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Business consultancy is on the rise and this growing market is providing more and more competition for the qualified consultants out there looking for work. So how can you compete as a business consultant?

First it’s about making sure that you are easy to find, if you have a business website then the first step would be to try and improve your search engine ranking in google, this is called SEO, search engine optimisation and can be done by a good web designer. It’s really worth spending a bit of money to get you as visible as possible on these sites as it will get you ahead of the competition.

Next it’s worth registering with a company that provides customers with a directory of business consultants to choose from. These websites can bring quite a bit of custom especially introducing customers to your website where if it’s good enough you can show how you stand out from the rest.

Ensure that you allow enough of your business budget for advertising and you should see great returns.

When you have put in time and effort and built up a company from scratch it can be hard to accept when you realise that you are actually getting further and further into debt. Many business owners in this situation may be tempted to just cut their losses and run, however there is help available that means you don’t have to lose your business due to debt.

It’s a fact of the modern world that many companies are in debt and most companies actually run at a loss for the first few years until things get established however it’s when this debt gets out of control and the business starts to run out of funding that the real problems occur.

As tempting as it can be to just burry your head in the sand debt is a problem that can easily be placed in the hands of a good business consultant for help. A business consultant will be able to take a look at your books, work out what is owed where and help you set up suitable payment plans. They will then be able to cast an eye over your business and advise you on how to maximise your profits to ensure you debts are paid off ASAP.

Accounts, book keeping and tax conjure up dread in many a business owners mind, entering the vast maze of business law and HMRC legislation is not for the faint hearted however there is help available and as well as making things much easier a good accounting consultant can help you to ensure that your business operates in accordance with the law as well as maximising your profitability.
Tax legislation is changing constantly and can be pretty hard to keep up with yourself, not to mention time consuming, filling out numerous forms and keeping track of the information that you need to submit each year.
A good consultant should also be able to recommend suitable accountancy software to help with the day to day running of your business which can also assist with things like automated invoices and MI reports to show how well your business is performing.
Accounts and tax don’t have to be something you dread, so take the hassle out of it and seek some good consultancy.

Most people may look at a business consultant and think how can they tell you how to do a job that you’ve done for the past 5, 10 even 15 years, and the simple answer to that is they are not there to tell you how to do your job but simply how to run your business to maximise profits.

You can be the best electrician/plumber/roofer in the world but if your passion is in the trade rather than the business side of things you are unlikely to be able to maximise your profits yourself.

It can sometimes be difficult to know where to start if your business is struggling and spending money on a business consultant when funds are tight may seem disingenuous, however a good business consultant should be able to make you far more money than their fee and should be able to project these figures to you as an example of what they can do for you.

If you own your own company, there may have been a time when you had to do everything yourself, maybe when you first started up. This could be everything from the marketing to the accounts along with the technical side of the company. As the company grew you may have been in a position where you needed to take someone else on. This can be extremely daunting the first time round as you are having to let someone else in to your business and therefore you need to be able to trust them.

Ideally you may want to find someone that you already know or have worked with before but this may not be practical. When you come to chose what type of person to take on you need to have a clear idea of what responsibilities you will be giving them. This will help you look for specific skills and qualifications. I would always recommend either giving someone a trial run or an initial short term contract so either party can part ways should it not be working out.

A marketing company should not only carry out specific marketing task but should analyse your current business situation and create a marketing plan based on your requirements and budget. They will often become more of a consultant to your business than just someone that looks after your website and online and offline promotions. These people are the experts and therefore will be aware of any recent advances in the marketing world that may assist your growth.

Marketing is all about being proactive, it should be something that is on going and monitored closely. Any body spending money on marketing needs to be able to try and establish how successful it is so they can work out if they should continue to invest down that particular avenue.

Usually it is quite straightforward to monitor the performance of an online marketing campaign, offline marketing such as leaflet dropping or TV / Radio ads may require a little more pre planning to be allow you to monitor it.

If you own or run a business then you will know how important it is to make a profit. If a company does not make a profit, then it will not be able to survive long and often this means it is either sold or closed down.

If you are struggling financially in your business, then it might be time to bring in the pros to help you see what you are doing right and wrong. Often referred to as a business consultant or financial consultant, they are great at being able to analysis your business and show you where you can make money and where you can save it.

You may have a member of staff that you already employ that would be able to do some of this for you, as often a fresh pair of eyes can see things that you may not. If you have a valued member of staff that is good with numbers then why not ask them to look over things and see what they come back with.

If you are a business owner you may be considering hiring a business consultant. A business consultant will analyse your company and help you improve performance and efficiency.

The consultant will normal look in depth at all aspect of the business to access cost vs profit and how effective it currently is. Some of the areas include:

Staff: they will analyse your current staff levels including pay / performance / moral / skills and any out sourcing you do. From this they will make proactive suggestions on how to improve the efficient of your staff and if possible how you could save money.

Materials: in depth look into how much you spend on supplies and if you could cut your costs without compromising on quality. They may also recommend trying to increase your payment terms with suppliers to keep the money in your bank as long as possible.

A good consultant should more than cover the costs they are charging for their advice and expertises.

Following a recent study, it has been revealed that IT budgets are set to increase to a third of financial services organisations. Companies such as banks and insurance companies have stated that they are going to dramatically increase the money they spend on their IT infrastructure to improve the service their customers receive. With the issues we saw last year with some of the big name banks having embarrassing down time caused by IT issues, this comes as no surprise. They have actually stated that this takes over cutting costs within the business model. From the study carried out, 37% of respondents said that they expect to have the budget to carry out the necessary updates within three years. Some of the software and applications that these companies are using are so out of date that they are almost counting the days or weeks before something happens. This is a much needed change that will benefit all of us when it comes to dealing with businesses within the financial sector.

There often comes a time when an employee decides that they want to become self employed, or it may be that they have been out of work for a little while and want to start up their own business. You may find that you need the help and guidance of a business consultant or mentor especially in the early stages of the start up. Going in to business alone can be very daunting and if you are not aware of all the legal hurdles and costs and time involved you may find that you soon get in to trouble. A business consultant can help you with all of these aspects and go through each element with you to make sure you understand what you need to do. Very often you will need to create a business plan, this is not only useful to show to potential investors and banks if you are applying for a loan but for your own reference as it can make you think about your goals and problems that you may need to overcome.