I work for an internet company that supplies help in the form of small business management and accounting software tools and education and support to thousands of startups and small businesses in all corners of the world and whenever I explain to folks I meet what I do, I repetitively get asked the same question “Given my skills and experience, how could I put it to use and make an income from small business consulting? I am always willing to give wisdom as I am lucky enough to spend a significant portion of my day talking to small business owners and workforce ready to discuss their problems and needs.

Here is my response:

The digital world is the best way for finding customers and it makes it easy to interact with them and sell your expertise. A lot of small businesses turn to the internet to find knowledge or trusted advisors who can provide them with new methods and help them fix issues.

Information marketing – package and sell your expertise to businesses through the Internet

What I am about to tell you doesn’t just apply to small businesses. You can repackage and sell your expertise in a digital format such as video, audio or documents. The systems to create superb material are widely available on the world wide web. Constructing a course in easy to consume internet formats is now easy and affordable. You just have to be prepared to spend a little time getting to know the systems. The purpose here is to generate some valuable material that you can either sell or give away to customers to encourage them to do business with you.

You have to decide what you want to achieve. Consultancy and Information marketing can work together and if you do both can be very provide a substantial income as the consultancy will provide you with the questions, the answers to which could be turned into content and sold over and over again.

If you are starting from scratch with no customers but have expertise you know would be attractive to others then plan to create a two minute video to promote yourself and your expertise to your target(s). Unless you know the prospect(s) precise problem then make the video generic and stick tothe following format – S.T.A.R (Situation or Task, Action, Result). Be creative and concise. Now deploy the video to your website/blog or even YouTube if you don’t have the former and send the target(s) an invitation by e-mail containing a personal message and a link to the video. Follow this up with a phone call. If you know the specific nature of the marketproblem then don’t make the video public, just put it somewhere away from prying eyeson the Web or even on a disk and post it, again follow up with a call.

This approach is ideally suited to situations where you are individually targeting market. You should always focus on building a list you can interact with and make sales to. Treat the people on your list well and they will tell you their needs to which you can match and your content products. The more people on your list the more consulting and information marketing opportunities you will find. If you would like to find out more about how to do this then visit any of the links in this article. I would be delighted to help you.