How to start a consulting business?

In today’s world, where employment is not anymore what it used to be — secure and life-long, many employees look for alternative ways of paying their monthly bills, and some even contemplate on starting a consulting business.

Of course, there are pros and cons in terms of being an employee vs. an entrepreneur, and it might be a question of character to what suits you best. Ultimately, we are looking to live by a couple of rules of engagement, which are 1) the work we do has to pay the bills, and should allow us to live well beyond just that, but more so to live an abundant life, without the need to constantly look at the shopping price tag. And 2), we want to feel a sense of contribution, belonging and satisfaction out of the work we do.

Breaking these objectives into the most incremental aspect, allows us to dissociate from our past conditioning, way back from childhood, telling us that we have to turn to the corporate world in order to make a living, only because our parents did so also. So, the question arises if your full-time employment is your preferred way of work, or weather or not starting a consulting business might be the more appropriate option for you. What is good to know is that there are alternative ways of making a living, don’t you think?

Of course, it demands us to reconsider what work actually is or more so what we want it to be, as well as what the aim is that we want to accomplish at the end of the day. So, let’s talk about 2 crucial aspects right here. 1) How to be a consultant, and what that actually means and 2) how to start consultancy services in the first place.

How to be a consultant?

What a great question, and in order to answer this question, we first must understand the inherent definition. A consultant, in its most basic terms, is a person who serves someone in need with a service/product offering that solves this need and by doing so moves the person to a desired emotional state. Meaning, a person with SME (Subject Matter Expertise) possesses the right foundation to be a consultant.

Now, if you are looking into your life, you probably can identify one or the other area that you are good at — possibly even better than most people. This outset is the 1# requirement to start setting up a consulting business. You do not need anymore…, no fancy certifications or other glorified medals. The client does not pay you for your level of recognition in the world but for how fast you can move the client from their current to their desired state. That’s it!

Once you have identified an area in your life that you are good at, or that you feel confident about acquiring the knowledge in, you are on your way to becoming a consultant. Of course, we also need to look into the market, and how the market might respond to your offer, but we can look at that in a subsequent step. So, let’s talk about how setting up a consulting business might actually be the option that you were looking for in order to create an alternative to the work that you do not any longer enjoy.