How to Use Your Career Training as a High Income Consultant

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.

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Setting Fees For Your Consulting Business

Setting consulting fees and hourly rates for a new consultant can be a challenging process. If you set the hourly rate too high, you won’t get business, set the hourly rate to low and you’ll not make money.

There are several factors that determine the correct hourly rate for flat consulting fee. The most important is quite simply, how much do you need? There is a formula for setting this rate and you’ll be surprised how closely the result parallels what others charge.

X = hourly consulting rate

To find X

X=y+H+M+P+F

How do we find X?

First we need to define a few constants. We’ll start with our base rate which is Y.

A= is the salary you desire
B= the number of hours you can realistically bill in one year.

To define the base rate (Y) A/B
So for example if you desire a salary of $80,000 per year and you can bill 1500 hours as an IT consultant you are left e rate of $53 per hour. This is not your base rate, you still have one more calculation.

Next we have to add in the self employment tax. This is the tax for Social Security and Medicare for a self employed or small business owner. This rate is 15.3% Add this to the $53 (53 * .153)

Now we have a base hourly rate (Y) of $61.

At this point many independent consultants set their rate and hang up the shingle. This is why many of them are out of business within a year or two. You must consider all of the other things you’ll need that your employer paid on your behalf, and money to grow your business.

H = Health insurance costs

The first and most costly is health insurance. If you have a family of four you can count on at least $500 per month. Health insurance for self employed can be very expensive. Check with several brokers do get the best price and then divide the total yearly cost by the number of hours you will bill. Taking a rate of $500 per month, or $6,000 per year, at 1500 hours your rate will need to increase by $4 per hour to cover health insurance.

M= Marketing and sales costs

For an independent consultant your business is only as strong as your next engagement. We recommend a minimum of 5% of your first year estimated sales to keep the pump primed. $2.6 would be our hourly rate at this salary.

P= Professional fees.

This is the cost for your accountant, attorney fees, answering service, and any other monthly or quarterly fees you’ll need to pay throughout the course of the year. We’ll use a figure of $2400 for this example, so P= $1.6 ($2400/1500 hours)

F=Fudge factor.

The fudge factor is the small things that are going to come up from time to time. Stamps to mail out invoices, a one time cost for your accounting software (QuickBooks, or Microsoft money) and the dozens of other items that pop up from time to time. As your business grows the F factor will have other expenses like rent, and overhead for non-billing employees, extracted and divided by the number of employees and the number of hours worked. For now just use your best guess. If you need starting point $200 per month is not unreasonable. F=$1.6

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OE Consultants: Is There a Future for Them?

Since my “Death of the OD Practitioner” article was published about a month ago, I have been asked whether Organizational Effectiveness (OE) consultants will experience the same fate. My answer is “no.” Of course, that assumes that OE consultants do not follow the same destructive path that Organization Development (OD) practitioners chose.

OD practitioners made the mistake of not partnering with their clients to produce business results. OD practitioners looked at business executives (their clients) with disdain.
They saw business men and women as bourgeois money-grabbers who didn’t care about their workers. Their anti-business, anti-capitalism, anti-management rhetoric has led to their own demise. (You can’t look down your nose at your business client and expect to stay in business yourself.)

OE consultants, who share a different mindset, will share a different fate. OE consultants respect their clients and serve as business partners. Let me make the following predictions about the future of OE consulting:

1. OE consultants who serve as strategic business partners will rise in status and recognition in their organizations. Salaries will rise too as the value of their expertise becomes more widely recognized. (A value-added approach will be critical to fulfilling this prediction.)

2. The title of Chief Learning Officer (CLO) or Director of Organizational Effectiveness will become commonplace at leading corporations. These positions will be responsible for all organizational learning and change efforts.

3. The role of OD practitioners will continue to decline in importance for two reasons: (a) OD practitioners have not adopted a strategic business partner approach, and (b) many OD practices have already been adopted by mainstream American businesses.

