Online Consultant Ultimate Guide For Incredible Results

Are you fascinated by making Money As an online consultant?

If you’re swamped about the world of consulting, I hear you!

You’ve just arrived at the right time to unfold it’s hidden gems...

Keep reading only if you’re a consultant. Or thinking of launching a consultant career, or a new consultancy business. Or perhaps have already decided to do so. 

I’m thrilled if that's true and you’re already reading this guide. I write it now with only you in my mind. I’m intentional and fully present to write it specifically for you.

Because there’s never been a better time for consultancy. 

The internet has transformed the way we live in today’s world. The way we connect and express ourselves. How we work and what we value.   

Demand for consulting is at a historical high. More people want it. Businesses need it to overcome their ever more complex challenges. The demand for consulting is expected to grow faster over the next few years.

Can you be part of the successful few consultants who leverage this huge demand and making exponential profits by fulfilling it?

The global consulting industry revenues (including HR, IT, strategy, technical, operations, management, and business advisory services) will be about $506 billion in 2019, according to Plunkett Research estimates. 

If you know that you want to start or grow your consultancy business, this post will help you start or take your next step forward on this amazing venture.

So - Congratulations! you’re in the right place. 

Get Excited! 

Or maybe you want to wait and see if it’s the right path for you first. That’s totally fine too. Just reading this guide will inspire you and give you amazing insights. Even if you don’t take any action about it. Procrastinate and come out with all kinds of excuses not to do the work as most unsuccessful consultants do.

They don’t get any results because they don’t do the right things right on time.

But if you want to super succeed as a consultant or skyrocket your consultancy business, you’re exactly where you’re meant to be. It all happens for a reason. Be gentle to yourself. Be grateful for who you are, have and experience. Be thankful for your scenario and the person it has turned you into.

Develop a solid sense of self. Make peace with yourself. Make enough peace with your past so that you can move forward and say: “hello to the future that you can totally and predictively have”.

Confront your inner critics and devils head-on. Don’t numb it out using medicine, drugs or alcohol or some other woo-woo practices. These will not work.   

There is a reason why you’ve reached this point and are reading this now. What is it? You probably have many questions like most consultants who come to me for guidance. You’re in the right place to find some answers. 

It’s fine to ask for help. Open your heart and mind to receive it. 

Hoping you feel that same enthusiasm I’m personally experiencing right now while writing to you.

If you are a high earning consultant or dream to become one, this post will give you perspective and more clarity no matter where you are in your journey.

Read carefully to discover the precious insights and secret sauce to growing your profits in the coming months offering your clients the exact consultancy services you’re passionate about ... 

Are You Ready For This Adventure? 

Your silence can mean a “no” or “yes”. I guess it’s the latter. 

Say it loud: “yes I’m ready to grow my business starting now”.

Enjoy reading the following words, reap its lessons, and most importantly - take action afterward.

After you finish reading to the end. Write down 5 action steps you’re taking this quarter to grow your consultancy business. Why is it important to you? How it will make you feel to achieve it? 

Now, schedule it on your calendar. If it’s not scheduled, you’re not committed and it’s not real.

Here's what we'll cover:

So let’s jump right in and get to the first things first.

Who Is A Consultant? How To Become A Consultant?

Consultants are professionals. They offer expert advice in a specialist field. Examples include accounting, law, marketing, etc...

Have you wondered why many average consultants are making more money than you, despite them not being any more passionate, knowledgeable, talented, or skilled?

Do you know that according to the U.S Bureau of the Census, the average personal income is $31,099 per year in 2016? 

Families making $250,000 a year, belong to an elite group who represents the highest 5% of society in the USA? 

Why are only 5% making more money than the remaining 95% of the total population? 

According to MCP's blog, salaries for undergraduates, graduates, and entry-level consultants are:

Based on these figures, a consultant’s income is at least three times more than the average personal income from other jobs.

That’s why it is lucrative to be a consultant. A profession that attracts employees and entrepreneurs alike.

Let’s have a look at the major advantages of being a consultant...

But before we do that. 

Let’s Dig A Bit Deeper

Stop reading now. No matter where you are in your journey at the moment. 

This is going to be worth your time. It will give you more clarity.

Write down a few sentences describing what type of consultant you want to become or dream to be? What are you willing to do and give up doing to achieve that? 

1. Why do you want to become a consultant and how will that make you feel? 

2. How much money do you want to make exactly a year from now? Three years from now and by the time you retire?

3. How much you want to charge for your service?  

4. How many clients do you wish to have for you to reach your target? 

5. Who is your ideal prospect, or client? Where do they hang out online and off? What tools do they commonly use? 

6. Are there enough of them already buying what you want to sell?

7. Is there a large enough group of prospects to sell to at scale? 

8. What stressing problems do they have or goals they want to achieve? 

9. What do you want people to know you for? 

Notice that all these questions are about “What” you want and not “How” you will achieve it?

