7 tips for setting up a consultancy business.
January 15th, 2010
My twitter mate Sarah Stewart has asked me for some tips for setting up a consultancy business and I have been asked the same question from a few of my colleagues. These are not the only or even the most important but for me they have meant I have been able to go it alone and still keep the family fed. So without any further ado, here are my 7 tips for starting a consultancy business in no particular order:
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Anyone For Coffee?
Self Promote.
Shameless self promotion is essential, especially in the early days. Do it online, do it at parties and do it as often as you can. Let’s face it, you need to get food on the table and if you don’t love your own work how can you expect your clients to.
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Network Face to Face.
Meet with everyone and their dog. Go to every event you get invited to and invite yourself to those that you don’t. Have coffees with everyone and pay for them whenever you can.
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Network Online
Use twitter. Use it wisely and use it often. Get onto Facebook and link to your site, who knows which of your friends may need your services. Join LinkedIn. Network network network (but be sensible, balance your networking and your self promotion…. you know what I am talking about)
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Borrow Money
It takes time to invoice and it takes time for clients to pay (thankfully mine have all been great, touch wood). This aint no salaried job. You need to have cash and you need an income. Bankroll your business however you can but make sure you have at least six months worth up your sleeve.
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Ask for Help
If you don’t ask you don’t get and you will be surprised at the sort of assistance available to new businesses. Go to seminars, learn new things, look for government funded business assistance. I went to the North West Business Development Centre to get some advice and now they are one of my clients! So this links in with point 2.
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Update Your Website
I say “update because” if you are reading this you have a website….right? If you don’t then you need one, NOW. Even if it is a static page with a phone number on it on a free hosted blog you need to have a website. It is dirt cheap to get your own domain and hosting. My hosting provider Just Host has been great and I recommend it to my clients because I have experienced value, ease and access. Potential clients will look for you online and if they don’t find a website there will be questions raised. But updating it regularly is essential too. You want people going back to it so they remember you and what you do.
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Share
Use YouTube, Slideshare, Scribd and Google Docs or whatever to share your knowledge. It gives you great traffic to your website, credibility to your brand and is good fun to boot. What’s more getting your brand on other people’s sites is hard to achieve but by sharing your knowledge using these social tools you might be surprised and find your knowledge and content turning up in all sorts of places.
Posted in Business, Tips and Tricks | 
Tags: 7 tips, consulting, facebook, NWBDC, slideshare, twitter, website 11 Responses to “7 tips for setting up a consultancy business.”
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Thanks for this, Rhys. I have a business name…ed-bytes…but that is as far as I’ve got. I would like to sort out my web site, get a domain, make my blog into my personal web site, get a logo and start marketing myself. I have an online name but I am probably seen as an employed person, which of course is what I am this year…what I need to do is place myself in a way that I can become self-employed if/when my current contract runs out.
Sarah, you should register your domain NOW. Before someone else does. You get a free domain name when you register for hosting with Just Host (that link is an affilliate link). It is dirt cheap and you could have a WordPress blog (or a heap of other content management systems) in less than an hour.
Once you are there you can set up a resume or something similar lke an e-portfolio. Don’t wait to register your domain name!!!
I totally agree with all of this. Particulary share. I’ve always made our teaching material available to everyone (when we used slideshare) and I’ve got lots of positive comments from other educators, thanking us for making the material available.
Sharing information is powerful. Definitely something to be encouraged!!
Thanks Rhys – good tips.
Sarah, I am in the same boat. Although I have a business name (in the process of registration), domain name and logo. I had a graphic designer friend do my logo for me – email me if you want the details melanie.worrall@gmail.com
I agree with all the above comments and would like to add a couple of others; (1) your consultancy is a business, operate it as a business. If you don’t know how, attend a course. (2) don’t be fooled into believing your purpose is to help others; your real purpose is to market how your clients will benefit from your help – the more time and money you invest in marketing the more likely you are to succeed. You cannot help a client if they don’t know what you do, what’s in it for them, how to find you and why should they believe you?(3) charge as if you are an expert, because you are. Even in the early days when you are starving you will be tempted to discount. DON’T, it takes many years to build that client up to the full rate from a discounted rate – better to chase the clients that want to pay you what you are worth. Better to get part time work than discount your services. (4) have underpinning methodology and research to your services, it helps to establish credibility.
John your comments ring true. Offering a discount to clients is a slippery slope that one should not be too hasty to get on. Also being a consultantdoes not mean you should not hire consultants to help you out. If you are no good at something get someone in who can do it better.
I also think you need to be quite clear what your remit is. I think one of the problems I am having with getting going with my consultancy business is that I am still not 100% sure what it is I am able to consult on and how to go about advertising my services…who to contact…this is what is taking my time at the moment, clarifying exactly what/who I am.
good point sarah, it took many years for me to work that out (I’m a tad slow at times!) and the help of a couple of business coaches to focus me on the important stuff. Now that I have a defined service offering, you might call it a Unique Selling Perspective, I have been able to tailor all my selling and marketing activities to that offering.
I can recommend a good business coach for anyone trying to establish their own consultancy. His name is John Groark, based in Sydney, he works with consultants specifically to help them establish their consultancy. Does most his work by phone or skype. Comes from a big consultancy background and brings that perspective to his discussion, very helpful. Helped me to establish my underlying methodology and the underpinning theory/evidence amongst other things. John’s email is John Groarke [jegmc1@gmail.com]or you can find his details on my LinkedIn page http://au.linkedin.com/in/johncoxon
Thanks, John – appreciate the info.
Rhys: would love a chat some time on Skype – let me know a time that suits you.
I have been having a chat with a friend in Brisbane who is setting up a midwifery consultancy & told her to pop along to this post.
Very slightly off topic: here’s a great article about how to price your consultancy services:
http://www.managementconsultingnews.com/interviews/Mills_Interview.php#
What advice would you guys give about charging for services?
Haven’t had opp to read your posted article Sarah, in meantime here is my pricing formula
Projected businesses expenses + allowance for taxation + desired personal wages + profit margin divided by 75% of total billable hours = minimum hourly rate
Look at current market rates and price work at greater than minimum hourly rate, at level market will pay. You can always negotiate a fee down but you rarely get to negotiate it higher.
Notice I have suggested seperate amounts for personal wages and profit. They are not one and the same. Set an hourly rate designed to pay you what you are worth as wages and make a profit on top off that. Remember you are operating a business, it must be profitable and you reduce your profit if you take your wages from the nett earnings.