FIND YOUR CONSULTANT
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY
FIND YOUR CONSULTANT
JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

Setting Up Your Consulting Practice

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1 Overview
  1. Course Intro
2 Strategy
  1. Set Intentions and Goals
  2. Assess Your Core Network
  3. Identify the Problem
  4. Set Your Fishing Line
  5. Name Your Firm
  6. Establish Your Vacation Policy
  7. Managing Your Time
3 Office
  1. Find a Place To Work
  2. Setting Up Your Office
  3. Packing Your Laptop Bag
  4. Building a Facilitator Toolkit
4 Team
  1. Building Your Team
  2. Finding an Administrative Assistant
  3. Find a Bookkeeper
  4. Finding a Graphic Production Service – Independent Management Consultants
  5. Choosing an Attorney
  6. Selecting a Tax Accountant
  7. Getting Health Insurance
  8. Setting Up Business Insurance
  9. Finding a Remote IT Professional
  10. Hiring a Research Assistant
  11. Swing Capacity
  12. Get an Advisor
  13. Expand Your Team
5 Legal
  1. Register Your LLC
  2. Obtain Employer Identification Number (EIN)
  3. Using Contract Templates
  4. Publish That You Are in Business
  5. Apply for MWBE Certification
6 Financial
  1. Calculating Your Cash Cushion
  2. Set Up a Business Checking Account – Independent Management Consultants
  3. Set Up a Retirement Account
  4. Getting Life Insurance
  5. Obtain Disability Insurance
  6. Choosing a Business Credit Card
  7. Selecting Bookkeeping Software
  8. Making Quarterly Tax Payments
  9. Using Loyalty Programs
  10. Estate Planning
  11. Automate Your Financial Life
  12. Using an Invoice Template
  13. Tracking Invoices
  14. Paying a Subcontractor
  15. Setting Up International Wire Transfers
  16. Pricing Your Services
7 Technology
  1. Setting Up a Backup Computer
  2. Keeping Passwords Secure
  3. Maintain a Backup
  4. Use Two-step Verification
  5. Getting a Branded Email
  6. Setting Up Your Email Signature
  7. Manage Your Contact Information
  8. Set up a CRM system
  9. Setting Up DocuSign
  10. Selecting an Email Marketing Tool
  11. Tracking Expenses
  12. Taking Notes
  13. Getting a Scanner App
  14. Scheduling Appointments
  15. Video Conferencing
  16. Setting Up International Calling
8 Marketing
  1. Get a Logo Designed
  2. Print Business Cards
  3. Buy Correspondence Cards
  4. Get a Professional Photo
  5. Update Alumni Sites
  6. Design a PowerPoint Template
  7. Update Your LinkedIn Profile
  8. Update Your Traditional Resume
  9. Create a Bio Page
  10. Create a One-page Overview
  11. Invest in Branded Gifts
  12. Create a Project List
  13. Build a Proposal Template
  14. Line Up References
  15. Create Work Samples
  16. Build a Website
9 Business Development
  1. Business Development Overview
  2. Raise Your Visibility
  3. Create a Newsletter
  4. Write Headlines
  5. Create Human Interactions
  6. Build Relationships
  7. Sign Up With Industry Intermediaries
10 Preparation
  1. Preparing to Transition to Consulting
  2. Build Industry Relationships
  3. Develop Skills
  4. Research Industry Problems
  5. Build Your Thought Leadership Platform
SECTION

Business Development

Topic: Business Development Overview

Business development is all about finding clients. The focus is on generating leads and converting those leads into signed deals.

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Transcript

When people ask me about setting up their practice, the item top of mind of most people is, “How am I going to get clients?” 

All the other administrative and legal and marketing collateral are nice; but finding clients is, of course, the core of the matter. Finding clients is not easy, but it is simple. So there are really two parts of getting business, generating leads and converting leads into signed deals. We’re going to focus mostly on the part of generating leads in these videos.

To generate leads, you need to do one of two things, or potentially both. One is, create content. The other one is to create human interaction. Those are two ways to generate visibility and you need to have visibility in order to get leads.

I sometimes talk about CLARC. In order to get a lead, you need to have CLARC, C-L-A-R-C. CLARC stands for,

C is contactable. A potential client has to be able to contact you in order for you to get a lead. If they can’t contact you, no matter what they think of you  you’re not gonna get the lead. So contactable.

L is likable. You have to be likable or at least likable enough.

A is available. A client has to know that you are available for projects, not necessarily available September 15th, but available in general for independent consulting projects. If your LinkedIn profile, for example, still says that you’re a vice-president at IBM, you’re probably not going to get a call, because if that potential client sees, “Oh, well, they’re still at IBM,” they’re not going to call you about doing a consulting project. So people have to know that you’re at least potentially available.

R is reliable. People have to know that they can count on you to get the job done.

And C is credible. People have to believe that you actually have the experience that they’re looking for.

So our goal in generating leads is to do CLARC. You want to be contactable, likable, available, reliable, and credible. 

And two ways to go about raising your visibility and making people aware of you, remind people that you exist, is creating content or creating human interaction. We’re gonna talk about both.