If you have the right blend of education and experience, you can use it to start a consulting agency.
Consultants are specialists who work with companies to bring them solutions to specific problems they are having. Many consultants work as freelancers, but some are hired into full-time jobs.
How to Start Consulting
Big companies hire consultants to solve significant problems. They are willing to pay a lot of money to have you help them with their problems, and they have high expectations. Consulting is rewarding, but it can be difficult.
When you are a consultant, you will constantly be learning. Every company is different, and every consulting role will teach you new skills.
Before you start consulting, make sure you have everything in place. Find your niche, develop your brand, and protect your business from liability issues.
Your professional liability policy should offer you a wide range of protection, from business mistakes to accusations of negligence.
The average cost for professional liability for consultants across several industries is about $26 to $45 per month. For the peace of mind that it brings you, it’s quite a bargain.
Bundle your liability policy with other insurance policies to save even more. You can get a tailored policy package that protects all aspects of your consulting business. It’s easy to do online, and you can make updates, file claims, and get insurance certificates without making a phone call.
10 Types of Consulting That You Can Start Today
There are many different types of consulting, and if you have years of education and experience, one of these is probably right for you.
1. Marketing Consulting
A marketing consultant helps companies get their name out to the customers. Marketing consulting is a broad field and pays to specialize by finding a niche.
The most common marketing consultants are small business marketing advisors, client acquisition marketing consultants, branding experts, and SEO advisors.
2. Strategy Consulting
Strategy consultants target big business problems in high-level decision-making arenas. Executives and board members bring in strategy consultants to assist with strategic issues.
The goal of a strategy consultant is to help management create a comprehensive plan of action to tackle a specific problem or promote a goal. Strategy consultants usually require at least five years of experience with strategy development. A business degree is another prerequisite.
3. HR Consulting
Human resources is a broad and complicated topic. If you are going to become an HR consultant, you should consider a niche market.
Whether you want to train HR professionals about healthcare plans and sexual harassment or help companies write employee handbooks, there is a huge demand for HR consultants.
You can add consulting to your portfolio if you have several years of experience in the HR field.
4. Technology Consulting
Technology consulting is another broad category of consulting. Technology consultants can do everything from setting up networks to building websites.
Software implementation is another category of consultants that is highly sought after by various industries. Security experts are also technology consultants.
5. Government Compliance Consulting
Some government employees make excellent compliance consultants after they leave the government sector. Their breadth of knowledge about government policy makes them uniquely qualified to assist companies with their compliance issues.
6. Social Media Consultant
There’s a right and wrong way to do social media, and a social media consultant can help you with all the different types of social media.
Marketers use all types of social media apps in today’s marketplace. For example, people use TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to find their customers and communicate with them.
Social media opens up channels of marketing and communication that are otherwise inaccessible. Therefore, being an expert in social media is more than knowing how to create a good post.
Social media consultants help companies develop a brand across all mediums of social content and integrate that with their overall marketing plan.
7. Sales Coaching Consulting
Sales coaching is different than sales training. When you implement a sales coaching program at your organization, you will see increased sales, often up to 20%.
Many companies try to make their sales managers make all of the sales coaching for their company, but not all managers or leaders in your sales organization are equipped to be good sales coaches.
8. Leadership Consulting
To move a business forward, you need great leaders. Leadership consultants help a company turn its managers into leaders.
Leadership consultants usually have experience in many areas of business. For example, they might be strategists, marketing experts, and sales leaders. They might even be technology specialists who help companies use technology to become leaders in their fields.
Start Small and Scale Your Consulting Business
If you want to start consulting, the best advice is to start small, find a niche market, and develop your brand.
As you grow, you can scale your business and add more consultants to your company. There is no doubt that your expertise and education are needed somewhere. It’s just a matter of putting yourself out into the marketplace.
