Before we look at the areas where a specialist business development consultancy can be used, let’s agree a definition of the term “business development”.

In some sectors, typically professional services and management consultancy, business development should be more accurately called “selling”. In these relationship-orientated businesses, business development is simply a more acceptable term than “sales”. However, as they are usually referring to the business of winning direct clients, they are, essentially, direct sales activities.

For our purpose, and more accurately, business development covers all areas of business growth except direct selling activities. This typically falls into three main areas:

1) Resellers & Channel Sales

2) Strategic Partners

3) Joint-Ventures

Technically, a fourth category of business development exists which would be Mergers & Acquisitions (or M&A) but for the purpose of this article about services provided by a business development consultancy we will focus on the first three.

So, if we agree that business development is focused on business growth through indirect sales, let’s consider how a specialist business development consultancy can help your business.

Resellers & Channel Sales

A business development consultancy can provide support on recruiting and building your indirect sales channels.

Whilst channel architecture may vary, and your business development consultancy will typically advise on the best fit channel structure to meet your business development objectives, the process of building your reseller channel is an ideal project for a business development consultancy.

In fact, the best analogy for a business development consultancy in this instance is a recruitment consultancy.

From researching the market to identify the best channel candidates, making an initial approach on your behalf and setting up the reseller agreement, a business development consultancy can support your business through the entire channel recruitment process.

Strategic Partners

Unlike resellers or channel sales partners, who essentially buy your product and re-sell it, strategic partners are a broader category of business development.

A good business development consultancy will seek to think outside the box when advising on partner selection. Types of strategic partnerships can include technology collaboration, marketing alliances, and value-added services such as consultancy services.

Unlike the “recruitment consultancy” analogy, a strategic partnering programme sees the business development consultancy more as a “match-maker” or dating agency.

Crucially, whatever strategic partnership your business development consultancy advocates, the objectives should always be to engineer a win-win relationship for both businesses.

This isn’t about swapping logos on websites, each party should see mutual financial gain and your business development consultancy should focus on positioning you for business growth.

Joint-Ventures

Whilst, with strategic partnerships each business retains its own identify and seeks to develop additional value through association with each other, a joint-venture (often referred to as a JV) is a completely new venture in its own right.

The joint-venture is typically a new company established and mutually owned by each party. If strategic partnering is “dating”, with a joint-venture you get married.

A business development consultancy, in the same way as when recruiting resellers and strategic partners, will invest time understanding the market and profiling potential joint-venture partners. In addition, understanding each potential partner’s own eco-system of customers and competitors is an essential step.

With joint-ventures the investment and commitment is significant for both parties and, as such, your business development consultancy needs to uncover the strategic benefits for both parties.

In summary, a business development consultancy can support you in developing your indirect sales channels, identifying appropriate third-parties and pulling together a synergistic strategic partnership or joint-venture to position your business for significant revenue growth.

David Regler is Managing Director of Maine Associates Ltd, a UK business development consultancy providing new business development expertise to drive revenue growth.

ured Tenant Loan Fair Credit Protect Your Finances with No Collaterals

Tenants are people who do not own any property of their own. Obtaining loan becomes a bit difficult in such cases, as they live in rented houses. This means there is no local permanent address too. Lenders have to face some more risk in such cases. But the lending companies are ready to provide UK tenant loans. These loans are specially designed for people who do not own any property or who are not willing to risk their property.

UK tenants who desire to have their pressing financial demands satisfied even when they have nothing like home to vow as security, the only salvage left open for such people is of Unsecured Tenant Loan Fair Credit. This is particularly planned to fulfill the urgent monetary necessities of UK non home owners.

Are suffering from bankruptcy, CCJ’s, IVA, insolvency, defaults, foreclosure, missed payments etc. and not getting cash assistance from any where then you may choose this loan facility. Under these loans there is no kind of credit screening process has been followed. But with these loans you can obtain amount ranging from £1000 to £25000 as per urgent requirements for the term period of 1-10 years. The rate of interest can also be high due to unsecured nature.

Unsecured Tenant Loan Fair Credit can be employed in several monetary needs that can be specified as:

College/course fees Home repair/renovation Buying a new car/property Medical urgency Vehicle repair Starting a business Holiday trip

These types of loan have clear terms that do not create hassles for the loan seekers. When you have comprehensively understood the map of the loan offer, you can immediately fill the online loan application form as well as submit it for processing. The sole attribute of online loan application is that the application once submitted gets processed instantly and you get verification call in few hours. When your personal and professional information that you have provided in the application are checked, your loan gets sanction and is transferred in the personal banking account which you have provided them. In the same way Loan amount is returned on due date. Loan providing body or currency lending firm takes out the loan amount on payday with help of post dated cheques  you have given at the time of loan application.

