We explain how you can become a successful consultant and sell your knowledge and time, rather than work long hours. A successful consultant enjoys a great work and life balance. We show you how.
What is a consultant?
A consultant works with business owners and entrepreneurs to help them solve their problems and find solutions to specific business problems and challenges. The best consultants are good at what they do and know their industry inside and out.
They’ve got an intuitive understanding of business opportunities and tactics for achieving their goals. So, if you love what you do and are good at it, you could make a living as a consultant. However, what does it take to become a consultant? The good news is that becoming a consultant is very simple.
The bad news is that it does take a fair bit of training, knowledge and skill to become a successful consultant. The secret to getting paid to do what you love is to demonstrate the skills you possess that are marketable and valued by clients.
Why become a consultant?
Your mentor can provide you with access to the right people at the right time. They’ll introduce you to their network so you can become a master of networking. Showing up is half the battle. The most powerful people in the world start late. Show up to the ones you want.
Don’t wait for your dream to come to you. If you want to succeed, it’s your job to make it happen. For those of you aspiring to become a successful entrepreneur, we want to encourage you to learn as much as you can first.
Types of consultancies
There are a number of types of consultancy. There are no rules. Some consultants go in for total cash-flow consultancies. Others are small business coaching consultants. While others go in for more flexible consultancies with a more entrepreneurial approach.
Some will find that they can earn cash and still develop and grow their businesses. Let’s consider the above options. The consulting business is often a start-up business. You will be working around the clock, and your working hours are often very long.
It can be a hard job that involves travel. The only problem with this consultancy is the start-up phase of the business, during which you will be engaged as a contractor, and with cash-flow challenges.
The skills you’ll need
Building a thriving business to become a successful consultant is difficult, and it requires a great deal of passion. These are the skills you’ll need to grow your company into the success it deserves. Listening as a successful consultant requires you to listen to your client’s needs and feelings and offer solutions and give suggestions.
This means you have to spend a great deal of time listening to your clients, gathering feedback and delivering on their requests. Research shows that effective listening improves sales by 31%. And this shows no sign of slowing down.
In fact, people continue to flock to consultants who listen and act, so learning to listen to others is crucial to professional success.
Where to find clients
Everyone who wants to become a consultant needs a client to start with. This is the easier part of the equation. What you need is a deep well of knowledge and experience. In fact, the vast majority of consultants are experts in something.
We found it’s a happy coincidence, after consulting in the banking industry, that the biggest source of referral is from people we’ve helped. This is why it is a golden rule of marketing to work with a salesperson who sells.
Use an expert consultant and you’ll get your foot in the door. Where to find clients The other important source of clients is freelance work. You can choose to work with a freelancer or set up a consultancy to sell your services to small to medium size businesses.
What type of consultant do you want to be?
What type of consultant do you want to be? Do you want to sell your time? Or are you more interested in adding value to clients? Interested in being in IT support services, or more in marketing and sales?
Think about the type of consultant you want to be before jumping into the whole consulting world. You will have more clients than you can handle if you work in-house at a company.
Conclusion
It seems like everything in the world of business revolves around the market. Yes, there are of course good products that consumers want, however for a business, the market is the most important thing to consider.
Being a successful consultant means selling a product that the market needs. By knowing your market and understanding the resources available to you, you are able to help your clients and your future business grow.
