One of the best ways to make steady money at home is by becoming a consultant. No matter what your area of expertise, I’m sure there are people out there who would be willing to pay for your knowledge. If you take a moment to think of the things you’ve excelled at in your life you can come up with several options for becoming a consultant.

We all know about the typical types of consultants. But people get paid for consulting in all kinds of fields. For example, there are many people who make six figure incomes as diversity consultants. They teach businesses to help their employees work together effectively. If you’ve worked in an office for years you probably have some ideas on how people can work together despite their differences.

Another option is to become an image consultant. Many companies need help figuring out how to portray what they want to portray about themselves. As a consumer, you know what appeals to you. By simply asking around and doing a bit of market research it’s easy to get an idea of what particular demographics think of different companies. The trick is to think of ways to improve the image of the companies you work for. While it might seem like a challenge, once you get the hang of it you’ll do well.

Consulting is any easy way to make steady money at home that can provide stability and excitement to your life. If you focus on several different kinds of consulting, you’ll always have new and challenging projects that will keep you busy.

Is it really necessary to hire a wedding planning consultant? Many people have successfully planned and implemented their weddings on their own, but many of these same people probably would not have done all the planning themselves if they had it to do over again. Planning a wedding is a huge task. We all know that, but most of us do not really know how massive the task is until we are facing the task ourselves. That is where a wedding planning consultant comes in.

Indeed, when a bride first begins to think of wedding planning, the process may seem quite straightforward, but it’s when you really begin to get into the meat of it that you see how many little details there really are. Even a fairly small and intimate wedding can be overwhelming. There is everything from invitations, caterers, and wedding cake design to more complicated issues if you are planning a theme wedding. But an experienced wedding planning consultant is like a conductor at a symphony. They know from experience just what to put where and have proved over the years to have the temperament to be able to juggle all the details without going insane.

Moreover, a wedding planning consultant can help with many aspects of a wedding that you may never have even thought of. They can create the perfect wedding that you have always imagined, and at the same time they know enough about how the wedding industry works to give you suggestions that can help keep the cost at a minimum.

With a theme wedding it may be even more important to hire a consultant because all the rules change. We have all been to dozens of weddings that looked pretty much the same to know what the basic elements are, but planning a themed wedding changes the elements of a wedding and in doing so, changes the questions you have to ask. Without a wedding planner that is experienced in orchestrating themed weddings brides often end up with a traditional Victorian that bears little resemblance to the theme apart from one or two details in the wedding.

Wedding planning consultants take care of most all the details for you, from helping you pick out just the right invitations to go along with your chosen theme, to helping you decide what hair style goes best with your gown, and which hair stylist to use. Likewise, an experienced consultant will be able to take care of the details with the pastry chef and florist so that you do not end up with multiple clashing shades of the colors you have chosen for your wedding.

But a wedding planning consultant does more than take care of the details. Along with the size of the ribbons and the color of the icing the planner often serves as a therapist when the bride is overwhelmed, budgeting expert, and mediator when things go wrong. Furthermore, a good, experienced wedding planner is thoroughly versed in the religious practices of a wide variety of belief systems and as such is thoroughly equipped to guide a bride through potentially unfamiliar territory.

If you do decide to take on the job of wedding planning yourself, remember to create a 12 month checklist of all the to dos that you will have to attend to. It’s a big job and in today’s busy world your stress level and therefore the reduced strain on your relationship might make hiring a wedding planning consultant worth the time and money.

How your Career Training and experience could create a high-income consultancy business.

Business owners get bogged down in a myriad of every day problems and things to do. They find there just aren’t enough hours in the day to handle everything that should be taken care of to take the business forward. This is where your career experience may help.

Proper management and planning are basic ingredients to success in business; and most small businesses just don’t have these ingredients in the proportions needed to attain their greatest profit potential. This may be an area of opportunity based on your career training and experience.

Why should this be so? Remember we are talking about small businesses. Very often a person with a particular skill and contacts will ‘start a business’ using their career experience! But what really happens is they have become ‘self employed’.

