How I Add Consulting Services to Other Side-Hustles for 30% Higher Income Potential
Because you get to provide a comprehensive service offer with this method
There are 2 ways to earn from our side-hustles.
The first method offers our hands to complete tasks. Think copywriting projects, video editing, YouTube video production, social media campaign planning, etc.
The second method is to help the person in front of us transform. Or evolve, improve, or become a better version of themselves. Tomorrow.
We can do that by offering consulting services on the side.
Now. This is my question to you.
Why not do both?
Offering Consulting Services on the side is a Choice
I have copywriting peers who do not provide consulting services.
They are happy initiating, executing, and completing projects without direct human interaction. Their face starts frowning when they have to guide their clients to do something. Or anything.
I get it. Some of us deliver brilliant work when left alone.
What if you want to earn more from your side-hustle? To supercharge your side-hustle income potential by 30% — 60%, you must explore offering consulting services to your clients.
Why so? Because you already understand the needs of the client from a task perspective. There are no additional preparations involved.
Chances are, you know their unspoken challenges too. Clients pay good money for consulting services, so they can take on the charging bull in front of them.
One day.
Start with Clients Who Have High Expectations of Themselves and Their Work
I wrote about finding ideal clients for consulting work in this article. Therefore, I will not repeat my words here.
This segment presents a quick assessment of client fit when interacting with your client eye to eye, belly to belly, toe to toe. Call this a first-impression qualification, if you will.
Start with clients with high expectations. You can identify them rather quickly.
Those who expect you to deliver quality copywriting drafts. Those who continuously ask why, why not, and how we can improve on this existing piece of work.
I always say this to my copywriting mentees.
“If your client has high expectations of your work, they have high expectations of themselves. Clients with high expectations are always improving themselves. And they will pay to do so.”
Pay attention to people attending evening classes for professional development. They are there by choice, no matter how boring the lecturers are.
You have a higher win rate by offering consulting services to such personalities.
Now It Is Time to Structure the Consulting Service Value Chain
Core Skillset + Consulting Services = High-ticket contracts.
The definition of high-ticket differs from person to person. My copywriting peer (who does not offer consulting services on top of the standard projects) defines high-ticket as 5-digit contract revenue within 4 months of completion.
A high-ticket contract, to me, comprises a fixed component and a variable component from today until perpetuity. Perpetuity does not have to mean forever, in the strictest sense of the word.
Think of it as a retainer contract running continuously without a near-term expiry date.
Sounds iffy? No worries. Time for concrete examples.
Designing a Value-Chain That Allows You to Build a Pipeline of Neverending Work
Focus on What’s Next. You can steal my formula for a start.
Writing Assignments-> Copywriting Projects -> Consulting Services
Always have the next stage offer in your back pocket. You can respond to your client super fast when the opportunity arises.
I will use my copywriting side-hustle + consulting services for purposes of illustration.
Initial Offer — 1-Time Writing Assignments (Fixed Pay)
Meeting your clients for the first time? Trust is thin. Deals are low-ticket.
This is especially so if you are an unknown. Relax. Everyone goes through this.
The goal is to focus on delivering quality work at this stage. Delight the client. It becomes easier for you to ask for the next contract.
Next Stage Offer — Bundle Multiple Assignments in Projects (Higher Fixed + Variable Compensation)
When believability is established, move away from 1-time assignments and seek projects. This is why.
1-time assignments end when it ends. PLUS. You subject yourself to (a ton of) competition in the 1-And-Done space in Fiverr, Upwork, and other freelancer platforms.
Projects are different. First, you stretch out your time horizon. You spend more time with your clients, without worrying about securing the next contract from month to month. I typically run copywriting projects for 4 to 6 months.
Long-duration projects provide stable income. And I have time to pursue high-ticket consulting deals.
Consulting Services for Copywriting and Beyond — Ambassador of Evolution and Transformation (Ongoing Retainer)
At this stage, your words hold water. Clients trust you.
They do because you delivered brilliant work, understand their requirements, and met expectations. You also know what they want to achieve.
Focus on knowing what they want to achieve. It bears high relevance to your consulting service offer. I will explain the why briefly before going into the how.
You are dispensable as a worker-bee or an outsourcing party. Your clients need you to get tasks done because they are not ready for it, or it is not on their priority radar.
Such situations do not last.
Therefore, you need to front-run your clients. This is what I do.
- I offer to review the content assets on their website.
- I do not edit on their behalf. Instead, I charge a fee for offering advice for better edits.
- I present a consulting offer for copywriting workshops as the demand for this piece of work increases.
- There is no need to wait till their team is mature enough to kick me out. I will bring them to that stage. This is in line with general business growth objectives of resource upskilling.
- The next stage consulting offer includes reviewing their entire digital copywriting eco-system.
- I look at what they do not have, what they need, and how they can get it done.
- This is where I scope out Newsletter-as-a-Service (tasked-based retainer projects) and social media campaign consulting (as final reviewer and advisor of their digital marketing arm).
- And others.
The value-chain design of my copywriting hustle + consulting services looks like this.
Writing Tasks -> Copywriting Projects -> Consulting Services -> Writing Tasks -> Copywriting Projects -> Consulting Services -> Writing Tasks -> Copywriting Projects -> Consulting Services
Okay, you get the idea.
In Conclusion
You can add consulting services to your side-hustles to supercharge your earnings by 30% — 60%. Of course, you need to be comfortable working intimately with humans.
Focus on clients with high expectations. Spend time designing your value-chain so you can work with your clients to help them evolve.
Other Stories To Help You Grow Your Consultant Side-Hustle:
On starting your Consulting Practice.
On building credentials.
On the toolbox you need.
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
