Marshall Place Associates Live More of Your Life

CREATING A CONSULTANCY
There are now more people seeking to work from home and become their own boss than people seeking the protection of a trades union to guarantee an annual increment in their pay packet. Independent contractors and small business consultants generate more new business than the major corporations who live off their new ideas and use their services.
Starting out as a consultant and building a consultancy practice, however, are very different shifts in career focus and require major investments of time and effort to be more than an escape from the status of employee. Quite simply it is essential to get more than 80% of your income from a range of clients, shift out from the family home and demonstrate that you are an independent contractor who is actively building an independent small business.
Many consultants started out as outsourced workers getting cheques and BAS statements to complete instead of a paycheck and time sheets. The key to a successful transition from a sole trader and self-employed consultant to a fully-fledged consultancy practice depends upon a combination of recognition of special skills and competencies, risk management and rewards for innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. Building the business to the stage where it is a potential takeover target or requires more staff to meet client expectations is a function of these three Rs.
Recognition
The longer that the consultancy is away from an initial employer or set of employers, the sooner it has started to build a set of business relationships and a sense of the core competencies that are in demand in the market. Identifying the key success factors and preparing both a business and marketing plan for the growth of the consultancy ensures that knowledge, skills and aptitudes (KSAs) are readily explained and profitably delivered.
Winning the respect of clients and getting new clients is usually a function of efficient, effective and effulgent problem solving ability at a time of crisis or change in operating conditions in the market. When there is a business boom, there is a natural demand for people who can assist the client to fulfil orders and cut the costs of more full-time employers.
When interest rates are rising and new business is declining, many larger business managements are looking to downsize their workforce and only use contractors for specific jobs for which there are overheads that can be reduced. Successful client billings flow from completed work that leads to additional assignments and a casebook of finished projects Recognition in the form of a company name, contracts and testimonials from satisfied clients builds an essential platform for the most important new business source of growth – referrals and good references that recognise the added value on offer
Risk Management
Problem solving is an inherently risky business for any consultant as the owner of the problem has something that is not wanted and a sense of responsibility for permitting the situation to get to the stage where an external agent is permitted to know all about it. Finding the causes and potential solutions is therefore a risk management business for both the client and the consultancy, requiring facts, tact and attack on the fundamental sources of risk associated with alternative solutions.
The key to growth of a consultancy is therefore the capacity to increase the level of trust of prospective clients and lower the level of risk associated with a high level of drive and determination to make things happen quickly. Getting the right result requires that specialised knowledge and prior experience is applied to novel situations that may not have the same causal history or the same required solutions. Achieving a balance between expertise and experience will often be the best path to effective risk reduction.
The client or customer can never abdicate from the responsibility for achieving outcomes and often will not want to see the consultant take the credit for avoiding calamity or creating novel and entrepreneurial solutions after the risk of their introduction has been overcome. The mutual respect and benefit from business success comes with the satisfaction of taking responsibility for risk mitigation and willingness to put in extra effort to help the business overcome obstacles through preparation and professional advice. A good case study and post operational review can often lead to more work in the field on the basis of cross referral and willingness to co-author a positive presentation to senior management and the industry associations.
Rewards
Consultants who have retired from a senior position with a substantial redundancy payment or super-anniualtion payout often are prepared to ask a lot less for their services than members of a professional consultancy that has to carry overheads, staff support, research and contracted additional personnel. The personal respect and recognition and the chance to continue to be of practical service are often the major rewards of the former, whilst increasing billing rates and higher fees for superior service must be the expectation of the latter.
Both share the satisfaction of being independent, setting standards of performance, being in control of major projects and the challenge of a range of new assignments. The consulting practice, nevertheless, needs more than a boost to self-esteem, freedom to operate and a good corporate reputation. It must maintain the organisation and pay for down time, vacations, extra-ordinary costs and unexpected business failures that may lead to unpaid bills, litigation and sometime issues of corrupt practices and fraus.
Harvesting high incomes and returns from a successful consulting practice requires patience and good practice over many years so that cross-referrals and client movements into higher positions or appointment as CEO/CFO or CIO of emerging enterprises raises the tide for all who have a proven record of achievement. It is also important to have time out, sabbaticals and periodical renewal of energy and enthusiasm as well as to search for new talent and sources of strategic talent to keep the growth of the enterprise in line with the emerging requirements of the market.
Growing a successful consultancy comes down to a staged process of seeding the specialised market with evidence of knowledge, skillsand aptitudes that make the client look good and the profits look better. Nurturig the growing business relies upon close association with key decision makers, presentations to trade and industry associations and promotion of the core competencies of the principal consultants to build trust and trade acceptance. Finally it comes down to a constant process of harvest and commitment to research efforts and renewal of key relationships.
Marshall Place Associates offers a range of strategic thinking tools that open up a universe of new possibilities for individuals and organisations committed to applying the processes of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.
CONTACT
Dr Jane Shelton
Chief Executive Officer,
Marshall Place Associates
Level 15, 461 Bourke Street
Melbourne 3000
Ph: +61 3 9640 0099

Fx: +61 3 9640 0009 

Email: contact@marshallplace.com.au