Emily Yung asked:


 

Astreem Corporation launches Astreem Business Matching Service and is Singapore’s premier initiative supporting franchise business opportunities for entrepreneurs and small business in diversified industries.

For the past three years, Astreem has been developing franchise systems through Singapore franchise opportunities for many small and medium sized companies as well as producing and participating in many regional face-to-face selling events, franchise fairs, seminars and workshops.

Today with over 40 franchise business opportunities available for individual franchise investment, Astreem is offering business matching services for individuals seeking franchise and other business opportunities. Individuals seeking a business matching service that will prioritise their business investments personal needs will find this service very convenient as well as useful as they pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions. To assist with the match, Astreem business consultants will conduct a Needs Analysis, Risk Assessment, Personal Interest, Time Involvement before embarking on any direct match. If a match does not immediately appear under the existing suite of franchise business opportunities, Astreem can also assist to source one that might.

Astreem Business Matching Service includes a highly successful schedule of event management consultancy services in networking and educational activities, Singapore franchise opportunities Discovery Days as well as customised tours to selected business opportunities.

Astreem Corporation is a boutique business consulting company that has a team of business consultants that comprises of franchise consultants, branding consultants and marketing consultants. Astreem’s business consultants specialise in helping business owners grow their business through franchise development, marketing and business matching locally and overseas. It is a business solution platform that partners with entrepreneurs to build their businesses and to enhance their business investments and foundation in the market. Astreem promises to be the Business Solution partner for every business owner.

Astreem business consulting offers dynamic programs and strategies aimed at growing different businesses, ranging from franchising to licensing, dealerships to distributorships. Astreem offers complete programs which help in developing various business models, covering strategy, strategic and tactical marketing, public relations, legal advice, marketing and business brokering.

John Lim of Wan Chai Hong Kong Tea Room, one of Astreem’s franchise opportunities clients said that, “….. The most valuable service that Astreem offers is that they actively help us to market our franchise system to recruit franchisees and open up franchised units.” Ms. Ow Shin Yann of HoneyPot likewise said that “Astreem does a lot of handholding and this is rare in the business arena. We ended up as friends with no compromise on their professionalism”. Deidre Goh of the medSpa has this to say with Astreem, “They showed us the real potential of our business. Now, instead of just marketing our medSpa outlet, we market our entire business through them.” Tan Juat Li of Fave Nails said Astreem’s professionalism and positive attitude really helped add value to our business. We’re really glad to have chosen Astreem to help us with our franchise plan!



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Kris Koonar asked:


Business consultancy is a highly paid job in current world. There are numerous benefits of being in this field like being ones own boss, and developing your own group of executives who will consult you for their business related requirements.

Businesses and other such organizations seek the expertise of business consultants to bail them out of trouble, and to teach them new techniques for success. And of course for all this the consultant charges a hefty fee, which he gets without any reluctance from the side of the client. Also, you have the freedom of choosing the clients whom you want to work with.

Business consultancy is challenging, interesting and exciting. All you require is an in-depth knowledge about various business concepts, loads of common sense, a creative bent of mind, and good interpersonal skills. A consultant can choose to work with a big business consulting firm or be his own boss by starting a business consultancy firm. Being an entrepreneur consultant is much tougher than being a paid advisor, but then the profit margins are equally higher for the former.

In order to turn your business consultancy firm into a profitable one, you need to be able to manage both your own and the business of your client, i.e. keeping control of all the business activities of your business, and helping the client to do the same for his business. To ensure that the consultancy runs at a profit a business consultant has to look after the smooth functioning of the administrative system of his office. Along with that, he must also be well versed in marketing his knowledge and writing winning proposals (those that win him contracts). In short, he must know how to sell his positive attributes, because if you cannot sell you cannot survive.

For earning profits, a consultant also has to double up as a project leader. It is mandatory for a consultant to know how to plan, lead and execute complex projects, and also how to handle a number of projects simultaneously. A consultant should know how to best manage the fee structure, deadline pressures, and client requirements.

Now, if you are still determined to be a part of this booming sector, you should take note of a few factors like:

First, you need to determine whether you want to be a generalist or a specialist. Deciding that should not be a problem. You can become a specialist, if you have extensive work experience as well academic qualifications in a particular field. Alternatively, if you have experience in working in many industries, then you can cobble together various functions, and start a consultancy that can be a one-stop solution.