4. OE consultants will become more responsive to the needs of senior management. OE consultants will become a valuable in-house (or independent) source of guidance on tough management issues such as succession planning, the creation and transfer of tacit knowledge, and the development of organizational talent.

5. OE consultants will develop higher levels of consulting skills to increase their value to their clients.

If you are an OE consultant, there are several things you should keep in mind:

Bob Pike has said, “Deliver what is needed, not just what is requested.”

David Ulrich predicts, “Business organizations in the future will compete aggressively for the best talent.”

I have predicted, “In the years ahead, senior executives will be looking for high-level tacit knowledge and experience that will add to their organizations’ core competencies and competitive advantage. These core competencies, in the form of highly developed human capital, will become the organization’s most important form of sustainable competitive advantage.”

How are you going to add value to your organization’s (or your clients’) core competencies and competitive advantage? You can’t stand still in a fast-moving world!

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Top Tips For Your New Restaurant From a Restaurant Consultant

Want to hear some good news? Your chances of success are better than most people think. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the survival rates of all new businesses started between 1998 and 2002 find that 66% of them are still open two years after they started.

A Cornell University study of restaurants in three major markets showed a first year failure (or closure) rate of 27% with only a minor (4%) difference between franchised and independent restaurants.

Regardless of how you crunch the statistics, and I might add that quality statistics for the restaurant industry are hard to find, approximately 30% of all new, first year restaurants go out of business on the average. This means you have a 70% chance of first year success if you have a viable, well thought out concept in a worthwhile location. It is important to note that of the 30% of restaurants that close during their first year, most of those operators were under-educated, under capitalized (most common reason), or were not willing to make the time commitments necessary to get the job done.

Why am I concentrating on the first year aspects of survival? Because statistics and logic both say that if you make it past your first year, the percentages are in your favor beyond year one. How can you minimize the risk in your first year?

These Top Tips listed below will aid in insuring your survival:

Tip #1.
Know your market. The easiest and fastest way is to get a Feasibility Study done! I know of a restaurateur who was looking at placing a Mexican restaurant into a major metro area. His Feasibility Study revealed that a quickly expanding localized chain was inevitably going to greatly diminish his potential success, so he changed his concept, thereby avoiding an expensive potential failure. You too can avoid major failure by knowing your market, and concentrating strongly on your biggest competitor. If you can’t or don’t want to fight for market share, reconsider your concept niche or location.

Tip #2.
Find your niche. We have all heard this before, but you can’t be everything to everyone, and do it well. Select the market you enjoy and have experience in. If you know everything about the burrito business, and know for a fact that your burritos are superior in quality, then chase down that great location, know your market, and fill that niche. It’s important to minimize the competition in your chosen niche, and done right, you can own the entire niche market. Why compete when you can own the market?

Tip #3.
Have a plan. Don’t shoot in the dark with your capital resources. Pay for a quality business plan, and have a qualified restaurant consultant do it. You pay for legal and accounting advice because they’re professionals in their industry. Same thing with your Restaurant Consultant. A business plan is not cheap, but it will guide you on the path to growing your business profitably, and you’ll find that your business plan will quickly pay for itself.

Tip #4.
Know the industry, or pay for the knowledge. Just a few pieces of quality advice at the right time can save you thousands of dollars. Did you know that if your Restaurant Consultant negotiates your pricing with your foodservice vendors, you’d get better pricing than if you had negotiated the prices yourself? The author of this article was Director of Business Development with a large foodservice distributor, and is able to lower your food cost significantly by representing your interests with your vendors.

Tip #5.
Your menu is your number one tool in insuring a profitable operation. By costing out each menu item and placing it in the correct menu location, you can bring more dollars to the bottom line. Operators are so concerned with food cost percentages, but fact of the matter is that you take dollars and not percentages to the bank. It costs a little bit, but your reward is great when you have your menu professionally designed. Regardless of the size of your operation, you can’t afford not to have your menu evaluated. Why miss out on lost profits?

