Many small business owners usually consider Management Consulting or SEO Expert to be part of larger corporation structure and needs. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Management Consulting helps with bringing back efficiency into the business by optimizing performance factors and implementing future improvement plans.
Consulting experts conduct this assessment by first evaluating the current business structure and roadblocks. They then see if these hindrances as due to management or basic business practice. They have a theory that if roadblocks that currently appear can be fixed this leads to the fasted and easiest possible way for improvement.
How Does Management Consulting Pertain to Small Business?
Small business owners fail to realize that growth doesn't just come from pushing forward but it's sped up by making current processes more efficient that's what management consulting does. That doesn't mean they need to hire a management consultant to go through their business. What they can do instead is understand the evaluation process and see what changes they need to implement into their business flow.
Use your knowledge, experience and intuition to help leaders excel
-Robert Lee Ph.D
8 Management Consulting Tips for Small businesses
1. Always Keep Track of Progress
As a small businesses owner your prone to being a bit lazy when i comes to keeping track of actual numbers. Usually it’s because you are your own boss without any oversight and some things just don’t make the priority list, financials being one of them. That is unless tax season is around the corner. That being said it's crucial for small business owners to know what their turnover is daily, weekly and monthly.
Having the correct numbers on your products and services and which ones sell and why is extremely important. The best way to do this for an online business is by implementing analytics. One of the best and easiest ways to add analytics to your website is through Google. It’s a simple, easy to use and free process and it gives you your metrics at a glance, it can even track online sales, conversions, leads and so much more.
2. Make Sure You Have Goals in Place
Just like tracking progress small business owners don’t consider keeping goals to be high up on the priority list. But just as numbers are important, having a road map with short and long-term milestones are crucial as well. Always make sure to have small attainable goals that you can reach in a short amount of time. Also, be sure that these goals are easily measurable. This helps when you are growing your business as progress even small gives a boost in confidence and energy.
3. Grow your business through multiple ways.
Most business owners think that having a product or service, a basic web presence and maybe some local newspaper marking does the deed for them. They couldn’t be further from the truth. Growing your business and marketing need an active ongoing push even as your business grows from infancy and when it’s about to scale even further. Some of the services small business owners need is SEO alongside, Google Local Pack services, Basic Social Media Marketing.
The best way to go about these services is to focus on low budget marketing this strategy will help you keep your expenses low. Having a hands-on approach to your marketing can help you understand the channels you obtain your customer from allowing you to better serve then in the future. Handing something this crucial off to an agency is not always the best idea unless they share every move with you like Rank Today does with its client. But remember not all agencies are open to this and when that’s the case its best to just learn and do it yourself.
4. Master Your Business Pitch
A memorable ad is always a great way to have lifelong customer who speak about your business even without them ever trying your product or service. A pitch is essentially an audio ad that retains in your customers or potential customers mind. It’s so fluid, in sync and to the point with a very interesting appeal that it becomes memorable. It has to be an experience for the listener or a short story so interesting that it captivates them with a lasting impression.
5. Keep up with trends.
We are not talking about fashion trends, unless you are in that industry. We mean business trends that relate to your space. Many times, businesses are late to adapt to new changes around them. At first these small things don’t seem to be vital to business operations or growth. But on the long run they can make the difference between survival and death of the business. The most of these examples is blockbuster and Netflix. As a small startup Netflix provided online streaming, a new trend in the entertainment space. Blockbuster a movie and entertainment giant of the time didn’t think this trend would last leading to its eventual demise. Just remember be the netflix not the blockbuster of your industry.
6. Learn how to sell your product or service
As a business owner you are probably thinking that you know exactly how to sell your product or your service and you don't need management consulting or sales help. But as you may learn that sometimes the reason why your business isn't growing is not due to product quality but due to how you sell. Understanding sales psychology goes a long way. If you follow our advice and add analytics to your business you will learn exactly what your customers are looking for. This will help you align your pitch in order to give an appealing presentation and closing the deal.
7. Become an Authority in your industry
This isn't an easy task by any means. But being an authority means that your name should become synonymous with your service or product within a given area. The fastest way to do this is in person and online. If you are in the SEO arena and are an SEO Expert be sure to hold free classes for local business owners to come and learn valuable insights to search engine trends. If you are an online business be sure you rank in google using seo for your desired keywords. You can even use some SEO Tools to help you get these results.
8. Encourage Your Employees
From new sales to loss of sale be sure to always give support to your employees. Use negative moments as a lesson learning moment and positive moments as stepping stones for higher milestones and rewards. Whatever way the balance tips be sure to always treat your staff with respect. If they have a place for your business in their heart they will be the best employees they can be.
Is that all a Management Consultanting does?
Of course not, a management consultant will go much deeper into the particulars of your business. But these few steps above will help you define your goals, keep progress and make sure your business is on track for optimal growth.
So does my business need an SEO Expert?
Ideally like we mentioned you want your business to not only gain authority you also want to be found by your customers. Having an SEO Expert and Specialist helps you identify your website and business weaknesses online. You can then develop a detailed plan of action, target keywords that pertain to your business and clients and start moving up the search results.
Although many people consider these SEO Expert Services to be very costly that's not entirely true. Ideally SEO results should bring you more ROI over time than any other type of advertising. That is if it is done correctly. Rank Today provides these services for many industries especially with results that matter to you most as a business owner. Rankings don't always mean anything if your customers do not convert
Bob Lee is a management consultant and executive coach in private practice in New York City. His work focuses on leadership effectiveness and management transitions. His primary clients are in financial and professional services, media, and consumer products organizations. He is the Managing Director of iCoachNewYork, which provides coach training programs and supervision for internal and external coaches. Bob is affiliated with Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, at The New School, where he teaches a course in coaching theory and practice in the Organizational Change Management graduate program