A consultant (from Latin: consultare “to discuss”) is a professional, who provides professional or expert advice[1] in a particular area such as: management, marketing or more specifically website consulting. A consultant is usually an expert or a professional in a specific field and has a wide knowledge of the subject matter.[2] A consultant usually works for a consultancy firm or is self-employed and engages with multiple or changing clients. Thus, clients have access to deeper levels of expertise than would be feasible for them to retain in-house and may purchase only as much service from the outside consultant as desired.
Now that we have a definition from Wikipedia, we can talk a little about our experience. Jim Peake, founder of SpeechRep Media, Inc. has been a marketing and management consulting professional in the Internet and Website business since 1994. Jim has actually lost count on how many web sites he has developed or brought to market, but we guess it is about 400 + at this time of writing in 2011. Having been the VP of Sales of a NYC Web design start-up, who eventually went public Jim sold web design and website consulting services to many large organizations including IBM, AOL, Prudential Securities and Oppenheimer Funds just to name a few. Along the way Jim helped many companies large and small develop their web sites, some more successful than others.
Over time Jim was also involved in selling custom software applications for web sites and content management systems, all in some way shape and form integrated with the web. During a period from 2001-2003, Jim was involved in the speech recognition business where the telephone could capture unique identifier data such as; name, address, phone and e-mail. All of these systems were integrated back to the web and originated from the web.
Moving along Jim started his own internet small business publishing site and began the process of learning all about PPC and SEO. What he learned was it sure was not easy. After several failed attempts at trying to master these two disciplines, he finally found a couple of mentors, who were willing to teach him the ropes in SEO. PPC was a bit less of a challenge however, it required deeper pockets to play. Never professing to “know it all”, Jim is still learning the finer nuances of the trade as the targets are always moving in SEO. What Jim can bring to the table is a body of experience that will assist you in getting started on the right foot and making sure that your invested dollars are just that, an investment and not a “sunken cost”.
The idea is to get results, just as in golf…..like sinking a putt. If your 30’ putt is on a green sloping to the right you have to hit the ball and aim 6’ to the left so the ball curves right into the cup. The problem is if that measurement of 6’ is not correct or the aim is off chances are the putt will not go in. The “other factor” is speed and velocity, we want to make sure we have enough velocity to reach the cup. This same analogy can be made in the internet marketing game as a website consultant; we need knowledge, precision, repetition and experience to be successful.
If you require answers immediately, we are flexible and can consult with you on helping you put together budgets for your projects and give you advice on the path you plan to take. Often this initial advice can save you thousands if not 10’s of thousands of dollars. One of the biggest areas of concern in website development is scope creep. We try and guide our clients towards platforms and solutions that make the most sense for them in the long run. Give us a call to discuss you project, the first call is on us. 941-787-3082.
