Your
consulting business plan is an essential document both if you are intending
to ‘keep it simple’ and work alone without the need to borrow, or if you are
planning a larger business that will involve others, possibly requiring
premises and investment in IT and which therefore may require funding.
The process of preparing your business plan
for your consulting business requires structured thinking and discipline.
As with the creation of all business plans,
simply working through the exercise forces you to think about the why, what,
how and when of your consulting business and to present your ideas simply in
a single document with a clear focus.
Fast-track your preliminary research using
the free resources, ideas and information available free from one of our
trusted partners at
Independent Consulting Bootcamp.
KEY CONSIDERATION
Define your area of professional expertise
very clearly and very carefully.
It is essential to identify your niche and present clearly in your
consulting business plan your expertise in this field and how you will
engage with your clients to create a profitable stream of consulting fees.
A major risk is to try to be all things to
all clients and markets. As an independent consultant your focus should be
narrow and deep: you need to demonstrate in your consulting business plan
your reputation as THE Number One Subject Matter Expert in your particular
discipline.
STRONGEST ADVANTAGE OF A
CONSULTING BUSINESS
The demand from clients for experts in any
professional or technical discipline is proven and stable at all stages of
the economic cycle.
As an independent consultant, your
strongest advantage will be your strong track record built on your depth of
experience, combined with the flexibility and speed of response advantages
that an independent has over a large consulting organization.
Your clients will know that your reputation
rests on the quality of delivery of each assignment you undertake.
Therefore, compared with your competitors you are likely to be much more
focused on delivering a successful and high quality outcome for your
clients: simply put – you’ve got more ‘skin in the game’ than an individual
or team of employed consultants fielded by a large consulting firm.
It is sometimes said that in consulting
you’re only as good as your last assignment. This is true to an extent – a
reputation can be damaged or lost very quickly, however your consulting
business plan should contain as appendices a selection of testimonials from
delighted clients and a portfolio describing the work that you’ve been doing
over a period of years. The length and quality of your track record should
shine through in your consulting business plan.
STRONGEST DISADVANTAGE
Your consulting business plan must
demonstrate how you will manage your sales pipeline.
The toughest challenge faced by an
independent consultant or small consulting firm is that the pattern of
chargeable work will be ‘lumpy’. It is likely that there will be lean
periods when there is very little chargeable work, followed by periods where
three assignments will come along once!
You need to plan for how you will manage
these peaks and troughs. Your consulting business plan should include
financial projections integral to which should be a ‘war chest’ i.e. cash
reserves that will enable your consulting business to weather the leaner
periods.
In addition, your business plan
should set out a pragmatic plan to mobilize supplementary resource, probably
on a subcontract basis, to enable you to capitalize on multiple concurrent
consulting assignments.
OVERCOMING THE
DISADVANTAGES WITH YOUR CONSULTING BUSINESS PLAN
Your consulting business plan is the key
document within which you will showcase your skills, qualifications, track
record and strong endorsements from past employers and clients.
Demonstrate that you have been successful
in your career to date, and that you will be successful as an independent
consultant – after all, making your move to work independently is simply a
natural progression and an extension of your already successful career.
The foundations for Success in independent
consulting are relatively simple and are as follows:
1. You need to be VERY good at something;
credible and demonstrable expertise in an industry or discipline. You need
to have the professional and interpersonal skills to effectively build
relationships with clients and apply your knowledge and experience to add
value. Use your consulting business plan to describe your skills in these
areas.
2. You need to be good at and comfortable
with sales, marketing and self promotion. You will need to be able to
identify opportunities and then sell yourself, your ideas and your
methodologies. You’ll need to be able to manage a pipeline of multiple
potential client assignments alongside the delivery live projects. You
need to be comfortable with asking for work and closing the deal.
3. Consulting business is all about
relationships and reputation. You need to be able to establish and develop
high quality, enduring relationships with clients and other professionals.
Use the process of preparing your
consulting business plan to drive absolute clarity in your own mind as to
how you will build these three key foundations.
HOW MUCH FUNDING WILL
YOUR CONSULTANT BUSINESS PLAN NEED?
