SolveYourProblem
eBusiness Series:
How To Start Your Own
Coaching or Consulting Business
( 18 pages )
An
Introduction to the Consulting Business
So, you want to
be a consultant, eh? It can be a highly competitive, extraordinarily
difficult, and frustratingly challenging business to be involved
with at times, but the level of freedom and amount of experience
in many facets of the business universe are a very positive
trade off for all the hard work. When handled correctly —
and planned with care — a career as a consultant can yield
much more financial and personal freedom for the professional.
An experienced consultant can make several orders of magnitude
more salary for a comparably educated and experienced “company
employee”, and can enjoy many other benefits, such as making
your own schedule, working on challenging and interesting
projects within a wide range of companies, getting responsibilities
to match your experience and your technical know-how, guiding
your own career development through obtaining multiple simultaneous
experiences in diverse professional sectors, and increasing
autonomy and responsibility along the entire scope of your
career.
Individuals who
are attracted to the consultant, professional, styling are
usually described with terms like “self starter” and “go-getter”.
Certainly this type of career decision will demand a certain
level of sacrifice, particularly at the onset of your career.
But through the steep experience curve and unavoidable initial
difficulties, many professional have emerged with greatly
satisfying, highly compensated, and most importantly…immensely
rewarding careers in the field(s) of their choice.
Types of
Consulting
There are nearly
as many types of businesses in the consulting universe as
there are in the realm of traditional business. Nearly every
industry under the sun has spawned a thriving ecosystem of
self-starters and professional gurus who have chosen to make
their services available to the highest bidder. Some of the
most active and lucrative industries conducive to supporting
a consultancy career are listed below:
- Computer
consulting: There are many choices in the realm
of computer consultancy. You can find work repairing,
maintaining, and teaching people how to use various hardware
and software, assist major corporations in maintaining
network infrastructure, serve as a database admin, or
any of a number of computer related consultancies.
- Business: If
you are really good at setting up fledgling businesses
(and as a consultancy entrepreneur, it is highly likely
you are), business consultancy might be the right thing
for you. This makes an excellent side business that can
work within your existing paradigm. For example, you may
primarily set up your business as a computer consultancy,
but in the process of setting up your business, discover
that you are also a naturally fantastic business person.
In keeping with the multi-pronged approach to business
(which we will go over in more detail later), you may find
that there are times you can “farm out” your peripheral
talents in getting people started in businesses of their
own (for a fee, of course) all the while maintaining your
primary technical consultancy. Utilize your diversity.
- Advertising: Advertising
firms and freelance designers of all varieties are being
used in a consultant capacity by everyone from small companies
to huge multi national corporations.
- Accounting: Every
company needs someone to “do their books”, and accountants
are the fastest growing segment of the consultancy class
today.
- Communications/Public
Relations: This is an area commonly outsourced
by companies for whom it is simply not cost effective
to have a full-fledged internal communications or public
relations department. Also, as companies grow, they may
find the need to add on a small staff, over time, to
handle these tasks. If finding a permanent position within
an organization via your consultancy is your goal, then
communications/PR consultancy may be just the field for
you.
- Auditing: Companies
outsource a wide variety of auditing responsibilities to
third parties due to efficiency and lack of bias that could
cloud the judgment of internal employees. One example of
a thriving auditing consultancy is the current booming
retail inventory market, which is currently dominated by
the large inventory firm, RGIS, but has room for individual
entrepreneurs to generate a fair amount of business.
- Gardening: A
green thumb is a god given talent that not everyone in
the world is gifted with. You can network via golf courses
and social clubs to attain highest visibility amongst those
who may wish to retain the services of an expert gardener.
- Human
resources: HR
is the perfect fit for those out there with highly refined
people skills. If you have strong communication skills
(both verbal and written) and enjoy working directly
with people, then an HR consultancy is right up your
alley. This is also another common position for companies
to outsource, particularly amongst high tech startups.
- Payroll
management: This
is an area that companies commonly do not wish to handle
internally. It requires a skill set that shares characteristics
of accounting and human resources above, and can be very
lucrative if done well.
- Marketing: Much
like we outlined in the Business example above, in the
course of building your own consultancy, you may find that
marketing is a particular strength of yours. Companies
will often hire consultants outside the hierarchy of the
internal “org chart” in the interest of getting a “fresh
viewpoint” or “thinking outside the box” when it comes
to marketing a new product or service as well as kick-starting
existing campaigns.
- Executive
headhunters: These
are a common “bounty hunter” type of consultancy available
in the modern corporate world.
- Writing
services: The
pen is truly mightier than the sword (and the word processor
can kick the pen’s butt to kingdom come!). If you have
the gift of the scribe, you will be able to find numerous
outlets for your services.
- Publishing: People
are publishing via a variety of methods in today’s world.
Newsletters, articles, Internet, magazines, and many other
varieties of print and digital publishing are very popular
in the corporate sector as well as within the government
(the government is a great client for consultancies, by
the way).
- Taxes: Just
like accounting, taxes are another area that companies
often need help with. If you are a tax whiz, this may be
your calling.
 
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