Consulting is a business of helping other businesses, organizations, and individuals improve their implementations of certain goals by providing expert solutions or advice. A consultant studies existing problems in a plan and offers improved solutions by leveraging specialized expertise and services in different domains.
Expert opinions or consultations have always been in demand in all kinds of domains. For instance, businesses have been hiring consulting firms to get external advice or specialized expertise in multiple verticals such as product development, operations, finance, marketing, human resource management, or implementation of certain tools and technologies.
Some more examples of consultation as a business are as follows:
- You may hire a law firm for a consultation on the legal aspects and challenges of running your business.
- You may hire a software development firm for a consultation on the development of your Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
- You may hire a consultant to implement new technology in your organization.
Consultation need not always be this corporate in nature. A consultant may be as big as McKinsey & Company, which is a global management consulting firm, or it could be as small as an SEO service company. It need not even be an organized firm, as even individuals with adequate expertise can set up a consultation business. Take Neil Patel for example. He runs an SEO and Digital Marketing firm, but if you have the expertise, you too could offer similar services as an individual to other individuals or organizations.
In fact, a simpler and more relatable example of consultation is right in front of you as your family doctor, who offers his/her expertise when you need medical consultation.
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Did you know? “The Global Online Doctor Consultation Market is expected to grow from USD 9,453.45 Million in 2020 to USD 13,141.88 Million by the end of 2025.”
The worldwide online doctor consultation market is semi-united with the presence of global and local players. Some of the key players working in the global market are:
- Babylon Health
- CallHealth
- DocPrime
- DocsApp
- EClinic
This is just one segment; the niches in the consultation business could go on and on. Irrespective of your domain, there is always a way to explore consultation as a business, both individually or as an organized firm.
Do you want to know how to set up your own consulting business?
Are you looking to grow your existing consultation business?
This article will offer you a detailed guide on how to start an online consultation business for anything or any expertise that you think other individuals, companies, or organizations would want to avail from you. If you are an expert in your field, this article will help you to set up your consulting business online in the easiest and quickest ways possible.
Why online?
Especially after the COVID-19 situation, when the entire world was forced to stay at home, the need for online alternatives to the crucial aspects of life became non-negotiable. From education to shopping, businesses that went online coped with the pandemic more sustainably. The consulting industry was one of the prompt entrants into this new normal.
Why is the Consulting Industry Going Digital?
Starting an online consultation business is in fact an easier job than its traditional counterpart. With simple tools and software solutions, it is possible to start an online consultation service on the go. You just need:
- A decent video conferencing software solution for communicating with clients.
- An internet messenger and emailing service to send written communications.
- A digital calendar and events management tool for appointments.
- A payment solution to receive digital payments from clients.
You may get the above-mentioned solutions separately, or use an integrated software solution for consolidated online consultations and management. These tools can offer you a series of benefits.
Live online communication
Effective communication is the primary driver of any consulting service. By starting an online consultation service, you get access to modern communication channels that establish a seamless connection between you and your clientele.
- Video conferencing: Access to a video communication channel for face-to-face interactions and better connection. A video calling or online meeting tool performs this task effortlessly.
- Live chat: Some tools make messaging more real-time and also function in support of your video communication channels.
- Group calls: Some tools come in handy when you want to connect with multiple clients at once. Group webinars could be used for virtual meetings and online classes.
- File Transfer: Many solutions enable file-exchange channels to send and receive attachments including docs, PDFs, presentations, images, contacts, etc.
- Screen Sharing: Tools that allow users to collaborate or conduct presentations by casting their screens on other user’s devices.
For example, the following fitness training platform, fitnessforworld.com, offers both in-person and group training via webinars and private video conferencing.
Needless to say, support for these simple features makes an online consultation platform complete, and even better than the traditional channels of consultation. In fact, with more people using mobile phones these days, you should get a better reach in online mode than the traditional counterparts.
Effective time management
It’s not easy to manage a work-life balance. Busy schedules and family commitments may often lead to time-management issues: people may forget about appointments, run into random troubles, and fail to reach the meeting locations. This could hurt any consultation service. Needless to say that even your clients are more likely to run into the same problems.
Irrespective of how genuine the excuses could be, no consultation business can work without the proper commitment from both parties, and this requires more effective time management, which generally is easy when you are using an online consultation platform.
Integrated calendar and events management tools can track, manage, and send an email, push notifications, and SMS reminders to the relevant parties about the scheduled appointments. It ensures that no one fails to make it for the online meetings, which are accessible from anywhere at any time.
Apart from this, an integrated calendar can also let the participants cancel, prepone, or postpone online meetings, while also delivering needful communications down the line.
Streamlined payment process
Be it traditional or online consultation, you need your clients to pay for the service. This is rather a more persistent issue with any business, as clients may delay payments or simply not pay after the consultation. That’s where an online consultation platform may put your services behind a paywall, allowing you to create a robust workflow with a streamlined payment process.
Starting right from advance payments to automatic invoicing, enterprise payment plans, online payment processing, and balance payment reminders, an online platform can manage everything without any manual intervention. You can also couple your payment process with promotional tools to offer discounts and coupon codes in your marketing campaigns.
Payment solutions like Stripe, Braintree, Paypal, and Square, etc. are used by online consultation providers across the planet to monetize their platforms and leverage automated workflows.
Easy accounting
Irrespective of nature, every business needs to pay taxes. Having your business streamlined with payments and invoices managed digitally, it becomes easier to manage your accounting and taxes. The online consultation software can track and manage transactions and offer a detailed audit of earnings and payables within any time frame. Besides, you can integrate different accounting and tax management tools for more robust data collection and accounting.
Consolidated client management
Knowing your clients is a primary requirement of any consulting business. With online consultation, you can expect to get more clients from different parts of the world. Hence, you need a consolidated data collection and client management system to know your clients better.
With a built-in CRM or third-party CRMs integrated via APIs in your system, you can expect a robust client management system to not only collect and store client information, but also use multiple data points to produce consolidated reports using records such as name, location, date of birth, contact details, client history, payments information, and so on.
These data points play a crucial role in establishing long-lasting client relationships. For example, for launching targeted marketing campaigns by segmenting your clients as per their names, occupation, location, industry, etc. Besides, the same platform can also allow you to collect, store, and analyze feedback from the clients after each consultation.
Consultation marketplace
Not all consultation entrepreneurs offer their own expertise. Some run consultation marketplaces that employ other experts who can offer services to the marketplace’s clients.
For example, if you are a doctor, you can start your own online Marketplace For Online Consultancy service. However, if you don’t have a medical degree, you might still be able to earn from this profitable market by starting an online doctor consultation marketplace that allows other doctors to offer their services to your clients. In return, you would get a commission from the doctors for connecting them with their potential clients. You can take some great inspiration from popular doctor video consultation platforms like Practo, Askadoctor, MDLive, etc.
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