Global E-Business: Business Consultancy Owning

Global e-Business: Business Consultancy

Owning a business can be a serious challenge, as can moving that business into new markets - especially if those markets are international in nature. For purposes of this paper/report, the business is a well-established organization, but being a business consultancy company it is operated from the home of the business owner. That means there is no specific brick and mortar location other than the home-based business location of the owner of the company. The market for the expansion will be international. With the advent of the internet and how strongly it has been used for business in recent years, there should be no problem working online and getting businesses in other countries to respond to that, as opposed to requiring the consulting to be in person. That does not mean that there will not be any travel required, ever, but only that the majority of the work can be done online. Despite this, the consultant must be willing to travel if needed, because some consultancy issues may be too complicated to handle over the internet. An effort will be made to avoid this.

Because that is the case, the business has to make the most of the technologies offered to businesses that work primarily on the internet today. Within the e-business landscape, there are several themes to be addressed. The knowledge of these themes is important, because companies need to be able to use all of their available resources in order to ensure that they market themselves correctly and please their customers. If the customers are not happy, they will not be back. They will also often tell others that they are not happy, and they will be very clear as to why that is the case. Companies that get bad reputations really struggle, and those bad reputations can occur quite quickly and easily when there are other countries and other cultures involved. Misunderstandings are prevalent for businesses that have not done their research and that are not prepared. These misunderstandings cannot always be avoided, but it is possible for those who are interested in other cultures and in offering consultation to businesses in those cultures to avoid most understandings.

Customer Management

The management of customers is one of the most significant aspects of any business (Amor, 1999; Beynon-Davies, 2004; Nissanoff, 2006; Seybold, 2001; Sinisalo, et al., 2007; Timmers, 2000; Tcakz & Kapczynski, 2009). With an e-business, customer management is both easier and more difficult, largely depending on which aspects one is considering. For example, it can be much easier to communicate with customers quickly and clearly. Email and other online communications are nearly instantaneous, and it is possible to video chat over the internet so that issues can be seen and discussed in real time. With that being the case, there is less room for error in communications (Westfall, 2010). Each company or person that is getting involved with another company or person in another city, state, or country can benefit from e-business and the way it is conducted when it comes to communication. When companies and customers are able to easily communicate, more gets done, thing get done more quickly, and if there are misunderstandings it is easier to sort them out. That can stop them from becoming larger and more problematic.

Of course, there are also problems with e-business to some degree. While communication may be better in the sense that it is faster and can be more frequent, it can cause issues because there is little to no face-to-face communication (Amor, 1999; Sinisalo, et al., 2007; Timmers, 2000). Emails and other types of messages where a person cannot hear tone of voice or see facial expression can easily be misunderstood. Additionally, being able to communicate online can lead a company to make the assumption that online is the only way it needs to do business (Eisingerich & Kretschmer, 2008; Kotler, 2009; Westfall, 2010). Without having a more personal relationship with its customers, and without meeting them in person where and when it is required, necessary, or would be helpful, companies can miss out on important clues that they could otherwise use to better manage what their customers need and want. Companies that can relate to their customers often bring in (and keep) more business than they would if they were far less interested in proper customer service (Amor, 1999; Chaudhury & Kuilboer, 2002; Gerstner, 2002; Graham, 2008; Gurevych, 2007).

Managing customers is about more than just communicating with them, however. Their orders must be processed, their information must be stored and analyzed, and their questions and concerns must be handled in a timely manner. If those things do not take place, the customers can miss out on a good experience and they may not even get what they need. The business can also have trouble, because customers who are not satisfied will have no problem providing that information to others - including prospective, future customers of the business. E-business can provide great opportunities to manage customers and take care of them, but it can certainly also be a slippery slope if the business is not set up and established correctly when it comes to how to treat customers and how to manage them. Customers need access to the business, especially if it is a consultancy, because the customers may have questions that they need answered quickly in order to continue moving forward. E-business can provide customers with that kind of fast service (Eisingerich & Kretschmer, 2008; Tcakz & Kapczynski, 2009; Westfall, 2010).

Supplier Management

It is not just customers that have to be managed. It is also suppliers. Any business that sells goods will have at least one supplier of those goods (Amor, 1999; Kelly, 2005). When it comes to a consultancy business, there will not be as many suppliers because the business is selling a service instead of a product. Still, there are suppliers of the products that are used by the business itself - most notably the computers and software the company uses to contact and work with its customers and clients. To manage suppliers correctly, a system for keeping careful track of them and any inventory they provide is necessary (Amor, 1999). That allows the business to continue to work with customers without running out of something or falling short in a particular area. If the company has a problem, it has to know that it can reach a supplier quickly and efficiently in order to get that problem corrected.

