What Does a Sleep Consultant Do?

Sleep consultants are professionals in the field of helping your children sleep through the night. Many sleep consultants are occupational therapists who have developed sleep plans that are individualized for your child’s needs. They provide services that are able to assess, identify, and support you in getting your children to sleep through the night. Many also provide follow-up support to ensure that the plan that they have developed with the family is working well for the baby. This leaves room for modifications.

Reasons you may consider using a sleep consultants services are as follows. You may consider a sleep consultant if your child has difficulty falling asleep, if your child wakes multiple times through the night, and if your child is unable to fall or stay asleep in their bed. You may consider a sleep consultant if your child is experiencing early morning waking, if your child has difficulty falling or staying asleep during nap time, or if your child is irritable and fussy during the day. You may also consider a sleep consultant if your own lack of sleep is interfering with your ability to parent, if you are feeling frustrated and overwhelmed with managing your child’s sleep, and if you would like assistance to gently shape healthy sleep habits for your child.

Another big reason why you may consider hiring a sleep consultant is because you receive a personalized plan that suits your family. The consultant during this time will work together with you on fine tuning a plan for each individual child and help you in implementing the plan. This is where it requires you to take action. By following the plan you will receive motivation and support to see success and help your children sleep through the night. Sleep is a very important part of childhood, and it is needed to help your children develop a healthy sleeping habit. Without a healthy sleep pattern it can cause distress, a strain in relationships, and lead to a variety of emotional, cognitive and behavioural health concerns for both the child and parents.

Overall, a sleep consultant assesses your families’ patterns and creates a plan that is tailored to each child’s individual needs. They work with you in creating a routine sleep time that is effective for your family and allows both you and the children to sleep through the night. By having this plan in place it creates a healthy sleep pattern for both the parents and children.

20 Questions to Ask a Wedding Consultant Before Hiring Them

Before You Buy the Dress, Many Buy the Consultant

If you are thinking about hiring a wedding consultant, the first thing you should do is check all of their references. Every. Single. One. Doing a background check would probably be beneficial as well if you can pull that off. Why? Because not all wedding consultants are made alike – some are in it just to rip you off. We have come up with 20 unique questions that you can use to screen your potential consultant to make sure they are up to snuff. That way you can weed out the good consultants from the bad consultants and not get stuck with throwing your money down the drain.

1) Do you have a business license or registration?

2) Do you have liability insurance if we meet in your home or business?

3) How long have you been a wedding consultant?

4) Do you belong to any professional organizations?

5) How many weddings do you consult on every year?

6) Besides the referrals that you have given me, can you give me five additional vendor referrals?

7) Do you hold any sort of certifications and if so, who gave you the certification?

8) What kind of contract terms do you offer?

9) What is your policy or procedure if something happens to you on my wedding day and you can’t make it?

10) Where do you feel you get your creativity from when you help create a perfect wedding so often?

11) What is it that you will exactly do for me if I hire you?

12) What kind of reputation do you believe you hold in the community?

13) How often do you overspend your budget when you help plan a wedding?

14) What is your personal organization philosophy?

15) What kind of additional fees do you charge and what do I get out of you for those fees?

16) If I give you the keys to my wedding, how often will you update me to let me know how the plans are coming along?

17) If strange things come up during the planning stages, do you charge extra for every change of plan or is this part of the package deal?

18) Is it your policy to attend the rehearsal ceremony and dinner?

19) What do you usually wear when you attend a wedding?

20) If I don’t like your services, what is your refund policy?

By asking these questions before you make the decision to hire your wedding consultant, you can save yourself the aggravation and grief of having wasted your money on a worthless one and even prevent a disastrous wedding. So please feel free to take this list of questions, go hire your perfect wedding consultant, and then enjoy the wedding of your dreams!

Why I Left Consulting To Make My Living Online

A few years ago I suddenly found myself without a job. This came as a bit of a shock since I had just completed my MBA degree, resigned from the government, and moved to a new city to take a senior management position with an international training agency. It had looked like my future was all set. I seemed to be on the threshold of an international career path for the remaining 15 to 20 years of my working life.

Unfortunately — or perhaps fortunately, as it turned out — when I took that new job it quickly became apparent that I had jumped aboard a sinking ship. In a matter of 17 short and hectic months, my brief career with that agency ended. Not long after, that organization lost its funding and disappeared into the sunset.

