Internet Consulting - Today's Most Overlooked Yet Profitable Online Business Opportunity

Internet consultancies, web agencies or whatever else you wish to call them have turned out to be one of the major success stories of the last decade. However, despite this fact and that more people than ever are looking to start their own business, this lucrative opportunity has been grossly overlooked. In this article, we will look into the reasons for this, why there really are no barriers to entry and prove what a huge opportunity this affords you.

There is no doubt that providing internet services such as web design, eCommerce and online marketing to companies is a hugely profitable industry. And here's proof, take a look at a few promising statistics:

• Cahners In-Stat reports that the market for providing small businesses with easy-to-use website services is set to be a lucrative one over the next few years and set to touch $600 million this year!
  
  
• Forrester Research predicts that the market for internet consulting in the U.S. alone would grow from $19.6 billion in 2000 to $64.8 billion in a few years.
  

• A Gartner Group study found that ebusiness will also constitute a greater proportion of IT budgets, up from 12.7% in 2000 to 15.5% in 2001. This will increase to 30% - 50% of IT budgets by 2005.

So it is clearly not the potential of this business that is to blame. In fact, with the average ecommerce website costing around $2000, the demand for web services is increasing each year and selling to lucrative business-to-business markets who have budgets set aside to buy these services... make it rate as one of the most potentially profitable opportunities available today!

So what are the reasons that this superb opportunity has been overlooked?

• The incorrect assumption that it is a difficult business to enter and requires a lot of technical expertise... and lacking the confidence to get started without experience.

• Believing that you have to do all the work yourself , personally creating websites and ebusiness solutions and not knowing how to get this done by others at lower costs.

• Put off by the prospect of having to sell professional services in person.

• Overshadowed by businesses that offered the opportunity to operate entirely online or by direct mail without personal selling.

• Not knowing how to get started in this business without experience, staff and contacts and without having to pay a small fortune for a franchise.

• Looking for a part-time business you can start by working from home. This was previously difficult with this type of opportunity.

• Attracted by the high earning claims and easy money of other online business opportunities especially information marketing and affiliate programs.

• Having tried running a web design agency in the early days of the web without much success and put off the whole idea.

The good news is that the internet consultancy business has evolved considerably over the last few years. These changes have affected both the range of products and services that can be offered and the way these are marketed too. These changes completely negate all the above issues. So not only is it one of the most lucrative opportunities, it is also very easy to get started and enjoyable to operate. Prestige and profits at the same time.

Let's take a look at these changes and what they mean to you:

POINT 1: The most significant factor that puts many people off is the prospect of having to do personal selling to get clients. With the majority of the population averse to selling and wanting to run a business they can enjoy, it is no surprise this is a major factor.

While the majority of consultancies and franchises still adopt this approach there are a few enlightened people taking the industry by storm, getting as many clients as they can handle, dominating niche markets and having clients seeking them out rather than vice versa through little known methods of online and direct marketing. These methods allow even the most complex and expensive high-end solutions to be sold by mail order or through a website order form without personal selling.

POINT 2: The next most important factor has been the perceived complexity of the business. Most people have felt that they needed to have the creative and technical skills to do everything themselves or hire expensive employees which was out of the question for most home based opportunity seekers. It was also felt that experience in this business was essential and that profits would be restricted by how much work they could physically handle ... meaning if you were busy on one project, then other work would have to be turned away.

Luckily, offshore outsourcing has completely revolutionized the whole of the IT industry. By having overseas developers in well educated but low wage countries such as India, China and Russia, vast technical expertise can be purchased at incredibly low prices. This means you can outsource all projects from your clients to these agencies and freelancers and add a large mark-up to it. You effectively become a project manager just ensuring the work is done to the clients' specifications. However, this can be a minefield in terms of reliability, quality, pricing and trust. Luckily, there are a small number of companies based in North America and Europe who have their own offshore centres. This means you get the highest international standards, mixed with the best low prices and more accountability.

POINT 3: The final major factor is that people have been attracted to the claims of easy earnings and huge profits of other internet opportunities. Probably the most common of these is information marketing. This is the selling of downloadable reports, ebooks and even multimedia courses. Many early adopters have had great success in this industry focussing on internet marketing information. Unfortunately, that market is now oversaturated and very difficult for any newbie to enter.

On the bright side, the new approach to internet consulting that allows products to be sold online and mail order, also incorporates information marketing. In fact, it incorporates all the best elements from the top online opportunities. As far as information marketing is concerned, the use of free and chargeable reports and ebooks is an excellent credibility builder that pre-sells the higher end solutions, which are then sold on the backend. This is a very powerful formula. What's more the information products you can sell have a far more receptive audience in largely untapped business-to-business niche industries than the usual markets.

That sums up the basic issues of why internet consulting has been overlooked. I hope you now see what a profitable opportunity this presents you with. The profitability of the business is not in question. Now you know that you can get started in this business without any technical expertise at all since the development work can simply be outsourced at a fraction of the cost of doing it yourself. This means you can take on all the work you can handle without being restricted to what you can physically do. This business can avoid the unpleasantness of face to face selling by enabling you to sell high priced solutions by mail order and online ... and you can enjoy all the benefits of the information marketing lifestyle but with more lucrative and receptive markets, higher priced products and less competition.

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