Being an offline consultant does sound like a good job to many people. After all, it’s generally a freelance opportunity that will allow you to set your own hours and work when and where you want. In addition, you get to help introduce people who may not know that much about the Internet to the world of online marketing, which can be a very rewarding job, particularly when you’re successful!
However, there’s an important question to ask yourself before you get involved in offline consulting – namely, are you the right person for the job? Just because you happen to know how to get online and update a Twitter account doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re the person to help revolutionize sleepy businesses the world over. Of course that doesn’t meant that there aren’t ways for anybody get to the skills to become an awesome offline consultant, but are you ready to take the step right now?
First of all, read these acronyms: SEO, SMO, PPC. Do you know what they mean? The answers are of course, search engine optimization, social media optimization, and pay per click. If you didn’t know what these meant or you don’t know what they are after having the acronyms decoded – stop, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars, and do not get into the business of offline consulting. While you might be moderately familiar with the Internet in general, being able to lead somebody’s business into the realm of online marketing requires a lot of expertise on your part. If you don’t know the lingo, it’s not time for you to go into business.
Also, sit down and ask yourself if you really enjoy teaching. Essentially, working in consulting is like sitting down and explaining a subject from its very roots, particularly if you’re going to be working with offline clients. The vast majority of these clients will have zero tech savvy at all, so you need to know how to be patient and explain the very technical in ways that laypeople will understand. Even if you do know what SEO means, it’s unlikely that your offline client will know what it is. If you’re willing to take on the role of being a teacher as well as a consultant, you’re already halfway toward making this job a reality, but if you’d rather deal with those who don’t need to have their hands held throughout the process, you might want to look elsewhere for employment!
Examine your motives and your own personal characteristics before embarking on this exciting and yet challenging career. Having a little bit of self-knowledge will get you and your clients far! In the event that this isn’t the career path for you, be honest with yourself – you and your potential clients will be much happier this way!
