How To Start An Online Consulting Business?

Modern society is one of the most unexpectedly developing things in the world. Any person, film or idea appreciated and respected today might be canceled tomorrow. But the only thing that stays the same throughout the years is people who look for help from real experts. No matter how educated or experienced a person is, there always would be niches where it is better to get a consultation before actions. In this rapidly evolving landscape, understanding how to start an online consultation marketplace business becomes crucial. It empowers real experts to provide timely, accessible, and valuable advice in various niches.

With the development of the world we live in, the consulting business also has developed and moved online and became digital-friendly. In our article, we write about the realization of the online consulting business, the structure of consulting marketplace, and give you a hint on a convenient solution to realize your consulting business digital model, if it isn’t yet. 

Consulting Business is Digital World Now

There is no surprise that in 2024 any business that wants to get as much revenue as possible moves to the Internet and provides services or products not only offline but also online. With the development of the consulting industry, an increase of niche and general consultants, this business model has a stable revenue rate of about $250 billion. It makes it a very profitable marketplace and shows great perspectives for further development and revenue increase.  

Since the last year, the industry of online consulting shows positive perspectives for development:

Resource: https://linchpinseo.com/trends-in-the-management-consulting-industry/ 

Changes in the Consulting Industry

In terms of the current international situation, we have studied companies that provide consultation services and highlighted certain changes in the management of the consulting industry. They have a great influence on the course of the development of the communication between consultants and clients, the software they use to offer any consultation (text, video, audio), and the online consulting business in general. 

Generalists VS Specialists

The competition between these two models of the education process and implementation of that knowledge has been on for years. At first, it was an issue only between generalists and specialists. Later it changed into a dilemma between consultants who are experts in the exact niche and people who are generally good at finding solutions. 

There was no clear answer if a client should choose an expert who gives consulting service in the field that you currently have problems with, or you could go to someone who has average knowledge in different branches but still isn’t good enough for consulting only in that niche 

In 2024 taking into account revenue and the number of online and offline clients of companies who provide expertise in an exact field we can say that the battle seems to be won by specialists. 

Instant Result Expected

According to the Grist the percentage of clients who expect to see positive changes after the consultation within 3 months grows. Now 29% of clients want to see improvement or solution of their issue less than in 3 months, 49% are fine with solutions that take time from 3 to 12 months, and the remaining 22% are ready to wait more than 12 months to see the positive outcome after the required time.

Digital Marketing is Our Reality and Future

Do you know the top online consultant that people all over the world turn to? Of course, you do! It is Google. That’s the very first software that a client checks every time when they face difficulties or have questions. The same happens when they try to find contacts of the best consultant or a website of a consulting company. Companies with digital software seem to be more popular among people who look for a consultation.

Here we come to the 90 – 80 rule:

• 90% of potential clients find a consultant on various online platforms.
• 80% of consulting businesses do not have enough digital footprint to be chosen. 

This simple rule should make companies realize that these days it is highly important to be decently represented online, to sell your service with high-quality software, as the majority of potential clients search for consultations or marketplaces full of educated consultants online. If a company still believes that they don’t need a website or modern software to be represented in the marketplace, they would change their mind soon, as with time their revenue would decrease.  

Benefits and Perks of Online Consultation Business

For those who don’t see any real need to move their consulting business online and deal with all the management of the transferring, we decided to collect the list of benefits and features that help business owners to define their path of development and find new revenue sources. 

Stay Ahead

It sounds crazy, though the development of consulting business is pretty fast, but it is one of the last industries to be presented online. So it is high time for businesses to integrate the marketplace. Clients are used to getting services online, but there are still not so many companies providing such online consultations. Take the opportunity and be fast enough to enter the online marketplace of consulting with a low competitive volume. Such changes would help with the development of your business and attract new clients.

Responsibility and Management of Client’s Data Security

Even though it doesn’t sound like a benefit at all, but try to take a closer look at this feature. Primary you do have to work hard on providing a high-quality security system for your online platform, but later it would bring some real respect from clients who would be sure of low or better say zero risks that their personal details would be sold or stolen. 

Some clients are afraid of using online consultations for medicine, finance, or law issues, as they are afraid of the insecurity of an online platform. But when you know what fears your possible clients, you can work on these features especially hard, and show them that the development of your platform is so good that there is nothing to be afraid of in online consultations. Consultants as business owners should do their best, to please clients. 

New Options

Entering the marketplace of online consulting you have the advantage of acting in your unique way and get access to the audience, as there are no location limitations for online business. 

