How to Start a Consulting Business

This is a step-by-step guide to starting a consulting business in 2022. Here, you’ll learn to define your brand, know your market needs, name your business, write business plans, and other necessary steps to start a consulting business. Stay tuned!

Assess your strengths and skillset

Usually, consultants are employed to solve problems that companies can’t fix themselves. Yet, so many businesses are just one consultation away from being successful. This is why companies that know the value of consulting make it a priority.

It is essential to have in-depth knowledge of a specific niche when starting a consulting business. This way, you’ll be able to offer value to your clients. There are several types of consulting you can specialize in. For instance, you can set up an office as an IT or computer consultant if you know a lot about computers. You can also enjoy lots of opportunities as a consultant if you have great knowledge of accounting, digital marketing, or business strategy.

Evaluate your strengths to know where you will perform best. You can do this by taking an objective look into any missing skills or weaknesses you may possess. However, this will help you know how to work on filling those missing gaps. Also, it is important to keep in mind that you may require special licenses or certifications depending on your area of specialization before you can become a consultant. For example, you must own a certificate from the National Society of Fund Raising Executive to be a fundraising consultant.

Define Your Brand

The most popular and prominent businesses we created on a trustworthy trademark. When creating your brand, it is important to consider the following.

What are your business objectives?
How will you express your core values?
How will you earn the trust of your customers?

Once you’ve found the answers to the questions above, you need to re-examine your business name. An ideal business name is the foundation of a good brand & a successful business. See our How to Name a Business guide to know more about developing an ideal business name.

Discover what your market needs

After identifying your niche, brainstorm the problems, questions, and pain points the firms in your desired area of specialization have. However, having a lot of knowledge or a strong skillset is not enough. If you can’t solve the businesses’ problems in your niche, you may end up treading water.

One unique way of knowing your market requirements and needs is by asking. You can begin by performing an online search for articles or blogs in your niche. This way, it will be easy to spot areas where there seems to be a lot of confusion. You can also discover several heated debates in comment sections or forums regarding a certain topic.

Furthermore, you can uncover pain points in your market by utilizing your network. For instance, if you wish to start as a digital marketing consultant, you need to think of people around you who are business owners and are digital marketers or work with digital marketers. There are chances that you may know a lot of people. Do well to ask them about problems they encounter when trying to meet their long and short-term goals. Finally, you need to figure out how your consultation services can impact your niche.

Ride the organic marketing train

As an independent consultant, you are responsible for growing your clients’ base and consistently developing their businesses. You can achieve this with the best marketing, popularly known as organic marketing.

Organic marketing is beneficial to business owners in two different ways. First, entrepreneurs tend to know themselves and can refer to your business. Therefore, you need to deliver top-notch services to your customers before getting these referrals. The second advantage of organic marketing is that it is free. All you need to do is make the best out of it.

Write client proposals

Usually, the conclusive step in getting on a new customer is writing a client proposal. Client proposals create opportunities to show how you can help your clients fix their problems. As a result, you must be familiar with the details of your clients’ projects, why your consulting service is needed, and your turnaround for the project.

It’s also necessary to be very familiar with every detail of the project, including budget, deliverables, and results. You also need to be convincing to close a client.

Hire staffs wisely

Your volume of work determines if you need staff to help you with your business activities. Building a productive and strong team is an important step towards owning a successful business regardless of your business type. However, there is an exemption if you plan to be your business’s only employee.

Furthermore, creating an effective team isn’t just about gathering the right people. You have to make sure you remain compliant with the legal conditions for hiring employees. This includes registering with the IRS to report new hires to the state and record your business employee taxes.

Once you’ve created your team, we recommend using a payroll service to track time, issue paychecks, and manage tax seasons.

Practice your elevator pitch

If you can’t convert sales, a rock-solid marketing strategy, the latest tools, and an exceptional skill set are useless. Compelling potential clients to go for your consulting business begins with an elevator pitch.

Your elevator pitch should express the problems of your target audience, the unique solutions you provide, and how your services differ from the rest. Although you may be quite passionate when describing your services and the industry problems you’ve encountered, it’s important to keep your pitch to a maximum of three sentences.

It is good to view your elevator pitch as your value proposition. Once you can provide the short version of your value proposition, you can proceed to elaborate and give more in-depth information to potential clients who would love to know more.

Setting goals and KPI’s

You will need to keep track of your progress once your goals are set. To do so, you must select the appropriate KPIs.

Due to the particular expertise field, KPIs may differ from one consulting organization to the next. Nonetheless, a few measures are universally applicable, and these are as follows:

Leads generated: This is a straightforward, global indicator that shows the effectiveness of your outreach and marketing efforts.

Average hourly rate: How much does your consulting firm charge per hour of service provided? Depending on the cost of service delivery and your experience, raising the hourly charge after a certain period may make sense.

