How to Start a Consulting Business 1-2-3
A consultant is a professional who provides advice in a specific area of expertise. There are some fields
where you'll find consulting work more common, such as business management, wedding
consultants, computer consultants, IT consultants, image consultant, financial
consultants, life coaches and
marketing consultants - just to name a few.
If you enjoy working in a particular field, and have knowledge and experience in that field that you think
could assist others, consulting could be the ideal business for you. Many consultants who work for themselves
work from home. They can meet their clients at their clients' place of work, or they can consult over the phone
or via the internet.
Of, course you will be more marketable if you have experience working for well-known or prestigious
companies in the field of your expertise, or you have completed impressive jobs successfully. Put together a
resume or portfolio of your "features" showing why a client should hire you. Focusing on a well-defined niche
will also make you more marketable to potential customers. Don't try to advertise yourself as the
jack-of-all-trades. The better your specialty matches their needs, the more likely they are to believe you can
handle their jobs.
Before you start working with customers, however, you want to be equipped to handle the jobs. Your business
equipment will depend on your field of consulting - but in general, you want to have your (home) office set up,
necessary computer supplies, internet connection, business cards, phone line and other business
accessories that will contribute to making a great first impression.
Next, put your business cards to work for you by building a network. Join local organizations in your field,
the Chamber of Commerce and contact previous business associates to get the word out. Contact fellow
businesspeople i your area who may be interested in working or partnering with you. For example, if you're
starting a wedding consulting business, you may want to drop off your business card to local florists or
catering companies. Online networking sites or freelance job sites are also popular ways of making
connections.
Start a Computer Consulting
Business
You may know computers, but do you know taxes, pricing, marketing pr contract negotiation? That's where a
business start-up guide comes in handy.
You'll see how to set up your business properly, handle daily business operations without wondering what to
do - and you'll find out how to get new clients to grow your business.
Peter Meyer is a well-known expert in computer consulting and frequently writes to educate others in
this field. He has some excellent information you'll find easy to follow. Get his guide here >>
Start a Computer Consulting Business
See Also: Computer Consulting Business Start-Up
Guide | Computer Consulting Business Plan
Start Your Own Consulting
Business
Alan Weiss is a speaker, a best-selling author and a consultant himself. Who better to learn from when it comes
to starting your own consulting business? He can show you how to start your business on the cheap - yet launch
a successful consulting business capable of bringing in six figures.
In addition to demonstrating the ins and outs of providing consulting services as an entrepreneur, he covers
what you need to know about keeping your books, meeting legal requirements and setting fees. Weiss even
interviews other successful consultants to get their "secrets to success", so that you can apply them in your
own business. What a resource! Get it Risk-Free >>
Start Your Own Consulting Business
See Also: Consulting Service Start-up Guide |
Consulting Service Business Plan
Freelance Job Sites:
Find consulting freelance jobs online
More Consulting Start-up Guides:
For Consultants and Coaches exclusively:
Ali Brown's Coaching Business Intensive, July 21-22, 2010, Los Angeles, California. Discover how to design,
sell, and run extremely profitable and successful consulting programs. If you want to accelerate the growth of
your business and want one-on-one assistance, this the the program. Serious entrepreneurs only.
Listen to her free tele-seminar about how to get started consulting on her website (click
the purple button).
Business Resources for Consultants:
4,500+ Professionally-Written Business,
Sales and Marketing Letters
Instantly professionalize your business with minimal effort using foolproof sample business letters and writing
guidelines. You'll get more done in less time with this cutting-edge software that we think is
absolutely cool! An asset to any consulting business.
Business Cards Make Advertising
Easy - Give them to people in your neighborhood, network with people you know, leave them with
stores, offices and other places that busy professionals tend to hang out.
With over 300 professional business card designs and easy-to-use templates, creation
is a snap, and printing is done for you. Click here >> Free Business Cards for Management
Consultants
Grow Your Consulting Business Using Proven Marketing Methods
If you are serious about getting lots of customers, and you don't want to pay thousands of dollars to an ad
agency, the Small Business Marketing Bible shows you how to attract a steady stream
of consulting clients - on the cheap.
Get the 1-Day Marketing Plan outline and over 29 proven success systems
that you can use over and over to increase profits and grow your consulting business including:
- Foolproof salesletter template, proven ad writing checklist and how to create an irresistible
offer.
- How to turn incoming phone calls into clients and turn one-time buyers into lucrative lifetime
customers.
- How to use other people's customers to get new business.
- The secret to getting free referrals when you ask - 90% of the time.
- Maximum profit pricing strategy and how to double your sales with simple packaging
techniques.
- 4 techniques for doubing sales - with no additional customers.
- Get it Risk-Free >> Small Business Marketing Bible
How to Price Your Consulting Services
Typically,
people who sell services go for an hourly rate. They use a process called "reverse competition" to
determine what their rate should be. This is where you take a look at what your geographical competitors
are charging, and you decide where in the range you want to fit on the spectrum of hourly rates.
Inevitably, we choose a rate somewhere in the middle, so we can say that we're not the most expensive,
but neither are we the cheapest!
What kind of message are we sending out to our clients with this approach?