Starting Over Isn’t Always Easy

Finding myself unemployed for the first time in my 25-year working life, my initial impulse was to launch into reaction-mode and immediately start searching for another regular position, or a “job-job”, as I now call those conventional types of jobs. After all, that’s all I had really known up to that point in my life.

A few times over the years I had gotten close to escaping the bureaucracy, but fear and life circumstances always conspired against me. I invariably chose the “easier, softer way”. After all, there’s nothing much more secure than a predictable paycheck coming in every two weeks, automatically, like clockwork, for a lifetime. (Yawn… wake me up when it’s over!). As it turned out, I didn’t even have to make the decision for myself; a board of directors made it for me when it decided to eliminate my job.

Fortunately for me, before I panicked and jumped into serious job-hunting mode, I came to the realization that more than 25 years of living from paycheck-to-paycheck and achieving very little, in a lasting sense, was more than enough. It occurred to me that it was my opportunity to do something different. I reasoned that working for a large company wouldn’t be much different from the government scenario I had already endured. It’s just a function of size more than anything else. I could see that with a large company I would just be another one of thousands of “cubby-hole dwellers” waiting for retirement to eventually arrive. I cringe now, just thinking about such a fate!

Not long after that I hung out my shingle as a private business consultant and business writer. Sounds easy enough, but it wasn’t. Like everything else in life, I had to pay my dues and learn a lot of things the hard way. Because I have always been an “experiential” learner it took me almost two full years to become completely disillusioned with business consulting and copy writing. Actually, I was genuinely surprised to find out the many negative aspects of what I had always seen from the outside as “freedom”.

The Downsides of Consulting

* I soon realized that there were only so many hours in a day that I could be working as a consultant, thus limiting me to a fixed income, just like when I worked for the government — except there were no fringe benefits. Not to mention, no income between contracts or while preparing proposals.

* My previous corporate “bosses” had simply been replaced by demanding and often ungrateful “clients”. At least those bosses had a direct interest in keeping me happy as an employee by providing decent pay and working conditions. Clients had no stake whatsoever in the success or well-being of me or my business.

* I was frequently short-changed by clients. Many of them “used” their option to switch to a competitor as leverage to squeeze me down to the lowest possible per diem rate, forcing me to work for fees much lower than what I was worth.

* The only time I ever received feedback from clients was when they wanted more, or when there was a problem. No matter how hard I might have worked to produce a high quality product that I was proud of, it was rare to receive any kind of positive feedback from a client. Their attitude always seemed to be, “after all we paid for it.”

* Each time I got a new client I had to prove myself all over again from scratch. Since the new client does not know you, and you haven’t worked with them before, one often has to spend a lot of time and effort just showing them that you are indeed qualified for the job.

Transitioning Online

So, as I learned during that period, life as an independent consultant wasn’t necessarily all it was cracked up to be. Nevertheless, I am thankful for that false start in consulting, since it was that real-life experience which led me directly to my current career path of the past decade, in which I have been making my living entirely online.

In fact, it was during my time as a consultant that I had noticed that a certain group of individuals, some of them in situations similar to mine, were actually making their living online. It appeared that a few of these online entrepreneurs were doing very well.

Now that I’ve been successfully earning my living online for the past decade as an independent webmaster, I realize that my period as a consultant was a necessary transition phase on my way to becoming an online entrepreneur. I don’t regret my time as a consultant but I have to admit that the numerous downsides of that lifestyle had never occurred to me before I tried it myself. I would much rather be making my living as an independent online entrepreneur.

IT Outsourcing and Consulting: Top 2012 Trends

Technological change is accelerating at an exponential rate. Whereas it used to take decades for major shifts to occur, today’s big developments often come about in mere months. Read on to discover the IT outsourcing trends in 2012.

1. The Big Switch: Cloud Computing

Companies are gathering, analyzing, and storing more data than ever before. Cloud computing offers a convenient, cost-effective way to manage data, so it’s not wonder that increasing numbers of organizations are switching from costly on-site servers to remote servers. Typically, a firm can experience increased bandwidth with a cloud storage solution – meaning that the “big data” that today’s organizations demand can be more easily accessed.