Through these loans, you can obtain amount in the range of £1000-£25000. These loans have a short but feasible repayment period of 6months- 10 years. Thorough research of the market will enable you to avail these loans at competitive rates. Borrowers with poor credit rating are also eligible for the loans.

Ravi Mishra has been associated with Loans, which provides information and advice on any type of loan like Bad credit unsecured loans, unsecured personal loans, and cheap unsecured loans For more information visit http://www.loantoloan.co.uk

If you need a loan, but, don’t have time to visit a loan office, you can get an advance cash payday loan online. Many payday loan companies are doing business through the internet. They keep marketing their advance cash payday loans online through emails, search results and referrals. You can simply check their website for their offers, rates and other terms, and apply online. And that is all! You will receive an answer to your query within minutes, and in all probability, you will get your advance cash payday loan within 24 hours.

What Are The Advantages Of An Online Payday Advance?

Although there are many payday loan vendors who do business the traditional way, by setting up offices at various locations all over the town, getting a payday loan online could be much easier. You don’t need to get dozens of documents copied for submission. You don’t need to spend hours writing up lengthy application forms. And you don’t even need to spend time to locate an advance payday loan online store and drive over to it!

You might think that to compare the rates offered by such stores, so as to get a better deal for yourself, you would need to visit all these stores in person. No, you don’t, for with a quick payday cash online, you can easily compare different online payday loan vendors within an hour! You don’t even need to meet them to get the loan money. It is directly deposited into your bank account through internet banking.

What Do You Need For An Online Payday Loan?

Getting an advance cash payday loan online is much faster than getting a payday loan the traditional way. You can make it even quicker by keeping in mind a few things.

Firstly, the online application form will ask you for some personal information; your name, address, social security number, bank name and bank account number. They will need your employment details too; the name of your employer, your work number, take-home pay package and whether you are paid weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. So make sure you have all this information at hand before you sit down to apply for an instant cash loan online.

Secondly, you’ll need to fax some documents after applying for the payday loan online, so that they can verify your identity, bank details and salary. You might need to fax your driver’s license, bank statements, a cancelled check and the last few pay stubs. However, just do a little bit of research, because certain lending companies provide a faxless advance cash payday loan online too.

Advance cash payday loan online, or simply payday loan online, is an advance cash payday loan that is available over the internet. Payday loan online make borrowing money very quick and hassle-free today.

If you are seeking a cheap car insurance quote there are recognized steps to take that will result in you obtaining the cheapest car insurance quote possible for your car and your circumstances. Many people honestly believe that auto insurance companies are doing their best to provide them with the cheapest quote they can, and trust them to do so. They are both right and wrong.

A company will provide you with a cheap quote if it is liable to make them money. That is the purpose of any company: to make money. They are not philanthropists and like any other company are in existence only to make money. If they feel that they can make more than the average quota of money from your premium then they will offer you a bit back.

Therefore, if you hear of somebody who has found a fantastically cheaper car insurance quote than you have been offered, then that is because their circumstances are different to yours. So what could be different? Perhaps they have never made a claim from previous policies. Perhaps their car is older than yours and they have declined collision and comprehensive cover. Perhaps their company have an agreement with the insurance company they deal with for their car fleet for cheap auto insurance quotes for employees. Perhaps . . .

There are so many perhaps’s that you are probably best to ignore the deals other people get and concentrate solely on what you can get. You should listen to their experiences with various ins companies, such as their willingness to pay out on claims or their speed in providing a courtesy car in the event of yours being damaged, but pay no attention to what they pay because their circumstances are different.

So what affects whether or not you can get the cheapest quote going? What are these circumstances that can make so much difference to whether or not you get a cheaper policy than the next guy or gal? They are basically common sense, and if you can’t work it out for yourself then you probably don’t deserve a cheap car insurance quote.

Do you have all the car safety features fitted in your car? Stuff like air bags, not only for you but for your front and rear passengers? Are their also air bags on the sides of the doors to protect you from side collisions? Do you have ABS braking that doesn’t lock when you hit the brakes, or a burglar alarm and window etching with your number plates? If so you can likely get your quote reduced.

Never accept the first quote given – that is Rule Number One in the book of cheap insurance seeker’s rules. Compare cheap car insurance and keep something up your sleeve, even if it costs you. If you agree to pay $500 deductible your premium cost will be reduced, but don’t tell them that till after your initial quote, or it will likely just be the same as if you didn’t mention it. $500 might seem a lot, but that’s your estimate of what you can afford to pay calculated against the likelihood of you having to pay it.

There are lots of other variables that you can use to reduce your premium such as dropping the collision cover and going third party, or simply that you are willing to switch your other insurances to the same company, such as house and travel insurance for example. How about simply buying it online: most companies offer a discount if you purchase your auto insurance online.

