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There is a high demand for marketing consultants due to the fact that business are increasingly looking for tactics that will help them to attract more customers, boost their sales and profits. A marketing consultant is basically a professional who advises businesses on efficient marketing strategies that generate more leads and eventually increase their sales and profit margins. A marketing consultant should also be able to research and analyze customers’ behaviors and inclinations to be able to develop positive tactical results while at the same time meeting the needs of the customers. We have provided below all you need to help you fulfill your ambition as a marketing consultant.

Do not hesitate to share your view if you have something we have not included her or ask any question you may have:

1. Get the training required

As a marketing consultant, you must be a holder of a bachelor’s degree in business, marketing or communication field. This will help you to compete favorably in the industry. You may additionally get training in graphic design, journalism, or writing, to make your resume stand out more. Internship work experience as sales representative or marketing researcher will additionally give you a boost. There is a lot of schools that offer degree programs in the marketing field but where such is not available, a degree program in business and communications can also qualify you as a marketing consultant. Whatever course you choose to study must be valuable for your prospective career. The available courses may vary from one institution of higher learning to another but ensure you select one that incorporates marketing, advertising, branding, copywriting, perception and attainment of certain demographic or budgeting.

Resources: 

• Digital Marketing Course by Google
• 26 Free Online Marketing Courses: Learn to be a Marketing Mastermind
• 2016 Most Affordable Marketing Degrees Online

2. Build your portfolio

A good portfolio is a significant part of your career as a marketing consultant. As a marketing consultant, you would use your portfolio to demonstrate what you can do to your prospective. You must be able to showcase that you are capable of yielding results. You need both online and offline portfolio. Your portfolio needs to showcase what you have done and ought to include a few information about your educational achievements, your certifications, your experiences, contact information, and quite a few samples of works you have done in the past that are associated with marketing. These may include graphic designing, internet marketing, product descriptions, and much more. It is better to start building your portfolio during your school days.

3. Choose your area of specialization

Specialization makes you really stand out well in your chosen area of specialization. Marketing field is rather broad, becoming an expert in all aspects of marketing is impossible. Marketing field is made up of different aspects like internet marketing, hard-copy marketing, TV marketing, radio broadcasting marketing, copy writing, graphic design, sales,  brand reputation marketing, to name a few. You can choose two to three parts of marketing and specialize in those areas.  Marketing field is a constantly changing field; therefore, you need to keep updating your knowledge to work in line with the latest trend in the industry.

4. Launch your marketing career

Before you can work as a marketing consultant you must have worked for years in the marketing field and gathered enough practical experience. Thus, you need to gain experience by starting with entry-level marketing jobs. When you have secured a job, gradually build your career by being conscientious and zealous of achieving reasonable results in all marketing campaign you are assigned to do. You would need between seven to ten years of marketing experience in a reputable organization before you can do well as a marketing consultant. The employers you work with must be able to create reliable room for you to grow.

5. Start building your consultancy business

When you have obtained the necessary experience and recorded a good amount of successes, you can move ahead with your plans of becoming a marketing consultant. You need to start planning gradually while you still work with an employer. Develop a business plan and ensure you obtain all relevant licenses, permits, and qualifications. These will gain your business more reputation. Remember that the requirements differ from state to state and from place to place. So, try and investigate what is obtainable in your area and comply with it.

6. Start tracking customers

Because you are already an expert in marketing, it should not be difficult for you to find clients. Create a website to register your online presence and advertise your business through print and online media. You may also advertise through the word of mouth. Then again, you already know what to do at this stage, where to get customers and how to get them.  What you do with, your own business should even serve as a portfolio to showcase to your prospective clients. As a marketing consultant, you must be skilled at motivating customers to action through your marketing strategies. You should be able to use your knowledge and experience to advice customers. Your role as a marketing consultant may include such things like determining what the needs of your customers are, setting up and carrying out social media or other promotion campaigns for them, and determining the success rate through tools like Google analytics.

7. Develop a personal brand

To improve your possibility of attracting worthwhile clients try and give a suitable business name and brand. Also, develop and implement an aggressive marketing tactic. You may work from a brick and mortar office and get some staffs to work with you or solely online. You need to specify what it is that you have to offer to clients and what your charges for them are.