The switch to cloud storage began in earnest last year, and it will continue through 2012, and indeed the rest of the decade. Information technology consulting firms will be busy building secure cloud-based networks. Forrester Research’s Holger Kisker has forecasted the cloud computing market to grow to $61 billion by year’s end. Kisker also highlights the fact that public cloud expenditures are growing four times faster than other IT spending.

If you contract with an IT outsourcing firm, be sure to ask what benefits you could see from switching to a cloud storage setup. Chances are that joining the cloud computing revolution would offer many advantages for your organization.

2. Tools to Facilitate Remote Teamwork

With access to company data via The Cloud, employees no longer need to access a local server, so they can work anywhere with secure Internet access. The challenge here is to monitor employee productivity remotely. To meet this growing need, IT consulting firms will be on the lookout for remote collaboration and project management tools.

3. Virtualization + Cloud Technology = Lowered Data Storage Expenses

The marriage of two of 2011′s stickiest IT outsourcing buzzwords – virtualization and cloud – will allow companies to further reduce their data storage budgets. Virtualization involves creating multiple virtual servers on the same actual machine. Information technology consulting experts say 2012 will be the year when virtualization and cloud storage will be used concurrently. Organizations will access virtualized servers through the cloud, thereby enjoying low costs and high efficiency.

4. IT Outsourcing Gains Popularity

As cloud technology moves data operations offsite, IT outsourcing will become an increasingly easy and attractive proposition. According to leading IT consulting firms, 2012 will feature growth for outsourcing groups such as Guru, oDesk, and Elance.

5. The Move to Mobile

Information technology consulting guru Maryfran Johnson is the Editor-in-Chief of CIO magazine. Her research with IDC and Gartner predicts that, by 2015, nearly as many tablets will be sold each year as PCs. Our future includes growing numbers of smartphones and tablets, in other words.

To keep up with the demand for these devices, information technology consulting firms will be employed to create mobile software applications. From analytics to file retrieval, companies will soon expect everything to be easily accessed via mobile devices – and software must be created to fulfill that demand. Additionally, groups that provide comprehensive IT outsourcing services will spend plenty of time in 2012 expanding security networks to include mobile devices.

Overall, cloud computing will drive IT outsourcing trends in 2012. Indeed, information technology consulting authorities have named 2012 “The Year of the Cloud.” Cloud technology will alter how organizations store data this year and for decades to come.

Become A Booz Management Consultant

Booz & Company has a storied history, having the greatest longevity of all existing consulting firms still in business today, and having participated in many of the biggest business deals of the last 100 years. From major mergers to saving automotive giants from bankruptcy, Booz has been there since 1914. While the business has shifted since its beginnings, especially since the 2008 restructure that saw the government services business branch off from Booz’s main operations, Booz & Company remains a strong market competitor and prestigious place to work.

Booz is one of the top management consulting firms in the world alongside firms, such as McKinsey, Bain and AT Kearney.

Recruitment at Booz is not unlike the recruitment process at other leading consulting firms. Undergrads and graduate students are recruited from the top 20 to 30 schools nationwide. They also accept applications from students at other institutions.

Booz looks for people who have a track record of being the best at whatever they do. On their website they state that they look for people who have done things that are very difficult to do and have done them very well. Whether it’s been running in a marathon or starting your own business from the ground up. They look for people who want to be the best at whatever they do, but do it just for the sheer satisfaction of being the best. Internal motivation and drive is a huge characteristic Booz & Company values very highly.

Like other management consulting firms, you had better be strong at case study interview questions. These questions are used by Booz recruiters to test your analytical and problem solving skills. Some people are more naturally inclined and gifted at answering case study questions, but it is a skill set that can be learned and improved just like anything else. Booz associates recommend that any interested applicant learn the art of mastering case study questions in order to have a chance at being hired at Booz.

There is a litany of case study information in a variety of mediums that you have at your disposal on the web or in bookstores that you need to leverage in order to develop a passion for case study questions. The most successful candidates and associates spend hours thinking about case studies and craft specific problem solving strategies that they can draw from when being interviewed.

Management consulting professionals must possess a very high level of intelligence and academic achievement. This is a requirement at Booz. They do like to hire undergraduate business majors and MBAs, but they do hire people from a variety of backgrounds. They also hire mid-career professionals. An important characteristic Booz looks for is a strong and commanding personal presence. That means you need to make sure you have an air of confidence, competence and composure when you walk into the interview.