Tip #6.
The menu controls everything. From what you serve, to what equipment you need, to your signage design and concept name–everything revolves around the menu. What are you serving, and what is your position in the market? If you don’t know, get help immediately.

Tip #7.
Build your team. You need a few good players on your team, and the team members are as follows: An attorney with restaurant experience, an accountant with a list of restaurant clients, a banker that understands the restaurant industry, and Restaurant Consultant that understands startup ventures. When interviewing your Restaurant Consultant, know in advance that there is only one proper way to figure your food and beverage cost percentages. If you are told that you take your total costs and divide that number by your sales, you are getting inferior advice-keep looking. May I humbly suggest our services? If you would like to know the correct formula for computing food and beverage costs, please contact the author of this article, Kevin Moll, at 1-800-961-6005 for some insights.

Tip #8.
Cover your business bases. This includes: Insurance, corporate formation, business registration, company structure, funding, design, architecture, location, building codes, health department regulations, permits, and others. These will all have to be factored into your plans for opening and staying open!

Tip #9.
Understand your marketing and have a plan. You may, “Own a niche”, you may serve the highest quality products, and you may be the best in your market. But if nobody knows where you are located or what you offer, how will you pay the bills? A big part of the business plan is a high quality marketing plan. Has this convinced you to consider having a business plan done?

Tip #10.
Go forward. Until you are open, you will be faced with many obstacles that may be new to you. Use your team, stay focused on the goal of not only getting or staying open, but excelling in your brand management, delivery of product, and above all, listen to your advisors. As they have nothing to loose by telling you the unvarnished truth, they’re in your court more than you know!

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Why Grant Consultants Make 70% More Than Grant Writers

In a 2009 survey of its members, the American Association of Grant Professionals (AAGP) found that grant consultants made an average of $90,000 per year while grant writers made an average of $53,010. This article will expose 4 reasons why consultants make 70% more than salaried grant writers.

Reason 1 – Charge More Per Project

While grant consultants are freelance professionals who charge for services rendered on a project by project basis, professional grant writers typically work for one agency on salary. Consultants can therefore charge more on a project that grant writers who are salaried and do not have the flexibility to charge more for projects. Grant writers get paid a salary and cannot charge more per grant.

Reason 2 – Include Bonuses

Consultants may include bonuses into their contracts. The AAGP code of ethics allows for performance-based compensation like bonuses “provided such bonuses are in accordance with prevailing practices” used by the agencies and “are not based on a percentage of grant monies.” On the other hand, few salaried grant writers ever negotiate bonuses into their contracts. So, they are not paid bonuses.

Reason 3 – Increase Number of Grants You Submit

Since consultants are paid per project, if they want to make more money, they simply increase the number of grants they submit. In other words, the more grant proposals they submit, the more money they make.

They are not paid from the grant once awarded, as is thought by the average American. Being paid out of a grant is a myth. Consultants are paid up front regardless of whether a grant is funded or not.

By increasing the number of grants submitted, you can raise the amount you make. However, salaried grant writer are paid the same rate regardless of the number of grants submitted, unless specified otherwise in the contract.

Reason 4 – Convert Benefits Into Income

To their advantage, salaried grant writers make an additional 30% (or $16,039) in benefits annually. For many, this is a huge advantage of being on a salary. Consultants do not typically include benefits in their contracts. Therefore, they do not have this luxury.

On the other hand, consultants can argue that “no benefits” is a significant savings to the agency and justify asking for more money either on an hourly or project basis. They can instead seek covering health and retirement costs by other less-costly means.

For example, I was working on salary with benefits for a college. I discovered that if I billed per hour and took myself off salary with benefits, I could actually make more and work less than half the time. The amazing part is that it cost the college and grant less, too! Go figure.

In summary, consultants make 70% more than grant writers on salary for 4 main reasons: consultants can charge more on a grant, may include bonuses, can increase their pay by increasing the number of grants they write, and may convert benefits into income by showing a savings in benefits.