Branding is very significant because it assists you to establish a standard of service and win additional customers to yourself. While developing your brand, consider your customers and what their expectations are. Ensure your business promotion corresponds with the brand you intend to build. If your plan is to work with businesses in the fashion industry for an example, you must have knowledge of what is obtainable in the industry and be able showcase your skills smartly. Developing your brand is not a day’s job. It doesn’t come overnight but with constant efforts and perseverance.

Read: 7 Things You Can Do To Build An Awesome Personal Brand

8. Network and build your clients’ base

Irrespective of what path you decide to follow to achieve your goal as a marketing consultant, proper and constant networking is highly crucial to your success.  While working with a marketing company, try to build your network and clientele. The greater your network and the more client you have, the easier it will be for you to work as a social media consultant when you finally want your business to take off.

Finally, remember that to be a marketing consultant you must possess brilliant sales and marketing skills. In addition, you must have worked in the marketing industry for a good number of years to be well experienced in strategies for attracting customers and boosting sales

Recommended Books:

How to Start a Consulting Business From Scratch: Step By Step Guide – How I Became a Marketing Consultant in Just 3 Months

How to Start a Consulting Business: A Marketing Guide for Independent Professionals to Attract and Retain Customers

Million Dollar Launch: How to Kick-start a Successful Consulting Practice in 90 Days

Every human being needs a perfect partner to live a complete and happy life. However, the task of finding a perfect match is not an easy one. Sometimes people need the services of match makers to be able to choose a perfect mate. If you are a relationship expert, you could use your wealth of knowledge and experience to run a profitable business that helps people find their perfect match. You can launch your business at home or rent an office apartment. Just ensure you have enough space to be able to meet your clients and discuss about their dating needs.

Dating services involve assisting people to meet, talk, and network and ultimately develop a loving relationship. It allows people who are single and on the lookout   for partners to meet with people who are compatible with them to interact and finally become very familiar with each other that they no longer require the services of the matchmaker.

Here are things you need to start a dating service business:

Choose the niche of the dating service you wish

There are different niches of dating services you can render. Below are a few of them:

1. Online dating service

This form of dating service business is solely managed online. For this type, you would need to develop a website where people looking for relationship partners will register and meet up with prospective friends and dates. You can make money from membership monthly or annual subscription fee, advertising space in addition to the traffic produced by your website.

2. Real life dating service

In real life dating service, you normally have a one-to-one meeting with your clients to find out what their needs are and how you may possibly help them to work out a perfect match or date.

3. Elite dating service

This type of dating service takes care of prominent and well-to-do people. Its sole aim is to help rich people meet and date other people with related economic status.

4. Religious dating service

The religious dating service helps to link up individuals of the same religion and possibly bring them to interact with one another and start a date and fulltime romantic relationship.

Decide on a method of communication

When you have decided on the type of dating service to engage in, the next thing is to determine the mode of communication between you and your clients or subscribers of your services. If you are requiring a brick and mortar office space, ensure that the environment is comfortable and cozy. If on the other hand you are going for online dating service, you would need to design and launch an attractive website.

Design and develop a contractual document

To get everything organized, you’d require spelling out what the terms and conditions of your services are. The contract should also specify your payment options and how those payments should be made. Your payments for online dating service business will come from your subscription fees, affiliate programs and advertisement spaces.

Promote your business

Your success rate would depend on the number of clients you have. You must take your business promotions seriously. Get words out about your new business in the social media, news papers, journals, television shows, blogs and other ad Medias. Don’t be afraid to get your business introduced to some of your friends, family, colleagues and associates. They would act as your first referral team and would be of enormous help towards creating that initial awareness that your business needs. You can decide to offer them commissions depending on the numbers of referrals they bring to you.

Put measures that ensures the security of your clients is assured

It is very significant to ensure your clients’ privacy and safety is assured. There must be disciplinary measures put in place that protect them from possible exploitations and risks. Do this by ensuring that you are careful with your choice of clients and by ensuring there are measures to check the credibility of every registered user or subscribers of your site.