Study the corporate culture, history, style, practice areas and core values. Study the website and speak with existing management consulting professionals on their team, and with recruiters.

Booz also looks for people who can independently think, yet be a viable member of a team. Another skill set they highly value is compelling and professional presentation skills. In other words, they want their associates to have an assortment of business and personal skills in their toolkit that can be utilized at any given time. When preparing to apply for Booz and company make sure you are very well prepared for the case study questions, have an outstanding track record of academic and personal achievement, and can convey very clearly why you would be a good fit.

How to Make Money Online With Offline Consulting Business

Have you ever wondered how some people can just easily make money with their online businesses? For so many years now, people have been making money online. The internet is not just for games, surfing websites or downloading movies. Scores of people have experienced success in running an online business. Most of these people even work or have started their online businesses from home.

Internet marketers have made a killing by selling ebooks, information products, actual products, teleseminars and the like online. Others have taken their specialty in web design, graphics design and even home organization and promoted these services online. Books, cars, gadgets and even real estate property have been transacted online. That is the power of the internet for those who are determined enough to make it.

Recently, internet marketers have discovered a better way to make more money. This is how to make money online better with an offline consulting business. First off, let’s talk about what the business of offline consulting is all about. Brick-and-mortar businesses such as your local bookstore, a neighborhood auto supply retail store or even your printing and supplies store have seen the need for their own online presence. A pressing problem for them is how to go about having their own website and how to maintain it. This is one of the ways that an experienced internet marketer can help with in order for another business to grow. Since the internet marketer has had the experience of building his own website and running his own online business, he now has the expertise to give solid advice about internet marketing. Website design can bring in as little as $500.00 up to as much as you can charge depending on the depth of your expertise and the size of the company.

Networking through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace is a necessity for any business to grow. This is especially true for the offline business. Social media can place the business in contact with more and more people in and around their area. The internet consultant can offer to set up their business profile in all the online social networks and connect to as many people as they can. You can take the notch higher by linking the social networks to FriendFeed in order to run all of the pages from just one site. It doesn’t really take so much expertise to use any social media, so even if you are just starting, this is one service that an internet consultant can also offer. How much can you charge for this service? It’s up to you really and how good you can market yourself, but some charge as much as $500.00 just to make and maintain social media pages.

Some businesses have already created a website for themselves in the past. They’re in the right track. However, they have an online presence but it’s still static. It’s just sitting there and they don’t know what to do with it. For this scenario, the consultant can offer to create a blog that enables the business to communicate with its target market. Through the blog, the business can talk about their new products and promote sales. Blogs are also effective in helping them communicate with their customers.

These are just a few ideas on how to make money online with offline business consulting. By getting started with these, the business consultant stands to earn more income than ever before.

So, What is a “Compassionate Lingerie Consultant”?

1. You have to be a lingerie expert.

So, what qualifies you as a lingerie expert? For starters, you have to understand what lingerie is, where it is made and understand the different levels of quality, style and fit. You can always start to research lingerie, but that’s just the beginning. The true knowledge comes from working hands-on with products and understanding what is appropriate for the unique needs of each woman who will be wearing it. Also meeting the designers, interacting with vendors and having relationships with boutique owners over time can also help you have a broad knowledge of the latest trends and innovations. The emphasis being place on the fact that real understanding only happens over a longer period of time. Like in any industry, you have to stick with it and absorb all the nuances and details that will give you the best solutions to share with your clients.. The lesson here, is that there are no shortcuts to becoming an expert in anything but if you’re determined enough, anything is possible.

2. You have to be current.
That is to say that you must be connected to what’s happening in the world of lingerie and fashion. You can read the industry magazines and attend the trade shows which will give you an abundance of current information. That should be a considered a routine part of your work flow. The best way to stay current is to connect with your relationships in the industry. Visit the boutiques, speak with the owners, pick their brains since they’re the one’s who have an more immediate need to spot the next trends. Their sales and ultimately their survival depends on it. Shop the specialty boutiques, the high-end stores and try things on. Experiment with your own lingerie wardrobe and make sure that you have tested all the new and hot products that come out.