Once you decide on what the nature of work of your consultancy will be, you can then set about marketing your consulting experience, which is the major step that will determine your profit earnings.

However, before you begin with the marketing procedure, check out which industry you want to be involved in. Your marketing strategies will depend on the type of industry you will be working with.

There are many marketing methods that can be used for effective business positioning in the market. But it is advisable to get the help of professionals to advertise your firm. Also, consultants should never overlook their peers. If they have an expertise that is required by another consulting agency, that could be one of the best ways of both self-promotion and earning money.

Business consultancy is one of the most rewarding and high paying careers, and there is lot of respect associated with it. All in all, it can be a very profitable venture if one can pull it of.



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Kris Koonar asked:


Most people mistake professional business consultancy as a troubleshooting exercise that a company undertakes to manage crisis. Even the business owners, especially the small and relatively inexperienced ones, have similar notions and avail of their services only in cases where management looses control. However, services offered by professional consultants need not be bound by such limitations. Business consultants, in fact, are third party experts who influence how businesses, as well as governments and institutions make decisions.

Business consultancy services must be availed to look at issues related to business in a broader perspective. Consultants, helped by their expertise in a particular field, as well as being from outside the company, can see things from a point of view which the owner or the top management may fail to see, because of their being deeply involved in the business. Here, business consultants would weigh the pros and cons of the strategy and the situation, often with a fresh perspective, and advice accordingly.

Often staying out of the main picture, business consultants provide resources, which the clients may not be in a position to provide for them. Usually, this resource is expertise, which may come by experience, knowledge, creativity or special skills. Time and workforce are other resources, which the client might not be able to spare, which can be provided by business consultants. Business consultants are either management consulting firms or Technical consulting firms, with expertise in their respective areas. Management consulting firms advise on various aspects of corporate operations such as marketing; finance; corporate strategy; assembly line or other manufacturing processes; information systems and networks, data processing; e-commerce; and human resources.

On the other hand, technical consulting firms provide technical advice relating to non-management activities, including compliance with various safety and health regulations, technology application, and scientific knowledge in fields like biology, chemistry, and physics. There are many large consulting firms which provide expertise in more than one area.

Many small and medium enterprises feel that consultancy services are only meant for large organizations and are really not suited to smaller companies. Many also feel that it might not really be worth appointing consultants as they are a costly affair and that increased revenue as a result of their services would not be at par with the costs involved. Nothing could be further from truth, as big as well as small and medium enterprise benefit from business consultancy and there are many consultants who are more than happy serving smaller clients.

Business consultants advice on business start up, help make business plans, formulate marketing strategies. These are the services related to business management and it directly affects the bottom line of the company. Apart from these, there are scientific and legal consulting services, which help firms follow the legal aspects of the business that are required to be followed by law. For example, a manufacturing or utilities firm might hire environmental consultants to assess whether the firm is meeting government emissions standards, in order to avoid penalties before government regulators inspect the property in question. Necessary changes can hence be made before a potential problem arises.

Thus, instead of shying away from appointing consultants, what is required is to identify the right consultant which would help the business and who would have the correct expertise required in that particular case. This would not only help the company to focus on their core activities, but would also ensure smooth operations which will ultimately reflect on the profits as well as the overall growth of the company.



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MatthewHopman asked:


A Business Consulting Service can provide one of the best solutions any business person that is trying to achieve business success. A consulting service can help provide a platform for the people running or looking to start their own business. Their goal is to enjoy the luxury of more free time and with more work satisfaction.

If you are trying to start a small business or you have one going already you will know that one of the major reasons why people people start this kind of business is to have more control over their finances and their time. These are the major reasons now days the people have started to quit their regular job to start their own business to work less with more comfort and of course to be the boss of their own business.

Business Consulting Services help many people to develop successful business with proper guidance and innovative ideas for the growth of business. Business consultants can help to lay the foundation stone for any successful business and provides the entrepreneurs the correct way to build his or her business. To be a successful entrepreneur one has to understand the proper methodologies like how the business should run, how to attract customers, provide customer satisfaction services, maintaining good relationship with customers etc. These are few of the important factors that govern the success of any business taught by the Business Consulting Services.

