I run an internet company that supplies help in the form of small business management and accounting software tools and know-how to thousands of startups and small businesses in all corners of the world and whenever I explain to people what I do, I consistently get asked the same question “Given my background, how could I monetize it and make an income by becoming a small business consultant”? I’m always ready to supply wisdom as I am fortunate enough to spend a major amount of the time of my day communicating with small business owners and workers happy to to talk about their problems and needs.

This is what I tell them:

The web is the perfect medium for finding customers and it makes it simple to get into a dialogue 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 guidance and help them address 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 software to produce excellent material are widely available on the network. Creating a series of lessons in simple to use digital formats is now straight forward and doesn’t cost much to do. You just have to be prepared to spend a modest amount of time mastering the tools. material] that you can either sell or give away to get your target customer’s attention.

You have to decide what you want to achieve. Consultancy and Information marketing are great bedfellows and if you do both can be very lucrative as the consultancy will provide you with the questions, the answers to which repurpose for sale through the internet and sold over and over again.

If you are starting from scratch with no customers but have expertise you know would be in demand by others then plan to create a no longer than 120 secs video to promote yourself and your expertise to your target(s). Unless you know the target(s) precise problem then make the video generic and adhere tothe following format – S.T.A.R (Situation or Task, Action, Result). Keep it short, interesting and sweet. 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 target(s)problem 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 method is ideally suited to situations where you are individually targeting prospect(s). The one objective you should be constantly pursuing is the creation of a list that you can converse with and sell product 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 bigger your list the more opportunities for consulating and selling information products you will uncover. If you would like to understand more about how to do this then visit any of the links in this article. I would be delighted to help you.