We're showing absolutely no differentiation from any other company - just sticking ourselves straight down
the line. In other words, we compete with everyone! Not a very prudent marketing decision.
So pricing simply using an hourly rate that sits in the middle of the spectrum is, in my view, a wasted
opportunity to create a point of difference with your offering. Let's think more broadly for a minute about
what we are actually offering to your clients.
Regardless of what our specific offering is, we all offer some combination of:
- Quality
- Price and
- Service
- QUALITY
Quality has become an expectation - the minimum you need to be in the game. It is similar to a high school
degree - no one cares if you have one, but watch out if you do not. Quality is no longer an effective
differentiator. So if you are going on about the exceptional quality of your service in your promotional
material and sales pitch, just realize that in your customers eyes, you are not differentiating yourself in any
way.
After all, no sane company is going to advertise the fact that the work they do is of average or low
quality. It's all high, isn't it?
PRICE
There is absolutely nothing positive about competing on price, unless you specifically position yourself as
a low-cost provider. Certainly, there is a market for the discount provider, but I believe this only works if
you have a very high volume of transactions. As a service provider, the only sensible route is to obtain
premium prices for your services.
No matter what you charge, there is always someone, somewhere, willing to perform the work you do for less
money. Customers are value conscious, not price conscious. They look to do business with people they feel give
them more than they are paying for. So the goal for the service provider is to make sure the customer perceives
the full value of the service, not simply the price component.
Its accepted fact that many customers will equate high price with high value - especially when there is very
little else to judge your value on.
Wise consultants know that if they price their services at the low end of the market, customers do not take
their advice seriously. On the other hand, if you charge rates on the upper end of the spectrum, the customer
will hang on every word you say and has a higher probability of implementing your suggestions. This of course
has a proviso that you are offering a great service, rather than a mediocre one.
Sometimes the biggest hurdle to get over when considering charging premium pricing is our own attitude. Do
any of these sound familiar?
"I can't charge those prices - my customers will all walk away!"
"My service isn't worth that much"
As long as you stay in that mindset, you'll never make the transition to high end pricing. You must truly
believe the value of what you offer - after all if you don't, why should your customers? More on this below in
a discussion about articulating the value of what you do.
If you are selling good advice, and your customers listen carefully and implement it - they will be more
successful and thus will value you that much more. It is a cycle that spirals upward: The more you charge, the
more people follow your suggestions, the more profitable they become, the more valuable you are to them. This
is a vicious circle that you definitely want to be part of.
SERVICE
The third component of your offering is service. In today's world, service is the ultimate differentiator
and separates successful companies from mediocre companies. People will pay a premium for excellent service,
and want to do business with companies who provide it. They want to build up personal relationships, know that
their needs are understood, and do business with people who demonstrate integrity and value long term
associations.
Successful businesses are in the relationship building game, and everything they do is aimed at
strengthening connections and affiliations with potential and existing clients. This is where each of us can be
different. No one can imitate our personal style and success at building and maintaining relationships.
In the long run, excellent service providers will prevail over mediocre "competitors."
Getting Away from the Hourly Rate Mentality
Before you do business with a new customer, you hold all the leverage in the relationship. After the
services have been performed, the customer possesses the leverage. The lesson is that you want to set all of
your prices when you possess the leverage - that is, before the engagement begins. This requires quoting fixed
prices and removing yourself from the Almighty Hour mentality.
The minute you quote an hourly rate, you put a fixed limit on your earning potential. It's hard to increase
an hourly rate once it has been set. The most successful service providers charge for the job as a whole, and
don't reveal how many hours it will take to complete the job.
One of my clients - a management consultant - bemoaned the fact that he always underestimated the hours
required to complete a job, even when he added in extra time. When all the extra hours were added in, his
hourly rate worked out to less than $50 per hour. At my suggestion, he began quoting prices by the job. After
three months he conceded that on average, he was able to charge more for the whole job than when he quoted by
the hour. His customers - it seems - perceived greater value when he outlined what the job consisted of, than
when he simply quoted an hourly rate for his time.
Price Resistance
If you are in business, at some stage you will encounter resistance to the price you are charging. Your best
option here is to help the customer understand the full value of your service, and the value or benefit they
will get by implementing it. If you cannot conquer price resistance through educating the customer, then I
would seriously suggest you not take the engagement.
Never decrease your price to get business from a customer suffering from price resistance. That cheats your
best customers - those who value what you provide - and subsidizes your worst customers - those drawn to you by
price considerations alone. Those will be the first customers to defect once they find - and they will - a
service provider willing to do the work for less. You do not want to work for people who do not understand, or
refuse to pay for, the value you provide.
Stay true and stick to your guns.
In today's world it is no longer relevant to talk in terms of hourly rates when positioning the price of
your services. It's all about value you provide, and the perception of value in your customers' mind.
About The Author Megan Tough - published writer, coach, facilitator and speaker - works with leaders
and business people to create outstandingly satisfying and truly successful professional lives. Better
leadership, improved personal effectiveness, and business plans that hum! To learn more and to sign up for more
FREE tips and articles like these, visit www.megantough.com. info@megantough.com
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