Which means they are still employed using their career training and experience doing the work, for themselves rather than working as an employee. They may employ others but they are not running a business.

Check this.

If in this scenario the ‘business’ owner stopped work, would the business continue? The answer must be no.

So the real definition of a business is ‘if the owner stops working in the business, can the business of the business continue’. If the answer is no then it is not a business.

Understand that fundamental and you will come to realise that if you have some skill from your career training, past experience, work, hobby or whatever you have the attributes to set up in business as a consultant matching your particular skills to the market.

But you will say that is not a business if you apply the above criteria. Yes that’s correct. But where you will be different is that as a consultant you have an opportunity to develop your business.

Initially you will work in the business, self-employed. You will be busy completing assignments, gaining yet more career training and experience and building case studies.

One of the traps we can easily fall into is assuming that just because we know how to do something, everyone else knows how to do that same thing, too. In many cases, the opposite will be true. So there is a market.

This can start with the most simple of skills.

Can everybody swim?

Can everybody ride a bike?

Can everybody ride a horse?

Can everybody operate a computer?

Etc., right through to the highest of skills.

The skills, training, tools and experience you use in everyday activities give you the ability to do things that others simply can’t fathom.

While you might assume that everyone knows how to use a computer, you’d be wrong.

In fact, even now a small minority of the population is computer literate. Which means that even fewer people understand the various creative programs now available.

And that’s why there will always be a market for consulting, how-to reports, books, videos, DVD’s and training workshops. Everyone has not had the same career training and experience and therefore cannot know what we know. Some people recognise they need and want help and are willing to pay to learn.

Look at the skills you use every day. Many of those are the basis for training products you can create. Do a swift inventory, you will be surprised.

Look at your career training, work and business experience. That is a basis for consulting, training and product creation.

Teach people to swim.

Teach people ride – bike or horse.

Etc., right through the spectrum of your expertise.

Go on to; Write Manuals, Books. Create Videos, DVD’s.

As a consultant with your completed assignments and case studies you will create ‘How to’ products which you can sell. You will develop training courses, which you will present. At these courses you will sell your ‘How to’ products and soon you will employ other consultants to do the presentation on your behalf.

They will be only too pleased to do this for you because they are looking for self employed work while you continue to create more time to create more ‘How to’ products, develop more training courses and do more assignments which fit with your business strategy.

So it’s like this; the overworked small business owner does not really have a business, s/he needs your help. You start as a consultant selling your time. But you’re going to create your own business and you start to implement your strategy to construct your business so that you work ‘on it’ not ‘in it’.

Eventually, properly set up the business will carry on without you. Maybe you think all of this is over simplified, but if you follow this strategy with discipline you will develop a sound growing high income consulting business based on your career training, skills and experience.

If you don’t specialize in information technology (IT), assessing the value of IT services can be difficult, especially at a time when computer technology improves monthly. To learn how your company could benefit from IT solutions, the best option is to contact a firm that specializes in computer IT consulting to analyze your business’s IT needs, and then suggest solutions that meet them. In some cases, businesses require a single solution to a single problem, while in other cases the solution involves more than one approach. Below, we list some common IT solutions and how they could benefit your business, depending on its needs.

Four Computer IT Consulting Services that Could Benefit Your Company

Email and Spam Control

Email is an indispensable business tool, and nothing threatens its usability like spam. On the average day, spam is conveniently filtered away by your spam filter. But what happens if your filter malfunctions? For the next few hours, your inbox could flood with spam mailings until you couldn’t address business emails in a timely manner, costing you time and missed business opportunities. One of the best methods for preventing a spam attack is to have a computer consulting firm manage your spam filtration remotely, a strategy that routinely keeps companies on track in the event of filter failures.

Network Security

Every business has at least two network security concerns: preventing network attacks from the outside, and preventing them from the inside. Some companies address network security by conducting it on site, while others have it managed offsite, a decision that typically results in the highest level of security, as most computer consulting firms specialize in implementing the latest security strategies to combat the latest hacking and interior corruption strategies.

