This is Tenpu(天風) from Seito Shijuku blog. The blog owner has always dreamed of becoming a freelancer. It would be ideal if you could make a living through your blog, but the reality is not so easy. So he fantasizes about selling himself as a hobby consultant.
I want to be a consultant
The blog owner has no experience working at McKinsey, nor does he have any experience as a consultant. However, depending on how you do it, I think it is possible to build a career as an online consultant .
Above all, the blog owner has a long experience of imitating consultants, whether it's just a hobby or not. Therefore, I believe that the strength of a blog owner is the foresight that allows him to see the general direction , and I fantasize that he is suitable for becoming a management consultant.
In order to prove my foresight, I think I should tell you what I've been paying attention to lately. I see the possibility that corporate M&A will become more active in the future . In particular, Japanese companies accumulate cash called internal reserves.
Who owns a company's retained earnings?
I think this will become a key point for the Japanese economy. This retained earnings should originally be funds that should be paid to workers . However, Japanese companies will have to save money to deal with future crises like the Lehman Shock. The objective of dealing with crises is solved by accumulating retained earnings.
Alternatively, companies will need to deal with uncertainty in anticipation of future trends in the declining birthrate and aging population. The cost of that uncertainty is this retained earnings.
However, just hoarding money will not increase your money. Whether it's Japanese people or Japanese companies, it may be a national trait that they love saving money . Even if hoarding cash minimizes the risk of losing your savings, you will fall behind other countries that are actively investing and increasing their funds.
Therefore, if Japanese companies' internal reserves cannot be used to improve workers' wages, they can at least put them to good use by investing. However, it is not wise to simply invest in stocks and aim for dividends or price appreciation profits.
Make indirect investments using retained earnings
The best way to do this is to use the internal reserves to purchase foreign stocks . Purchasing stocks is called indirect investment. On the other hand, establishing a factory in a foreign country is called direct investment.
The reason why we recommend indirect investment is that if you set up a factory through direct investment, you may not be able to sell the factory when you want to exit. Not being able to sell easily indicates that it is not possible to quickly respond to an oversupply caused by a sudden drop in demand.
On the other hand, when purchasing foreign stocks as an indirect investment, there is a risk of losses due to a decline in the stock price, but you can immediately sever the relationship by selling the stocks you have .
The important thing here is what you get from indirect investment. The most important thing, though it depends on the company, is the technology and know-how of the acquired company. In extreme terms, as long as you can absorb the technology and know-how, you can sell it right away .
Here, if the stock price does not fluctuate, you can only acquire technology and know-how and make a lot of money.
However, strictly speaking, you may not even need to worry about the stock price. If you acquire a promising stock that is engaged in a business related to your own company and is developing technology and know-how for a market that will grow in the future, the company that bought the stock will have an opportunity to develop . Here, the rise and fall of the stock price will not be of much concern.
So, the reason why foreign stocks are good is that foreign stocks are related to the current issue of trade friction between the United States and China. The United States wants China to reduce its trade deficit, but Japan also has a trade surplus with the United States. The problem of trade deficits could be resolved by using foreign currency earned through trade with foreign countries or internal reserves of Japanese companies to purchase foreign stocks .
For Japan, this is a good deal as it allows you to buy stocks of advanced companies from the superpower United States. So far, I has talked about what he has been paying attention to recently. However, he is also aware of his weaknesses. My weakness is my attention to detail.
My weakness is that he is sloppy.
As you'll realize as you read this blog, the blog's owner has a rather sloppy personality . A professional is someone who investigates every detail and gives his or her opinion. But I'm too lazy to do that. This can be said to be a fatal flaw in becoming a professional consultant.
What I am conscious of is creating a framework. Or decide on a major direction. In a company, this would be the job of the manager. However, in order to implement the project, cooperation on the ground is also required.
In other words, I would not be able to do it alone, and I would need the help of other experts to refine my ideas . This may be possible if it is a large project at the national level. However, if it is a small project at a corporate level, someone who can handle it alone will be required.
In order for me to work as a professional consultant, he must overcome this barrier.
That's why I suddenly announced that he wanted to become a consultant. Returning to the beginning of this article, I fantasized about being able to make a living through blogging. However, it is difficult to live solely on blog advertising revenue .
Building a business model that is not based on advertising revenue
Therefore, I thought that if I could create a business model other than just advertising revenue, the hurdles for his desire to become a freelancer would be lowered. Speaking from my experience, I think the most realistic, but quite difficult, wish is to become a consultant and sell products called ideas through blogging .
After all, simply writing a blog is not very profitable. So, by adding some originality, I think you can make more money with less effort. After all, it will be difficult to make a living as a freelancer unless you do something that no one else is doing .
This hope of becoming an online consultant is not the final solution. I should think more intelligently. However, I don't think this is the wrong direction.
So far I have talked about my passionate feelings, and the number of characters has reached nearly 2,500. Professionalism is here, isn't it? I don't know if this story will hit the spot of laughter among readers. However, it has been proven that if you write it loosely like this , you can easily exceed 2000 characters.
I won't give up. Professionals never give up. He runs wild towards his dream. See you soon.
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