The next series of tips for people starting a consulting business is built around personal effectiveness, time management skills and preparing yourself to succeed.
So far in this series I’ve talked about changing your career and about how to quit your job gracefully and professionally. Now it’s time to think about the change in career direction that you’re making.
A new direction
Once you decide to start a business, then you’ve also decided to leave the career path you have been travelling along and to do something new and different. Lots of people who start businesses don’t realise this. This is one of the reasons why many new businesses don’t survive for very long.
When you’re working within a career you have a clear development pathway marked out for you. You know where you’re going. People can work out where you are on your career path, and there are lots of people travelling in the same direction as you.
If you’re an accountant, you focus first on getting qualified, and then on specialising and building up your experience. You think about becoming a partner in an existing firm or starting your own practice. Lawyers have similar choices to make. For them there’s the decision whether to become a barrister to consider along the way, too.
In most professions the development route is clearly marked out, as are the decision points.
Career paths tend to move in straight lines. Sometimes people stop at a particular point and decide not to proceed further, but the line of travel is clear. The direction of travel is clear.
Changing career direction
Of course, some people enter career pathways and then move out again.
This happens most commonly in the early years in a career. People decide that the choices of their early twenties are not the right choices, so they move on. Mid-life career changes also occur. People decide that they don’t want to stay on a particular career path, and so look to do something else.
A career change usually entails moving from one industry, profession or sector to another. It is, however, usually a change from one type of employment to another. Thus, someone will change career and use his or her existing skill set in a different environment.
Whilst changing career is a big change, it’s not as big a change as the one you will make when you start your consulting business.
Your new business
When you start your consulting business, you’re taking responsibility not only for your professional expertise and serving your clients. You’re also taking responsibility for managing all aspects of your business.
You have to set the direction of your business.
You have to position yourself in your marketplace.
You have to design your products and services.
You have to find the clients.
You have to make the sales.
You have to plan the delivery of services.
You have to co-ordinate the delivery of services.
You have to manage relationships with customers.
You have to manage relationships with suppliers.
You have to build strategic alliances with other businesses.
You have to manage your business’s finances.
You have to make sure you get paid.
You have to maintain contact with your clients.
You have to build your business.
You have to keep up to date with developments in your industry (professional updating).
You have to keep up to date with developments in your marketplace (market intelligence).
You have to keep up to date with changes in the law that affect you and your business.
Along the way you also have to deliver your business’s services. Thus, once you start your business, the scope of your work broadens immensely. You now have responsibility not just for yourself and your career but also for making a success of your business.
You need to remember this because if you don’t, some of the essential tasks in your business won’t get done.
Remember then that the scope of your responsibilities is much broader from the day you start your consulting business. That’s tip eleven in this series of one hundred tips written for people starting a consulting business.
What to do next
If you like this post, please leave a comment.
Let me know if I’ve included all the things you need to take responsibility for when you start your consulting business.
Let me know if you had additional items on your list when you began your business.
About Margaret Adams
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