but also risking getting the marketing wrong. As a company, you can end up investing money in to the wrong marketing avenues meaning you get little or no return on your money that you put in to it. That’s where a marketing consultant can help. Even if you do not want to outsource your marketing, they may be able to advise you on what you should be doing and even offer training to the staff that are going to be implementing the marketing.

IT Management consultants

With technology ever advancing at an increasing rate, it is vital for many businesses to have a good grasp on what technology can do for them and how best to use it within their business. Some companies take it upon themselves to research new software, programmes and technology than can be used within the day to day running of the business and to work out how effective these solutions will be for them.

If you are struggling for time to do this, or want to have an experts opinion then you can opt to use an IT management consultant. The job of an IT management consultant is to offer the best advice on developments and offer cutting edge technology strategies that are bespoke to the needs of your business. This may be anything from upgrading internal PC’s to sending staff on IT related training courses. They can also advise you on where you are overspending on IT and where you can cut costs to bring you’re spending down and increasing your profits.

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