There are two ways you can be a startup consultant:
1) You are already a successful entrepreneur and would like to share your experiences with others, or 2) You realize that your entrepreneurial skills’ forte is to work as a consultant. Either way, you will aim to support those fresh entrepreneurs who aspire to be successful one day.
Maybe you came about this talent of yours serendipitously. One day, you were merely doing your own business, and then a friend of yours sought your opinion about something. You suddenly realized, ‘Hey, I think I have a knack to be a startup consultant.’ As an entrepreneur, you know that this could earn you additional income.
Next came the planning: How do you kick off a startup consultation business? What do you need? What if you think you can be helpful, but in fact, you are still lacking?
The answer to all of these questions boils down to these answers: planning and training. Here are another two things; you can choose which route to take: 1) You can plan your training first to get additional credentials or 2) commerce your new business as a startup consultant and train on the way.
How exactly is this going to work?
Listen and read carefully:
Planning:
It doesn’t matter if you are planning to be a small-time or big-time startup consultant. You still need to make a concrete plan on how you are going to do it. As always, every plan needs to be small.
At present, you enjoy a reputation as a good consultant to your friends and family; what you should do now is spread the word about how good you are.
That is, if you are already confident about your skills as a startup consultant. Then, as mentioned earlier, you can train and gain more credentials as you go, and at the same time start this new startup of yours.
If you are not that confident yet, then you can train yourself first by attending classes made and taught by established startup consultants. Classes like those can be found everywhere on the internet. Some classes are free, and some are paid. Joining those classes will earn you some certificates that you can add to your portfolio as a startup consultant.
Afterward, the next step of your plan should be:
Building Your Portfolio:
Earlier, it is mentioned you can receive certificates through attending classes. But how about those who did not take any classes and directly jumped in as a startup consultant?
Whether you took classes or not, you can construct your portfolio by conducting free webinars, mini-courses, and interviews. You can also launch a podcast or be a guest in a podcast as a startup consultant. Get the word out there that you are an available and trustworthy startup consultant.
Be a lead magnet. You can go to social media and advertise your profile and services or create a blog and articles about your experiences so far. You can also offer your insights that might be helpful to new entrepreneurs either by writing in that blog or accepting speaking engagements.
According to Terry Rice Consulting, when you are at this stage, it’s better if you don’t receive any monetary value for doing all of this. Why? Because this is your starting page in reality. Your goal here is to let people know that a startup consultant like you exists.
Tripwire:
This is the stage where you can start earning money as a startup consultant. You can earn around from $15 up to $500.00. Too much difference to be believable? Well, you better believe it because earning these rates will essentially depend on what kind of startup consultant you chose to be. That, and how much are you going to rate. Keep in mind that your rate must be equivalent to the quality service you are going to give to your clients. People are going to come to you for consultation because they require genuine help, and you better provide the aid that they seek.
In this stage, you can upgrade your mini-courses into full-fledged pay-to-access online courses. In addition, you can do online consultation or physical meet-ups consultation at an hourly rate. On top of that, if you can and want to, you could write your own book or e-book, have it published, and then sell it.
This one is incredibly productive once you already have a solid foundation and have a steady stream of clients. Doing this can give an idea to those who are reluctant to have a consultation on how you work as a startup consultant. And how much help you will be able to provide them. You can also lead and stage small-scale workshops for individuals who are seeking consultations for their own startups or for those who also aspire to be startup consultants.
Core Product:
At this stage, you are nearing your peak as a startup consultant. It is high time, then, to venture into more massive groups or audiences. To attain this stage, you must have already established your name as a great, if not good, startup consultant and have heartwarming feedback from your clients. Additionally, you must be capable of effectively handling and instructing a more considerable number of clients and reputed clients in the entrepreneurship world.
As a startup consultant at this stage, you are now qualified to conduct a workshop for a whole company. You need to divide the company into different teams first for more effective consultation or teaching. You can also give inputs about or help your clients hands-on with their audits.
You can do coaching, which is a must-have skill for any aspiring consultant. You can be an account management consultant if you also have entrepreneurial accounting as one of your assets. You can also now entertain being a paid guest speaker in conferences.
Performing these things can earn you $1,000 to $20,000.00. Yes, seriously. Enticing, isn’t it? But do you know that it’s possible to make more than that as a startup consultant?
Multiply Your Profits:
Profits multiplication is the ultimate stage. At this point, you can say that you have reached the peak of your career as a startup consultant. Now all you have to do is maintain it, and as the stage name suggests, multiply your profits. How?
Aim for the big guns. You are now a well-known startup consultant. Organizations, big or medium-sized, will most likely reach out to you when they need a consultant. As a consultant who has many experiences under his belt, you are expected to handle problems that require enterprise-level solutions. You can also establish long-term partnerships with your local’s government or with your client’s company as their sole or one of their consultants.
Bonus? It’s the fact that you can earn from $120,000 to more than $2,000,000!
Here’s good luck to every aspiring startup consultant!
