How to Become a Consultant

Guest Post - Consulting using Twitter

Today’s Guest Post is by Susan Varty of Wordtree Consulting in Toronto. Susan is a writer, communications consultant and college professor. If you are in the Toronto area, you may be interested in signing up for her new 1-day course she’s offering: Hands-on Twitter course: Reaching decision-makers.

Do you watch television? What channels interest you the most when you turn it on? Do you still listen to the radio?

What if there was a station for every person with an Internet connection? What if you could chat with conference attendees without traveling - or even paying for the conference?

That’s Twitter. The only difference is that you have the ability to interact and connect personally, immediately - unlike television and radio.

This new medium is starting to become the norm for business people - and if they haven’t already thought about it - they are now.

Of course, consultants like you are often on the front lines to answer “social media” questions even though you may not have signed up for that role.

But more and more mediums are becoming important in the search for harder-to-find revenue dollars. Staying informed, aware, and being able to advise your clients appropriately has become almost a 24/7 job. More and more businesses are embracing online culture, low-cost/no-cost marketing, and tapping into word-of-mouth potential.

Working in an “offline” culture, your clients may say they don’t get it - and say they never will. As consultants, it’s one thing to agree, another to challenge. The most valued customers usually appreciate a fresh perspective and that’s probably why they hired you. Don’t let them miss these opportunities to engage their customers online. Educate yourself, learn the new mediums. We still use the phone, television, radio, photocopiers, books - why not give yourself the edge in this new decade? The “free factor” and its ease-of-use makes Twitter seem trivial. Think again.

You Want It? Go Grab It!

Gary Vaynerchuk just posted a great little video about making things happen. The lesson he’s sharing can be applied just as easily to jumping in and becoming a consultant, growing your business or even to your personal life.

That lesson (see Gary’s video here) is, if you really want something, stop thinking about it so much and go out and grab it.

I think all of us at one time or another (maybe sometimes too often) over think situations, try to get more and more information…which means it takes us longer to actually get what we want.

In life and in business, doing rather than saying or thinking is what ultimately gets us the result we’re after.

So go on, if you really want something, this is the time to go  grab it.

What are Your Business Goals for 2010?

Sitting here on this Sunday morning a few days before the new decade begins and making lists of my education, business, and consulting goals for 2010. One big thing for me is I’m moving back to Vancouver, Canada (My Hometown) after doing business and living in Japan for over 3 years. That alone will be a big change but something I’m very excited about and looking forward to!

Below are a few goals that I have set for myself related to business and consulting, do you have any similarities?

In the comments below I’d love to hear what kind of things you folks are hoping/planning to improve on or work on in 2010? But first here’s mine…

1) Social Networking - In 2009 I really started to see the power of social media and networking. I have now become a big fan and user of both Twitter and LinkedIn for building consulting and business connections online. The key things I want to work harder on is a) nurturing relationships and connections after I make them and b) spend more time (more…)

How to Become a Consultant - Part 4: Project Planning

This is one of the most overlooked areas for new consultants. They focus on creating a website and logo, they get business cards printed, they set up their office space and they give themselves a catchy name.

Then they go out and find clients. But there’s one big gap in this plan.

Don’t Follow My Approach
What are you going to do when you get a client? When I first got started as a consultant I just winged it. I went in and figured things out. But I don’t recommend that approach.

You don’t need to plan out a hundred page system for your clients from day one - that would surely be a waste. But you should have a written plan of how you can help the clients you get. (more…)

Consulting proposals: A Waste of Time?

There’s a lot of focus on writing effective consulting proposals. You’ve likely signed up for our Consultants Toolkit list and received this guide.

But these proposals aren’t always as important as people often make them seem.

In fact, they can often be a waste of time. And I’ll illustrate this by telling you a true story from my early days as a marketing consultant.

Size Doesn’t Matter
I connected with a large international manufacturer. This company was doing some great things and seemed to have a strong product.

The president of this company was interested in having me consult for them to assist with making their online lead generation system more effective. (more…)

Consulting Success: How badly do you want it?