Repeat business rate: Gaining new clients is excellent, but do you maintain your existing relationships in the long run? A high rate of repeat business indicates quality, consistency, and overall client happiness.

Annual revenue per billable consultant: this is the total revenue divided by the number of consultants employed by the firm. Moreover, this measure is critical since it gives you a good picture of your consultants’ productivity.

Profit margin: the percentage of revenue left after all direct expenditures for project provision have been deducted. It makes no difference whether you are paid per project or billable hours. Always try to keep the profit margin above 40%.

Naming Your Business

Choosing a name for your company is a big decision. However, a good company name can make all the difference in terms of success or failure. We’ll provide you with practical advice on how to come up with great company names and what to keep in mind while formally registering your new company name. However, you can easily come up with an ideal business name with the help of our business name generator.

Business names can be divided into four categories:

Names that are expressive– In some manner, these describe the company’s operations. Big Al’s, The Washington Post, and Baskin-Robbins are just a few examples. When choosing a descriptive name, remember that trademarking this type of name can be challenging.

Imaginative names- These are names that figuratively symbolize a brand. The name Apple, for example, is a symbol of something fresh and new. Likewise, Amazon brings together a diverse range of products under one roof.

Unprecedented Names– These are names that don’t have any meaning even though they sound pleasant or visually appealing. Brands frequently utilize them because it is easier and less expensive to trademark random names.

Derivative Names– These names are derived from a firm founder or a product feature. They’re simple to recall for the general audience, but they can also be generic and lack innovation. The distinction between derivative and descriptive names is razor-thin.

Stay organized and deliver results

Once you begin your consulting business activities, ensure that you stay organized and deliver consistent results to keep your clients and get referrals. Staying organized helps ensure you don’t miss deadlines, lose valuable information, or fail to remind clients when payment is due. Begin by looking for ways to automate specific processes. For example, you can receive payments electronically or utilize an online bookkeeping system like QuickBooks instead of checks. You can also use software like Infusionsoft to manage your clients better or even consider employing a virtual assistant.

Producing results is pretty hard to advise, but it is essential to the well-being of your consulting business. Thus, you have to work towards providing top-notch services to help you rank among the best in the industry.

Check in with your clients to know if they are satisfied with the results of your services. This will improve your business and also help your clients achieve their objectives.

Consulting niches to consider

How do you choose a niche to specialize in if you have expertise that involves multiple industries? Consider a niche with constant demands as a startup. Alternatively, you can look out for an emerging field of business and build your reputation to become an expert. Below are some recommendations for consulting niches you can consider specializing in:

Accounting

Of course, being an accountant is a kind of consultant. Businesses will hire you to organize their books & financial demands. If you’re considering starting as an accounting consultant, it is best to be a CPA. However, anyone with bookkeeping experience can be qualified for this field of consulting.

Branding

You will work with companies to assess and refine their brand image and voice if you are a brand consultant. Moreover, you’ll need to learn about customers, then formulate a brand that will enable the business to resonate with its market. Nevertheless, it is best to have a background in marketing to be a brand consultant.

Web design

Another area with a good demand is web design. As a consultant in this field, you’ll have to work with businesses to design an on-brand website with functions that meet their specifications.

Human resources

An HR consultant assists businesses with employee/staff management and recommends the best approaches to keep their workforce engaged and happy. This job could involve many things, from writing job descriptions to assisting with onboarding.

Green living

As a consultant in this field, you can enjoy less competition and more demands as several businesses are now committed to going green to save the environment. Furthermore, you can help businesses complete several tasks that involve lowering their carbon footprints. This includes creating more green-friendly manufacturing processes or office environments.

Organization

Consultants in this niche provide suggestions to businesses and individuals on reducing organizational clutter, red tape, and distractions to work more efficiently. This is a field of improved focus due to the new distractions created by technology which has twisted the boundaries between work & home life.

Gardening

The population of individuals and businesses interested in building comfortable landscapes and gardens has risen. As a result, gardening consultants are in high demand.

Insurance

Everyone requires insurance, but knowing what to expect and how much to pay can be challenging. This is where the services of a good insurance consultant can come in handy.

Marketing

Only a few business owners understand the scopes of marketing. However, they must form a marketing plan, devise strategies, and execute them. As a marketing consultant, you can assist numerous companies, especially small businesses, with these marketing strategies and campaigns.

Supply chain management

Being a consultant in this niche requires helping clients know the best ways to organize their supply chain and vendors. This is valuable if your clients create products with features sourced from other businesses.

Our Final Words

Make sure you are enthusiastic about any niche you choose. It would be best if you enjoyed what you are doing. If you start a consulting firm only to make money, you may struggle to keep it functioning. Make certain that you are passionate about your business. That passion will shine through in everything you do, and your clientele will respect and embrace the authenticity of your brand.