This is a sample handout from my online course – start and grow your own consultancy small business from home.
During the current situation, there are many technologies that you can employ to continue helping others through your consultancy business even though you may be restricted from your normal methods of business:
- Holding meetings remotely – either by using the telephone or online services such as Skype. This enables meetings to continue wherever you are. Apps are available on a variety of devices, so that people can communicate through laptops, tablets or mobile phones.
- Utilizing online file storage – services such as dropbox enable you to receive and send large files between yourself and clients or prospects. This avoid both delays in using the postal service, as well an inconvenience should you not be able to visit a local post office.
- Investigating screen sharing services – for some consultancy businesses you may have normally been using/showing procedures to a client on their own laptop/etc. By utilizing screen sharing software, it is possible for this work to continue even though you are not present in the same physical location.
- Utilizing file encryption – if you are emailing documents to clients, these may be sensitive. You could perhaps encrypt a pdf if you have suitable software. One other easy way to send encrypted files is to compress them into a zip file and add a password to it. That way the file is both compressed and smaller for emailing.