At least once a month, I’m asked the following question:

How do I start my own business as a consultant, a facilitator, a trainer?

As the gig economy expands, more of us are moving into self-employment. Perhaps you’re building your own full-time practice. Maybe you want to test the waters and generate a little extra income.

These new-consultant discussions led to Five Tips and Five More Tips – perhaps the most popular posts since launching this blog years ago.

Because there’s a lot to say on this topic, here are five even-more ideas. Please join the conversation. Even if you’re not a consultant, you can become a savvier customer and a more successful client.

1. Choose work that makes you happy

Starting a new business is a labor of love. If you love antiques or software design or travel, perhaps that’s a business opportunity. On the other hand, if you aren’t inspired by young children and their parents, please don’t open a daycare center.

The same principle holds true for training, facilitation, and consulting. Choose your niche based on what energizes you and fires your curiosity. That focus will sustain you.

These days, I’m more excited about short-term gigs – fundraising workshops, board training, meeting facilitation – and less interested in longer-term engagements like strategic planning. Therefore, I am shifting my mix of services to better reflect the work I enjoy most.

2. Get a good website

Once upon a time, we had brochures. Today, your website opens the door to a world of potential customers. A good one includes:

• Clear, compelling descriptions of your services and expertise.
• Your personality and the flavor of your business. This is communicated through language, design, videos, photos of you engaging with clients, and so on. (For examples, check out my main website and also Train Your Board.)
• Easy ways to reach you: by phone, email, social media, etc.

Yes, you can build your own website. My advice: consider hiring a web designer. The going rate is $1,500 to $5,000, depending on the functionality of the site.

Yes, it’s a big financial commitment, but you’ll get a better product – and you’ll support another independent business. This is the karma of self-employment.

Plan B: If you’re just starting out, you can begin with a Facebook page or LinkedIn profile. Many consultants do this. However, I find these profiles frustrating because they don’t tell the complete story. Sooner or later, you’ll need your own website.

3. Create content: blogs, videos, books, etc.

Do you have something to say? Questions to ask? Wisdom to share? Put it out there.

If you want a following, you must engage and re-engage people. In this era of e-blasts and social media, the tools are easy to use – but you need to keep generating material or crowdsourcing stuff from your list. The blog-beast requires constant feeding.

For example, I recently asked you to participate a survey on collaborative fundraising strategies – surveys are a classic engagement strategy – and will feature the results in an upcoming post.

What you choose to share flavors your brand. For me, it’s pretty much all business, but the tone is informal and inviting. Other consulting colleagues use their blogs and e-blasts to share personal information ranging from vacation photos to breakups with partners. Consider how these choices will attract (or not) the clients you want.

Creating content is great marketing, but it’s mostly unpaid labor. Plan accordingly.

4. Use “menu bids” to empower the client

When preparing a proposal for a one-day job – a community fundraising workshop, for example – my format is pretty simple. Here’s what I provide, here’s what the client provides, here’s the price. One page.

However, for more complex jobs such as facilitating a strategic planning process or consulting on a capital campaign, I will break the bid into stages and price each step separately. This empowers potential clients to negotiate the scope of work by choosing items from the menu.

They might decide to hire me for the first two steps and see how it goes before committing to subsequent stages.

For longer, more expensive contracts, the menu strategy can also reduce sticker shock.

5. Trust your expertise

In assisting many emerging consultants and trainers, I’ve observed multiple variations on the imposter syndrome: the fear that one doesn’t know enough to demonstrate expertise or command respect.

Here’s a favorite quote: “An expert is anyone who knows 5% more than the other guy.” If that’s the criteria, I bet you qualify!

To run a successful consulting and training business, you don’t need to know everything – but you DO need trust what you already know, continue learning, and deepen your wisdom through experience. It’s also necessary to say “I don’t know” when you actually don’t.

Are you ready to take the next step? 

In October, we launch the third round of the Training, Facilitation, and Consulting Certificate Program, offered through Marlboro College.

It’s an intensive six-month program that will help you become more skilled, more confident, and more successful. For many participants, it’s business-building boot camp – and we are thrilled to offer it again.

I hope you can join us!