Consulting Books, Any Suggestions?
 

Any classic books on Consulting you can recommend?

I am pondering on went back to freelancing services on Graphic Design.

Wondering if there are any good classic books on Consulting out there.

Thanks!

Re: Consulting Books, Any Suggestions?
 

Jeffrey Lant wrote 2 books.

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Boo...srp1-_-title20

And

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...s+kit&_sacat=0

And don't forget libraries, look for Herman Holtz.

But Lant was my preference.

Gordon

Bob Bly's SELLING YOUR SERVICES is good too.

Re: Consulting Books, Any Suggestions?
 

Thank you Gordon.

Re: Consulting Books, Any Suggestions?
 

Gordon, your opinion on website creation business?

It seems is overcompetitive and there are platforms like WordPress and WIX where people easily can create their own website.

However... I think there is a niche.

Do good advertising to this market. Usually webdesigners/Designers don't know how to advertise well.

So... If a webdesigner does a GOOD (not exceptional) advertising (direct-response) maybe he got something.

What do you think?

Thanks

My opinion on everything...its always about TIME.
 

Thanks for asking Mike. TODAY. with a lot of exceptions, I rarely suggest anyone spend their TIME doing something. And for most of my life, my advice of TODAY, would sound a little hypocritical, because I spent decades trading TIME for money.

Of course, a lot depends on age and circumstance.

For anyone under 50, I would advise, much like Harvey Brody does, is that a person sets up a TOLL position for their bread and butter income. Get a solid foundation of financial security, that being enough to cover living expenses and giving some leftover for developing other toll positions.

As an example for what you are talking about.

A guy, MATT BARRIE, started Freelancer.com. A platform for what? THOUSANDS of web site developers.

His company also bought the Warrior Forum, and other ventures too.

Now Freelancer has a lot of competition, doesn't it? Upwork, Fiverr, Guru, etc.

SEE? They all host DOERS. They offer a place for people like you, as a web developer, to offer your services.

But I guarantee you, not a single freelancer anywhere makes the dough the owners, or people who CONTROL these middleman type places do, do they?

So, it goes to mindset right from the get go.

DO, and, yes, you can make some dough.

Clean headlights, pocket a few hundred bux a week. Write a report on cleaning headlights, make several thousand dollars in a week.

Set up a franchise, biz op for cleaning headlights, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, without any DOING.

It is a hard concept for most (including me, a couple of decades ago) people to wrap their heads around, and there are few mentors out there who are willing to share the nuts and bolts of how to do it.

Dien and I have been fortunate we had Harvey Brody, who hammered this concept into our heads, and I can't speak for Dien, but it took me awhile to comprehend and APPLY the knowledge.

No one taught me how to critically self evaluate, to get to my core strengths and how to build up my weak spots.

But I did know that working for someone else was never going to be my bag (old hippie talk), or thing...and that I needed some control over my time.

There is nothing wrong with DOING, being a service provider and it is the fastest way there is, next to selling something, to make some quick dough, but it must be repeated. Over and over.

I think the Zoom Spout Oiler has well over 200 million units sold, and reorders come in at 10,000 or 25,000 at a time, and Harvey Brody basically does very little, the TOLL position is doing the work for him, to the tune of millions of dollars.

And, although he is unique in his willingness to share his knowledge, he is just one of thousands of people who CONTROL things, acting in most cases as a bridge, or middleman, between supply and demand.

So, start there. What is the demand for what you want to do? And with website services, there is a ton of competition. Is the demand enough, and is the service going to generate an income which takes the time spent into account.

I think, a better idea, might be to develop a plug in, or automated service for the millions and millions of existing websites or Internet Marketers.

When you say they don't do good advertising, I have to wonder if that is true, do they need to, when there are millions of service providers out there, isn't it more of a cheap commodity? I would think it is going to take more than just good advertising, but I could be wrong.

What is your time worth? That is a better question.

Gordon

As I am thinking about it, maybe VENDO MATIC SITES?
 

I use Bill Myers Vend-O-Matic to create my simple one page web sites. I think there might be a strong demand for this type of site.

So, if you were to specialize in helping people set up Automatic Product Vending (APV) sites, where you could start and finish the job in a couple of hours...that could turn into a very good money maker.

Competing with Wix, Weebley, GoDaddy, 123site, etc., etc. as well as professional design agencies doesn't look promising.

SPECIALIZING in one type of site, one that generates income, might not be a bad idea.

Gordon

Re: Consulting Books, Any Suggestions?
 

Thanks Gordon.

Insightfully and helpful as always.

I tried and gived up on info products to my language and Country.

For my experience, minuscule Country and lack of interest on info products.

Would I absolutely love to have one or various APV? YES!

But my market is small and very few interested.

And why I only focus on my Country and language? Well I know the language and nuances and have more contact with the market.

About TOLL POSITION... I agree, that's the way to have a real passive income. But here in Portugal too much beurocracy and conservative market that I even don't know where to start have some TOLL.

A franchising seems to me the most obvious way here.

I believe that to selling info is needed better advertising skills that , for example, sell jewlery, where in jewlery probably 90% of the job is the photo.

BUt even with that , I feel the market is minuscule and lack of interest on info products. So, bad luck for me on info products – unless I become much better on advertising. Or understanding the market.

Thanks again Gordon.

With all the language tools, and the cheap labor market for translation...
 

there really is not a good reason not to be selling to the English language markets, or any other market.

IM is international, many tools have built in language conversions, and there are scores of translation services and proof readers out there, language is not a real stumbling block. I just don't know why anyone would only market to their limited country marketplace, sort of defeats the whole idea of Internet (everywhere) marketing.

But, we all build our own fences, so if that is what works, then keep going.

Gordon

P.S. www.sonix.ai has both Brazilian and regular Port. translation. You talk, it translates, hire a cheap fivver to proofread fix grammar. Almost instant information product.

Re: Consulting Books, Any Suggestions?
 

You are correct Gordon, I agree.