One can note down from the statistics about the business failing to grow and succeed is majorly due to non-consistent performance of the entrepreneurs and their strategy involved in the growth of business. They don’t follow any Business Consulting Services guidelines which can result in many shutting down their business due to bankruptcy. The majorities of people start business of their own to enjoy the freedom and luxury of earning more in less time being boss at the same time but end up on the losing note. For instance one may take into account the scenario faced in counties like Australia and New Zealand where 40% of the business started every year come into a stagnant and precarious condition. So, its easier and more prudent to follow the Small business coaching solutions and Business development solutions in order to enhance the prosperity of the business in the right direction.

Nowadays the Business Consulting Services provide business development solutions with programs providing guidelines and techniques to develop small-scale business into Large successful business units. The business development programs like E-Myth Consulting provide the platform for small business to turn into world-class firm. They indeed provide excellent private business tuition to guide the entrepreneurs to turn the small-scale business into an excellent revenue generator. These tutors provide essential business solutions to the entrepreneurs step by step for generating fruitful revenues for the success of the small-scale business. Thus Business Consulting Services thus indeed provide step-by-step solutions to establish a small-scale business to turn into enterprise scaleable standards.

In order to meet the stiff competition of business the entrepreneurs needs to maintain standards to thrive in the market to generate the revenues. Thus business-coaching solutions are provided by the Business Consulting Services to build a successful business from small-scale business firm, to generate profitable revenue, tips and trick to love and enjoy the business one is engaged and lots of other factors that determine the success Of the business.





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Chris Jenkinson asked:


If you are looking to boost profits, then hiring a small business consultant is a great move. Business consultants can provide advice on virtually any business, especially if you choose wisely. When you start a small business, there may be a flurry of growth at the start as you see your ideas take shape. But after that, many businesses find that they are starting to stagnate. Sometimes this is because the business owner knows the product, but lacks all the business skills needed to progress. That’s where a small business consultant can help. Your consultant will be well versed in business skills and will have a wealth of experience from years of working with small businesses in a variety of fields. This experience can help you to move from small business stagnation to domination of your niche.

What To Expect From Your Consultant

The starting point for this type of consultancy service is to assess where your business is now. That means undertaking a full business review to see how you operate and what opportunities there are for development. At this point your consultant will make recommendations for action, but he won’t leave it there. He will also put his knowledge and expertise to work to help you follow through on those recommendations. Many small business consultants work on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis, so you won’t have to pay for the service if you see no business improvement.

Some of the areas you can get help with include carrying out a competitive analysis to see what others in your niche are doing. There may be actions you can take to replace the current number one at the top of your niche. Not only will your small business consultant help you to work out what those actions are, but the consultant will also help you by using his or her connections to put you in touch with the right people to make the move. Networking is a key part of business growth, so your chosen consultant should be well connected for best results.

Networking will also help with another key area – sales. Many business owners can improve their conversion rates for enquiries and leads with a few simple actions. A business consultant can help you to improve marketing materials and communication methods to really make profitability skyrocket. These are only a few examples of what a small business consultant can do. Your consultant will provide a plan tailored to your business – just watch it grow!



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Renjo Srinivasan asked:


Steps that you need to take on the way to set-up your consulting business —



Choose your legal structure– It is best to formalize your business structure right from the beginning, both for the legal and the tax considerations.

The basic business entity types –



Sole Proprietorship

General Partnership

Limited Partnership

C Corporation

S Corporation

LLC (limited liability company)



A brief explanation of each business type —

Sole Proprietorship –

Advantages –



For erecting a business operation, a sole proprietorship is an effortless way for it. For a small business owner, sole proprietorship is of very much assistance.

In a sole proprietorship, your business is managed by you, all of the profits are surfaced to you and all the decisions are made by you.

As a sole proprietor, you are less weighed down by the government limits and besides this, you have less to do in terms of reporting and taxes.



Disadvantages –



If your business is charged, you and your personal possessions can be at risk.

In elevating a capital, sole proprietorship may invite intricacy and than you may be required to use your own money or personal loan for running the business.

You might have to do an uphill struggle for getting an employee in view of the fact that sole proprietorships entail no stock shares



General Partnership –

A partnership is an alliance of two or more people giving out their possession and organizing their business. In order to evade a difference with regard to amount of time and energy, each partner use to endow some money in the business which is an innovative idea for creating a legally binding partnership agreement between all of the partners.

