You Don't Build A Successful Consulting Practice On Shaky Foundations
These are four critical decisions you have to get right if you want your consulting practice to truly thrive.
Hi, I’m Rich. Welcome to my weekly newsletter, where I share systems and frameworks for scaling your consulting practice from $0 to $1m+ in revenue.
Reminder: You have two weeks remaining to enrol in my Consulting Foundations program. This program will ensure you’ve made the four key decisions correctly. This includes selecting the right niche, establishing the right positioning, designing the right services, and pricing yourself appropriately.
A few weeks ago, I was watching a discussion between Trevor Noah and John Oliver about the importance of research in making a joke work.
It’s one of the most enlightening discussions about comedy I’ve ever watched - you can watch it here.
This line stood out to me:
“If you don’t fix your mistakes early in the day, you’ll be living with them for the rest of the day.”
Replace that second ‘day’ with ‘life’ and you’re close to understanding the situations many consultants find themselves in today.
Small Mistakes In Your Foundations Cause Big Problems In Everything Else
A lot of consultants, freelancers, and soloists have made small mistakes in the foundations of their practice which are causing them huge problems later on.
But instead of going back to fix those, they spend their time trying new tactics, growing increasingly desperate to attract and retain clients.
If it feels like you’re always fighting for the next client, pushing a boulder uphill or (whichever metaphor you prefer here, this email is for you).
The Foundations Of A Successful Consulting Practice
Pretty much every successful consulting practice I know is built on four critical foundations.
These are:
The right niche. This is the audience you’ve chosen to serve. It has to be the right size (not too big, nor too small), and one that plays to your strengths.
The right positioning. This is how you stand out within the niche. It’s what reputation you’re going to strive to earn within the audience you’ve chosen to serve.
The right service. These are the services you’re going to offer to solve the wide variety of expensive problems for people within that niche.
The right price. This is what you will charge to solve those problems. It reflects the tier of customer, service, and positioning you want to work with.
If you’ve made any major mistake in any of the above, you’re always going to feel like you’re struggling.
You can see some examples of this below:
I’d estimate that around 90% of the consultants I’ve coached have made a critical mistake in at least one of these areas. As a result, they’re struggling with fundamental issues that no tactics can resolve.
The only real solution is to go back and root out the issue.
Aside: Getting things wrong and fixing them as you go is a natural part of building a thriving consulting practice.
How To Get The Big Decisions Right
On March 16, I’m launching the Consulting Foundations program to work with a small group of consultants to ensure their consulting practice is built on the right foundations.
This will be the difference between feeling like you’re flying downhill with momentum vs. constantly trudging uphill.
You can download the program details here.
Each week, I’ll share the systems and steps you need to make the right decision, and we’ll collaborate to get it right for your practice.
The four-week program includes:
Weekly live group coaching sessions.
Structured exercises to complete between sessions.
Proven frameworks and real-world examples.
Time for questions, discussion, and feedback.
Session recordings if you can’t attend live
The fee for the program is $540 - I think that’s a bargain.