Starting a Consulting Business With No Experience
Want to start a consulting business, but don't have any experience in the industry?
Anyone, with a computer, a phone, and a place to work can begin a consulting business. But building your business to be both sustainable and successful has a bit more to it.
Experience
There are two different types of experience when it comes to business consulting, industry-specific versus general business knowledge. Having generalised knowledge about business, being able to provide direction to business owners and having a consulting system to rely on. But to get you in the door in certain industries, industry-specific knowledge can be leveraged to help secure clients.
The Little Step
In the business sector, there are different fields under the company umbrella. There is management, accounts, operations, IT, sales and marketing to name a few. You may have experience in the financial sector, so making a step to become a financial advisory consultant before a business consulting will be less risky than taking a leap. Building credibility for consulting in your areas of expertise creates a better basis for your business before expanding to more fields and industries.
Constant Learning
The definition of the word consultant is a person who provides expert advice professionally. To become a better consultant for your clients, it is important to learn the information before it is necessary. Aside from becoming knowledgeable about the subject, it is also key to build your own experience because that will teach you more than any book, podcast, or blog post could ever.
To learn more about business consulting, download a free copy of “Become a Successful & High Earning Business Consultant: The Ultimate Guide”.
Also, learn more by listening to our free podcast “Everything Business Consulting” available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and Spotify.
And, to learn some more information about business consulting check out our other blog posts.
Selling yourself
Yep, you are going to become a business consultant, and you’ve got experience in the industry you're consulting to. But how do you pull in the clients?
Marketing
By investing in marketing your consulting business, you can develop more leads and become sought after by business owners. There are different marketing channels to follow, like word-of-mouth, social media, email for example.
Besides regularly posting interesting and catching content, boosting posts to be shown as adverts increase the number of people you are in front of.
The mind of your clients
The ultimate way to sell your service to new clients is to think the same way as them. Once you’re in the mindset, you can see cracks that may be appearing in your competitors’ service. To help see from their perspective, reading reviews on items like books or podcasts.
Think like your clients so you can market and highlight aspects of your service which are important to them. You could think of something original which sets you apart from the other consultants out there, and that is your competitive advantage.
Where to start your Consulting Business?
Set up your business
When you set up your business, there are tasks that need to be completed. These steps are:
Registering your company
Branding/Marketing
Setting up your business bank account
Hiring an accountant
Setting up a Xero or MYOB account
Successfully helping clients
Marketing your consulting business is a great way to get in front of people, but what happens once you follow the lead and get the client?
In consulting, just winging it ends up with tasks taking more time and money than necessary to complete. By having a plan for your client, you can improve their business in less time, but with more impact.
The plan can be as straightforward as these are need looking into, these tasks need to be done, and this will be the result afterwards.
Finding Business Consulting Clients
Starting out as a business consultant, you won’t be handed a client straight away, you need to go out and make leads to follow.
Find your ideal client and get your message in front of them. Do you want to consult to a certain type of business, like franchises, single retail stores, large organisations or small businesses?
This way you can directly contact companies that fit into your criteria, whether it be by phone, email or letter. Give them information about your business, what you do and tailor it to their company.
Keeping Clients for the Long Term
With business consulting, your clients are your customer, and without customers, there is no business. Treating your clients like gold and putting in a little bit of extra effort can change your client from being with you for 3 months to a long-term client that will be with you for 4 years or longer.
The bottom line is, follow through and deliver your promises, and treat your clients like you care and appreciate them.
Consulting Service
There are different ways people may get started in their consulting business, they could do it by themselves, or they could join a consulting program. Being a lone wolf may have it’s advantages, but belonging to a program gives a structure to follow as guidance.
ConsultX is a complete business solution, with everything you need to become a successful business coach, advisor or consultant. The system provides you with training, certification, software, resources, support, and more, so you can become a business consultant easier.