Corporation -

A corporation is created by selling shares to its owners. With the purpose of managing the company, these owners than opt for a board of directors.



Advantages -



Since corporation is considered as a separate ‘entity’ in almost all the cases, so it can be sued, taxed and can also go through a contractual agreements as well.

A corporation does not necessarily put up the shutters during the change of an ownership.

Through selling of a stock, Corporations can heave money and it can also take away the cost of benefits for its officers and employees as well.



Disadvantages –



It is an intricate administration.

It requires an enormous amount for a formation.

There is a double taxation for some owners.

For any paid dividends, taxation is done at the corporate level as well at the personal level.



Limited Liability Company (LLC) –



Advantage — Unlike general partnership, owners do not have their personal assets at risk when the LLC is sued.

Disadvantage – There are stringent IRS rules as to when you can be taxed as an LLC and to become an LLC, you need to meet up with those rules in a different states.

Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) –



Advantages –



There is a Limitation on the liability for a partners which is the great plus point in it.

There is a flexibility of capital structure and there is a flexibility in dealing out with the income and expense to the owners too.



Disadvantages –



It can be pricey to produce it.

It can invite more legal issues as some LLP statutes are yet inexperienced in court regarding many matters.

There can be a difference in the requirements from state to state and besides this, Laws are too not as consistent as they are for a corporation.





Prepare your business plan – Like any other business, it is imperative that you organize your own business plan. In the market, there are numerable books and business plan software to assist you in preparing your business plan.



Once the plan is put into implementation, it gives a base for a comparison and for a measure achievements.

It furnishes with the detail monthly projections for the current plan year and gives a yearly synopsis for the next two years.

For executing a business ideas and strategy during the next 2-5 years period, Business Plan function as a guide for a businessman to propose a rational and logical framework.

It provide foundation of co-operation with the representatives of third party financial institutions, such as – creditors, government authorities, bankers and lenders aimed at obtaining loans and capital investment.





Create your home office – If you are starting your business with a pea-nut amount of money, than begin by working from your home. This is utterly important if you are boarded on this business on a part-time basis. If you are looking ahead to get together with the clients on a regular basis in your home office, than better make sure of your neighbors as they can criticize about the big number of a traffic in your area. When you work at home, your home office fetches you with the many advantages. This embraces the chances of subtracting the mortgage interest, utilities, cleaning and the upkeep. You will be also able to make use of your internet connection, dining room table, home computer, telephone and the other facilities which are in a home.



Hence, these are the basic business consulting steps which are needed to be considered.



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Mark Yates asked:


I believe there is a time when every business consultant should leave a business. The problem is most consultants refuse to recognise it when the time comes. Many consultants get entrenched in a business and are quite happy to cruise along because they need the fees. It doesn’t matter how good or how experienced the business consultant might be, when it’s time to go, it’s time to go. The first red flag is generally when the business owner feels he or she is no longer receiving more value than cost. Frequently the business consultant should be aware of this situation before the client is.

Sometimes it’s the business consultants call on terminating their contract with a client or business. Typically this manifests every time you raise your fees. i.e. You’ll typically lose approximately 15% of your clients. Successful consultants regularly cull the bottom 15% of their client base as part of their growth strategy. This allows the business consultant to reach out and expand the upper levels of their client base. In its simplest format you cannot expect your business to grow if you retain all your paid clients. You will at best plateau and hit the financial tipping point.

Consultants who work on a daily rate or per-diem are generally practicing their trade. Their aim is to maximise short term cash flow. For sure this statement will have consultants across the four corners of the globe cursing under their breath. I have attended business growth seminars where the guru presenter has told the attendees to work out a billable day matrix. I.e. establish how much annual income they require and then divide it to identify your daily billing rate.

After deducting weekends, bank holidays and individual holidays, approximately 220 billable working days remain in an average year. Deduct 30% of these days for marketing, business promotion and other non revenue generating activities. Then assume a 70% booking rate leaving a total of 154 days to generate revenue. Assume an annual salary requirement of £120,000 which dictates a daily charge out rate of just under £800 per day.

Three things generally happen if you adopt this severely flawed concept. First you’re screwed as far as your daily fee can only decline, and your margins erode. Second you’ve inadvertently capped your potential for growth. Third is if you drop a few days you’ll fail to hit your own required annual salary.