Check if you have local competitors

You should research your locality to find out if there is already a dating service business established. Check out the services they are offering, their mode of advertising and how they make their customers. This will serve as a valuable guide towards directing you in the right direction. Your knowledge of their mode of operations will help you to design a business structure that will help you to stand out and develop a brand name for your business.

Design a befitting website for your business

Whether you want to operate online or offline, a website is essential to ensure that you don’t miss out on every possible client. However, if you hope to operate solely online; then establishing a website is a must because that is the only platform that will help you to gain access to your clients.

Designing your website

If you are a good graphic designer you can create the website yourself but if you haven’t got 6he required skills, hire a good designer to create a stunning and romantic website for you.

Designing your own dating site can be extremely gratifying. It can be immensely fun-filled, motivating and rewarding. It can also reward you with extensive financial success.  Nevertheless, for you to be successful and launch your site life, it requires a lot of hard work and resourcefulness. You need a good amount of money to be able to design a very appealing and attractive site.

Checking out businesses in your niche will provide you with some inspiration. Find out what the features of their sites are and what you can add or remove from them to make yours exceptionally beautiful and thrilling. You may decide to add and minus from their mode of making money off the site. If for example, your competitors’ charges registration fee, you may decide to make the registration free. You can then make money from membership promotions, from advertising spaces and much more.

You could for example offer a basic free membership plan which limits the user to certain features and the user can only access such options if he or she upgrades his/her membership status.

The fact that Social Media is essential for the growth of any business is already widely known by all. What remains sometimes a mystery to some business owners is how to use this wonderful tool of innovation social media to grow their business. A large percentage of business owners don’t know their way round social media marketing while some conservative ones are not yet interested and not ready to embrace this method of business promotion. One thing you must know is that your online reputation is essential whether you embrace social media marketing strategies or not. Because it is the contemporary trend, your business can be discussed about in the social media. If you aren’t there, you wouldn’t be able to take charge of any negative statement that may be injurious to your business.

We have provided 10 tips to help you grow your business through the social media:

1. Embrace the social media with open hands

Before you can talk of growing your business with the social media, you must first of all have social media accounts and be actively engaged in them. The world is constantly changing. Consumers’ behavior is also not static. Social media has come to stay as a successful way to meet most of your customers in the contemporary world. So, go out there and embrace them. Do don’t allow yourself to be underplayed by your competitors. Endeavor to always play up your games and stay ahead of others.

2. Engage with your customers where they are

Try to identify the social networks that are more frequently used by your customers and connect with them. Often times, customers voice out their opinion about any business through the social media of their choice. If you are doing well, they would praise you but if they have any complaint against your business or services, they will also voice it out. Ensure you connect with them on personal notes by responding to their questions and requests in a timely manner. There is no better way to do this than to seek out where they are and get connected with them out there.

Read: How to Use Social Media to Engage With Customers and Build Your Brand

3. Your social media posts must be true representation of you

If you say things that aren’t true just because you want to entice people and bring them to yourself, sooner or later they will discover and that would create a bad impression of you. Just go ahead and discuss about the happenings in your industry. Show through your posts that you are up to date with the developments and innovations in your industry. This will portray you as an expert and naturally draw them to you to ask questions and eventually you’d end up turning them into valuable customers.

Don’t be afraid to occasionally talk specifically about your business so that they see what you do and where you are coming from. Posting articles about the industry should occupy about 80% spaces on your blog while direct business promotion should occupy only just about 20% space. Always ensure that your posts are true representation of you and your business.

4. Update your knowledge always

Social media is speedily evolving and changing on a day to day basis. An idea that rocks today bay be old fashioned tomorrow.  Updating your knowledge frequently and in a timely many at the advent of any new social media marketing strategy ensures that you are ahead of your competitors. This gives a winning edge.

5. Choose the right Social media

The social media channels you use determine your success or failure. Your best bet is to carefully discover the social media channels that are more frequently used by your prospective customers. When you discover them, seek them out and connect with them. You would be more successful by connecting to only few and suitable channels than getting registered with a number of channels that are irrelevant to the industry and most importantly, be active in your chosen social media channels.

