| Whether you
are going it alone, or planning a partnership with others, your
consulting business plan will be an invaluable tool, both for
planning and for funding.
KEY CONSIDERATION FOR YOUR
CONSULTING BUSINESS PLAN
Define your area of
professional expertise very clearly and very carefully.
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
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.
It is sometimes said that in
consulting you’re only as good as your last assignment. Your
consulting business plan should contain 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.
You need to plan for how you
will manage the 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
resources, 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. It is a given that you must
be very good at your subject. More to the point, you need
to communicate to your backers that you are very good at your
subject.
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.
The 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.
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.
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.
YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS
Nearly every consulting
business has an online component. It is a potent sales
tool, and a valuable way of keeping in touch with your clients,
past and present. I do invite you to take a look at
my web site host.
I like SBI a lot. It is because of SBI that you found this
website in the first place.
YOUR LIKELY LENDER/INVESTOR
For outside funding, look to
the
SBA or
business angel . It is the rare consulting business
plan that would appeal to venture capital firms.
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