The clarity about the “How” will come when you take action. You don’t need to know all the “How’s” at this point.

Don’t take dozens of courses. Don't watch or read hundreds of videos or books. Don't try to figure out everything related to consulting all at once. 

You’ll never figure it all out anyway! 

Remember what Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge has limits. Imagination can encircle the world.” 

Shift Your Focus 

From yourself to your clients. Their wants and challenges.

You need to learn what’s necessary for you to take the next step. Not all the steps on the way to your destination. 

Think of riding a horse or driving a car. You can’t see all the way through to your destination. 

You need to see what's ahead of you to know when to make a turn, slow down, speed up or stop, or even make a U-turn. 

Learn what you need as you go.

The best way to learn is through repetition. 

The easiest way to repeat what you’ve learned is by discussing, sharing or teaching it to other people. With your friends, colleagues, prospects, and clients. 

You’ll discover when you work that there is no end destination or goal to your growth as a person or professional. It’s all about enjoying your growth journey and being grateful for it.

Your goals will keep changing and growing along the way. The more goals you hit, the more new goals will arise. They move with you the further you go. 

Back To The Main Advantages Of Being An Independent Consultant

There are many perks to being a consultant. The following is a good starting point to warm you up. There’s much more to discover about the pros and cons of consultancy that are beyond the scope of this post. 

Suffice to say that these (below) are the ones I consider most important and would like to share with you in the questions:

What About A Flexible Schedule?

Consultants have flexible working hours. It depends on their scheduling. This allows for a good work-life balance.

Do You Enjoy Working With People?

A nice social aspect of consulting is that you work with people. You’ll have the opportunity to share interests, ideas, and work ethic. You can work with all kinds of people, in any language and in any field.

Can You Hone Your Skills?

Consultants use their problem-solving skills on a daily basis. This is how they create value and make clients happy. This persuades you to think out of the box and stay creative!

Does A Consultant Have Enough Variety?

As a consultant, you can break the boring 9 to 5 routine by varying your schedule. You can have morning, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly routines. Tweak your routines to keep things fresh, interesting and varied.  

Can You Keep Improving?

People perceive consultants as experts. It means you’ll always need to learn and improve. Follow new trends, influencers, thought leaders, events, and associations in your industry.

Don’t worry if it sounds overwhelming, your routines will soon become unconscious habits. The results are well worth it!

Are There Exponential Growth Opportunities?

Consultants can experience exponential growth early on in their business. Some consultants reach seven figures in a few years. They follow a proven process, show up, and do the work.

Can You Work In A Wide Variety Of Sectors?

Consultants choose their niche from all types of industries. Red and blue oceans! Every client has different expectations, problems, and wants particular services. Consultants get involved in projects of all kinds!

Can Networking Events Be Fun?

A consulting career can be glamorous. From fancy suits, big clients, private jets, vibrant communities, and prestigious events! Networking is crucial to becoming a successful consultant. It’s important to be sociable, interested in people and their thinking at a deeper level.

Don’t You Need A Large Capital To Get Started?

Your consulting business will not need large capital investment to start. You can start at home. Today, with the internet, an email, laptop, and mobile phone, anyone interested in consulting can start their own business. 

You need to discover what you’re good at, who can you help and what set of problems can you solve? What kind of unique transformation can you help your clients achieve?

Do You Need Specific Education To Be A Consultant Or Become An Independent Consultant?

One of the greatest things in consulting is the low barrier to entry. No specific degree is required in most cases. Developing happy and loyal clients and long term relationships are what matters. You can, however, get certified by the Institute Of Management Consultants if you wish.

According to the Career Explorer website, 70% of consultants have a bachelor's degree, with the second most common being a master's degree at 28%. About 11% of graduate consultants held a degree in business, 7% in economics and 4% in finance.

By the end of this stage, you should be able to validate this sentence:

I help (client/niche/audience) who believe in (values), achieve (gain) and/or avoid (pain).

To give you an example here’s mine when legally consulting online entrepreneurs:

Entrepreneurs hire me to overcome their legal challenges. I help them start, secure, and scale their online businesses - without being techy or spend a fortune on advertising.

It’s ok to not have a single niche. Especially early on when you’re starting out or if you’re a multi-passionate person. 

Don’t beat yourself up. Instead, prioritize and focus on a few endeavors of interest at a time. Ideally not more than 2 or a maximum 3 topics or projects in any single year. 

You don’t need to be the jack of all trades either.

Try to find a good balance pursuing your passions, in what you're talented and good at. The key is to focus on what you value most, serve your purpose, feels natural to you and who you are. And most importantly sparks joy in your life.

