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1-Page Summary of Going Solo

Success as a Specialty Consultant

If you want to be a consultant, you need to help your clients succeed. You should also make sure they’re happy with the results of your work. There are many consultants who can do this for their clients. The key is being competent and showing that competence through marketing yourself and proving it through the results of your work with them.

When you’re a consultant, it’s important to be able to put yourself in your client’s shoes. You need to figure out what they want and diagnose their problems. Then, you have to follow through with the task at hand.

Getting Started

Consulting is a business that you can manage from home, but it may not be an instant success. It takes time to get your consulting business going because you will have to try and see what works for clients before they hire you. You also have to work on several proposals at once while waiting for the first one or two to come through.

There are a lot of consultants in the world. They can be used in different fields, and they’re typically hired to do work that will not be assigned to an employee for a certain period of time. Corporations don’t like hiring people full-time because it’s expensive and doesn’t always work out well, so they hire consultants instead, who come in for short periods of time and then leave.

To get a job like that, you must promote yourself. This is no place for the shy and humble; it’s all about self-promotion. Make people aware of your availability to help them out in their business ventures. Promotion isn’t just buying ads or sending out press releases, but also getting interviewed by the media so they can make you known as an expert in your field.

Landing Clients

To be a successful consultant, it’s important to let your clients know how valuable you are. You have to demonstrate the value of what you offer and why they should hire you over other consultants that they may be considering.

If you want to land new clients, be willing to go the extra mile. Clients need more than just a good product or service; they also want personal attention and surprises. You should view yourself as your client’s partner for the duration of the project and even after that if you are hoping to get future projects from them.

Your Home Office

Many successful businesses have begun on the dining room table, in the garage, or in a spare room. If you are making the transition from working for someone else to consulting from home, go back to basics and get everything you need. Don’t scrimp on business cards and other professional supplies because they’ll help make your new career look serious. Obtain all necessary permits and licenses that will allow you to operate your business legally. Let everyone know that this is now a professional office so they won’t disturb you while you’re working there.

Finding Clients

The more you tell people who you are and what you do, the better. You should develop your own thirty-second “elevator” speech that explains exactly what it is that you offer to your customers. This will be a brief message designed to capture attention and make people want to know more about what it is that you’re offering them. Mary, a writer and public relations consultant in Massachusetts has developed such an elevator speech: “I am a public relations consultant specializing in helping businesses and entrepreneurs communicate better on paper. I will help you sound better on paper.”

You should focus your marketing efforts on reaching the people who need what you have to offer. Your target market is composed of people, businesses, or institutions that would benefit from your services and have the money to buy them. You’ll know more about these people by looking at demographics (their age, income level, etc.) and psychographics (what they like to do in their spare time). Reach out directly to potential clients through social media and other platforms as well as indirectly through business networking events. Create a strategy for yourself based on what you learn about your audience’s needs and constantly evaluate it so that you can improve it over time.