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Why Use a Search Consultant?

A search consultant is someone who can help you develop your website and gain visibility through the search engines. The primary methods of increasing business is through Pay Per Click (abbreviated as PPC) and Search Engine Optimisation (abbreviated as SEO). A search consultant should specialise in both SEO and PPC, they should be able to tell you what would be the most cost effective method to gain conversions on your website. Initially it may not be apparent what method would work best for your audience, but through trials and tests your search consultant can guide you.

A search consultant can integrate with your business objectives and provide advice and recommendations on how objectives can be achieved through the search engines. A good consultant should have contacts who can help with your online marketing, and specialise in specific areas themselves.

Often organisations and individuals appear as jack of all trades, consequently they are often specialists in none of their advertised trades. These organisations are great for simple quick services, but when it comes to business critical services a ‘jack of all trades’ is not going to be able to compete with a specialist.

From watching shows like the apprentice we have heard Donald Trump say, “one of the main reasons for my success is surrounding myself with exceptional people”. The same applies to business, if you use specialists instead of trying to find one for all solutions – you will probably pay a little more but will gain more experience and skills.

Similarity’s can be found when employing someone to work within your business, you ideally want someone who has a wealth of experience and can apply it to the new role and your business. Often you find that the new person will quickly become focused on your internal business workings and involved with internal initiatives. This is to be expected but does not always allow for time to be spent in the best way to help your business.

Where an external organisation or individual will always be focused on cutting edge technology and methods to benefit you. Their time will be spent developing their search engine positioning services, ensuring they meet their customers’ current and future needs.

Exceptional people, external experience and specialists can help your business grow. Consultants are professionals who specialise in supporting and providing advice. Always consider what is the best option for each project, and remember that outsourced help can provide long term returns if applied in the best way to suit a business.

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The Consulting Industry – A Path Paved With Gold and Potholes

So you’re fresh out of Business School and you’re thinking about joining that “Big-5″ firm that has offered you a ridiculously high-salary, the option to travel to different cities and even countries routinely and fancy vellum business cards with your name is bold print. Could life get any better? Yes and No.

As a professional that has worked in the Consulting Industry, specifically the Management Consulting Industry for over nine years, the life of a professional consultant is a life paved with financial, career and travel rewards not normally available through traditional means of employment.

If you’re a single person, I would be hard pressed to find a better job as your career in consulting will take you to countless cities and even countries across the globe. You will routinely encounter brilliant people in your line of work as well as people of different cultures, religions and ethnicities. Depending on the length of your engagement, you’ll never stay in a single location long enough to grow tired of the surroundings. BUT, if you’re a person in a relationship, I can’t think of a worst profession to call a career. The strains of travel and being apart from your loved one(s) can only lead to discord in your relationship. This is obviously a generalization for I’ve personally known many professionals in happy relationships but it is a risk worth considering.

Are you the adventurous type? Then consulting will provide you with many an opportunity for adventure. Consulting will afford you opportunities to travel to locales you may have never thought you would have traveled to before; London, New York, Paris and Beijing being four locations where travel to is typical. Then again, during the onset of your career you should expect to visit not-so glamorous locations such as Butte, Montana or even Lincoln, Nebraska (no offense). If you like the idea of staying in a single city, single office and just stability in general; consulting may not be the life for you. You are paid that ridiculously high salary because Fortune 500 companies expect you to come to them. Travel is part and parcel to this career, so get used to it.

Do you like repetition? Getting comfortable with the same routine at work so much that you can do it with your eyes closed? If you’re answer is “Yes”, then turn around now, don’t pass “Go” and don’t collect $200.00…this ain’t the job for you! Consulting demands a lot of its practitioners, the main trait being ambition and the desire for bigger and more complex challenges. This career isn’t for the meek nor timid but rather for the over achiever looking for rapid movement up the corporate ladder. If this is you, then you’re chosen your career wisely.