In his Million Dollar Consulting book Alan Weiss mentions, “There are substantial risks in the consulting profession as well as substantial rewards. It is ridiculous to assume the former without capitalising on the latter.”

The only exception I apply to this rule is when I provide business consultancy services to clients who have sourced match funding from grant agencies and you have to work to a per diem schedule.

Over the years I have always approached business consultancy from a perspective of helping my clients to become wealthy, irrespective of what type of relationship or system I adopt. My secondary aim is to establish an enduring relationship with my client. Given I am very selective about who I choose to work with, and that some of my clients still utilise my services after 15 years, I guess my philosophy has been successful.

I believe you grow businesses by exploiting strength, not acclimating to weakness. I work hard and have every expectation that I be suitably rewarded for helping my clients to become wealthy. I operate on a project fee basis only and I always base my fees on the client’s perceived value of my business growth contribution. I make it clear from the outset that even though I am talking to the client, it doesn’t mean I will be working with them. If I get the sense that a prospective client doesn’t recognise me as someone who does outstanding work and someone who requires a high investment then I am always prepared to walk away from the business.

Some business consultants are specialists and some are generalists, then there are specialists who have transitioned into generalists. To become a successful business consultant I advise you to differentiate your services, and then try to identify your unique niche and then commence a very focussed marketing campaign. Never be afraid of failure, because in order to grow you have to fail periodically. These failures will pre-programme you to identify opportunities for improvement. I believe that uninterrupted success, by definition pre-programmes you for failure.

Old school consultancy has maintained a predominant focus on ‘reactive’, whereas my ‘Special Forces’ The Art of Business War is ‘extremely proactive’. I train my associates to respond to emerging trends and fads by collating detailed research and business intelligence. In my experience very few consultants approach business proactively.

When you work in extremely high risk security operations in some of the world’s most terrible theatres of operation, you quickly relate to the concept of ‘practice makes perfect.’ I witnessed world class SWAT instructors screaming at their recruits that ‘practice makes perfect.’ On one occasion I was tasked with running a very dynamic live fire SWAT programme at the Ground Zero tactical facility in Alabama, USA. Some 40 different SWAT firearms instructors attended. Their agencies paid for them to be taught personally by Dr. Mark D. Yates how to clear houses dynamically, in order they could then train their own SWAT officers back at their respective departments. Officers in attendance represented numerous different law enforcement agencies like the FBI, Police, DEA, Sherriff’s dept’ , etc, etc.

At great cost the Ground Zero investors had constructed a ballistically lined 360 degree live fire MATCH Modular Armoured Tactical Combat House. Many of the officers attending had never been through a live fire house, especially with a team of unknown officers before. It’s a very hairy experience which is not for fools or the faint hearted. Sadly one of the Sherriff’s SWAT instructors fell into both the fool and the faint hearted camp.

I caught him inflicting his expertise on a group of officers under my tutorage and I listened as he informed his ‘new team mates’ that he was highly skilled and experienced in live shoot house tactics. He finished his lecture by stating that repetition is the key, as practice makes perfect. After glancing at my fellow instructors we knew straight away he was a bluffer and a bullshitter.

We let him lock and load and placed him where he could cause the least damage, i.e. at the head of a six officer snake formation. He paused outside a door and placed his chin on the muzzle of his upturned 9mm, whilst his finger was locked rigid around his trigger. This was without doubt the single most dangerous incident I have ever witnessed on any shooting range in any of the 41 countries I have visited.

I aborted the exercise and brought the team outside for a safety brief. Sherriff Bubba refused to believe what I assured him he had done. I asked him what fate would befall one of his agency recruits if they made such a fundamental error. “Instant dismissal from the agency… but that would never happen because I train them properly and I’m big on practice makes perfect,” he replied arrogantly. One of my instructors led the team into the class room and played a video of the Sherriff’s Faux Pas. I told the class that practice does not make perfect, and that only perfect practice makes perfect. I also told them that I don’t train people, because we train animals and not humans. I prefer to educate people. For some reason Sherriff Bubba slipped away from the programme never to be seen again. Clearly like some business consultants, the time for him to leave was dictated by external forces.

Special Forces know when to arrive and also when to leave. They never overstay their welcome.

This article may be reprinted without permission, provided it is utilised in its entirety and is not printed in or posted on any illegal or controversial publications.



Contact Dr. Mark D. Yates Business Consultant if you require Business Consultancy



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