IT Budgeting and Planning

If your company doesn’t have its own information technology department, or it doesn’t have an informed, updated budget for its department’s needs, hiring an computer consulting service to analyze your company’s IT needs and develop a budget that would meet them on an ongoing basis is key to eliminating short-sighted spending and over economizing. Without an informed budget in place, companies often resort to spending as little as possible on information technology, jeopardizing the safety of their data and the smoothness of their computer based business processes.

Data Back Up and Disaster Recovery

Because a company’s data is usually its most valuable asset, data back up and disaster recovery should receive first attention when implementing new information technology solutions. Many companies make the mistake of backing up their data onsite, a scenario that could lead to data loss due to fire, flooding, theft, or other happenings. Imagine your proprietary data and sales and marketing information going down the drain. For most companies, such a data loss would result in their going out of business shortly thereafter. One of the easiest ways to avoid data loss is to back up your data offsite through a computer consulting service.

How your Career Training and experience could create a high-income consultancy business.

Business owners get bogged down in a myriad of every day problems and things to do. They find there just aren’t enough hours in the day to handle everything that should be taken care of to take the business forward. This is where your career experience may help.

Proper management and planning are basic ingredients to success in business; and most small businesses just don’t have these ingredients in the proportions needed to attain their greatest profit potential. This may be an area of opportunity based on your career training and experience.

Why should this be so? Remember we are talking about small businesses. Very often a person with a particular skill and contacts will ‘start a business’ using their career experience! But what really happens is they have become ‘self employed’.

Which means they are still employed using their career training and experience doing the work, for themselves rather than working as an employee. They may employ others but they are not running a business.

Check this.

If in this scenario the ‘business’ owner stopped work, would the business continue? The answer must be no.

So the real definition of a business is ‘if the owner stops working in the business, can the business of the business continue’. If the answer is no then it is not a business.

Understand that fundamental and you will come to realise that if you have some skill from your career training, past experience, work, hobby or whatever you have the attributes to set up in business as a consultant matching your particular skills to the market.

But you will say that is not a business if you apply the above criteria. Yes that’s correct. But where you will be different is that as a consultant you have an opportunity to develop your business.

Initially you will work in the business, self-employed. You will be busy completing assignments, gaining yet more career training and experience and building case studies.

One of the traps we can easily fall into is assuming that just because we know how to do something, everyone else knows how to do that same thing, too. In many cases, the opposite will be true. So there is a market.

This can start with the most simple of skills.

Can everybody swim?

Can everybody ride a bike?

Can everybody ride a horse?

Can everybody operate a computer?

Etc., right through to the highest of skills.

The skills, training, tools and experience you use in everyday activities give you the ability to do things that others simply can’t fathom.

While you might assume that everyone knows how to use a computer, you’d be wrong.

In fact, even now a small minority of the population is computer literate. Which means that even fewer people understand the various creative programs now available.

And that’s why there will always be a market for consulting, how-to reports, books, videos, DVD’s and training workshops. Everyone has not had the same career training and experience and therefore cannot know what we know. Some people recognise they need and want help and are willing to pay to learn.

Look at the skills you use every day. Many of those are the basis for training products you can create. Do a swift inventory, you will be surprised.

Look at your career training, work and business experience. That is a basis for consulting, training and product creation.

Teach people to swim.

Teach people ride – bike or horse.

Etc., right through the spectrum of your expertise.

Go on to; Write Manuals, Books. Create Videos, DVD’s.

As a consultant with your completed assignments and case studies you will create ‘How to’ products which you can sell. You will develop training courses, which you will present. At these courses you will sell your ‘How to’ products and soon you will employ other consultants to do the presentation on your behalf.

They will be only too pleased to do this for you because they are looking for self employed work while you continue to create more time to create more ‘How to’ products, develop more training courses and do more assignments which fit with your business strategy.

So it’s like this; the overworked small business owner does not really have a business, s/he needs your help. You start as a consultant selling your time. But you’re going to create your own business and you start to implement your strategy to construct your business so that you work ‘on it’ not ‘in it’.

