Toes in the water.....

[RHart]

Hi,

I'm considering starting a business of my own for other small business and wondered if anyone reading this would be so kind as to give me their opinion on my proposition?

Briefly I think about starting a free consultancy service for small business to use when considering incorporating the use of IT / software and online channels in their business.

My proposition is to empower the small business owner / manager by a professional approach to IT / business analysis to make sensible cost effective and realistic choices that will bring actually realisable benefits to there business in the short and long term.

I would like to know if this is a service as a small business community that you would consider using and if not what sort of things would make you consider using a service like this one?

[Ian J]

[QUOTE=RHart] My proposition is to empower the small business owner / manager by a professional approach to IT / business analysis to make sensible cost effective and realistic choices that will bring actually realisable benefits to there business in the short and long term.[/QUOTE]


I hope that I don't appear rude but the above phrase may appear normal to large corporate culture type people but the small businessman will probably not have a clue what you are talking about and will be frightened off by the adspeak.

[RHart]

Ian,

Thanks for you post I do indeed spend most of my time dealing with large financial institutuions. Your feedback is exactly the type of input that I'm looking for thanks again.

[inbakumar]

[QUOTE=RHart]Hi, Briefly I think about starting a free consultancy service for small business to use when considering incorporating the use of IT / software and online channels in their business [/QUOTE].

Hi welcome to the forum.

A naive question for you. If it is a FREE service then how are you planning to make money? We see this tendancy with most start-ups in our line of work. They have an overwhelming urge to under price their product or service. Don't forget that you are starting a business to make money.

Good luck with your new venture and I would be happy to share ideas with you.

Regards,

[RHart]

Hi, thanks,

My idea is really to start this up in a very small way alongside my existing job, initially I want to help the business I deal with help themselves and aid them in making solid decisions based on proved analysis skills and techniques (which is where I come in). This is the part that is free, in the longer term the business that has used the service will then have 2 options, go with the results so far (which may be all that business needs) or use the consultancy provided by my business to source / implement their strategy.

Ultimately a business client can take the consultancy further an use us to produce bespoke small scale solutions, e.g. interfacing their stock system with a suppliers ordering system. Something that large consultancy charge a lot of money for but in a lot of cases where off-the-shelf software is involved can be relatively straightforward.

[peterjhale]

I'm not sure your business model will work

Sure some companies will take you up after their free consultancy - but I don't think start-ups will (large companies might)

But - many people will think there is a catch as no-one does anything for free - so you may not win any customers because they are skeptical

On the internet it's OK to set up a free information website because you can sell advertising space - so may be that might be a way to go ?