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Become a Consultant

© Bert Markgraf

Consultants used to be retired people who worked part-time to help out their previous employers or large companies which advised on how to run large projects. Today, when companies are trying to keep as many functions as possible off their payroll, if you have an area of expertise, chances are there are companies willing to give you contracts to advise them in that area. If your area of expertise is anything to do with computers and the Internet, you can probably write your own contracts.

When I worked for a large multinational, we used to say that consultants borrowed your watch to tell you the time. Despite this, we used to give them contracts. There were just a lot of things which a consultant could do better, faster and more cheaply than we could, partly because they had less overhead and partly because they did their specialty very well since that's all they did.

As a consultant, your job is the same as that of any small business - produce value for your customers. Your customers will keep coming back to you if they think they received good value. They will think that if:

you keep them informed of what you are doing while you solve their problems;

you keep them informed of the costs of your work, where the money is going and what the benefits will be;

you project a professional image at all times. For two people doing exactly the same job, your customers will think they received better value from the one dressed appropriately and with the good quality business card and letterhead.

To grow your business, try to give your customers extra value. You're essentially selling your time or expertise so try to give your customers an extra fifteen minutes for free or do some small extra job for them. The value your customers will think they are getting from such gestures far outweighs the real cost to you. And don't forget, these are existing customers. Repeat business from existing good customers is much more valuable than new business which you have to spend time and money finding.

If the above sounds good, have a look at this zdnet site. It tells you in great detail how to get started as a consultant. One more great thing about taking this way into the world of small business - the start-up costs are the lowest of any business I know.