When business people start a new business they do so called long-term thinking literally focusing on the kind of trends research consisted of a collection of reports and research on the sources and impacts of social and business change. The research can help to generate new business ideas. But I personally didn’t know that the research itself is a nice business. Here is my story of how I found a researching to be a great business nowadays.

Generally, business people need basic information to start and operate a business. Who are the decision-makers? What are their titles, back-grounds and responsibilities? What is an organization chart of the key people in the portion of the company their client is working with or targeting? So, the choice is to start digging up the information usually without any knowledge and skills and consequently spending a lot of time. Or, another option, a professional staff of researchers can do that quickly, precisely and without cutting off the budget.

According a Strategic Research Network, national strategic research company, researches provide Internet research services to their clients in exchange to a fee which depends on the project complexity. Researchers do something that their clients would rather not spend time doing at all. They dig up the current and accurate information that their clients absolutely must have to conduct their business. It could be the names, numbers and addresses of their potential clients. It might involve the pre-qualification of job candidates or preparation and management of e-mail tracking campaigns for employers.

Who can be a researcher and what they do? Marketing and management oriented people because they can appreciate how valuable sales and business research can be. People who enjoy being a “detective” and engaging in problem solving activities, those who are analytical and have project management skills.

Researchers use advanced Internet research services to generate custom leads that are unavailable anywhere else. They gather competitive business intelligence. They know everything about their clients or competitors so the clients can sell more products. The same approach is to the new business: there is a need of contact information for decision-makers that new companies can’t find anywhere else.

They also collect relevant industry content for marketing. It is not effective to just e-mail obvious promotional materials to the clients and prospects every time company communicates with them. Business purchasing decision-makers are too sophisticated. The researchers gather articles that are relevant to the target’s industry, sector and situation. They prioritize sales contact with e-mail tracking. What if your sales person could send an e-mail to 200 purchasing decision-makers and see in real time which ones were opening e-mails and which ones were clicking on links? What if you have their name and phone number right there too? Instead of calling 200 people who even didn’t read the message yet they can call 15 potential customers that are in their office and just have read the e-mail.

Researchers operate their own businesses, usually as home-office full or part-time, being perfect inexpensive outsource for their clients. While researchers are focusing on various types of lead generation projects their clients are concentrating on sales and recruiting activity.

According to SRN the future looks good. Demand for researchers among B2B Sales, Human Resources, Recruiters and Job Seekers remains high. That’s mostly because of the gap between what the average person can do and what trained researcher using excellent software and systems can accomplish. Whatever project company is planning this is a bad idea to let salespeople to do research themselves. Sales divisions of companies will continue to be expected to do more with less and will be looking for new ways to stimulate sales. Human Resources departments will be pressured to fill positions while reducing their recruiting costs. Job seekers- no matter how experienced they are- will always need the expertise of professionals who can put them in a position to speak with actual hiring authorities. So, isn’t it a nice business concept?

Is anybody interested to know what friends and co-workers think about real values of the person? Is there a gap between a “real person” and a person that other people get use to see in business relationships?

Coach Rachelle Disbennett-Lee advises that one of the most important activities in growing a business is growing relationships. We all do it, but it takes time, energy and effort to build a network. Through building that network you build relationships with people who know you, trust you and will do business with you. All of us have a network of people we depend on. We might use their services, get referrals from them and ask for assistance when seeking a job. It is vitally important that we build relationships with the people in our network so that we can obtain good tips and advice. If you neglect your network you might find yourself without resources or references when you most need them.

However, other people need to know how they can benefit from you. How to network by becoming more of who you are? In other words, if there is a gap between perception and reality, between you other people see and real you, people won’t understand your ability to be a part of the network.

My personal vision is if people know exactly who you are you will get a certain value in the network. A personal brand is the key for successful networking and here how it works. A personal brand is similar to a business brand and here I absolutely agree with David McNally and Karl Speak, co-authors of my favorite book about personal branding. In business, the rules of brand management focus on strategies and tactics that build strong business relationships, which by their nature, are very special. Many of them used by businesses in managing their brands may be used in managing personal brands with the same success. Obviously, strong personal brand that is clear, complete and valuable to others create successful relationships in networking.

Building a personal brand can be very challenging, however. It is not easy to get to be more of who you are when there are so many different relationships around. It is hard to be the same and to have “one face” with everybody.

A strong personal brand needs to be clearly defined. First of all, it needs to be distinctive, to have a point of view that is to say. Next, it needs to be relevant, so the true value of the brand is connected to something that others think is important. And last, it needs to be consistent, based on the experience and behavior of the brand owner. In other words, when all that you do in your life is distinctive, relevant and consistent, people in your network see and understand your personal brand.

As a conclusion, not all personal brands are acceptable by all people. Everybody has own values and others shouldn’t judge them. That what business people think is right particularly for them is a main thing business people do. They stand for their brand.

I work at office, in my car, at home, everywhere. My clients don’t like to wait. My co-workers don’t like to be out of access. My cell phone is my only tool on the go. My BlackBerry is my office outside of my office. I check my e-mails about twenty times an hour. I know I am cell phone media addicted. If you are the same we are in the same club!

There is no way to conduct a small business today without wireless devices. Business people rely heavily on wireless technology to stay connected to their business and customers while gaining flexibility and time away from the office.

According to an AT&T survey of 1,000 small business owners, 42 percent of small business owners wouldn’t survive without wireless technology. There is a strong expectation of increasing the use of cell phones and other wireless devices by business people in the near future. 55 percent of respondents indicated that they expect to depend on wireless technology more two years from now.

Other key findings included:

Nearly two-thirds of respondents (61 percent) said they were likely to conduct business while away from the office.

More than half (56 percent) believe it’s important to have flexibility to mix work with personal business in their daily routine.

Half (49 percent) said they are optimistic about wireless technology giving their business a competitive advantage.

10 participating markets made these following rankings: Atlanta, San Diego, Dallas, Charlotte, Detroit, Bay Area, Chicago, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Milwaukee.

Obviously that dependence on wireless devices in small business devastates a wallet of business people. However, there is good news. Need to pay for business communication? Write off the cost of that. Matthew Bandyk tells how to do that and what you need to expect in his article in US News and World Report.

My opinion, however, that despite the complexity of writing off costs of wireless communication for small businesses I believe that technology will make a communication itself more cheap very soon, even free of charge. Jajah and Skype are my favorites and pioneers of cheap communication do it more simple and reliable. So, here is the thing, write off what is permitted now and explore new ways of communications simply reducing cost and approaching to zero.