Be Brave Not Safe

The good news is that, if you’ve been following this series on “Launching a Consulting Business” and have taken the steps outlined, you have essentially LAUNCHED! Congratulations! You are among the few who have dared to do so.

If your experience is like mine, however, you don’t (yet) have clients pounding down your door. This will come (if you are VERY good at what you do). The fact is, opportunity is all around us.

For example, I was recently contacted by 3 companies I’ve previously worked with (2 customers and 1 consulting firm I managed on a prior client engagement). Each of these companies have a project (opportunity) they’d like my help on. After developing each (defining the scope, objectives, timeline, level of effort, etc.), I’ll be taking on 2 of them and delegating the 3rd to a member of my team.

What I have outlined so far in this series, and will share in subsequent posts is: how to get there. So, in addition to what we’ve discussed so far, what follows are other strategies to identify and/or create opportunities.

The first thing to cover is what I do if/when a company contacts me about, or I find (online, or otherwise), an opportunity to respond to an RFI (Request for Information) or RFP (Request for Proposal).

What I have found is that in “most” cases the firm making the request is merely “beating the bushes” to obtain a number of proposals for comparison purposes. And, the requesting firm “often” already knows who they are going with, but they need these other bids as fodder for comparison purposes and/or to comply with their corporation’s purchasing policy.

As such, I only respond to RFI’s or RFP’s when I know that I am on the inside track, because I’ve worked with them before :-). The point becomes, if you do the other activities previously outlined, and what I’ll cover next, you won’t “need” to respond to RFx’s.

I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t respond, especially if you aren’t doing anything else – for a fee. In fact, if you aren’t busy, give it a try, as it will provide practice in writing proposals and, if the opportunity presents itself, to pitch your offering to the requesting firm and potentially even land the deal. I LOVE that!

If you are interested in monitoring RFI and/or RFP activity, there are online portals (one that I’m particularly familiar with) that provide a method for suppliers/vendors (like us) to connect with buyers (like our prospects and customers). It is called Ariba (www.ariba.com).

In summary, you simply setup your profile (company name, contact information, nature of services, etc.). And, as buyers post RFx’s you will be notified of any that are in your “wheelhouse.” You can also peruse the open opportunities to determine if you need to tweak your profile to expand your net. From there you can respond, per the buyer’s defined process.

And there is more. Once you have a customer (or customers) in Ariba (as I do) you can use this portal to submit invoices and monitor the process of the client reviewing, approving and submitting payment (all electronically, of course) for the services you have rendered.

Give it a try!

Click here to review the next article in the series.

To-date, we have covered a number of items related to launching a consulting business.

Am I an expert on this topic? Not necessarily.

That said, the approaches shared seem to have worked for me / my business. Especially, considering the fact that my business was recently acknowledged by Inc. Magazine as one of the 5,000 fastest-growing, privately-held companies in America. Click here to review a related article.

The purpose of this post is to reinforce the fact that each item covered is an element of a business launch plan: a punch-list of activities to be considered and/or addressed. That said, don’t let the list overwhelm you, creating an (imaginary) obstacle that would prevent you from going down this path. The items on the punch-list can be “picked off” over time…How aggressive you are at picking these off depends on your timeline…

That is, you get to decide what timeline you’d like to adhere to. Do you want to launch a business within the next 3-5 years, or within a nearer-term window? The litmus test we covered in an earlier post will help to give you a sense of how ready you may be to go down this path.

If you recall, what prompted me to start this series was a conversation I had with a good friend and neighbor who is considering launching his own consulting business. One of the key guidelines I shared was: This is NOT rocket science. It is, quite simply, just a matter of DOING IT!

If you truly have a dream of being in business for yourself (and you pass the litmus test) you “can” make it (launching a consulting business) happen. Notice I didn’t say “you will make it happen.” To that, I’d refer to the wisdom of Yoda…

You must simply decide – to execute the plan, or not.

I hope you find this helpful.

Click here to review the next article in the series.

In prior posts on the topic of Launching a Consulting Business we began covering the necessary (but boring) stuff that must be in place (legal and accounting) to properly manage the business and mitigate the inherent risks.

We’ll now address the final topic (that I plan on covering, related to “the boring stuff”).

Insurance

There are a number of insurance coverages that you’ll want to consider, including:

• Health, Dental, Life and Disability
• Professional Liability / Errors and Omissions
• Other policies and/or riders which may be specific to your industry or the services you deliver
• Workers’ Compensation

Health, Dental, Life and Disability

You’ll obviously want to continue covering yourself and your family in areas that may have been provided and/or subsidized by your employer. And, you’ll want to set this up BEFORE you make the final decision to announce your departure from corporate employment, as there are many cost implications to consider.

A key lesson learned for me: I had initially acquired my health and dental insurance through a small business association as, at the time, this “seemed” to be the most cost-effective manner for doing so. And, I was complacent for a number of years thinking it was my only option. As these insurance-related costs continued to dramatically increase they reached a point (a.k.a. level of pain) when I decided to investigate other options. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I could get much better coverage at a much lower cost.

Bottom-line: Do your research and the math.

Professional Liability / Errors and Omissions

As the name would suggest, this coverage protects your business from “mistakes” that may be made in the delivery of your services.

You may find that some of your clients will require a certain level of coverage in this area in order to engage you.

And, depending on the nature of services you deliver and/or the industry you deliver them within, there may be other policies and/or riders you will want to have in place.

Workers’ Compensation

This policy applies once you have engaged other resources to be on your team (subcontract and/or employees) and can vary from state-to-state. You are encouraged to discuss the need for this policy with your Legal Counsel and CPA.

In closing, these “boring” topics are absolutely crucial to mitigate the inherent risks that exist in business. In these last few posts I’ve merely shared a punch-list of things for you to address as you prepare to launch your business along with some of my own experience and observations.

In a future post we’ll get back to more of the fun (business-building) stuff that I REALLY enjoy talking about 🙂 We just had to get this “boring” stuff out of the way before you get too far down the path…

Click here to review the next article in the series.

DISCLOSURE: I am not qualified to provide legal, accounting or insurance-related advice. What I am suggesting here is: you must get some!