If I randomly lined up the first 10 consultants I could find and asked them what’s blocking their path to success here’s what they’d say:

• 4 of them would complain loudly about how other people have either got in their way or haven’t helped them enough.
• 2 would somberly say they had personal reasons that kept them from doing their best.
• 3 would raise their voices and tell me their working on it, they need access to more books, courses or training.
• And the 1 would, in quiet and confident voice, tell me “I’ve already made it a success!”

Is this based on some $5000 survey data? Nope. Have I lined up 100 consultants, 10 at a time and asked them this question? No siree. So I must be feeding you a load of rubbish, right? Could be. But I don’t think so.

I’ve worked and advised enough new business owners and consultants to know, while these numbers may be off a bit here or there, for the most part they’re on point. (more…)

The Power of Getting Out

Many independent consultants do much of their work in silos. They travel from their own office to their clients’ offices and then back again. Not getting out is not a good thing.

The situation is compounded when we consider that most consultants work from home offices. There is definitely nothing wrong with this, in fact it’s been my preference for many years…but this lack of face time and relationship building can hurt your business.

Here’s why:
When you get out and go to networking and other such events you meet people. Maybe one day you’ll be able to refer business to them and they’ll be able to do the same for you.

Strange things happen when you’re out there. The more time you spend connecting with people the more connected you get. Sounds straightforward, right?

Ever been at a party, you’re getting tired and thinking of heading home. But instead, you decide to stay for just a bit longer, and you end up meeting the most interesting person you’ve spoken to all night.

I don’t know how the above situation works, but I’ve encountered it several times at all kinds of events. And it’s not just at events, this kind of thing happens everywhere.

Again, it comes down to getting out there and connecting. (more…)

How To Become a Consultant - Part 3: Your Advantage

What makes your consulting services unique? You’ve decided you’ve got what it takes to become a successful consultant, and you have the necessary skills to give yourself some credibility to get into the consulting game. Sounds like a good start, right? Well not exactly.

In order to make any money in this game you’ve got to first get found and then asked to engage in work.

Marketing Avenues
Getting found is actually the easy part. There’s plenty of marketing avenues you can take to get your message in front of thousands if not millions of people.

But you need to provide something unique that stands out from the crowd if you want anyone to give you the time of day. This all comes down to your positioning and USP (unique selling proposition).

Get Inside The Mind
The easiest way to think about this is to put yourself in the position of your prospective clients. Think about what they really want. And also look for cracks in the market - what I mean by this is to look at all your competitors and find an area that all are performing poorly in or maybe that isn’t being communicated well enough but is important to your clients. (more…)

How To Become A Consultant - Part 2: Consulting Category

So you’ve decided to make the leap into becoming a consultant - congratulations. Now what the heck do you do?

The first step is to decide what area of consulting you’re going to get involved in. You probably have a consulting field in mind. If your background is in finance then financial consulting is probably where you should be headed.

Use Your Experience
Been a marketer for years, then becoming a marketing consultant makes the most sense.

This isn’t to say that you can’t venture into a completely new area. But if we’re to look at the entry point of least resistance and make your life easier, you want to jump into a consulting area where you’ve got skills.

Why? The simple reason is that you’ve already built up some credibility and can demonstrate your experience. Remember, a consultant isn’t just a contractor that a company pulls in to get work done. A consultant provides expert advice and recommendations. And it’s hard to make recommendations if you don’t have the past experience or knowledge to pull on. (more…)

Global Consulting: Review of Alan Waldman Books

I’ve just finished reviewing two books by global consultant and founder of Waldman Biomedical Consultancy, Alan A. Waldman, Ph.D.

While I was contacted and expected to receive one of Alan’s books, I was surprised to receive two of them!

I had never heard of Alan’s company or work before, primarily, I guess, because I haven’t done much work in the biomedical field. However, his work and experience as a consultant in the field are no doubt extensive.

What excited me about his work is his global focus. I mean, this guy has consulted all over the map. With that as a bit of an entrance, let’s get into these two books. (more…)

How To Become a Consultant - Part 1: Right For You?