Read: How to Choose the Best Social Media Platform for Your Business

6. Develop a plan and ensure you understand your customers’ needs

Developing a tactical plan about how you would handle your social media campaign is highly essential. You may decide on a weekly content posting schedule or fortnight posting schedule and if you have time and are able, on a daily posting schedule. The visitors of your site should be able to ascertain the order of things or at the very least know when to expect a new post or an update from you. Creating a schedule will also be instrumental for estimating if your strategy worked by the end of the month or not. Knowing who your audiences are and connecting with them on a more personal level gain you more of their trust and will help you to know what they are interested in. You would then devote time on those things that would be especially beneficial and relevant to them than beating about the bush.

Read: Ten ways to use social media to improve your customer service

7. Develop an Integrated Social Media Strategy

Ensure that each social media platform you use is for a specific purpose. Share your forthcoming events, articles, blog posts, industry news, business news and everything you are doing with your business. This will help you to ascertain how each of social media networks you use is impacting on your business.

To efficiently grow your business, you need to make use of numerous platforms and employ various forms of online marketing strategies. On Facebook for example, start by getting a lot of your friends and fans to like your page especially your prospective customers. This will successfully grow your page with valid prospective consumers. Also, that would mean that when you post content, it gets picked up and read by fans who are already interested in the business you offer and this will create more awareness for your business.

Read: 12 Tips For Integrating Social Media Into Your Marketing Strategy

 8.  Create useful Contents and ensure you connect with everyone

The first thing that draws the attention of prospective customers to your social media is useful contents. You must produce useful and reader friendly articles on constant basis and share it over your social media platforms. People will get connected with you when they know that you have something to offer. If you aren’t particularly good in writing, you can outsource it out to professionals that will help you in this regard. Also, be available to respond to the comments of your readers. That will show them they are valued and would gain you more of their trust over time. Do constantly keep your pages updated to show that your business is alive and vibrant.

Read: 11 Effective Ways to Use Social Media to Promote Your Content

9. Ensure your Social Media Accounts are SEO optimized

You optimize your social media accounts through the use of keywords and hashtags.  Use keywords that are directly related to your business. To choose keywords, think of what word or group of words people searching for your business will use in the search engine.

Read: 5 Things You Need to Know About Social Media & SEO

10. Use the Best Social Networking Sites

For  social media marketing strategy that works, you need to consider first and foremost the most popular ones like Facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest and Google plus. There are tons of them out there. Ensure you discover where your customers are and connect with them as mentioned earlier.

Recommended Books:

Social Media Marketing Workbook: How to Use Social Media for Business

Social Media: Social Media Basics for Business. Learn Why Social Media Is Good for Your Business

The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users

The most excellent strategy to grow your business is by developing a strong and powerful social media presence. So, ensure that you are not left out if what you truly desire is to grow your business.

A home inspection service is one of the extremely important businesses that’s present in the community. It’s a type of service which aims to help people learn more about the quality of a certain type of home before it gets sold to the client, or even before it gets bought by the real estate service. Making sure that houses are safe and clean to live in is a huge priority that every home owner knows, and getting a decent home when moving towards a new location is also a priority. That’s why home inspectors are extremely valuable, and what made this more interesting is that a lot of people demand this type of business.

Even known magazines such as Money has already ranked ownership of a home inspection service has one of their hottest jobs on the list. It’s because there are lots of people that are already aware of the fact that some homeowners are not just that good in taking care of homes. It has also helped a lot of people decide for a better home in the long run, and also made them feel convenient about checking the status of the home.

Recommended Books:

Home Inspection Secrets of A Happy Home Inspector

Home Inspection Business: A Detailed Business and Marketing Plan

Home Inspection Business From A to Z – Expert Real Estate Advice

This type of business can be a great opportunity to you. However, you must first learn the different steps needed to be taken in order to become a home inspector. Here are the following:

Learn from the Experts

There are lots of experts in the field that are willing to teach you when it comes to home inspection tasks. In fact an organization called American Home Inspectors Training exists, and they are open when it comes to helping out people become home inspectors. Their organization can be a good start for you to learn the basics of home inspection, plus it can also lead you towards the path that you will take once you consider it as a business. The said organization has also helped thousands of people already in developing their own home inspection business.

