How would I start my own consulting business?

I found from building up my firm Eden Strategy Institute almost 5 years ago that starting one is surprisingly easy. You will need to study your market, decide on your niche, register your company, put up a simple website, and print some business cards, but most of all what you really need is a client. Look through all your contacts and get the word out that you're starting up. Build a board of advisors, who might be able to refer work to you. Join industry associations, non-profit organisations, and university events. You can even consider offering to do pro bono work for your first client/s, make sure they are really happy by delighting them, and use their testimonials of your good work to build case studies for your firm. Based on your experiences from the projects, invest time in reflecting and publishing to get your brand out. Now you have substance to do some proper marketing, and justify a premium if in fact you can become the best in your business. Finally, brace yourself for growth, which comes with another set of challenges involving aspects such as cash flow, quality control, human resources, etc. Good luck!

Do not forget that you should also create a 'portfolio' of work performed not only in the past for the future clientele as well that you will be pitching for new business.  You have any questions about marketing, social media, networking, creating a 'buzz' feel free to get in touch.  I wish you success!

I am not sure how to answer this without seeming crude. The biggest part of being a business consultant is either already knowing things or being able to figure things out on your own. It is what your clients hire you for. Asking how to start your own business consulting firm means that you are unfit for running a business consulting firm. Having said that, the first step is to form a company. While your unique needs should dictate the entity you choose, a S-Corp is usually best for smaller consulting firms (you can also elect to go C when the company grows). This will allow you to pay yourself a reasonable salary on which employment taxes are paid and the rest is treated as a distribution and not employment income. Now, you market to potential clients whatever you're best at. I'm a whiz when it comes to operations and marketing, so all of my clients need one or both of those things. I do not really advertise. If you're good, you will receive referrals. Sure, my company has a social media presence and some clients arrive through that channel, but the majority of the time a client comes from another client telling them how we solved whatever problem they had.

Great question, and one that I had while I was getting started in the consulting business. You might not realize this, but in America, there are more than 600,000+ small consulting firms. That's why we created http://SkillBridge.co --  as a place to match business consultants with relevant jobs. On our platform, we make it easy for talented people to connect with relevant clients. I'm happy to discuss this further.

Not too long ago a member of my online community asked a similar question. We went back and forth for a while and I ended up turning our conversation into a blog post. It covers a lot of the common questions. You can check it out here - http://covetedconsultant.com/how-to-start-a-consulting-business/ We talked about Lead generation for consultants Content marketing for consultants Client onboarding Client selection Productized services Here is a video summary if that helps.

If you have worked more than 10 years in your Industry at a stretch, you probably have achieved the 10,000-hour rule by then. This means that you probably know more than any average person working in your domain. This actually puts you in a position where your knowledge would be worth  alot of money and can be shared with people who are either just getting started or are experts in some other field. Which ultimately leaves you with a new career option called Consultancy. Where people pay you to know what you know in return with a solution to their problem. So here are a few steps that you can use to start your own consultancy  business as a freelancer - Knowledge Domain - First figure out what is it that you really really love talking about all the time. What is it that you can spend hours researching on and then cant  wait to share it with the world. 80% of consultancy involves talking so you better talk sense. It is important to know everything about that particular topic and certainly more than your personal crowd. Experience - Studying and working are always two different worlds. No matter how many exams you have given or how mnay videos you have watched, application of that content in the real world will always be a very different experience. Therefore keep aside your degrees and certificates and google and just go out and get some real-world experience in your field where you actually solve problems by applying your head and hand to it. Only than you will be qualified enough to have ability to help someone facing a similar problem. Have opinions - We as humans always have something to say but unfortunately not always have the crowd. Well social media have knid of solved that problem. Create an online identity for youreslf where you actaully talk about trending topics in your industry. Blog, tweet or even  a facebook post will do. But be where your audience is so that you are aware of problemes faced and give solutions to it online. Start helping people - Find friends, family members, acquaintances anyone. Anyone who is facing  a problem  that you have the experience to solve. And you know what do it for free. Do it for free atleast 10 times. The whole point of free is that you will be able to help them without any pressure of an actual performance which will give you  a chance to learn and experiment. Find clients online - After probably working on 10 projects you will be good enough to take on some real projects. Startt with personal contacts first. If that doesn't help join any freelancing site on the web. For example, Upwork, freelancer etc. Get in touch with people on Linkedin. And like this, you will be able to enter the big consultancy Industry. But along with that,  you will still have to keep up with your learnings, trending topics and continuous research. After all, you have to know more than your client.

Working for SME’s is a lot of fun, not that hard to get off the ground really, and can be very rewarding money-wise. And you can do it part-time, while still in college.However, small and medium sized business consulting (be it finance, marketing, HRM, ICT, operations, quality or anything else) has some built in problems: seek fast results modest budgets business owners do not have much time to spend on the project themselves not too interested in details (action oriented), or too interested in details (micro-managers) hate hourly billing That’s why I like working with retainers -subscriptions- for longer periods of time, 12 months is great. Also I avoid contracting inputs too tight and prefer to agree on outcomes. If you want, have look at my https://blissfulconsulting.quora.com/Rules-of-Engagement-Consulting-for-Small-Business-Owners on this and some other questions on this matter:

I recommend getting some tangible experience first.  The bulk of your knowledge will be from a non practical point of view.  In other words: 1.  you won't have interfaced with auditors in a public audit; 2. you won't have practical revenue recognition experience; 3. you won't have any industry experience (yes accounting is something industry specific; etc, etc....

Consulting can sound like one of the easiest businesses to start.Here are five tips might help you build killer consulting business:1. Fill specific knowledge gaps: Your prospective clients likely aren't lacking smart or opinionated talent--if they were, they would want to hire a full-time employee, not a consultant. They need objective insight that their in-house people can't provide. That's where you come in.2. Focus on relationships: This is a business based on relationships. The wise consultant always listens before she speaks. Never talk costs before first discussing your clients' specific needs and objectives. 3. Sell results, not service: Price by the hour and you'll be viewed as a commodity. Instead, keep clients laser-focused on the lasting value you create, and bill based on scope of work and end results.4. Flexible structure: Some consulting businesses gross millions from ongoing monthly retainers. Recurring retainers make sense when the consultant is providing ongoing services (e.g., PR or marketing support, which is more of an external staffing function than consulting). But if you've done your job right, you've solved the problem--so be ready to move on.5. Always be closing: To succeed as a consultant, as much time must be devoted to acquiring new business as performing assigned tasks. I've found that the average time from initial contact to engagement can sit between six to 36 weeks, and close rates hover between 10 percent and 20 percent. Any downtime should be reinvested into business development.Ethan, (http://48factoring.com)