How To Launch A Successful Solo Consultancy Practice From Scratch

Discover everything I wish I knew about beginning a consulting practice when I first began.

Hi, I’m Richard Millington. Welcome to my consultancy newsletter. Please follow me on and discover our systems for scaling your consultancy practice to $1m+ in revenue.

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How To Get Started

We’ve had many new subscribers recently, so I thought I’d write a refresher.

My thesis is simple:

To develop a successful consulting practice, you need to continually implement and improve the right systems.

My goal in the newsletter is to share the systems that have worked for us and others I’ve coached/mentored over the years.

If you’re starting, this post will hopefully serve as a resource you can follow.

(Aside - It also helps to set realistic expectations about what you will earn in the first few years of consulting. You can see what I earned in my first five years here).

I’ll break the process down into six distinct phases. I won’t be a time frame of when you should do that, but keep each in mind.

PHASE ONE: VALIDATE YOUR IDEA

This phase covers everything you do before you officially become a full-time consultant.

1) Schedule Calls with Dozens of Prospective clients

Consultancy should always begin with researching your audience and speaking to people you want to work with. You’re not becoming a consultant; you’re starting a business. So you need to:

1. Develop unique products.

2. Make customers aware of those products.

3. Persuade them to buy those products.

Your calls with prospective customers will help you identify organisations' specific problems and the kinds of help they’re willing to pay others to solve. You need to be really clear about what problems they’re facing and the solutions you offer.

If you dive in without doing any research first, it will be easier to differentiate yourself, build relationships with the people you need to hire you and develop the services your clients need.

2) Select a Niche Where You Can Thrive.

Selecting the right niche is perhaps the biggest decision you will make. It is your strategy for the next 5 to 10. years. You need to select a niche which:

1. Is already established with budgets set aside for your services.

2. Isn’t too big to attract major firms, but isn’t too small to sustain you and a few competitors.

3. Has six to seven-figure problems you can solve.

4. Has a high barrier to entry, which requires specific tech knowledge, industry knowledge, or unique skills (e.g. not life coaching).

5. Where you can reach buyers (or ideally, where you have pre-existing contacts).

6. Where you have a natural advantage over existing consultants (due to expertise in types of projects, knowledge of the audience, and existing relationships with key people).

3) Decide What Tier Of Fees You Will Charge

Decide what tier of fees you will charge. Don’t guess the maximum a client is willing to pay. Instead, learn the different tiers of fees you can charge clients based on the kind of service you’re providing to the niche you’re targeting.

1. $1k to $5k = Turnkey projects to tiny clients.

2. $5k to $10k = Turnkey projects to mid-tier clients.

3. $10k to $25k = Single projects to mid-tier/large organisations.

4. $25k to $50k = Multiple projects to large organisations.

5. $50k to $100k = Highly specialised (RFP) projects to industry leaders

6. $100k+ = Highly specialised projects over a long period of time.

Make sure everything else you’re doing aligns with your pricing tier.

PHASE TWO: ADMIN AND SETUP

Once you’ve validated your idea, this phase covers the basics of getting the consulting practice going.

1) Register your Business.

Before starting any work, you should register your consulting business as a limited liability entity. Operating without this protection exposes you to unnecessary personal liability risks and looks amateurish.

Always conduct your consulting services through an adequately registered business. This is typically an LLC in the USA or a limited liability company in the UK.

2) Get Insurance

Always get insurance before your first contract.

Leave this until you have a client you’re about to sign. There’s no reason to pay the monthly fees unless you’re taking on work. You should have the following insurance:

1. Professional Indemnity Insurance ($2m minimum).

2. Employers’ Liability Insurance ($10m minimum) (if you have employees).

3. Crisis Containment Insurance ($25k minimum) (for certain types of projects).

You can learn what each of these are and what they cover. Many larger organisations will request your insurance certificates. Please remember that many insurers only cover you when doing specific types of work in particular countries. If you expand, you might also need to expand your insurance coverage.

3) Create Template Contracts

Hire a solicitor to create your template contracts.

It would help to learn the difference between an MSA and SOW and what should be included in your consultancy contracts. Have a template approved by a solicitor (you can use legal services for one-off projects).

A service like Lawbite or LegalZoom can help you create the right templates for one-off projects. However, you should also check the acceptance clauses of any contract carefully to ensure they align with your needs and expectations.

PHASE THREE: BUILD DEMAND FOR YOUR SERVICES

Once you’ve got the idea and the business setup, it’s time to generate a flow of new clients.

