Steps to Become a Consultant

Now that you understand the theoretical context of what consultants do, here are my recommended first steps to become a consultant in less time than you think.

#1 – Identify Your Strengths & Expertise

Even if you think you have insufficient experience to take the leap into consulting, I bet that you have ample strengths and expertise to be able to guide others to success. Take a quiet time away from the hustle and bustle of your life. Turn off distractions like your mobile phone and email. Take a pen and paper or open a word editor.

Make a list of the knowledge and skills that you have acquired over the years. It may be tools that you have used like software, protocols, or methods. It could be information and knowledge that you have learned in your field, such as how to lead a team, or how to sell products effectively. It may even be inner qualities that you value and have helped you to achieve your goals. Resilience in bad times, encouraging others, or the ability to organize are all examples.

Start a second list. This time write down the fields or areas of your expertise. Some ideas are leadership of multi-disciplinary teams, sales of consumer goods, marketing of IT products, or design of systems.

By looking at both lists – they don’t have to be long and exhaustive – you should have a good idea of what, where, and to whom you can offer consultancy services.

#2 – Specify Your Niche

Together with your passion and interests, use your lists of strengths and expertise to specify a niche on which to focus. This will form the basis of how to get into consulting with the quickest turnaround.

As the consulting world is competitive, clients expect quick and efficient service from their consultant. The best way to achieve this is to focus on a well-defined area that fits your knowledge and skills and has a high demand for good guidance.

Your niche should be specific enough to enable you to start building a network of potential client from the get-go. Consider the companies and business areas that you know, as well as your existing contacts to choose a niche. As you gain momentum, your focus can change but, for now, select a specialty area that you feel most familiar with.

#3 – Define Your Goals

Your dream has brought you to this point. Now it is time to become more precise so that you can develop an action plan and work toward milestones. Describe at least one medium and one long-term goal. A good framework is 3-12 months for the medium-term goal and 2 to 5 years for the long-term goal.

Make sure that your goals are SMART, the acronym for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based. This means your goals must be realistic. You should be able to know when you have achieved a goal or how much progress you have made at any time. And each goal should have a target date or frequency.

For instance, stating that you want to offer consulting services to make enough money is much too broad and vague. Instead, you may want to establish 5 paying clients in mid-sized clothing retail companies within 6 months.

#4 – Research Your Market

If you have chosen your niche wisely, based on the knowledge and skills that you already possess, you already have a solid base from which to research your target market. Use the internet and your existing contacts to look for ideas and opportunities. Do not hesitate to ask people for their input. “If there is one thing that someone can do to help you improve your business, what would it be?” This is a very insightful question to ask.

Divide any segments of your target market that come up. Use a diagram or chart to identify the issues or opportunities that you can help resolve in each of the areas. Keep your solutions brief but specific. Be sure to test your ideas with your contacts and keep refining according to their input.

If you follow the principles of mindful communication, you will be astonished to see how your contacts grow organically and how eager people are to answer your questions. Especially if they start to notice that you can positively influence their business.