Whatever way you achieve it, a cheap car insurance quote should be easy to get if you know the right steps to take. Ins companies will give you a serious discount if they believe that you are less likely to make a large claim than the next guy.

Author: Brent A. Kenny

Copyright 2007 – Brent A. Kenny. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active.

Everyone knows they need one.  Everyone plans on writing one, eventually.  But not everyone does it.  Why? Because it’s so easy to put off and it’s such a chore.  I’m talking about writing a business plan.  Many business owners put more effort into planning their vacations than they put into planning their businesses.  This is a shame because an entrepreneur with a business plan is much more likely to succeed than one without a plan.

With just a little effort, you can plan the business of your dreams complete with desired level of income, time off, and emotional satisfaction.  The key is the business plan.  Let’s take a look at some of the mistakes we tend to make with business plans and what you can do to overcome them.

Mistake #1 – Putting it off



It’s easy to hang up an “Open for Business” shingle and then dive right into the busy-ness of day to day operations of your business.   Things are going well and you think “Someday I’ll get around to writing that business plan” or “I don’t need that business plan after all”, or even “Who says you need a business plan to be successful?”   Years later when you want to buy a building or expand operations you find out that the bank or investors want a plan, but you don’t have one.

Don’t put it off.  Having a business plan helps you to solidify your future, anticipate problems, and plan for success.  If you’re always running on adrenaline, putting out fires, and playing catch up, you probably need a business plan.  So just do it.  Block time on your schedule two to three hours a week and just get it done.

Mistake #2 – Not a big enough vision

Think BIG when creating your long term vision.  This is your opportunity to design a business that far exceeds your current situation.  I’ve seen far too many boring, limited, and going-no-where visions.  Think in terms of the ideal and put yourself in the future.  What would you most like to be doing in your business?  The grunt work?  The annoying stuff you’re doing now?  Of course not.  You are the face of your business.  Your job is to meet the clients, close the big deals, and rake in the dough. 

What kind of revenue do you want in your business?  Think BIG again.  And don’t say 20% better than now.  What are the possibilities five to ten years from now?

Mistake #3 – Weak goals

A business plan without detailed goals is like a ship without a rudder.  The business becomes directionless without a purpose.  You, as the business owner must have goals for every facet of your business.  What I often see is a 5 year revenue goal, but no monthly and yearly goals to lead up to the finale.  I see very few business plans with client goals, professional goals, and personal goals.   How many new clients do you want each month?  What are the revenue goals for your products or services?  What information products do you want to produce in the future?    Having goals in life is what drives successful people.  What are your goals?

Mistake #4 – Not focusing on Marketing and Branding

It’s really easy to get into statistics, theory, and hyperbole in a business plan.  I say “Show me the money!”  What are you going to do to bring in the dough?  Any business plan worth the paper it’s printed on should have a significant marketing and branding section. Take a look at your vision and decide what marketing actions you need to take to close the gap between where you are now and where you want to be in five to ten years.

If you want to stand out in the crowded marketplace, you’ll also need to create a strong brand and continue working on it going forward. Invest in yourself and get a professionally designed corporate identity complete with tagline, website, four-color business cards, and the like.  No one wants to do business with someone who doesn’t look professional.  So get rid of the dull boring business image and kick it up a notch.

Mistake #5 – Not working the plan

Why do you write a business plan if you are going to put it away in a drawer somewhere?  You need to keep the plan visible.  You need to review the plan on a weekly basis.  You need to be asking yourself “What now?” at least weekly.  You need to make sure you are getting results.  No matter how brilliant the plan, you must take action to get results.  You do this by reviewing your plan, checking the marketing activities for results, and asking “What bigger projects do I need to tackle to get closer to the big Vision?”  Then you ask yourself if the direction needs to change.  If so, it’s time to re-write your plan.

Traditional thirty-page business plans are not always useful for entrepreneurs.  They can be overly technical and may not provide the accountability needed.   I have created a business plan system for entrepreneurs and independent professionals that may fit the bill: The Two Page Mini Business Plan™.  This system incorporates Goal Setting, and heavy Branding and Marketing with My Success Book – a built-in Daily Action Planner to encourage accountability and results.  This may be just the system you need to get where you want to go.

 

©Copyright 2008- Suzanne Muusers – All Rights Reserved  

 

Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long it is printed in its entirety including the about the author information.  Please leave all links active, do not edit the article in any way, and include the copyright statement.

Suzanne Muusers is a Business Coach and Business Expert based in Scottsdale, Arizona. She is a credentialed member of the International Coach Federation and has owned or managed a business every year since 1981. She is the creator of The Two Page Mini Business Plan™, The Six Step Guide to Creating a Business Plan That’s Short, Easy, and Gets Results! Visit her site: http://www.prosperitycoaching.biz