Have you had a hard time coming up with a product idea? Not sure what niche you’re trying to appeal to? I can help with these and other issues through FREE one-on-one Big Picture consulting.

By ‘Big Picture’ I’m referring to the 10,000 foot level aspects of your business rather than the daily details and minutia you typically find yourself occupied with.

Many times entrepreneurs, especially those working solo, can focus so much on the day to day details of their business that they rarely take a step back and assess what their overall strategy is.

The Big Picture strategy is often the most important thing to get right. I’ve known people who’ve wasted countless days and even months because of preventable strategic mistakes.

A former boss of mine nicely summed up the importance a good Big Picture strategy: “Sure you can hit the target, but how do you know the target’s on the right tree?”

What I can help you with

I can help you arrive at solutions to a variety problems you’re having with your eBusiness such as:

For those with a business or website:

• I can help you take a step back and analyze your Big Picture strategy in a logical way
• I can help you keep your site focused on the correct market
• I can help you determine the niche you want to serve
• I can help you develop a product, service, or website strategy
• I can advise you on technical issues at a high level given my background in software development. Note: I’d rather not get into heavy tech consulting but am happy to give my opinions on strengths/weaknesses of various technologies.
• I can act as a general sounding board, helping you think through problems and get back on track.
• I can help walk you through idea creation techniques that generate solutions you hadn’t even considered.

For those without a business (yet)

• I can help you come up with a product or service idea based on your current interests and knowledge, taking market needs into consideration.
• I can help you analyze a product or service idea to determine how viable it is, how it could be catered to a niche and other considerations that should be made before going full-force into product development.

How this benefits you

I view the benefits for you as two-fold:

1. You get someone with a fresh perspective who can look at things in a different way. Often having a second set of eyes on a problem can be tremendously helpful, especially to individuals working alone or in very small companies.
2. The problems that we work through may be mentioned in future Taming Life articles and newsletters which brings your business publicity. Note: Before I mention your company or specific problems I’ll be sure to get your OK to ensure I’m not giving away information you’d rather be kept private.

Your concerns about proprietary information

If you don’t feel comfortable with sharing proprietary information with me then we can start out by tackling something that isn’t so sensitive. Initially I don’t even want you to feel the need to give me your website address and we can just chat about your issues in general. Once I’ve proven myself to be an upfront guy you may be more comfortable having me help you with more sensitive problems.

Why I’m doing this

I’m doing this for two reasons:

1. This is a first step at building my reputation. I’d like to become an eBusiness analyst working for myself one day. As of right now though, I need to prove my worth. It will take a while but I’m willing to put in the time and effort required.
2. The problems I help you solve should make for great article and newsletter content. Additionally, I’ve found that the process of solving problems often helps me to create valuable long-term intellectual property like processes, tools and concepts that I can include in future ebooks.

What’s the catch?

There isn’t a catch. I’m not trying to get you to buy something or in a roundabout way capture your email address. While it’s true that by contacting me I’ll end up getting your email address and may contact you in the future – I will do so only with your permission.

Why I can help

Because I’m pretty good at logically analyzing problems and have knowledge of idea generation techniques that can be applied to a wide variety of business issues.

Also, I have a strong background in problem solving and knowledge of eBusiness – I’m building this knowledge base more and more every day.

My credentials

I have a degree in engineering and have spent the last 15 years developing all sorts of software – web sites, mobile apps, embedded systems, databases, and a ton of other things. All of these activities require a lot of problem solving so in terms of sheer ability to help you with problems I come well equipped.

Over the last year or so, I’ve learned a lot about business concepts in general both from my own reading and research as well as interacting daily with individual entrepreneurs who have shown me a lot of valuable tricks of the trade.

I figure that my background of logically analyzing and solving problems combined with business knowledge should prove useful to a lot of people.

If you want to take me up on my offer

Just send me an email, briefly describe your problem and we’ll go from there. I’m envisioning that I’ll be helping most people via a combination of email and IM.

Thanks and I look forward to working with you,

Bob Riley
email: bob@taminglife.com
twitter: @BobRiley99