How to start a consulting business
How to Start a Consulting Business Fast – 10 Tips to Know
Q: Do you want to start a consulting business that can give you some extra freedom?
This post might help you make better decisions from the start.
Below are some consulting business tips and solid advice you should know before you start a consulting business in 2018.
A consultant’s job is to consult the customers needs with the right information only. It’s that simple. You might want to get a team of friends to offer other services and make a referral fee for sending your client to them.
So how much will you make as a consultant?
How much you make depends on what service you offer and market you help. Some consulting services can be £200 daily and some can be £20,000.
I think it also helps to have a passion and high drive for excellence so you can get deep domain knowledge of the industry you enter so you can justify the fee you charge your new customer.
The more you learn the more you earn so learn to invest in yourself. People that invest in themselves believe in themselves.
Below are some things you need to consider before you enter the consulting game.
- Do you need certifications?
- What licensing or licensing will you need.
- Are you even qualified to be a consultant? People pay for results so make sure you can give them the information or services that can get them the results they need.
- Are you fit for the job? I think it’s very important to be self-disciplined and work on self-discipline exercises daily.
- Do you like to go to network events? Networking events are key so learn networking and search online for some good networking tips so you can work on this from the start.
Do you really want to be in the consulting business?
Growing a consulting business can take some time.
You need to know if the decisions you make moving forward are really what you want to do, and if the steps you take now help you become better later so you can charge higher fees later.
Some people try to charge £10,000 for a daily fee for a service that has no demand and then wonder why they go broke.
Being a specialist doesn’t always make you money as a consultant so you might want to accept that your fee needs to be dropped.
You might feel a little annoyed about this but sometimes dropping your fee for a larger market that can afford your fee can make or break your new consulting business.
P.S. You should keep your day job for now and have your own inside outside hustle if you have no demand.
Lower your fee and just accept the market you enter can’t afford your daily fee.
Top 10 business consulting ideas for 2018.
You can start a consulting business in most games thanks to the international access we have to the world.
Below I have a list of 10 consulting field that could work if you have the right skill and demand. Please note that demand is what allows you to charge high fees. P.S. A bit of compelling copy that sells your service can also help you up your daily or monthly fee.
- Computer programmer. – MY BEST ONE
- Accounting.
- Marketing. – You can see some of my best marketing tips here.
- Business startups.
- Blogging or writing reports.
- Headhunter.
- Human resources.
- Public relations.
- Taxes.
- Business auditing.
Please note that you should always think category when thinking about a consulting service.
Most people try to be everything. If you can build websites or you have a digital marketing skill then you should think category.
Below are some good examples of consulting categories.
I specialise in website design for law firms.
I specialise in website design for window fitters.
I specialise in restaurant marketing on yelp.
I specialise in yelp marketing.
Bonus tip. If you enter the game of restaurant marketing, then try only get clients that have 3 or 4 or more restaurants and make over £800,000 yearly and most of them will pay you a monthly fee for doing all the work if they need help and you can fix the problem for them.
Do you have a buyers market?
You need to have a buyers market ready to give you money in exchange for the consulting service you offer, or learn how to get them using PPC, networking and all other channels that might get your foot in the door of your ideal client as ideas and plans never always go to plan.
You have many ways to get new customers so it might be a really good to hire your own consultant to help you see if you have a profitable business and profitable marketing strategy and funnel.
Having a good marketing strategy and funnel can help you see the data you need to make the marketing efforts you do profitable.
Why a business might hire you to consult them.
Below are 10 reasons why a business might hire you to help them.
- Your expertise in your field helps them move to the next level without the risk of losing lots of money or crushing the business.
- They need you to show them the problems only people with deep domain knowledge know.
- They might not have the money to fix the problem later by not knowing them from day one so a smart CEO would like to make the investment now.
- The CEO likes to save money and knows it can be cheaper to pay a good consultant than hire a team on a full pay.
- The team they have need the right training to move to the next step.
- The team they have just have no drive or time to do the job and the CEO likes to keep the team happy.
- They need a new strategy or game plan because of law changes, old strategy isn’t working or good employees have left to work on a bigger team or idea that might put the business at risk.
- New data shows a better ROI so they need to know how to maximise the ROI or IRR.
- They have extra money to blow or sales have dropped.
- The business has a new CEO with more skills and needs to make the investors happy.
You have many reasons why a business large or small might hire you but this list above is some of the main reasons they might hire you to consult them.
Should you work from home if I want to start a consulting business in 2018?
Yes.
Why? You have low overheads that can really help you when getting started as 80% of businesses will fail.
If you fail at the new business then I think failing responsibly is best.
Working from home can….
- Keep costs down.
- Give you the flexibility you need in life.
- Less stress of more bills when you have no work. P.S. Sometimes writing a book can help you keep the work coming in.
- You can be more flexible with the fees you charge.
How much should you charge as a consultant.
You need to know your daily or monthly costs of running your business by writing a list of expenses and look at the ROI and IRR on your time and investments that help you grow or get new clients.
Before you set a daily or monthly fee you should call some consultants around your city or town to see how much they charge. If they charge £997 then use this as the industry standard.
If you have better tools for the job then you can charge more than the industry standard or keep the same industry standard fee and over deliver to create more talk value that might get you more work.
If you take a retainer from your new customer you need to remember that most clients will have a clause that prohibits you from working for competitors. Always ask for the first and last month retainer fee as people can pay late and this can bring problems for you.
Should I charge hourly fees?
Hard question as not all services are the same.
- Never set your fee so high that no business can afford your consulting services and you never get any calls to your phone.
- Never charge so low that the business owner will never call or take your services seriously.
Should you offer a money back guarantee?
This should be tested. You can test it on your PPC and landing pages and when you call them direct. This might convert more people but you need to be careful as some people will try not to pay when the job you did was 100%.
Should I contact people direct to offer my services?
Yes!
Get a good script to work with and keep testing the copy and practice it at home over and over. Calling just before they open and just after they close will give you a better chance of reaching the decision maker.
The end goal is to get the interview with the decision maker and sell the service you offer later.
Marketing & CAC.
We could be here for days talking about SEO, marketing and PPC. Marketing can hard or very easy depending on the tools and marketing strategies you have.
P.S. You might want to hire a Good Marketing Agency to help you get the right tool and data you need.
Marketing is all about testing and getting the CAC cost and time cost from day one so you can make the right decisions to move up to the next level.
Q: Do you need a website or help marketing your business or service online fast?
If you need my advice on marketing then I have some FREE powerful marketing tips & tricks that can help you bring the costs of marketing down HERE.
You can contact me 24/7 using my easy contact form on this page if you need my one-on-one help.
