How to Start a 1-Man Consulting Practice and What You Need to Consider Before Day 1
Freelance consulting opens up a world of possibilities. And a healthy income stream too.
Many people ask me this question.
“Hey, Aldric. I want to be a consultant on the side. How and where do I start?”
Freelance consulting is a popular choice for side hustles. The reasons are obvious to me.
First, there are minimal barriers to entry. You are monetizing your knowledge and expertise.
Next, it is a service pure-play. You need not produce anything. What customers want, is quite literally, your brains.
And if you want to become a consultant during your 6–9, read on.
A Necessary Footnote Before We Start
I want to be honest. Experience is necessary to be a consultant with believable credentials.
This is not about how you get your work done, how good you are, how smart you are. Consulting, at the end of the day, is an impression-based business.
We need to demonstrate that we have done it. And we know what we are talking about. Articulating our expertise through experience brings us prospects and potential deals.
You will be found out if you are all about ideas and fluff. Customers buy our services because we can solve their problems. Keep that in mind.
You have a shot at growing your freelance consulting empire if you can disseminate knowledge and solve problems within a specific niche, like Shreya Badonia for Web 3.0.
What is Your First Step if You Want to Offer Consulting Services?
Your biggest opportunities will come in the form of change. It is not immediately obvious when you first start out. With time, you will.
And because change is your principal anchor for providing consulting services, you must be familiar with the following.
- An As-Is, To-Be comparison: You need to tell your prospects where they are and where they want to get to.
- A Journey Roadmap: How to get to where they want from where they are.
- A laundry list of foreseeable challenges: Talk about your current customers’ issues. Elaborate on how you helped them overcome and stay the course.
These are tactical points. Above all, you must be an effective communicator.
I realized, over the years, that the best consultants are capable of deconstructing complex topics and breaking them down into bite-sized nuggets of digestible knowledge.
Why is this important? Simple. Your prospects must be convinced that you are the one for the task. Effective communication, or persuasion, precedes prospect buy-in.
Author’s Note: Change is your biggest business opportunity as a consultant. Keep that in mind.Next — Tell the People Around You that You are Open for Business
Consultant-wannabes will tell me, without fail, that social media is THE Go-To marketing tool.
I do not contest the utility and reach of social media. In fact, LinkedIn and Twitter have been fascinating and kind to me in terms of writing, idea propagation, and outbound business marketing.
But. We need to be aware of platform limitations.
If you only have 3-digit followers, a passive group of like-minded individuals, and random fan-based supporters, one thing is for sure. You will not go very far with organic social media marketing.
I say organic, as opposed to paid, targeted campaigns.
There are better approaches to market and pre-sell your consulting services. This is my list.
1. Talk to the People Beside You (In the Office)
Many people aspire to do their own thing while slogging away in their cubicles. These are your direct opportunities if you can offer them what they want.
I used to help my business partner sell website construction projects to ex-colleagues around me when e-commerce is super hot. I also do LinkedIn consulting when LinkedIn is THE ultimate social media tool, connecting opportunities with ambitious folks.
Walk the ground. Talk to real people. You will realize opportunities faster than organic social media promotion.
2. Talk to the People You Know (Outside the Office)
Ex-colleagues, LinkedIn connections, Human Resource professionals.
Your direct contacts should be in your sales funnel. Why? Because they are people you know, with trust already established, and you know exactly where they are in life.
They will choose to work with you over strangers, given the same consulting service offer.
It is a no-brainer.
How to Price Your Consulting Work
This, to me, is the million-dollar question.
I am not a fan of free work. I can understand why people chime about value over money. I get that. However, there are 3 issues with that approach.
- Value is subjective. Your prospects must see the value you pump out. Otherwise, you will not convert.
- Giving services, time, and knowledge for free is addictive. Once people get used to things for free, it is almost impossible to charge them down the road.
- Why work for free when you can for a fee?
Do not offer your consulting services for $0 unless you want to pursue the path of non-profits. Seek clarity with your ambitions.
$0 pricing aside. Time for the exciting stuff. How do we price our consulting services for success? It depends on the nature of your consulting service.
Consulting Service # 1 — If You are into Active Knowledge Dissemination
This is a headcount business.
Price your workshops or webinars using a base fee plus a tiered offer. This is what I mean.
- Fixed price of the knowledge workshop for the first 10 pax at $500.
- The subsequent 5 headcounts will be charged at $100.
This way, you provide incentives for the prospect to bring in more people at a lower overall cost.
Consulting Service # 2 — If You are into Transformation Journey
This is about customer intimacy.
Think massage, physiotherapy, and beauty treatments. Focus is the business. You want to price per amount of time and attention given to your prospect.
I recommend package pricing, such as $X for Y sessions. They work very well for this category.
Consulting Service # 3 — If You are into Implementation
In short, you sell projects.
I wrote about this topic at length in How I Price My Copywriting Services to Avoid Losses (And Earn A Little More). There is one point I would like to emphasize.
Many prospects do not understand that projects expire and the contract ends. They think you will work for them till perpetuity for a fixed fee.
You must continuously inform them about completion and conditions for completion.
Summary
Freelance consulting is a brilliant side-hustle.
The barriers to entry are low (because it is contextual to your expertise), and you are monetizing what you already know. However, do be clear of your circle of competence. You want to stay within it to charge a premium.
Above all, learn to enjoy the journey even though customers complain about you, to you. All the time.
Other Stories To Help You Grow Your Consultant Side-Hustle:
On building your credentials.
On your Consultant’s toolbox.
On finding ideal clients.
On becoming the Go-To Consultant in your district.
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.