Eventually, properly set up the business will carry on without you. Maybe you think all of this is over simplified, but if you follow this strategy with discipline you will develop a sound growing high income consulting business based on your career training, skills and experience.

What is an SEO consultant? How much should they charge? what exactly do they do? These are questions I find myself being asked regularly as an SEO consultant and there mixed views surrounding the validity of SEO work online.

One line of argument is the fees that SEO consultants charge, what is a reasonable amount to pay? I saw quote been given recently requesting 250 dollars an hour! Putting it kindly this quotation is massively over priced. What makes the consultant believe they can offer that much more value? It is quotes like this that put the SEO world in a bad light and do nothing to help those of us who are trying to make an honest living by offering our skills and services.

There is another argument at the opposite end of the scale which suggests you should not bother paying an SEO consultant and simply learn the techniques. Normally people who suggest this know very little about SEO and yet succeed undetering people from making a worthwhile investment in their product and service.

The reason why people hire SEO consultants is quite simple, they do not have the time or resources to learn and implement it themselves. Online business owners spend all of their time managing there business and seeing to the administrative aspect of running an online venture. They want to increase their sites visibility online but it is simply not feasible for them to learn and implement SEO for 10 – 15 hours a week.

This is where the job of an SEO consultant is invaluable, not only does the consultant have the relevant expertise and experience but can also see to every online optimisation need. As you may be aware getting your site to the top of Google is no overnight task and for some webmasters can take years. Hiring a competent SEO consultant will seriously reduce this time and your business will see results faster. The business you will receive from competent search engine optimisation will far outway your investment.

My overall stance on SEO consultants and the role they play is simple. A qualified competent SEO consultant is more than a worthwhile investment in your business, however the average SEO should charge no more than $75 dollars an hour and provide you with full details of their activities so you can track your monthly progression. One final thing, do not believe anybody who states search engine optimisation is easy and can be done in a couple of hours a week.

If you don’t specialize in information technology (IT), assessing the value of IT services can be difficult, especially at a time when computer technology improves monthly. To learn how your company could benefit from IT solutions, the best option is to contact a firm that specializes in computer IT consulting to analyze your business’s IT needs, and then suggest solutions that meet them. In some cases, businesses require a single solution to a single problem, while in other cases the solution involves more than one approach. Below, we list some common IT solutions and how they could benefit your business, depending on its needs.

Four Computer IT Consulting Services that Could Benefit Your Company

Email and Spam Control

Email is an indispensable business tool, and nothing threatens its usability like spam. On the average day, spam is conveniently filtered away by your spam filter. But what happens if your filter malfunctions? For the next few hours, your inbox could flood with spam mailings until you couldn’t address business emails in a timely manner, costing you time and missed business opportunities. One of the best methods for preventing a spam attack is to have a computer consulting firm manage your spam filtration remotely, a strategy that routinely keeps companies on track in the event of filter failures.

Network Security

Every business has at least two network security concerns: preventing network attacks from the outside, and preventing them from the inside. Some companies address network security by conducting it on site, while others have it managed offsite, a decision that typically results in the highest level of security, as most computer consulting firms specialize in implementing the latest security strategies to combat the latest hacking and interior corruption strategies.

IT Budgeting and Planning

If your company doesn’t have its own information technology department, or it doesn’t have an informed, updated budget for its department’s needs, hiring an computer consulting service to analyze your company’s IT needs and develop a budget that would meet them on an ongoing basis is key to eliminating short-sighted spending and over economizing. Without an informed budget in place, companies often resort to spending as little as possible on information technology, jeopardizing the safety of their data and the smoothness of their computer based business processes.

Data Back Up and Disaster Recovery

Because a company’s data is usually its most valuable asset, data back up and disaster recovery should receive first attention when implementing new information technology solutions. Many companies make the mistake of backing up their data onsite, a scenario that could lead to data loss due to fire, flooding, theft, or other happenings. Imagine your proprietary data and sales and marketing information going down the drain. For most companies, such a data loss would result in their going out of business shortly thereafter. One of the easiest ways to avoid data loss is to back up your data offsite through a computer consulting service.

