How to Get Started in Consulting

While Minimizing Risk and Maximizing the Upside

Consulting is one of the easiest businesses to start today, but it comes with some important pros and cons you need to be aware of to be successful over the long term.

Depending on where you place yourself in the market, your current skill set, and your experience, your specific case might be different, but these are the ones that I faced when I got started.

Pros

• Launch quickly

• Limited upfront time investment

• Limited upfront money investment

• Low barrier to entry

Cons

• High risk

• High competition

• Low rewards

• Limited leverage

Getting Started with Low Risk

One of the most critical skills you need to master is the ability to maximize profits and opportunities while ensuring failures are not terminal and put you out of business.

For example, quitting your job, leasing an office, and taking out a bank loan to fund your business are all horrible ideas in terms of risk if you have no sales or cash flow.

Conversely, keeping your job, consulting part-time, working from home, and bootstrapping the company through sales is a much better approach until you have sufficient revenue. Less stress, less risk, and greatest changes of long-term success.

Unfortunately, I learned these lessons the hard way. When I was just starting out with my first company, I made all of these mistakes and then some. In all honesty, I had no idea what I was doing. I was obsessed with company structure, creating an org chart, getting stationary, and even writing a customer newsletter when I didn’t have customers. In other words, I was playing business.

Compare this to Secure SaaS, which I started in Japan just a few years ago. When I started, I still had a full-time job, worked from home, and focused on sales. I didn’t even set up the legal business until I had three contracts waiting to be signed. This gave me all the runway I needed to find the right customers with none of the stress or risk.

Are You a Consultant or Contractor?

When I first started out, I found a couple of clients and quickly fell into the trap of working like a contractor instead of a consultant.

For me, a Consultant is someone that focuses on delivering value for clients and, as a result, is compensated fairly based on the value they deliver, not the total number of hours they work.

Contractors, on the other hand, show up on time, completes the assigned work, and bill the number of hours they work.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with being a Contractor, it is not consulting. It’s also the area that has the greatest amount of competition, risk, and cost-cutting. When just starting out, it's okay to start as a Contractor, but I believe the goal should be to become a Consultant as soon as possible.

Action Tip

The most important and critical skill for a Consultant is sales.

If you’re already good at sales, focus on getting better.

If not, it is the most important skill to master.

Not sure where to start?

• Get a coach

• Get a mentor

• Join a mastermind

• Get a book or two on sales and commit to making daily improvements.

• Get out of your comfort zone, talk with people, and ask for help.

When it comes to learning how to see, none of the above will replace just getting out and talking with potential clients. Learn what they need help with and make an offer.

Do this enough, your skills will improve, and your business will thrive.

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