A suddenly non-functional computer system, for example, can put a severe strain on a company that conducts the vast majority of its business online (Gerstner, 2002; Graham, 2008; Gurevych, 2007; Seybold, 2001). With that being the case, the company must have a well-established supplier it can contact in order to get good information and a new system as soon as possible. Suppliers who can provide back-up systems are important, because a company that does business online really cannot afford to be unable to conduct business for a period of time. It does not take long before a company's customers will go elsewhere if they cannot get what they need efficiently and quickly (Graham, 2008; Westfall, 2010). Additionally, potential customers who have questions or want to discuss something with the company will also leave quickly if they do not receive a response. E-business is something that is generally expected to be conducted in a short amount of time. If response times are not rapid, people go to a competitor from whom they can hear back fast.

While not all customers are that impatient, and not all businesses need suppliers that are available 24/7 and ready to help them at a moment's notice, that is becoming increasingly important in a culture that appears to be moving faster and faster. E-business has changed the way businesses interact with their suppliers, and because of that the companies that need supplies of any kind have generally come to expect them at nearly a moment's notice. Before there was e-business, it was understood that getting things took time. Businesses were aware of that, and so were the customers and potential future customers of those businesses. Technology has changed the interaction of customers, businesses, and suppliers in such a way that everything is expected nearly instantaneously (Kelly, 2005; Miller, 2002; Nissanoff, 2006). This is both good and bad, of course, since there are still limits to what suppliers can offer and how quickly the desired help or items can be provided to the business - and then to the customer.

Getting Found by Potential Customers

The most significant thing a consulting e-business can do to boost sales and grow its customer base is to get itself found by those who want to work with it. That includes suppliers and organizations that may help it get established, but it mostly applies to customers. Getting found used to involve simple things like an ad in the phonebook and a flyer that got mailed to the neighbourhood. Now the "neighbourhood" is the entire world - and because thing have changed so much when it comes to doing business, most people do not even use phone books anymore. Now, the way to get found is through the internet. There are several different methods that can be used, too, and may businesses will choose a combination of methods so that they are able to reach out to the largest number of people without spending too much money. Even the largest and most prosperous companies have a budget, and they probably do not want to (or cannot) go over that budget in order to get results. With that being the case, these companies have to focus on the most popular ways to reach out to customers. To do that, the company needs to know the market it is targeting with its product or service (Amor, 1999; Beynon-Davies, 2004; Frieden & Roche, 2006; Tcakz & Kapczynski, 2009).

A target market is vital to success, because any business (online or not) has to market to people who want and need what the business is offering (Westfall, 2010). If the business fails to do that, it can have trouble bringing in customers even though the message about what it does is offered to a large number of people. Instead of simply assuming that everyone will be interested in the expansion of the online consulting business, the company must make sure it takes time to consider the wants and needs of other businesses and individuals that are in need of its services. To do that, a marketing study will need to be undertaken. Then, the company will be better able to determine which segments of the population should be considered when it comes to marketing. That results in less time wasted and less money spent, which are both beneficial to the company as a whole.

Another issue when it comes to getting found by customers is where a company should market. Is it necessary to spend a lot of money on marketing, or is it something that can be done for much less? For a consultancy business, it is necessary to make a very professional impression. That does not mean the business cannot use some of the free options, but only that the free choices are not the only options that should be used. When a business has a Twitter account, a Facebook page (business only, not personal) a Google+ profile, a LinkedIn profile, and other free options, that makes the business easier to find. It is also more likely to help the business show up in search results. Naturally, those are important ways for a business to get found by people or other businesses that want and need the services offered. Businesses, though, must go beyond that. They have to consider the image they are presenting as a whole, and that requires more than free sites.

A professional website - ideally with a blog that is frequently updated and professional - is the best way to go. These kinds of sites are not that expensive, and even having one designed for your company will not cost more than most businesses can afford. Get a professional to design a business site, make sure it is keyword optimized for the services or products offered, and then post to the blog at least once per week. That will allow the site to rise in rank in the search engines, providing the business with a much higher chance of being located by those who need and want what it has to offer (Kotler, 2009; Miller, 2002; Westfall, 2010). From that point, the business will need to consider how else to get out the message of what it does so it can be found by more potential customers.

