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Recommended Resources
Consulting is a highly fragmented profession. Materials of any value tend to be general books on the consulting life and process - these are available readily at Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. Subject matter books are simply too numerous to list
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The Consultant Personality in Home-based Business
A Fascination with Ideas
Background
Consulting is a lot like producing information products. It is a world of niches that fall into some broad groupings. The groupings are typically by skill-set, though in the offline world deep industry knowledge is often the primary segmentation with skill sets falling in underneath (so you may be an expert in the automobile industry with a skill set in product design.)
Consulting is a tough game. Projects take significant effort to land and new clients are expensive to find placing a premium on continuing relationships. However all projects end and so do all relationships. So there is permanent pressure to sell. This is why consulting, like the legal profession, is dependent on ‘rainmakers’ (usually the partners) who bring in the business for the ‘grunts’ to do the work using structured tools.
Home based consulting tends to be of two types:
Individuals with some unique or transient knowledge that they can exploit in the real world for a few years. These are often people who have taken early retirement and are looking to earn some supplementary income. Most don’t last.
Individuals with a close affinity for the internet (often a technical, graphic arts or web site development background) who focus on selling support to others who are setting up web-based businesses. This group may provide everything from web page design through to helping you with a business plan to helping you land financing for your big idea.
What it takes to be Successful
Process
The consulting process is:
- Client acquisition: finding the opportunities, creating the proposal, deciding on pricing, and doing the presentation are the key steps
- Problem definition: data collection, problem identification and convincing the client are the keys
- Problem analysis and resolution: in-depth analysis using appropriate tools, identifying a solution and convincing the client or adjusting to their needs
- Solution creation: actually building or doing the work
- Solution installation: this may involve ‘knock-on’ effects on people or other systems so installation can be complex and threatening
Maintaining the client relationship: not losing touch.
Critical Success Factors
The CSFs of a consulting business are:
- Client acquisition is absolutely crucial. Getting new clients is an expensive process. Developing long term relationships that yield repeat projects and referrals to other clients is just about the only way to be profitable.
- Technical skills. You have to know what you are doing and have genuine insight. The client typically resents at some level being dependent on you. You have to be prepared for them to criticize and cavil over everything
- A strong administrative system. Most consultants are lousy at sending out bills. You must collect and justify time spent against value delivered and chase down those outstanding invoices. It is easy to be cheated after the value has been delivered. Try to get some portion of the fee upfront.
- Keep up to date. This is quite difficult to do in a fast moving market. You are focused on the project and honing your skills is easy to neglect.
- Keeping you emotionally stable. Consulting is a tough profession. The client always thinks they could have done better and they REALLY do want to replace you (you are totally right to be paranoid.) Everything you do is an exposure in public of your skills, rebuffs are common and if you don’t have self-belief you will collapse. Doing it alone from home is even tougher. Try to find someone to work with or at least to talk to.
Concluding Remarks
Consulting REALLY is a tough business. Have no illusions. But there is money to be made if you can find someway of marking yourself out and promoting yourself at low cost. It is strictly current income. It has no residual component and consulting businesses typically don’t sell if you want to retire. I remarked earlier that consulting from home is a lonely activity. This is a real issue if you need people to help spark your ideas.
For an entertaining look at the Rainmaker phenomenon read John Grisham’s "The Rainmaker".
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