How To Start Your Own Consulting Business
How To Start Your Own Consulting Business
Research: First of all you need to decide what kind of consulting you want to offer and to whom. Try and find a niche that people will really need. Mine is international bid management and you will find my name all over the internet with respect to this niche. Once you have decided what you want to offer, you need to make sure that you know everything there is about the subject, even if that means buying books and getting more training. Just remember not to pass other people’s work off as your own. You should also brush up on your word processing and PowerPoint skills – these are key skills for a busy consultant.
Preparation: Start writing articles on the subject to get your name out. Prepare a press release announcing this great service you are now offering – remember it needs to have a story attached. Prepare all your business templates – for example if you are providing business consulting you will need a Cost Benefit Analysis, Feasibility Study and SWOT analysis at least. You should prepare one or two presentations to introduce your company and some training materials to offer your clients. Lastly you should prepare yourself, get at least two good business suits, a good business bag and lap top as well as quality stationary. You need to look expensive and successful if you wish to charge for your services. You might also consider packaging your services to make them less formidable to potential customers as some companies are scared of employing consultants on an open ended basis.
Launch: You now need to launch your consultancy. You can do this with one of more of the following:
• Answer ITT’s (Invitation to Tender) in your chosen areas.
• Network like crazy.
• Advertise and market like crazy.
• Contact past and potential clients and ask for the opportunity to make a presentation.
• Contact companies that may need your particular skills and offer them an introductory service.
• Provide free seminars on a subject with the object of signing on customers for paid consultancy.
Proposal: Once you have a potential customer prepare a consultancy proposal that will outline:
• What you consider their business problem is.
• What your company can do to solve the problem.
• The amount of work this will involve.
• The cost of this work.
• What advantages there are working with your company.
• Your terms and references.
Ensure that you do not make your proposal so detailed that your customer will not need your services!
If if is possible give your presentation by using PowerPoint, in front of your clients – this builds client interaction and allows you to demonstrate your consultancy skill.
Consultancy: Once interest has been shown in hiring your consultancy, make your replies prompt, informative and polite. Remember you will need to fall in with your client’s time scales. Never make promises you can’t keep and always be professional and unflappable. Remember that consultants are measured and paid on deliverables so try and give your client something tangible early on with something substantial at the end of the consultancy. Obviously you also need to solve the business problem you were hired to solve!
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In these recessionary times consultancy can be an ideal way forward for the newly unemployed professional. Like everything else at the moment, it can be challenging to make a success of a consulting business, so you need to set your consultancy up properly. Here are some suggested steps.
Research: First of all you need to decide what kind of consulting you want to offer and to whom. Try and find a niche that people will really need. Mine is international bid management and you will find my name all over the internet with respect to this niche. Once you have decided what you want to offer, you need to make sure that you know everything there is about the subject, even if that means buying books and getting more training. Just remember not to pass other people’s work off as your own. You should also brush up on your word processing and PowerPoint skills – these are key skills for a busy consultant.
Preparation: Start writing articles on the subject to get your name out. Prepare a press release announcing this great service you are now offering – remember it needs to have a story attached. Prepare all your business templates – for example if you are providing business consulting you will need a Cost Benefit Analysis, Feasibility Study and SWOT analysis at least. You should prepare one or two presentations to introduce your company and some training materials to offer your clients. Lastly you should prepare yourself, get at least two good business suits, a good business bag and lap top as well as quality stationary. You need to look expensive and successful if you wish to charge for your services. You might also consider packaging your services to make them less formidable to potential customers as some companies are scared of employing consultants on an open ended basis.
Launch: You now need to launch your consultancy. You can do this with one of more of the following:
• Answer ITT’s (Invitation to Tender) in your chosen areas.
• Network like crazy.
• Advertise and market like crazy.
• Contact past and potential clients and ask for the opportunity to make a presentation.
• Contact companies that may need your particular skills and offer them an introductory service.
• Provide free seminars on a subject with the object of signing on customers for paid consultancy.
Proposal: Once you have a potential customer prepare a consultancy proposal that will outline:
• What you consider their business problem is.
• What your company can do to solve the problem.
• The amount of work this will involve.
• The cost of this work.
• What advantages there are working with your company.
• Your terms and references.
Ensure that you do not make your proposal so detailed that your customer will not need your services!
If if is possible give your presentation by using PowerPoint, in front of your clients – this builds client interaction and allows you to demonstrate your consultancy skill.
Consultancy: Once interest has been shown in hiring your consultancy, make your replies prompt, informative and polite. Remember you will need to fall in with your client’s time scales. Never make promises you can’t keep and always be professional and unflappable. Remember that consultants are measured and paid on deliverables so try and give your client something tangible early on with something substantial at the end of the consultancy. Obviously you also need to solve the business problem you were hired to solve!
How To Start Your Own Consulting Business - To learn more about this author, visit 's Website.
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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