3. You have to have a strong sense of personal style.
Developing your own personal style takes work and lots of it. Taking on the challenge of helping a woman you’ve never met before find her personal style takes almost a sixth sense. You have to own your opinion and be willing to stand behind it. It takes a certain degree of confidence to form an opinion about someone else. What sets you apart as a professional is the ability to deliver your honest opinion to your client. It’s always a risk. The client may find flaw in it and may judge you based on it but that’s where you earn your money. Not every client is going to be a match for who you are and what your opinion is so remember that all you can do is be true to yourself and your professional opinion. Don’t ever forget that the reason you became a lingerie consultant is because you have the gift, which is your sense of personal style and the ability to educate women. You just need to listen to it and build up the confidence to honestly but tactfully deliver to a client.

4. You have to be a “lingerie consultant”.
Depending on what your strengths are, you may want to begin with an approach that you believe suits you best in the eyes of the client. For example, you may have a technical approach, a value-minded approach, or a stylistic-centered approach. A technical approach would be to focus on sizes and fit first, making sure you know all the variation in measurements that the boutiques may have and matching that to your client. A value-minded approach would be to find out what top boutiques are having sales and emphasizing the idea of looking great while saving your client money. A stylistic approach would be to focus on a set style which usually is based on your taste level and educating your client to upgrade to the appropriate level of quality that suits her own personal style. Since you’re the expert and you have a client that is looking for a strong sense of what’s hot, you may want to lead with that strength. You are hired to consult, educate and guide the client based on her personal desires, needs and comfort level.

5. You have to be compassionate.
Compassionate lingerie consulting with a client is a dynamic experience. What solidifies the experience for your client is how well you “got” her. You have to have the observational skills of a detective and the empathetic skills of good therapist. What is she saying in between her words? You have to listen to her words but even more importantly hear what she’s saying in her body language. What kind of reaction does she have when you show her different sets? Are you genuinely feeling her out and learning about who she is? Can you gather what her vulnerabilities are to help her through the resistance that is sure to come up? Can you put together a picture of the excitement and level of satisfaction she wants to feel through her new lingerie wardrobe. Every client is a story and they’re coming to you to make the sequel of their sensual life better and more exciting than the original. Being a compassionate lingerie consultant will help the client feel more at ease in her own skin and also inspire her to be gentle to herself. Once a woman feels more comfortable, she can fully explore and even celebrate the beautiful reflection in the mirror as she begins to “play” and flaunt her unique beauty. Having a compassionate consultant can completely change the way a woman feels about herself and can have a lasting effect in regards to her self-esteem.

The term “Compassionate Lingerie Consulting” and “Compassionate Lingerie Consultant” was coined by Margaret Shrum in describing the practice of her business “The Lingerie Diet”.

How to Sell Consulting Services? – 3 Step System to Follow

What if you discovered how easy it is to sell consulting services on the internet that will ultimately boost your online profits?

Here are 3 simple steps to get you started…

Step 1 – Write a simple low cost product and sell it to your niche.

Step 2 – Provide them a free one on one consultation session along with your product.

Step 3 – Finally promote your paid consultation right on the call.

Here are step by step details that you can apply quickly and easily…

Step 1 – Write a simple low cost product and sell it to your niche.

The best way to go about selling your own consulting services is to make sure that you write down a simple quality e-book in your niche and sell it absolutely dirt cheap.

If you do this and your product is of high quality your clients will trust you as an expert in your niche and they will be willing to learn more from you.

Providing free one on one training to your niche audience will help them to trust you and finally purchase your consulting…

Step 2 – Provide them a free one on one consultation session along with your product.

As a free bonus along with your product you can provide them a 30 minute one on one phone consultation. In this consultation you can help them to solve their most pressing problems and you can help them out by providing them with quality content right on the call.

This is the right time to promote your service and get started making massive loads of easy cash…

Step 3 – Finally promote your paid consultation right on the call.

Once you are done with your free strategy session you can promote your paid coaching program at the end of the call and this will make you a high income out of your efforts.

The reason that you should focus in providing free consultation is to make sure that you give them a taste of the quality and benefits that they will receive from your paid services.

Business Planning Can Be Conducted Successfully Through A Management Consultant

Have you ever wondered if there are any easy ways to achieve a successful business plan? Business planning is a science that requires the achievement of business goals and objectives. The achievement of these business goals and objectives can be done by the successful execution of the set objectives. That is the main objective of the manager preparing a business plan.

