How To Start A Business Consultant Career In 2023

Becoming a consultant brings many benefits; there is flexibility in determining where and when you work, what kind of work you take on, and the rates you charge for your time. Starting a consulting business comes with minimal overhead and is easy to scale up and down to suit your lifestyle and finances. Despite these benefits, there are important factors to consider to give your consultations the best chance of success. Read on to find out how to start a consulting business, its advantages and disadvantages.

What Is a Business Consultant?

A business consultant is someone who works with business owners and managers to help them improve their operations and performance. Business consulting involves helping a company identify, solve, and overcome problems in order to achieve its goals.

What Does a Business Consultant Do?

Business consultants can help with almost any need for your business. There are business consultants who specialize in specific industries, while others take a more general approach. While specific services vary, some of the most common are listed below. ‌- Identify barriers that hinder growth or performance;

-‌ Identify what changes need to be made and help implement the changes;

- Provide necessary training and resources for staff and management;

- Suggest out-of-the-box ideas to freshen up the business;

- Assistance in business planning and the creation of new enterprises;

- Evaluate, hire and fire staff if needed;

- Implement new programs;

- Analyze the company budget, propose adjustments and help implement those adjustments;

- Find suppliers and partners to help you reach your goals.

How to Start a Consulting Business

Working for yourself rather than an employer has its drawbacks, including the loss of insurance coverage and a steady paycheck. However, for many workers, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks: the flexibility to create your own schedule, choose your own projects, build your own career, and focus on the things that matter to you.

Self-employment is the preferred career path for over 10% of the United States population for these and other reasons.

One way to make self-employment easier is to start consulting in an area where you have already worked. For example, if you work for a law firm, you may be able to act as a legal advisor to companies that don't have in-house lawyers.

Rather than building a firm from scratch, business consulting allows you to leverage your previous professional skills. This is a particularly lucrative option: fields that lend themselves to consulting, such as law, accounting, and management analysis, have the highest earning potential for the self-employed.

- Assess your strengths and skill set

Consultants are often hired to solve problems that organizations cannot handle on their own. Why would they pay you, someone who doesn't know anything about their firm, to come and tell them what to do if you don't know anything about it? It is extremely important to have extensive knowledge in a specific area when starting a consulting business so that you can bring value to your clients.

There are many types of consulting services that you can choose from for your company. For example, if you are good with computers, you can start your own business as a computer or IT consultant.

There are also many opportunities for public relations professionals, accountants, internet marketers, and business strategists.

Examine your skills to see where you can contribute. It's also helpful to take an objective look at any weaknesses or skill gaps you may have so you can work on fixing them. Be aware that becoming a consultant may require special certifications or licenses, depending on your area of expertise. 

- Find out what your market needs

Consider what types of requests, problems, and pain points companies in your chosen area of expertise have once you have defined your specialization. It is not enough to have a diverse skill set and a deep understanding of your profession. You will find yourself treading water if the business doesn't have problems that your consulting firm can solve.

Asking your market what they want and need is the best way to find out. Start by looking for blogs in your niche online. What topics do opinion leaders write about? How can you see that there are so many ambiguities? Is there a lot of discussion on a particular topic in any forums or comment sections?

You can also use your network to identify market pain points. For example, if you want to start

digital marketing consulting, who can you think of who runs the business, works closely with digital marketers, or is a digital marketer? You probably know a lot of people. Find out about the challenges they face in reaching their short and long term goals. Then think about how you and your company can help.

- Get organized and get things done

Once your consulting business is up and running, stay organized and drive results to get repeat business and referrals. It's critical to stay organized so you don't lose important information, meet deadlines, and remember to remind customers to pay. Start by identifying processes that can be automated. You may be able to get paid electronically instead of by check. Or you can use an online bookkeeping system like QuickBooks to keep track of your finances. You can manage your clients with software like Infusionsoft. Hire a virtual assistant if all else fails.

Results consulting is a little more difficult, but it is critical to the survival of your consulting firm. Stay on top of industry trends and vet your clients to make sure you're giving them the results they want and helping them reach their goals. Your consulting business will be successful if you successfully help your clients achieve their goals.

- Is it possible to start a consulting business with no experience?

The good news is that starting a consulting firm is not difficult, even without prior experience. In today's world, anyone can start their own successful consulting practice. If you already have a place to work, a computer, and a phone, then you have everything you need to get started in a consulting services business.

- What should I charge as a consultant?

To calculate an hourly consulting rate from a weekly salary, follow these procedures: Consider how much money you would like to earn each year. Take this amount and divide it by 52, which is the total number of working weeks, and then again divide by 40 (the number of hours per week). Increase this number by a markup of 25 to 50 percent.

- Do consultants bill by the hour?

A consultant is someone who lends their skills to a client to help them complete a specific project or set of responsibilities, such as opening a new restaurant, improving their marketing efforts, increasing their income, or bringing in new clients. The consultant will charge the company based on their hourly rate plus any additional consultant fees they have set.

- How many hours do consultants work?

How many hours per week do consultants typically spend? You can expect to work at least forty hours a week, but the specifics of how this works depends on the companies you work for and the types of clients you serve. The Big Four, which includes Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PwC, work an average of 40-50 hours a week, while MBB companies work closer to 60 hours a week on average.

The bottom line

Whether your consulting firm is large or small, physical or virtual, expensive or inexpensive, you must have the skills, resources, and confidence to help other business owners get back on track. Everything else revolves around workflow tracking and expectations.