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How to become a consultant - employed, independent, contract or freelanceEveryone in business should have to have a spell as a consultant at some point. It would certainly make those on the client side realise exactly how much better their companies could be run, that a good consultant can do more than look at your watch and tell you the time, and to realise what frustrating customers they sometimes make! That said it is a lot of fun, you get to meet some interesting people, and if you like problem solving and steep challenges there are always plenty to take on. You might want to go into consulting at any point in your career and, if redundancy has curtailed a job you enjoyed, it is a very common option for business professionals to consider becoming freelance or independent consultants in e.g. IT, HR, Project Management, Marketing, PR or Management Consultancy. Many of the most interesting boutique consulting practices have begun because talented individuals have broken away from bigger firms or have been made redundant when billings have looked dangerously low. The consulting business is picking up again so there is quite a lot of competition for the best talent at the moment - the big firms are recruiting again as are many of the smaller providers. To become a successful consultant 3 things are really important 1. You do need to be really good at something i.e. have real expertise in an industry or a business discipline and have good interpersonal skills or you won't get any initial clients, repeat business or referrals. You need to be able to apply that expertise and knowledge in a setting other than your old company. Additionally, you must be able to think in a structured and objective manner, be good at problem solving, have the ability to write proposals that clients will be prepared to read and act upon, and be able to manage your team and your project. Whether you apply for a position in a consulting practice or set up pn your own you must think about where you already fit or where you'd like to go if someone is willing to train you. Are you Big Four material? Would you fit in the financial consultancy sector? IT? Outsourcing? Engineering? Marketing? HR? Do you have any kind of unique skill, experience or a suitable qualification? 2. You have to be exceptionally good at selling and marketing - selling yourself, selling your ideas, selling your pricing, selling your methodologies. You may be good at what you do but how are you going to get the work? Selling in this context is hard for newcomers especially if you have either no experience or you have only sold to a captive internal audience in your previous role. You have to have the courage to ask for the order, learn how to close and be comfortable networking and looking for business. If you have no idea what we're talking about, get yourself on a course or work for a firm that will provide the right training because you won't survive otherwise. 3. You have to be good at building relationships with clients and understand your accountability to them or you won't get any business the first time or any time after that. How to get into consulting
There isn't necessarily one qualification as such that you can take to become or to prove that you are a consultant. These days everyone seems to be obsessed with qualifications - how many, where from, are they dumbed down from 'my day'? It can work against the over 40's who have lots of experience and have undergone company training which has not been 'recognised' by some authorising body that might not even have existed (or at least in the same form) when you started out. We all know that qualification or certification is no real guarantee that a person can do a decent job but nevertheless you will need to start building up a series of signals which point to you being worth employing. If you are reading this before you need to leave your current job consider looking at the Chartered Manager scheme with the CMI or consider the MBA programmes route (check out our MBA course finder section) if you want want any of the big glossy companies to take you seriously. When marketing yourself then (which includes what you put on your business card) having a relevant degree, an MBA, a post grad qualification or sporting the appropriate letters after your name of a trade or professional association that you are a member of is vital. You have to be very careful which ones you register with, unless you have very deep pockets, as most do offer more than just a certificate. The Chartered Institute of Management (which also incorporates The Institute of Management Consultants) is pretty good value for money. What you really want to evaluate each fee against, is whether or not it gives you access to industry news so that you can keep up to date, networking opportunities and somewhere to market your CV and/or company services. If they throw in a magazine and a reasonably priced conference, so much the better. Setting up on your own Actually, if you decide to work for a decent sized consulting firm they will probably encourage or expect you to be working from home sometimes. They will probably pay for your equipment, some offer an allowance for your home office as you'll probably either hot desk at their offices or at your clients premises. To set up on your own, however, you will need as modest or as de-luxe a set of resources you want to fund but it may look something like this and will run to a few thousand pounds, depending on whether you are starting from scratch or not.
You may need to register with the Data Protection Registrar, for VAT, as a Limited Company and so on but take advice from your Accountant and look at the Business Link sites for more specific advice. All the contacts you will need for this are in our business help services directory. You should always start small and build up on the expense side. Use serviced offices if you need to, rent or lease whatever you need instead of buying, making your money go further. How much should I charge?
Keep your knowledge and skill base current Whether employed or freelance you must make sure that you have ways of keeping up with your industry sector - it's easy to get out of touch when you aren't part of a really big company anymore. The web is fantastic for this and lots of places will deliver free newsletters to your electronic mail box like these sites below. silicon.com for the IT updates, personneltoday.com for the HR updates, hbswk.hbs.edu Harvard Business Review Working Knowledge site for cutting edge management thinking, managers.org.uk and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) for more home grown issues, timesonline.co.uk for the best in journalism from The Times and The Sunday Times. Useful resources
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