For a consultancy business, advertising in magazines and trade publications, as well as on internet sites that are related to business consultancy or business services, is one of the best ways to garner extra attention and bring in customers that will be looking for the specific services provided by the company. A business today might not want to spend a lot of money on advertisements in trade publications, because they are not international in most cases. However, that same business could advertise on sites that are international and that will have a high likelihood of being of interest to people who need the services it offers. A consultancy business that is nearly 100% online can focus on advertising nearly 100% online, since that is where it will locate the largest majority of its customers. While it is possible that there will be many other good ways in which customers can be brought in or located, there is no guarantee that any method will be effective in bringing customers to a consultancy company or any other kind of company (Gurevych, 2007; Timmers, 2000).

Making Money

Once a business has been found by its potential customers, it also has to be able to retain those people as actual, paying customers who will be interested in the business (Westfall, 2010). Getting repeat customers is the ultimate goal, of course, but the first step is to locate the customers and get them to show interest in the services offered by the business. Once that has been done, there is a good start toward reaching an agreement to contract with a particular customer. The consultancy business has to offer a good deal in order to be acceptable to a customer, but at the same time the business also needs to offer something on which it can make money. If it does not charge enough it will not succeed, but if it charges too much no one will want to use it and it will end up closing its doors due to a lack of customers (Westfall, 2010; Tkacz & Kapczynski, 2009; Miller, 2002; Kotler, 2009).

There is a delicate balance between charging enough to make money and charging too much for something. Consulting businesses that can find that balance will be much better off than businesses that cannot. But how does one find that balance? There are several ways to locate it. One of the ways is simply to see what the competition is doing with their offerings and pricing (Westfall, 2010). If that information can be found online or through some other honest means, that is a good way of determining what others are charging for consultancy services. Some businesses also send "moles" into companies to try to get inside information, or they send people in to inquire about the services and the costs, just so those people can report back to the other company. Both of these business practices are not recommended, because they can cause problems and they are generally not seen to be morally acceptable among other businesses or among the majority of consumers. It is much better to acquire information honestly and openly, so as to avoid problems (Kotler, 2009).

Another way to determine how much to charge and how best to make money is to consider what the company has to make in order to see a profit (Kotler, 2009; Westfall, 2010). How much money does the company want to make per client, or per hour, or per some agreed-upon unit of measurement? Once that has been determined, the individuals in the company can work out what they will have to charge for services in order to make sure that they are getting enough money for the services they offer. However, if the market will not bear that amount, there can still be problems with getting customers. Ideally, enough research will have been done in order to show the business what it can charge, what others are charging, and what is realistic in terms of the kind of money it can expect to make. Determining all of those things before starting up a business is ideal, and it is also a good idea to determine them before any major business change such as an expansion or new product or service line (Westfall, 2010; Tkacz & Kapczynski, 2009).

The business will need to determine what kind of contract it will require with customers, how much money will be collected and at what points in the consultation, and whether it wants to offer services where a business pays a flat rate per a set period of time (such as every month) for a certain level of consultation. If the business does not want to offer these extended kinds of services, it may find itself losing out to businesses that do offer something more than a single consult or short duration option. Still, there are plenty of options to consider and all companies should be aware of that. Explore all the options for ways to make (and collect) money, and choose the ones that appear to be the best, that work for the company and the customers, and that cost the least to use. Many money-collection methods cost money (such as fees for merchants that take credit cards, for example), so make sure those fees are figured into the cost of doing business with the customer.

Industrial Focus

The focus of the consultancy business will not be on any particular industry. Naturally, there will be industries which are more easily understood and addressed by the business when it comes to how easily it is to offer consulting services to that business. Still, that does not mean that the business will not be able to offer consultancy to other businesses. There are many ways to do research, and the basic running of any business is similar to other businesses. Each and every business has specifics about it that have to be addressed, and when that takes place the consultancy business can guide other companies and individuals toward success. Overall, it is very important to be aware of the way a business should work, as opposed to the way it is currently working. Many businesses throughout all kinds of industries are not operating nearly as efficiently as they should be, which means that they can all benefit from business consulting - most of which can be done online.

When a consulting business realizes that this is the case, it is much easier for that business to focus on how to help various businesses throughout all different types of industries. Another way that this can be done is by hiring various consultants who are experts in their respective fields of business. By doing that, the business will have consultants it can send out to help almost any kind of business in any industry. That is very good news for the company, because it allows the business to do more, to offer more, and to seem more viable to customers and potential customers who are considering hiring the company to get some help with their business problems. It is generally not a good idea for a company to advertise that they can help any business, because that might not be realistic. Instead, the consulting business may want to specialize in a few areas. It should, however, take the time to make sure it has good consultants in all those areas and that it is covering areas that are popular and in which there are many businesses. Without doing these things it will severely limit its target market and could also hurt its reputation (Tkacz & Kapczynski, 2009; Timmer, 2000; Sinisalo, 2007; Miller, 2002; Kotler, 2009).