1. Generate Demand For Your Service(s)

Build demand for your services before you build a practice.

I can’t stress how important this is. Once you make the jump, the financial clock is ticking. Aim to have:

• At least 1k+ subscribers (or 15k+ social media followers).

• Relationships with 20 prospective clients.

• Agreed at least one contract with a prospective client.

• Complete courses to equip you with unique skills.

2) Select Your Long-Term Client Acquisition Strategy

Select from one of six client acquisition methods. Find the method which best matches your experience and expertise. You might consider:

1. Optimising for search traffic.

2. Writing content designed to spread via algorithms.

3. Soliciting referrals.

4. Networking your way up to key decision makers.

5. Targeted outreach.

6. Paying for adverts.

Every method can work. The key is finding one you have the skills and motivation to deploy successfully over the long term. This is going to be your growth strategy.

3) Create Your Website

Create a website that gives clients what they need. Most consultants begin with a simple pamphlet-style website, and that’s fine for getting started. This will usually include:

1. The services you offer.

2. Your unique approach.

3. Your track record of delivering those services.

4. A rough idea of fees.

Try to avoid many of the common website mistakes.

As your consultancy grows, you want to make your website an indispensable resource for others. This would include:

1. Comprehensive resources and frequently updated advice.

2. The ability to subscribe for updates to build your mailing list.

3. Video testimonials and case studies.

You can find some great examples here.

4) Run A Marketing Campaign

Develop a marketing campaign to promote yourself. Don’t get sucked into time-wasting self-promotional activities. Instead, run a deliberate marketing campaign to associate yourself with a particular idea and build demand for your services. This means you need to.

1. Identify problems from client research, the causes of those problems, and how clients talk/think about those problems.

2. Develop a broad theme (usually naming a solution to the problem you can associated yourself with). Make sure this theme is in opposition to something. It should highlight a contrast between the ‘old way’ and the ‘new way’.

3. Develop specific messages to spread with problem-awareness content (benchmarks, costs of problem etc…), problem-solution content (frameworks, breakdowns), and your services (case studies, testimonials etc…)

4. Keep testing and refining the messaging to zero in on what works.

You should be able to build a strong following if you do this approach well.

5) Develop Your Processes To Sell Consulting Services

Implement a process to sell consulting services from stranger to client. Assuming you’re in the $10k+ category, you need to know how to sell directly to people. A key step here is to ‘zero in’ on the right fee over time. The basic steps include:

1. Offer value in every call. Have a resource or information prepared. This should let the prospect see the difference between where they are today and where they should be.

2. Identify barriers collaboratively which stop them getting them together and ask if they’re open to overcoming them.

3. Present options to the prospect to overcome those barriers and gain alignment on those they think would work best.

4. Create and review a draft proposal to ensure it’s exactly what they want.

5. Solicit a decision by a specific date.

Be prepared for a significant percentage of people to go quiet after you send the proposal and know what to do about it.

PHASE FOUR: DELIVERING CONSULTANCY PROJECTS

1) Build Your Consulting Skills.

Make sure you understand the full consulting skillset. You don’t know what you don’t know when you begin your consultancy journey. So it’s essential to understand the key skills involved in consulting and aim to improve them. These are.

1. Experience and expertise. Know the topic and organisations inside out. Understand best practices and examples.

2. Communication and relationships. Develop a warm, enthusiastic, communication style with the right level of flexibility and ability to proactively address issues.

3. Project management. Develop systems in place to proactively manage the project.

4. Deliverables. Develop well-designed deliverables which

5. Improving outcomes. Learn the principles behind how independent consultants help clients solve problems.

2) Learn To Create Great Deliverables

Identify the seven questions to ask for each deliverable you create. This is the foundation skill for consulting projects. You need to create deliverables for clients which:

1. Add unique value through your methodology.

2. Clearly match the project objectives detailed in the SOW.

3. Addresses the issues raised by key stakeholders on the journey.

4. Highlight what the client should do differently.

5. Provide clients with information they didn’t already possess (or couldn’t easily gather)

6. Contains the full implications of those recommendations.

7. Is visually impressive and well-presented.

3) Create Your Consultancy Operating System

Every successful consultancy needs a consulting operating system. As you begin to attract a regular flow of clients, you need an operating system to keep things organised. This includes:

1. A means of keeping track of client projects (Asana, Monday.com, Smartsheet etc…)

2. A full set of templates for repetitive activities (kickoff calls, meeting agendas, stakeholder calls, client contracts, invoices, proposals, client presentations, brand guidelines).