What is a business plan and what is its structure?

Business analysis is not an easy task for a novice entrepreneur. As it involves a detailed amount of research into the cost, time and scope of the business plan. A thorough analysis of the market is also required by the business analysis professional in order to analyze the success of the business report. Novice entrepreneurs and companies who are venturing into newer markets require the assistance of business analysis professionals to guide them on these aspects:

• A study of the Business environment analysis
• A complete industry background analysis
• A thorough competitor analysis
• A efficient and achievable marketing plan after conducting a market analysis
• A fool proof operations plan
• A financial summary after analyzing the finances.

Most companies have several departments who have had experience in preparing business documents, yet, to study newer environments requires the assistance of professionals or consultants who are aware of the market trends. They have the ability to study impartially the implications of the organization planning objectives vis-à-vis the current market trends and industry trends. Industry trends and market trends are constantly upgraded as the economy continues to grow. The company is not always capable of having an analysis across industries and markets for achieving a successful business plan. There is no better way to execute the objectives, be it financial or operational, of the business report than with the aid of a management consultant.

Business Planning Research with a Management Consultant

Business planning research is a thorough science that cannot be undertaken by all companies who are involved in day-to-day activities of their existing business models. So, in order to impartially achieve a successful business report, a research needs to be conducted by an outside body. This outside body could be a management consultant whose job is to be aware of the market trends and industry trends. The management consultant is an experienced professional who will be able to immediately identify the scope, budget and timeline for the completion of the business research. Since, they conduct researches for several organizations, they are aware of the needs of the company, no matter what industry or field they belong to. The management consultant keeps himself/ herself abreast of all industries in order to have a bird’s eye view of the company vis-à-vis the industry, unlike a manager of the company who is only keen to ensure the goals of the company. It is no wonder that the management consultant is more successful in preparing a plan that encompasses all the necessary aspects of the business.

Thus, the management consultant will conduct a thorough business planning research and help the company prepare a business report. This business plan will be executable keeping in mind the current market trends and the strategies used by the most successful companies in the world. The management consultant can guide the company on these strategies as they are professionals in the field who are aware of the successes and failures of the companies in the world.

Management Consultants’ Insurance – The Risks

Just when you thought you had all the angles of your business insurance covered, you discover that there is an additional heading that could prove vitally important if you are running a management consultancy. This extra element of insurance – management consultants’ insurance – may well have been picked up by your specialist insurance intermediary, but either way, it could prove vital to the continued success and viability of your business.

  • Professional liability insurance – this is the generic name of the additional cover you may well need as part of your management consultants’ insurance. Just as the name suggests, it is a form of cover usually taken up by anyone in the business of providing professional services to their clients and, in addition to management consultants, might also be held by such people as accountants, lawyers, engineers or architects;
  • Why? – cover for professional liability – such as management consultants’ insurance – is usually necessary because of the potentially large-scale claims that can arise from clients who successfully argue a significant financial loss brought on as a direct result of the management consultant’s advice or recommendations. These can arise for all manner of reasons, including for example, errors or omissions on the part of the consultant, the loss of or damage to clients’ documents, or even penalties arising from the Data Protection Act;
  • Tailor-made – as with any other kind of insurance, however, if you are in business as a management consultant, you will want to be assured that the cover you have is sufficient for your business needs, without having to pay over the odds for elements of cover that are irrelevant to your particular line of work and that you know you may never need. For this reason, a number of insurers offer professional indemnity packages specifically tailored to the needs of management consultants and those operating as a smaller-scale business. A specialist insurance intermediary is likely to be the best source of information on the most appropriate forms of cover available;
  • Public liability insurance and more – there is a much wider range of insurance cover which the prudent management consultancy will also wish to consider, of course. Chief amongst these is likely to be straight forward public liability insurance. Even if your management consultancy is being run from a home-based office, for instance, you are likely to want the reassurance of suitable cover for the many and varied public liability risks. Although some standard home insurance policies will include public liability cover, it is certainly something which you might want to check carefully.

Management consultants’ insurance is cover which is likely to be essential to your conducting your business smoothly. And, suitable insurance is something which many clients may well require before entertaining your services. Appropriate cover, therefore, might not just be a useful financial safeguard against the defined professional risks, but also help you to secure the business you are after.