There would never be any time better than right now. Every time you postpone the digitalization of your business, you miss the opportunity. The opportunity for development, to help a client who might be looking for your consultation right now.

Structure and Types of Online Consulting Business

No matter what way of interaction with customers you have chosen. You can have group video calls, individual calls with or without video, paid text consultations, or any other option you’ve chosen for the development of your consulting business. There is a certain structure of the online consulting business. Below you can see a simple chart that shows the organization. 

As you can see there are 3 main models of online consultations:

• Marketplace consulting
• Machine-driven networks
• Crowd-Founded expert calls

The first one is the point of our study in this article. This model is divided into two subgroups: general online consultations and specialists with their online platforms.

As we wrote above in the online space general consultations seem to be less popular than businesses based on help from experts. So for you to have a clear understanding of niche consulting let’s have a closer look. In practice niche consulting doesn’t differ a lot from general online consulting, but it chooses one niche and goes deep to the very core of the essence of the subject. Consultants do their best to development of the situation and try to help any client as fast as possible. 

Enough Theory Let’s Start Online Consulting Business

Lawyers, telemedicine experts, astrologists, and professionals in any field who are ready to become online consultants can make their own consulting business with features that you see perfectly matching your content. There are various paths you can choose to step into the digital business. First of all, you need a platform or a website to locate your consultations on. Here you have 3 alternatives:

• Hire a team of web designers
• Build a website from scratch
• Use a ready-to-go all-in-one solution

We do not consider the first option as the development of your own business does not require payments for a service that you can easily do yourself. But let’s have a closer look at the second and the third features. 

Building Website from Scratch

For this solution, you should either have an IT background and be familiar with different software or be ready to study a lot of information and get on well with various services very fast. Building from scratch means that you would build an online platform or a website on your own or hire a team for this task. That’s great as you can decide on your own what features you would add to your online platform. 

To achieve a better outcome, you might need to create an IT RFP to find the best IT services for your company. It can help you find potential partners with the right resources, skills, and expertise.

The only negative aspect of this way is that it would take months to build a decent software service and if you want your website to provide perfect quality service, that might probably take years. Years of lost opportunities wasted money and clients. 

Ready-to-go Solution

What if you want to make your online business available right now? Then you’d better pay your attention to platforms that offer software that allows you to set a well-working website without knowing even a line of code. 

With such software, a consultant would get a user-friendly service, any client would get access to video and text consultations, mobile service, that makes software convenient both for a client and consultant. Moreover, by providing your service with such software every consultant can get a convenient payment model that is used by the majority of consultants. 

In this article, we won’t compare Scrile Meet to any other software service. If you want to see why this software is better and if it has any weaknesses in comparison to other platforms go through our blog. Here we just show it as an opportunity for you to make your business web-friendly and show you how many options you have choosing Scrile Meet.

Scrile Meet

We in the Scrile team believe that the main feature of a successful platform is the comfort of users. That’s a fact that respect from providers and consultants who take care of clients’ pleasure, would bring more benefits than just temporal revenue increase. For us consultants are clients, that is why we want to make your experience of management and administration of your online platform as comfortable as possible. 

With Scrile Meet consultants get high-quality software that allows having individual real-time audio or video calls for tet-a-tet consultations, one-to-many group calls for tutors and webinars also with video, paid text messages for Q&A consultations, and the opportunity for clients to book appointments according to your schedule or available time. 

Platform Usability

With Scrile Meet you can be sure to provide consultation service and live consultations right in the browser. There is no need for a consultant or for a client to download any special app to get access to the marketplace. It would be especially comfortable for a client as he or she can get a consultation online using a computer, phone, tablet, etc. 

Payment Terms

Being present on a marketplace of consultation services consultants expect to get income for the service they offer. Those who use Scrile Meet already know that with our platform consultants get a convenient online payment system. So consultants can be sure that every dollar they get for a video call, or a text consultation would go directly to their account. 

Most importantly, by building a platform with our company you can be sure that all the revenue from payments is made on your platform basis. All revenue would be left with you and your consulting business. Scrile Meet has no commission fee from the revenue you have with Scrile Meet, you pay only for a set plan. 

To try the platform in practice Scrile Meet offers a free trial plan for 14 days. You would get access to all available features and make sure that Scrile Meet is a perfect solution. After the free period is over you can easily switch to a paid one. To find the most suitable plan check our Pricing page. 

Conclusion

There is no doubt that in the next couple of years the majority of offline businesses would become online. Don’t waste the time and move your consultations to the digital space. Scrile Meet is just a convenient solution that would please any consultant.