Has your job search included starting your own consulting business? Do you know what it means to start a consulting business and how to make it profitable? This is the first of a series of articles about these topics, which can hopefully help you make the right decision and guide you to a successful practice.
What is a Consultant?
In the business environment, there are consultants in almost every field imaginable, from organizational development and human resources to finance and marketing. Two fields that seem to propagate consultants are management and technology. These are individuals whose advice and services are directed toward the strategy, operations and information resources of an organization. A newer addition to the field is green consulting. These people help businesses and individuals modify their internal practices to reduce environmental impact.
You should also not be confused by the media reports of high level executives and government officials who receive large payments for consulting services from their former employers. These are not the norm for the individual consultant and are usually a means of deferred compensation.
Do You Have the Skills?
Unless you are joining a large consultancy right out of business school or a university, it is difficult to start your career as a consultant without previous experience. Our focus here will be on professionals who have worked in the corporate, government or nonprofit environment and have developed some professional expertise. We will talk in more detail about defining your area of expertise in a subsequent article. But you should feel comfortable about one or more areas of operations or technology or have some special set of knowledge. In some cases this expertise is aligned by industry as well, for example process manufacturing, banking or telecommunications. Beyond your area of expertise there are other skills to consider as well. Remember, if you are an independent consultant, you will be responsible for running a small business as well as delivering the work product. Some of the skills of successful consultants include detail orientation, good public speaking and interpersonal skills, written communication abilities and time management.
Getting the Word Out
One of the biggest challenges in starting a consulting business is that your marketing focus is not only on the services you provide. You have to sell yourself as well. Clients (they are not customers in the consulting business) are buying YOU. Your fees will be above what they are paying most of their employees. They need to feel comfortable that YOU can deliver what is promised. You are marketing your personal brand. We will discuss the marketing of your business via the internet, social media and traditional media.
These are important to establishing your space in the marketplace. But you also will have to learn other approaches. One is identifying opportunities for services. That is the ability to find a need for your services in the market, through discussions or research. The other marketing approach is solution development. This is marketing a service that you have developed and previously provided to clients with similar demographics. Think about services you may have provided to your previous employer such as HIPAA compliance, rate setting or e-commerce implementation.
The Work Style of Consulting
Consulting can differ significantly from the corporate world and small business. The work style is different. You may spend the majority of your time away from your office, instead working at the client site. If you have multiple clients you may be in multiple locations in a single week. The good news is that you can keep your infrastructure costs down. What you will need to invest in is modern and reliable technology, as these will most likely be the tools of your trade.
Your work and ultimately your financial rewards are based on the services you have agreed to perform for these clients. Most consultants refer to these as projects or engagements. Managing profitability must be done on the project level in order to ensure a successful business. It is important that you and your client have a clear view of what is expected as the outcome of your project. You will need to ensure that what you deliver meets or exceeds your clients’ expectations, but is within the scope of services you originally agreed upon. There are also insurance and legal considerations in determining the right structure for your business. We will discuss some of the structures in use today to provide you with the right protection.
Becoming a consultant can be a very rewarding career choice. It will provide you with an ever changing working environment. One common phrase is that there is no inbox in consulting. Every day brings new and different challenges and opportunities and rewards. The right planning and preparation will help in landing that first project. We hope that this and our subsequent articles will move you down the path to a successful business.
The Articles in this Series:
Part 1: Is Becoming a Consultant Right For You?
Part 2: Finding Your Niche in Consulting
Part 3: How to Develop Your Unique Personal Brand
Part 4: How to Manage Your Consulting Business
Part 5: Growing Your Consulting Business
Having a consultant when starting your business really helps a lot. It gives meaningful advice on how to get things done.
i am passionate, drive, motivated and ripe with ambition, i let nothing stop me or slow me down, i would further describe myself as a modern orginanal a true visionary not to sound coky but im confident and i belieave in myself and what i can do!
as for me myself i want to become a millionaire and for me what makes me a good consultant is that i am always reinventing myself and my ideas i want to secssed and willing to work hard to make ends meet and seek to create my own oppertunties by working down to day moving from one strength to the next constantly adding to my stockpile of innovations. thats me in a nutshell inspired by richard branson i want to think outside the box and not loose sight of the big piture. peace out!