What is Micro-Consulting and How Much Does it Pay?
Okay so, you are probably wondering what micro-consulting is aren’t you, well, micro-consulting is a lot like regular consulting, but it comes in short bursts. That is to say that normally there isn’t a large amount of money that changes hands, and there aren’t any large reports, research projects, and work involved. Rather someone who is very entrenched in a given industry makes themselves available for questions. And entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and business startups can send them an e-mail, or a text message, or perhaps even call them on the phone with questions.
The micro consultant will answer these questions for a nominal fee and give bits and pieces of wisdom to the individual making the inquiry. If you consider Yahoo Answers and the types of questions people ask into the computer, perhaps you can understand why business people need a “go to guy” or gal in the industry that can answer important questions immediately. Sometimes business folks need the answer right away, but they can’t find it online because all of the top industry professionals don’t necessarily put out that type of information, and it’s often not common knowledge.
However, if you, as the micro-consultant make a deal with them for a nominal fee to be on call so to speak to answer basic easy questions, they are more than likely to pay you for your services. I’ve done quite a bit of micro-consulting, and the way I do it is; I have someone put $100 on my Starbucks card, or perhaps pay me $250-$500 on PayPal, and I make myself available if they have questions in the industry. Sometimes people never ask me questions, other times they may go months between questions. Sometimes my answers lead to even more questions, which is okay too.
Rather than trying to make a whole bunch of money off one or two consulting clients, in this way you can have 50 to a 100 clients and go about your daily life, and do a little traveling, and as long as you are near a computer or access to the Internet and get back to them within 24-hours or so, everyone’s happy. Best of all your clients will not quit, they will just use up their allotted time, and when either of you feels that you deserve more, you just make mention of it.
You’d be surprised how well micro-consulting works, and how easy it is to do, that is if you are an expert in your industry. Because if you are one of the best in your industry, you will always be needed as other business people in the industry need someone to bounce ideas off of, and to ask questions to. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.