Consulting retainers are like gravy for a project well done for consultants. You know you are truly doing a great job for clients when they just want to have access to your knowledge whenever they need it. While retainers can be great, there are downfalls… Read the rest of this entry »
When you first hang your shingle out as a consultant you need business. And the only way to get business is to call everyone you know, advertise, or cold call people. Since you are just starting out and don’t have much money advertising is limited, and you may not feel up to cold calling people yet. But by calling everyone you know you may be able to find your first couple of consulting gigs. Read the rest of this entry »
Passive income for consultants or for anyone is a great thing to have. As a consultant you have many options available to you for creating this. Passive income is basically income you don’t have to continually work for. There is some initial work setting it up but once you do, you can derive income from it with very little work. Read the rest of this entry »
Here are 11 ways to increase your consulting fees. I hope you try to implement some of them this month so you can see an immediate increase in your consulting income:
1. Focus your fees on value and not on tasks. Focus on increasing sales, not on providing 5 training classes. By focusing on the results you are bringing more value to the table. By focusing on how many tasks you perform you are making yourself an hourly employee. Read the rest of this entry »
Writing great proposals can appear intimidating, even for those of use who have written more than their fair share through the years. Writing proposals that lead to offers does not have to be difficult, in fact if you apply some of the pointers I will share with you now, you’ll have them agreeing with you right from the start. Read the rest of this entry »
The cheapest but most effective way to market your consulting business has always been, and will always be, through networking. Networking is more than just shaking hands and handing out business cards. There are two different types of networking we’ll talk about and ways to build in networking into your weekly schedule. Read the rest of this entry »
You should always incorporate your consulting business, no matter how small you are. In this post I’ll go over 4 reasons why you need to do so, and also discuss the different forms you can take; C corp, S corp, LLC, etc. When starting out as a consultant many people don’t want to focus on this, they just want to get some business. But I urge you to take the time to do this now, you only have to do this once. Read the rest of this entry »
How to become a business consultant? That is a good question, but if you have been reading my blog, you realize that you have to be much more specific. What types of business do you want to focus on? What sectors of the industry do you want to focus on? New consultants have to focus on one small niche when starting out. Don’t make the mistake of trying to do too much too soon. Read the rest of this entry »
When first starting out, almost all of us underestimate how much we need to charge for our services. Also, many of us deliberately low ball our services in order to just get clients when competing against large consulting firms. Here are some ways you can go about determining consultant fees. Read the rest of this entry »
Starting your own consulting business can be very rewarding, but it can be the most challenging time of your life. Depending on where you are in your consulting career, you may already have clients to take with you, therefore you have business right away. If you are starting a consulting firm from scratch, give yourself 6 months in order to get some business going.
Many businesses hire consultants to solve specific problems. These problems can range from payroll and accounting, to outsourcing and supply chain management. The 4 main areas of the consulting industry area
If you are starting out as a consultant, knowing what 6 sigma is all about can help you become an even better consultant. While many consultants specialize just in 6 sigma techniques, you can use that principles in almost every consulting project you do, and even use it to improve your practice. Read the rest of this entry »
The great thing about consulting is that you can offer your service to just about anyone. If you can think of an industry or company you can find a consulting company that has something to offer that company. There are so many types of consulting firms out their it can be hard to classify them. From accounting, management, to payroll, many companies offer many services, while others just offer one type of service. Read the rest of this entry »
Finding entry level consultant jobs in this economy can be tough while landing one can seem almost impossible. When most people think of consulting jobs they dream of landing a gig at one of the Big 5 firms. In this post I go over on how to find good positions and how to stay ahead of others who are seeking the same positions using a free service. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome back for part 2 on how to become a consultant. As a brief recap in the last post we talked about two ways to get into consulting. One way was to work for a company that does consulting and the other way was part-time. Today I’ll give you a good tip on part-time work and also tips for starting your own consulting business. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the next two posts I’m going to go over how to become a consultant. For those people who are consultants already this may seem a bit basic, but you might pick up a tip or two. There are several ways to become a consultant. In this post we’ll go over working for a consulting company and part-time consulting. The next post I’ll talk about how to start on your own. Read the rest of this entry »
Consulting careers are extremely variable and wide ranging. In this post I will try and cover all the different consulting career possibilities, but I will likely not even scratch the surface, and in the process you’ll see why consulting is such a great career choice. Read the rest of this entry »
When you are first starting out, establishing consulting fees, can seem difficult to figure out. One way to start is by setting an income goal for the year, and guess at how many consulting jobs you will be likely to get. If you are like I was, you will likely be more than happy to take the first consulting job that comes along and charge too little. Read the rest of this entry »
Choosing what consulting services to offer can seem difficult when you are first starting out as a consultant. Many of us have a lot of skills after working in our particular industry over the years and want to offer them all. But the easiest way to get started consulting is to find your niche. Read the rest of this entry »
Finding consultant jobs can seem almost impossible for those looking to get into consulting. The truth is that they are very hard to find if you don’t look in the right places. Here are some ways to find consultant jobs and some of these I use my self on a regular basis. Read the rest of this entry »
Hello, welcome to my Start Consulting blog. Through this blog I hope to share stories about I got started consulting and how I’m trying to grow my practice. Getting started in consulting can be a very exciting career move, but it can also be very scary. Read the rest of this entry »