3. A meeting process that includes a scheduling tool (Calendly), a note-taking tool (Otter.ai), and follow-up processes. And ensuring you’re using the right approach for different meetings.

4. A clean folder structure on Google Drive, MS Teams, Dropbox etc.…). Have a template folder you can replicate and clear sub-folders for things like contracts, background information, deliverables, shared deliverables, meting notes etc…

5. A document labelling and classification system. Usually including a classification of public, internal, or confidential and a status level of daft, reviewed, shared, or depreciated (e.g. [CONF - CLIENT - Sales Strategy - [DRAFT]

4) Reach Consultant-Quality Design.

Once you’ve develope a set of deliverables and have your broad approach in place, it’s important to improve the design of your work. Clients will judge your efforts not just by the quality of information but also by how it is presented. Some steps here will help.

1. Hire a designer to develop your brand guidelines and key templates. Make sure your colour scheme reflects the brand personality you want to convey. Ensure you know how to use it consistently.

2. Consider Unsplash, Envato, and Canva accounts for graphics and templates. Don’t waste time creating graphics or presentations from scratch; begin with a template that looks amazing.

3. Use Descript for videos and podcasts. There are other tools, but this is the best. It takes a few days to learn, but then it’s convenient.

I’d also suggest watching Firm Learning videos by Heinrich to learn how to present information crisply.

5) Improve Your Client Engagement Skills

It’s easy to overlook the importance of client engagement skills and make a lot of junior-level mistakes. But with a little knowledge and practice you can make huge improvements.

1. Develop a stakeholder engagement plan with each client and stick to it. Bring all stakeholders along with you on the journey.

2. Learn how to win over hostile stakeholders by understanding their mindset, practising high integrity, and treating them as experts.

3. Know the basics of engaging with clients positively. You can use the pyramid principle, be specific in your recommendations, add personal notes at the bottom, and match the terminology of your clients.

4. Replace weekly calls with high-value meetings. Structure these so both you and the client get the maximum amount of information from them.

5. Be able to identify ‘hot potato’ situations which can undermine great client relationships. Make sure you resolve issues, not just toss them back to the client.

6. Carefully consider the right questions to ask clients. Don’t waste their time or yours on your calls.

7. Use the principle of constant clarification to ensure you always satisfy the client.

8. Avoid the common trap of telling clients what they already know. Sounds obvious, but you will be surprised how often it happens.

9. Develop your systems to properly begin and end a project. The beginning should be structured against a checklist to ensure you cover all the admin tasks and get the information you need. The end should combine your needs with the client’s needs to achieve the results you want.

PHASE FIVE: GROWTH AND SUCCESS

Once you’re established and begin to enjoy the result of your work, it’s time to invest in long-term growth and success. This includes:

1. Build an alliance of past and prospective clients to provide you with great feedback. Run your proposals, website designs, and more past them to get their views. Incorporate this research into everything you do. You should be able to improve every aspect of your consultancy work rapidly.

2. Expand the services you offer to your industry or jump to new industries. Select the approach that best matches your present situation. You can develop new skills to serve the audience you already have or you can take your existing services into new industries. Is it harder to solve the skills problem or the promotional problem?

3. Build your process to market to former clients. Marketing to former clients is the critical step to long-term growth. If you don’t do this, the project won’t succeed. Develop a reminder system for marketing to former clients. When will you contact them and keep adding value after the project is complete?

4. Create your own industry benchmarks. Become the source of truth for your industry by creating the definitive benchmarks; it’s not as difficult as you might think.

5. Don’t hire staff until you see a year-on-year increase in expressions of interest from people within your ideal client profile. This is the only metric which matters in tracking growth. If you hire staff before this point, you’re likely to respond to a short-term spike rather than a long-term growth in interest.

6. Learn how to invest surplus capital. Once revenue accumulates, you need to figure out what to do. When should you invest in your business? How much should you pay yourself? Where can you get the best return?

7. Ensure your actions align with your north star. Do you value freedom, income, or the experience most? Make sure you are aligning your actions with your ultimate goal of being a consultant.

Build A Long-Term Roadmap

This is far from a comprehensive list, but it’s a great place to start.

I’d suggest not overwhelming yourself when you begin. It’s ok to be average at the beginning as long as you improve rapidly. Follow the consultant’s maturity model and aim for steady improvements each quarter. You can use it to build your consulting practice’s improvement roadmap.

Good luck!

Thanks for reading

Richard Millington