Time, Cost, and Expansion Issues

For any business, time, cost, and expansion are all very important. When a business plans on moving forward, there is a certain element of risk and danger (Westfall, 2010). That is true even if the business is already well-known and well-established when it plans to expand. In short, any business can set itself up for failure by having an expansion that does not go well or that ends up costing much more than expected or taking much more time than was first anticipated. Because that is the case, there are serious issues to be considered where the expansion of a business is concerned. Cost and time are the main two of those issues, and they are the two areas where any business has to be the most careful when it comes to expanding (Kotler, 2009; Westfall, 2010). The cost of something can always vary, but careful consideration can help it vary only slightly. The same is true with the timeframe it will take to do something correctly, because a misjudgement on the time will equate to a misjudgement on the cost, as well.

Where time is concerned, a business must be careful. Overestimating the time it takes to complete something can have serious consequences, because the people who are charged with the duty of completing the task will not take that task very seriously. They will know they have plenty of time, so they will "milk" that time and do as little as possible in order to make sure they take the full time allotted to them. Not everyone does this, of course, but it is a problem for many people in the business world today. Companies have to watch out for those kinds of problems. One of the ways to avoid that level of "goofing off" is to shorten the amount of time a person has to complete a task. Here, though, care is also needed. By not giving a person enough time to reasonably complete something, there will also be problems. Rushing through something can lower the quality, and that is a serious issue for people who are in too much of a hurry because of company-enforced time constraints. It is much better to be realistic about how long something takes to complete (Westfall, 2010).

In general, it can be hard to judge the completion of a particular task based only on how long it should take. Still, a business has to avoid being too stringent or being too relaxed. If the business has expanded before, it has something it can use as a gauge. If there has not been any kind of expansion in the past, it will be more difficult for the business to figure out the length of time needed for successful completion of a particular part of the expansion. As a consulting business, however, the company will know who to contact in order to address these kinds of problems. That will allow the company to move forward properly, be realistic with its time goals for expansion, and avoid disappointing customers or having other business-related problems that can come from misjudgement and misunderstandings. Expansion can be a significant time in the life of a business, and it should be something that is undertaken with care and with a team effort throughout the business.

Cost is the other part of the issue when it comes to expansion. The vast majority of businesses will not have the cash to fund a major expansion, so they will need to consider financing (Kotler, 2009). The amount of the loan, the collateral for it, and the interest rate all matter, as does the issue of how the business will pay back the loan should the expansion fail. Any business that cannot pay back the loan on the money it already brings in should not get a loan, because a failed expansion could mean the end of the business entirely (Miller, 2002; Kotler, 2009). That is more likely to be the case with small businesses, but even large companies and corporations can suffer from these kinds of serious problems when it comes to having enough money to pay for something important that needs to be done. If the expansion is successful, however, there will not be any worries about paying for it. The proceeds of the larger customer base will provide the company with what it needs in order to ensure future growth and the ability to pay back the loan it took out to fund the expansion.

Mobile Communication Developments: A Review

Communication has come a long way. Paper, telegraphs, telephones - they were all seen as amazing technology when they were first offered to the public. Now, there is so much more available to the world, and because that is the case there are many businesses that can offer so much more than they could in the past. Customers can contact businesses in all sorts of different ways, and those businesses can reciprocate. While some people find that intrusive, most love the fact that they can get information nearly 24 hours a day now, instead of only 8-5 Monday through Friday. There are still some businesses (and customers) that operate that way, but their numbers are dwindling because people are demanding more and quicker access to information they want and need. They have questions, they want to get their problems solved, and they need advice, reassurance, and information. If they can get all of that on a Sunday at two in the morning, they do not have to wait until Monday at eight in the morning - and that can give them peace of mind.

Having said that, there are many devices that can be used for mobile communication and that are used to promote and improve the flow of information within businesses on a global level. Some of these are use within the business itself, and others are used to help the customers communicate with the business. Internally, all computers should be shared in a business (Westfall, 2010; Miller, 2002; Kotler, 2009). If they are not shared, it can be very difficult for one person in the company to quickly and easily find a file or other piece of information that is needed. Some files and folders can certainly be protected if certain people should not have access to them, but that does not mean that everything should be protected. Being able to communicate with the other computers of the company from anywhere is one of the best things about mobile communication devices. That allows a consultant out in the field to both send and receive information through a wireless connection, which helps ensure good, fast customer service (Westfall, 2010). Because of the way technology is moving, people no longer expect to wait for anything. Companies that want to succeed must be responsive to that.