All in all, a career in the Consulting Industry is a fruitful career. Even if you find yourself growing tired of the job after a few years, you’re work history and talent will be sought after by many other companies for Corporate America understands the trials and tribulations associated with the career and values any professional with such experience.

If you’ve read this article and have decided to finally sign that offer letter and next-day air it back to the home office; then welcome to the world of 60-hour work weeks, constantly eating out and a different hotel bed every month…enjoy the ride.

By: Alfred Garcia
Edited By: Michael C. Podlesny

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Why Most Home Based Marketing Consultants Don’t Make Money – And Why That’s Good News For You

As someone who teaches other people how to make money by becoming a home based marketing consultant, I often hear someone quote to me that, statistically, over 80 percent of the people who start home businesses as marketing consultants fail to make more than $10,000 per year.

And they’re right.

But what they don’t know is the other statistic. The one that shows you why that dreary number is actually very GOOD news for you.

Here’s what I mean by that:

The reason most people fail home based marketing consultant businesses — or any home business for that matter — 99% of the time is because they are not persistent in their own marketing.

It has almost nothing to do with talent, contacts, training or even how much money you have.

No, it’s because people get into a trap that is so easy for consultants to get into — and that is they’ll get a client, think they’re busy and stop marketing.

In other words, they stop promoting themselves. And when you do that you’ll dry up and die.

And that’s why most will not make it in the long run as a home based marketing consultant. Even though it’s easy to get into, easy to start and easy to make money with — even for people without any prior experience or a lot of money to start with.

So if marketing is the key — what are the best ways to go about marketing your home business?

Well, the best way of marketing your home business is to do what I like to call a “multi-pillared” marketing approach where you’re using several ways to get clients, and not just one or two ways to get clients.

Not only does it work like gangbusters to build your business very fast, but the “side benefit” of doing this is you’re going to be teaching people you help to do the exact same thing. And the better you get at it for your own business, the better you’ll be able to help others and the more money you’ll be able to make.

And besides, considering the business you’re in, you have to do for your home based marketing consulting practice exactly what you advise clients to do for their business. And if you’re not, the same thing’s going to happen to both you and your client — you’ll dry up and die and get beat by your competition.

Of course, this then begs the question of what are some of the different ways of marketing?

Besides the phone (even if you have a tele-marketer do it for you), the mail, the newspapers, magazines and all the traditional media — you can write and publish a short article or book. You can do “joint ventures” with other businesses. You can seek out media publicity. You can even do mini-seminars by renting a small hotel hall and inviting people to a free marketing training. You’ll get at least one or two clients out of that if enough people show.

There are actually lots of ways of doing this. Those are just a few.

This may sound old hat (if you’ve studied any marketing at all). But fact is, most marketing consultants don’t do any of these things. I had the good fortune of training to be a home based marketing consultant under the legendary Jay Abraham — and he didn’t even teach this.

I had to go figure this part out myself.

And you want to know something?

I’ve seen people with little money, experience or skills become home based marketing consultants and make money very fast simply because they followed the advice in this article. On the other hand, I’ve also seen competitors who had great content and big budgets go out of business simply because they didn’t follow this advice.

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Merits of Wind Consulting in Wind Energy Market

If you are working in the Wind Energy market then you need to be aware of the market trends and should be aware of all the news related to your industry. Keeping abreast of the market situation can help you to ensure that your own business is doing well and can help you learn how you can develop it or expand it.

Opting for Wind consulting service is one of the easiest ways to learn about the market and get the accurate Wind Energy market reports that can be very useful for you. The reports have information related to the market trend and the expectation. So you can easily consult the same and then develop your industry to suit the market. This would help you get satisfied and happy consumers and would be very advantageous.

The consultants can provide you with an accurate report related to the wind consulting market and you would not have to waste your time on doing the research work. The reports developed by the professionals are accurate and is prepared after doing a lot of research. This ensures that you get in depth report of the industry easily.