Your consulting business plan should
contain a basic set of financial projections.
During the period of transition from your current activities or employment
you need to demonstrate that there will be sufficient cash flow to enable
you to cover both personal expenses and business start-up related expenses.
Depending on the scale and nature of the consulting business that you are
intending to create, the business may require significant cash reserves
during this initial period – your consulting business plan will document the
level of funding that will be required.
Once established, an established
independent consulting business is typically highly cash generative can be
managed with very low overheads.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
FOR YOUR CONSULTING BUSINESS PLAN AND YOUR CONSULTING BUSINESS MARKETING
PLAN
To create your consulting business plan you
will need a range of data and information all of which can be readily
accessed using the Internet.
For a wealth of statistical information for
your marketing plan for a consulting business, go to
BizMiner.
A search on "consultant" brings back a variety of consulting businesses,
such as:
| Oil consultants |
Pension and retirement plan
consultants |
Color consultant |
| Wedding consultant |
Advertising consultant |
Data processing consultant |
| Online services technology
consultants |
Motion picture consultants |
Building construction consultant |
| Automation and robotics consultant |
Industrial consultant |
Industrial hygiene consultant |
| Maintenance management consultant |
Manufacturing management consultant |
Quality assurance consultant |
| Compensation and benefits planning
consultant |
Incentive or award program
consultant |
Labor and union relations consultant |
| Personnel management consultant |
Training and development consultant |
Distribution channels consultant |
| Franchising consultant |
Merchandising consultant |
New products and services consultant |
| Sales consultant |
Industry specialist consultants |
Banking and finance consultant |
| Construction project management
consultant |
Food and beverage consultant |
Hospital and health services
consultant |
| Public utilities consultant |
Real estate consultant |
Restaurant and food services
consultants |
| Retail trade consultant |
School, college, university
consultant |
Transportation consultant |
| Corporate objectives and policies
consultant |
Corporation organizing consultant |
Materials mgmt. consultant |
| New business start up consultant |
Planning consultant |
Administrative services consultant |
| Business management consultant |
Foreign trade consultant |
General management consultant |
| Management information systems
consultant |
Productivity improvement consultant |
Site location consultant |
| Financial consultant |
Economic consultant |
Traffic consultant |
| Radio consultant |
Telecommunications consultant |
Systems engineering consultant |
| Agricultural consultant |
Educational consultant |
Energy conservation consultant |
| Environmental Consultant |
Fishery consultant |
Lighting consultant |
| Publishing consultant |
Geological consultant |
Geophysical consultant |
| Chemical consultant |
Entomological consultant |
Nuclear consultant |
| Physics consultant |
Psychological consultant |
Actuarial consultant |
To locate your industry faster, just enter
the name as listed above. You will find two exceptional reports:
one with a summary of your industry financials, and one with a marketing
research study of your industry. Both are essential for your business
success.
The purpose of Independent Consulting
Bootcamp is to provide a range of targeted information and resources to
assist experienced Executives, Managers and Professionals to make the
transition to becoming an Independent Consultant:
Understand the realities of working as an Independent Consultant - both Good
and Bad
- Make your Decision as to whether working
as an Independent Consultant is the right choice for you and if so When to
start your Consulting Business
- Plan, Set Up and Operate your Consulting
Business if you decide that becoming an independent consultant is right
for you
- Fast-track the creation of your
consulting business plan using the free resources, ideas and information
at
www.Independent-Consulting-Bootcamp.com , one of our trusted partners.
YOUR LIKELY LENDER/INVESTOR
The sources of funding for your consulting
business will most likely be a combination of personal equity injected by
the founders of the business and third party funding probably from a bank,
business angel or venture capital provider.
ONE STEP FURTHER IN THE
PREPARATION OF YOUR CONSULTING BUSINESS PLAN
Sometimes it just helps to have a business
plan template
in front of you to get started. Here's one that we like:
 |
We like this one because it is very
comprehensive. Not only is there an outline of a business plan
for your business, but sample financials, lots of examples. The best
part is that the templates are in MS Word and Excel, two programs you
already know.
Click on the book cover for
more information. |
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