7 best tools for solving business problems from a business consultant generalist

“Taking good advice means expanding your abilities”

Johann Goethe

Business, as you know, never goes to the bottom without a reason, the collapse is always preceded by a detail, which at one time passed by the head. The same applies to the prosperity of the company - it is only at first glance “lucky”, “lucky coincidence”, but in fact the whole complex of reasons is a component of success. The bottom line is that every little thing should be thought out, all departments of the company must work harmoniously and at full speed, and therefore as efficiently as possible.

If something went wrong - whether it is a drop in sales, an increase in overhead costs, or just a steady, rather than development, business movement is a clear alarm. In order to prevent the situation from worsening and not wasting their own time, many managers turn to specialized business advice.

Specialists of this kind are not needed for a long period of time, they are the “first aid” of the business, and after everything returns to normal, the need for a professional consultant disappears by itself. Although I have been working with my clients for years, but the main project phase usually lasts no more than one and a half years. Management consultants are divided into two groups: specialists and generalists. In fact, these are two extreme states describing a set of skills and knowledge of a person. A specialist is a narrow professional who knows “all about one thing”, but the generalist covers the company's position in a global sense, sees its current state, development prospects and the possibility of improving the situation.
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As a generalist, I draw attention to all the problems that are inherent in the company at the moment and determine the fastest and safest methods for solving them. My main principle corresponds to the medical one: "Do no harm." Even from the most critical and hopeless situation, a company can be pulled out and made to grow rapidly, but at the same time one can bankrupt it if one tries to save too boldly and illiterately, as beginners usually do without much practical experience.

In the profession of the generalist, both positive and negative experiences are equally important. Therefore, I analyze not only how and why companies achieve success, but even pay more attention to the causes of failures. This allows me to have a clear idea of ​​what to do, and what is by no means impossible.

For 10 years of work, I have developed a certain toolkit, which I advise most clients as the best option for solving their business problems. The use of modern technologies is an important component of success, but in the blind pursuit of innovations, the main thing is lost, namely the usability and integration of services. Using the examples of many innovations, we can confidently assert that the new is not always the best. If the goal is to solve the problem, to ensure convenience and efficiency of work, then the tools described below are fully justified.

My main tool for solving business problems

Customer relationship
Mailing List. It is imperative that the distribution was beautiful and timely. For this purpose, I use Mailchimp , a tool for sending emails in droves . Why I chose it:

• Detailed documentation - absolutely everything related to the service, you can find out without contacting technical support;
• The most high-quality and extensive statistics among all mailing services;
• The presence of a simple and beautiful designer letters;
• Minimized the likelihood of your letter in spam;
• Acceptable rates;
• Convenient API (means of integrating products with each other);
• Return a list of invalid addresses;
• Integration with 1C, due to which the service can begin to use instantly. In 1C, too, there is a mailing, but it is much worse.

Newsletter SMS. This is the most effective channel among all existing. Information is personalized, you can be sure that it will be received by a person, not a machine. I use the Littlesms service. Because it provides:

• Very competent technical support;
• Convenient interface of personal account;
• Integration with 1C;
• Convenient API;
• The ability to send SMS with technical information (about the arrival of the goods, reminders of the timeliness of payment, etc.).

Now they do not register new clients, but I still entered them into my list as I and my clients used this service for sending SMS.

Phone calls. Of course, direct contact with the client is extremely important. I chose the ZOHO CRM system in conjunction with Asterisk and Freepbx . The system is ideal for recording incoming and outgoing calls, automatically linking to a contact (displaying full information about the user who is calling). Its advantages:

• Detailed documentation. It may not be entirely relevant visually (this is the problem of all such systems), but only if the user convenience does not suffer from this;
• Service is fixed exactly on contact with the client;
• Responsive technical support solves problems very quickly and qualitatively (note: knowledge of English is necessary);
• The presence of the Russian interface, high-quality translation;
• Convenient integration.

Online trading
Internet platform for building sites. There are many options in the network, the best is, in my opinion, Drupal 7 and Commerce. The reasons:

• High-quality localization (translation into the language of your country);
• Open source makes it easy to edit the site of an online store;
• The presence of a huge number of plug-ins;
• The site is convenient to administer;
• The service is absolutely free.
• The Drupal commerce application further expands the functionality of the online store.

Platforms for wholesalers. Wholesale differs significantly from retail. LTo accept bulk orders, I use and recommend the Profishop service. Its advantages:

• Service is completely Russian;
• Convenient API;
• Narrow focus, sharpened specifically for wholesale;
• Adapts for tablets and smartphones.
• Good tech support

Record keeping
Accounting. It's no secret that the ideal accounting tool is. This service is used in almost any company, because:

• It fully complies with the legislation of the Russian Federation;
• Has a reasonable price;
• Provides the ability to submit reports via the Internet;
• It is not difficult to find a specialist to solve the problems of finalizing this configuration.
• Integrated out of the storage box

Inventory control. The best, in my opinion, are 1C trade management in the wording 11. Reasons:

• Extensive functionality (however, this is also a minus of this service: many functions are simply not needed at most enterprises, and only confuse the user);
• Ability to finalize the functionality;
• Works with all kinds of trading equipment;
• Flexible system configuration.
• It is easy to find a specialist to solve this configuration problem.
• Integrated out of the box with the accounting system

As you can see, almost all of these technologies are cloudy. You do not need to have your own resources - simple registration is enough to start using most services. Each of these services (except 1c) has a free trial rate, which minimizes investments and leaves room for choice.

However, advice on the use of these systems is nothing more than a general recommendation. It all depends on the current state of the company, its goals and problems, and the business consultant is needed to assess the situation and choose what will suit you. I hope my recommendations were helpful to you, in the following articles I will try to dwell on these points in more detail.