In case you are new to the wind industry then the market report can be especially useful as it can help you learn about the same. When you hire consultants for wind consulting then they can also assist you efficiently and help you to plan your market entry strategy. The professional report prepared by the consultants also has background information and you can learn a lot about the industry, without wasting your time and resources.

Apart from dealing with market report and strategy planning, the consultants now offer a number of other services also. Some of the best wind consultants have now adopted a holistic approach wherein they also assist you so that you can set up your venture. They help you pick up the right candidates for the job. Once your business has been established, they also reach out to the target consumers and prepare a consumer satisfaction report so that you may be able to understand your costumers and their requirement more efficiently.

Thus, there are many advantages of getting a wind energy market report from the professionals. They can help you to understand the industry better and also pave the way for your success. Services like accuracy and in depth market analysis also makes the consultants more popular and reliable.

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Martial Arts Consulting – Why You Don’t Need it to Grow Your Dojo

The Truth About Martial Arts Consulting

I’d like to inform you of something I’ve discovered after 25 years in the martial arts… Namely, that I think martial arts consulting is a farce. Now, don’t get me wrong – I think it’s actually advisable that you seek good solid business information from reliable and proven sources if you’re going to start a martial arts school. And, you should continue to educate yourself and expand your business knowledge and acumen for as long as you are trying to grow your dojo… However, that doesn’t mean you need to hire some hotshot “consultant” to show you how it’s done. In fact, that can be a huge mistake on your part. Allow me to illustrate with a just a few real-life stories regarding close calls with that most dangerous of species, “martialis bidness know notus”, a.k.a., the “martial arts business consultant”.

Exhibit “A” – One of our members at Starting-a-Martial-Arts-School.com recently related to us how he hired a big-time martial arts business consultant for advice on starting a school. The advice he received? “Finance your school on credit cards, and then come back and talk to me when you can afford my more expensive martial arts consulting package.” Seriously, that was the advice he was given.

Exhibit “B” – Some friends of mine got hooked up with a martial arts billing company that also offered consulting services (it was how they justified the “vig” of 10% on collecting your own money for you). They were advised to flat out lie to their customers by telling them their registration fee was for insurance, even though the only insurance they had was liability that protected the school, not the student. My friends, of course, never actually implemented the advice…

Exhibit “C” – Back when I was availing myself of the services of a similar organization (how do you think I formed my opinions?) I was advised that a good way to find people to teach your classes was to hire high school coaches and personal trainers off the street… even if they had zero martial arts experience. Apparently, the idea was to give them a crash course on “coaching martial arts”, have them “coach” your students, and then the black belts would come in to test the students for rank and collect the cash. Needless to say, I never acted on this advice.

Moronic Advice Isn’t The Only Reason You Don’t Need Expensive Martial Arts Consulting…

Granted, some of the advice you may get from these consulting companies is solid advice – I don’t argue that point. As with any service business, you have some bad companies, and some good ones. I think that’s just common sense. However, the thing is you don’t need to pay $500 an hour for some person 1,000 miles away to tell you how to run your business. In fact, your best option is often to simply do your own research, and then follow what your research and your gut tell you to do. Nobody knows your business and market like you do. Sure, you need to learn and follow industry “best practices” in order to hedge your bets in your favor. But, you can get that information from inexpensive, reliable sources for much, much less than what an expensive “consultant” will charge you.

That’s Where Joining A Professional Association Comes In…

And that’s how joining a professional association will help you grow your dojo – by providing you a place where you can get solid, reliable business information, education, training, and resources, and at a price that won’t break the bank. For example, while many martial arts consultants charge exorbitant fees, membership in The Martial Art School Alliance International is just $149 a year. Compare that to martial arts consulting programs that are in excess of $200 – $1,000 per month and I think you’ll see that with a membership in an industry association like M.A.S.A.I. you can’t beat the price. But, if you still decide to do business with “martialis bidness know notus”… don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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