I could give you a soft and cuddly picture of how rosy the life of a consultant is - but that would just be a load of rubbish. Becoming a consultant, and a successful one to boot, isn’t for the faint of heart.

Consultants Are Much Like Business Owners
Very little in life and in business is easy. And consulting is no different. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, being a consultant is much the same as being a business owner - really that’s what you are. All the headaches, ups and downs associated with owning a business will become part of your everyday life as a consultant.

There’s finding new clients, get agreements signed, invoicing and billing issues, client management issues, the list goes on. You get the point, right? There’s just lots of different parts you’ll need to stay on top of. (more…)

Winning Consulting Business – RFPs Suck! Book Review

I just got back from Japan and had a chance to read through and review Tom Searcy’s latest book “RFPs Suck: How to Master the RFP System Once and for All to Win Big Business.”

Tom writes from vast experience in this area with over $1.5 Billion in landed RFP and RFQ deals for his clients.

While many small companies are intrinsically at a disadvantage when it comes to winning consulting RFPs, this book helps to level the playing field by giving you the right tools and strategies to land big deals.

The five characteristics of companies that write winning RPFs are covered in detail.
They include:

1. Strategy
2. Time efficient/commitment
3. Imagination/curiosity
4. Patience
5. Being realistic

Searcy clearly explains when your company is ready to take on and getting involved in the RFP process and more importantly, gives you the warning signs of when not to take an RFP on. (more…)

Stupid Management Consulting Interview Questions

The Business Insider just put up a collection (here) of management consulting interview questions that are considered by some as just plain stupid.

The 15 questions range from “Estimate the number of gallons of gasoline the typical gas station pumps in a given weekday” to “Estimate how much time it would take a single average size dump truck to move an average size mountain from one location to another one located 1 mile away.”

While not all the questions are quite so wild, there’s actually some very good ones, this is a fun read. Be sure to take a look and let me know what you think? Here’s the where you can see all the questions.

Life of a Communications Consultant with Susan Varty

Here at the Business Consulting Buzz blog we really want to expose you to the many different areas of consulting that exist out there. Today we caught up with a friend and business connection of ours, Sue Varty, from Wordtree Consulting based out of Toronto, Canada. We asked her a few questions about the life of a Communications Consultant and this is what she said!

Hey Susan, thanks for stopping by today. First off introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your consulting company and what kind of services you offer?

Hello everyone. Wordtree Consulting specializes in written communication for the IT industry, such as technical documentation, web presence, and social media strategies for traditional companies who want to tap into this new way of doing business. Companies who want a different point of view, or who don’t have their own communication or documentation team usually request this type of work.

What exactly is communications consulting and how did you get involved in it? What kind of work experience or study did you do?

Communication consultants provide recommendations, coaching or specific content to showcase company information consistently and professionally. Starting out as a high school Business English teacher and software trainer, consulting was a natural fit because I started my career coaching and advising others in best practices. I then decided to get a Technical Writing certificate and have worked in eCommerce and the corporate world since 1998. (more…)

10 Online Success Tips For Your Consulting Business

Today’s guest post is written by one of our guest authors, Zeke Camusio of The Outsourcing Company. He shares with us some tips for success when doing online business. They are more general online business success tips but can be applied to the internet portion of your consulting businesses.
>> Read Zeke’s full bio here

In today’s troubling economy the internet remains one of the places where people are generating income and finding success financially. For this reason, many people are diverting their attention to internet businesses. If you have not jumped on the bandwagon yet, it may be time. However, be realistic about your expectations. Not every internet business today is a smashing success. But, with the right efforts, a good strategy, and smarts you could be fortunate with your business. The following are some great secrets to help you find success of the internet. Implement them in your small business today!

1. A long sales letter is an effective marketing tactic. People like to read them. It will give your customers information about your business and the type of service you provide. And, it will entice them to buy.

2. “Scientific Proof”. If you can sell something that has been scientifically proven you will make more money. (more…)