On some states, you might also need to get a certificate in order for others to prove further that you’re a legit home inspector that’s worth dealing with. Florida and Colorado are some of the notable states where no license for home inspection is needed.

Get Insured

There will be an instance where a certain homeowner might not agree with the suggestions and ideas that you have, and there will be a time where the client can also get injured as a result of your suggestion when remodeling the old house. Insurance is a great way to cover all of these up when the need arises, and hopefully it won’t ever happen. Liability insurances are great ways to save your finances, and with just a little investment, you will become financially protected against certain emergencies that are business related.

Contact Real Estate Services

Build relationships and networks with real estate agents since it can give you more opportunities when it comes to your business. For example, a real estate agent can provide their clients some details about your service as a home inspector for you to assist their client when deciding whether to get the home or not.

The help of real estate agents is a great way to market your service further through the use of a more in-demand service. These two companies are a perfect match indeed, and it helps each other become productive by helping their clients out. If you also want to get more contacts, you can also ask banks and mortgage lenders to help you out with clients who might be in need of a home inspection.

Market your Services

You can use marketing strategies that are not damaging to your finances so then you will be able to promote your business further towards more clients. A perfect example of this is the internet – where you can promote your business through social media and your personal website. Your friends, real estate agents, and other companies will be able to see this. It’s a fast and cheap way for you to get promoted because in this era, the internet has served as a huge hub of info, and even businesses are often checked out online nowadays.

Start Financing

In order for you to get things started in the field of home inspection, make sure you have already planned out your finances. There are different techniques and approaches that you can do in order to fund your business. You can get some loan, ask a friend to help you with money, or simply earn with your own efforts for you to continue this business plan of yours. Get everything set by paying taxes, listing down your expenses for purchasing tools, and even the money that needs to be spent on your inspectors. Financing will always make everything flow smoothly in the business which is why you need to plan this well.

You can Also Start Online

You can create a home inspection service purely online, and all you need to do is to learn how the business works. Once done, you can use your website and e-mail so then it will serve as a means in operating your business further. It’s a great thing to know that the help of the internet is extremely useful to some jobs – to the point where others can save money since there is no need of renting a space for office.

Once you get a decent reputation online, reviews about your business will be seen, and some might even share your page on social networking sites for others to know. In the internet, businesses can easily achieve more clients since everything can be easily searched nowadays thanks to the power of technology. Small businesses such as a home inspection service are perfect to operate online, and the only operating time where you and your workers will go out is when a client hires your services.

As you can see, the help of a home inspection service is extremely valuable to people who desire to get a new house to live in. Making sure that safety measures are done is a great idea in planning various matters in our lives, and that includes the house that we will be living at. With home inspection services as your business, for sure a lot of clients will see you as an extremely helpful business to deal with during some of the most important choices in their lives – the part where they pick a home to live in.

Read More:

• Starting a Home Inspection Business
• How to Start a Home Inspection Service
• Start a Home Inspection Business Today!
• Home Real Estate Inspection Business Plan

A flower shop is known to be one of the usual stores that we often see around the streets. These are stalls and/or stores which sell a wide array of flowers for the customers to purchase. Flowers have been an important item when it comes to honoring someone since it’s a beautiful display to show and give, and there are even some flowers that have meaning in it – which is why some such as roses are being sold at high prices occasionally. Some simply like flowers because it can help them make their home well-designed – especially in gardens where you can plant some.

Running a flower shop is also an excellent choice because of the fact that there are lots of flowers that are often used by people for different events and/or purposes. We have some nice tips that you can apply once you plan on starting up a flower shop business. Even well-known florists such as Alison Bradley of Fusion Flowers know well that these steps must be applied well when starting up the business. Here are the following:

Be a Florist

For you to handle the flower shop well, make sure that you know how to be a florist yourself. Florists are not just all about loving flowers and taking care of them; these people make sure that flower detail matters for the sake of design. This means that your hands must be good at handling these plants. You also need to make sure that you’re practical when it comes to various matters in handling the flowers that your client needs since there are some people who want to get a very specific type of design for their flowers.