What is an SEO consultant? How much should they charge? what exactly do they do? These are questions I find myself being asked regularly as an SEO consultant and there mixed views surrounding the validity of SEO work online.

One line of argument is the fees that SEO consultants charge, what is a reasonable amount to pay? I saw quote been given recently requesting 250 dollars an hour! Putting it kindly this quotation is massively over priced. What makes the consultant believe they can offer that much more value? It is quotes like this that put the SEO world in a bad light and do nothing to help those of us who are trying to make an honest living by offering our skills and services.

There is another argument at the opposite end of the scale which suggests you should not bother paying an SEO consultant and simply learn the techniques. Normally people who suggest this know very little about SEO and yet succeed undetering people from making a worthwhile investment in their product and service.

The reason why people hire SEO consultants is quite simple, they do not have the time or resources to learn and implement it themselves. Online business owners spend all of their time managing there business and seeing to the administrative aspect of running an online venture. They want to increase their sites visibility online but it is simply not feasible for them to learn and implement SEO for 10 – 15 hours a week.

This is where the job of an SEO consultant is invaluable, not only does the consultant have the relevant expertise and experience but can also see to every online optimisation need. As you may be aware getting your site to the top of Google is no overnight task and for some webmasters can take years. Hiring a competent SEO consultant will seriously reduce this time and your business will see results faster. The business you will receive from competent search engine optimisation will far outway your investment.

My overall stance on SEO consultants and the role they play is simple. A qualified competent SEO consultant is more than a worthwhile investment in your business, however the average SEO should charge no more than $75 dollars an hour and provide you with full details of their activities so you can track your monthly progression. One final thing, do not believe anybody who states search engine optimisation is easy and can be done in a couple of hours a week.

Instead of hiring a professional survey consultant, many business owners or corporate managers attempt to design their own online omnibus surveys and execute and analyze the data themselves. But the most successful people in the world got that way by surrounding themselves with experts. That is especially true when it comes to taking advantage of knowledgeable market survey companies and the expertise of a trained survey consultant.

Use the right survey consultant and your surveys will pay for themselves many times over. But try managing an online omnibus survey with a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approach and you’ll risk losing money, credibility, and customers. It happens all the time, thanks to poorly designed questionnaires, inappropriate sample frames, and questions that confuse data and contribute to misleading outcomes.

• Any top notch omnibus survey company, for instance, will know how to ensure than the sample or surveyed audience is large enough – and sufficiently well-stratified – to get the insights you seek.
• Meanwhile their survey consultants will create questions that yield more candid and factual responses by being easy to comprehend yet psychologically sensitive to the concerns of consumers being surveyed.
• When surveys don’t flow well or when they delve into sensitive issues, people may fill them out with information that is inaccurate. Instead of responding to the question the way it was intended, they instead answer in a way that they think is socially acceptable, will make them appear more intelligent, or will preserve their privacy and anonymity.
• Fail to understand these dynamics and it can not only mislead, but it can cause you to launch an expensive ad campaign or product line that misses the target entirely.
• But the skillful survey consultant will design a survey that allows respondents to answer clearly and truthfully, will embed quality controls to ensure the integrity of the output, and will set timelines and reporting benchmarks to ensure the data is fresh when it is time to use it to make those all-important decisions.
• A professional survey consultant can also do fast, flexible analysis. Many times the results of an online omnibus survey will need to be interpreted clearly in very short order. Providing quick, accurate analysis of omnibus survey results is often one of the most valuable aspects of the survey consultant’s service.
• The survey consultant can also monitor response rates and adjust the sample to keep up with slower completion rates, for instance, or augment sample to allow for deeper analysis of interviews from key groups of respondents whose data would otherwise be obscured by statistical white noise.

In today’s world of sophisticated online omnibus survey tools and survey company technologies the power of world-class market survey companies cannot be overestimated. Let them conduct your next survey – and ask the right kinds of questions – to really uncover answers that illuminate your vision. Don’t rely on guesswork, but engage the services of online survey companies and a professional survey consultant.