One of my friends sent me the link to this French “Five guidelines for independent consultants setting up”. If you don’t read French, they are:
- Let the project ripen – plan, test your plan, know what you’re in it for, and what you want to do. (This is book 1 of my Consultant’s Guide: sample or buy it here, or buy the entire series)
- Target an offer that people want – don’t sell stuff no one wants to pay for, talk to people about what they want, what they’re already buying. And make sure to be specific – generalists are very hard to sell.
- Fix an appropriate price – city pays more than country, big companies pay more than small ones, public service has fixed and lower prices (Sample of my book How much to Charge here and buy the entire book here. You’ll also find the magic charge-out formula spreadsheet here for calculating the minimum you need to charge – with more information and details in Book 4: How much to charge: sample or buy here, full series here).
- Keep on prospecting for work – they suggest in the early days at least 40% of your time should go to looking for work (see book 5 How to Market your Consultancy without Cold Calling sample or buy here, and book 9 Eight More Ways to Market your Consultancy sample and buy here, full series here)
- Get a network – they suggest consultant organisations, getting some business partners or network members, talk to old clients, old work mates. (see How to Market your Consultancy without Cold Calling sample or buy here, and book 9 Eight More Ways to Market your Consultancy sample and buy here, full series here)
You can also check out the Ten Commandments for Novice Consultants here and the 5 mistakes of Novice Consultants here.