Recommended Books:

• How to Open & Operate a Financially Successful Florist and Floral Business
• Start Your Own Florist Shop and Other Floral Businesses: Your Step-By-Step Guide to Success (StartUp Series) 
• The Flower Farmer’s Year: How to Grow Cut Flowers for Pleasure and Profit 
• How To Start A Flower Shop: A Complete Florist Business Plan

Learn the Industry

Learning how to be a florist is also about being capable of handling the business dealings that will happen once the flower shop starts to operate. For you to properly learn more about the craft, be sure to attend some community colleges where certifications can be provided if you pass the course. It’s easy to get, and you will be able to get your florist certification in just a few months. It also makes you perfectly knowledgeable in the field of business. On-the-job training is also a good choice for you to learn.

Start your Business Plan

Once you’re done learning more about the business, make sure you start your plan already. The aim of your business is what matters when starting your plans out first because it helps you discover the actual purpose of your business – the things that you will be doing. If you’re going to open a flower shop, for sure you’re helping out farmers that are supplying your flowers, and that’s a great idea for knowing your business’s purpose. Another good example of your purpose is by providing the best prices of flowers probably because you have a dealer that has offered you a low price for your flower supply.

The business type also matters as it helps you identify the different expenses that will be done for this type of investment. You can proceed with sole proprietorship so then you can handle the business all by yourself. You can also get a company who can give you a branch of their business for you to handle. The different between the two are the liabilities that you might need to pay or not, and so as the different regulations that are involved when handling the business. If you want a better way to handle your expenses, and in your own style, being independent is the best choice.

Recommended Books:

• Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful
• The Flower Shop: Charm, Grace, Beauty & Tenderness in a Commercial Context 
• Increase Profit from Your Florist Shop: 145 easy ways to make more money from your flower shop

Study Competitors

Once you’re starting to plan out everything in your business, it’s also time to check out the rivals of your flower shop. There are lots of stores out there in the city that are already reputable thanks to their awesome flower designs, and that can give you a hard time gaining reputation. However, you can always take note that flower shops don’t spread as fast as convenience stores – they are still simply boutiques that are not common in most streets.

What you need to aim for is convenience for the customers if you see that your competitor has a high reputation. This is location-wise since flower shops are not everywhere, and that can be enough for you to divide the customers of the other shop so then they can go to you. It’s an effective strategy for new stores out there, and if you’ve gained a good reputation thanks to your management and crafting skills, you can even stand out in the market.

To do so, you can either check the store itself or do an internet research. You can see customer reviews, and so as the various products that they sell. This is part of researching the business which is why studying competitors is a normal thing in the business world.

Learn Temperature Control

Flowers are living things, and they are also sensitive when it comes to temperature. Any wrong temperature exposure for a long time in the store can kill the plants fast which is why you need to make sure that the store’s temperature, or at least its storage room is set at the correct temperature. Usually, the best temperature for storage rooms must be at 34 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit. Flowers must be placed in highly humid areas for It to provide freshness on its quality. For tropical strains, place it on rooms set at 60 degrees Fahrenheit since cool temperatures can kill the plant.

Set up Everything

Finances, the lot, loans, insurances, make sure you settle all of these. Also, your city might also demand some lot inspection and certification for working businesses so then it can be considered as a legal one. Be sure to finalize all of these so then you can finally start setting up your new business, and for you to fix any errors in your plans before you even proceed.

A flower shop will always be in demand because of the many moments, events and occasions that can happen in the world. The flower is not just a plant; but also a symbol to others depending on what they are celebrating at, and most of us see it as a very fine offering. That’s why flower shops always make sure that their services are of top quality.

Read More:

• Florist on Entrepreneur.com
• The Average Cost in Starting Up a Floral Shop
• A Retail Flower Store Success Story
• Opening a Flower Shop – What I Wish I Knew!