CONSULTING BUSINESS PLAN

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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