Imagine you have a set unit of energy and time. If you only value a few things, you have to give them the ultimate priority. Put the rest to rest. Don't clutter yourself with fluff that doesn't help you reach your goals.

It seems that success is more about what you chose not to do. It’s about how you manage your blind spots. What you don’t know. Rather than leveraging the power of what you do.

Busy is not the same as productive.

You’re in an era where everybody is competing to grab your attention. Don’t fall victim to these well crafted, written and designed campaigns. Beware of the too good to be true promises!

Learn to unplug, cut clutter, get rid of interruptions. Deeply focus on what matters to your business. Think of what’s sustainable and scalable. Be sensitive to your environment and the social impact of your work. 

First, help yourself then help others. Change yourself before you change the world. Like in-plane emergencies - take your own oxygen mask first before trying to help others!

Helping people is great, don’t get me wrong. We just can’t give what we don’t have. That’s the point.

2. Driving Paid Traffic

Pay for ads to speed up your results. This acts like adding gasoline to the fire. Your small flame mentioned earlier. You know you've passed this stage if you get a few hundred recurring revenue clients. This means you've done your ad hypothesis or test formula somehow right.

3- Scaling 

Through automation. Repetitive sales and revenue on autopilot. Now, it’s time to grow your business, team, and scale. Online courses or memberships can fit here if you can productize your service. At this level, you need a few thousand clients who pay you a few thousand dollars regularly and expectedly. These recurring fees help you cross the 7-figure revenue mark and beyond. 

Beware though - you can’t automate what you didn’t validate! 

You should tackle these phases in this exact order listed above. Like a video game. The next stage is not accessible before you pass the stage or step before.

One thing at a time. Bold imperfect and consistent baby steps forward. In the direction of your goals.

Make sure that you sell your membership site or course before you build it in full.

Build the sales, marketing assets, and the introduction module first.  Introduce yourself and give your prospects an overview of your framework or formula.

If It Your Offer Doesn’t Sell?

You don’t need to waste your time to build it in the first place!

Framework or formula means the basic structure of your system. The overarching concept. An overview of your general outline or method. Your particular perspective or unique angle.

Claim your knowledge. Own your space. Use your own creative terminology. Protect your proprietary information.  Declare your expertise in your marketplace. 

Do You Need Permission?

You don't need any permission from anybody! 

There is no official education or degree that can help you with that other than - You.

Let your own consciousness allow you when it seems reasonable and feels right. The most successful people in the world who run the largest businesses are - dropouts.

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Mark Zuckerberg are good examples.

If you still need permission and you've reached that far reading, you get it right here. Go take your first step now!

To be able to follow through with all that, you’d need to know yourself better. 

What are you good at and curious about? 

Study your market ecosystem. The stakeholders. The sectors. Niches and sub-niches. 

Speak to people. On both the supply and demand sides. Find out your dream clients. Identify them in real. Get their names and contact details. Sort their most stressing problem and want. Reach out to them. Talk. Write. Listen.

What can you help them solve and achieve?  

Solving problems creates value. Value exchanges for money.

The larger the problem you solve the more value you create. The more people you solve it for the more money you make. Give. Before you take. 

Overdeliver

On your core solution that offers this transformation for your audience, prospects, and clients. 

Guide them through their journeys. Show them a specific step by step process. The mindset, resources, tools, and systems. Offer them accountability and a supportive community. Help them build the habits they need to achieve greatness as second nature.

At your early beginnings, you’d want to reach out to people one on one. Use social media. Private messages to confirm your assumptions and genuinely help. To confirm your understanding. With consistency, you will find your solid proof of concept that gives the same successful result with each and every client. 

At This Stage 

Try to deliver results to at least your first few clients.

Document and record your process. Write down the frequent questions you get. Get feedback, testimonials, and reviews. Build your files and case studies. 

Turn your bad days into feedback and good data to learn from. 

You can use all these later for your sales and marketing. These will come in handy when the time comes to productize your service and scale.

It’s ok 

To trade your time for money at the early stages. Work one on one until you book yourself solid for the first few months. You can charge high fees for this type of personalized and customized done for your client service. Live feedback is where the gold is. Observe the trends. The blocks. Notice the common patterns that people struggle with and the similar goals they aim for. 

When the same pains and goals keep repeating and appearing over and over, you can start to productize your service. Here, you can focus on the 20% of the repetitive work that solves 80% of your ideal clients' problems. 

Optimize 

Your processes. Automate anything you can automate. Delegate or outsource any mundane tasks that you can delegate. Free up your time as much as possible. Stay in your zone of genius. Your circle of competence. What you do particularly well and good. You can even delegate or outsource that and document the results. Nobody is irreplaceable. 

You want to have the freedom to step out of your business without causing any problems as soon as possible if it makes sense for you to do so. 

The more time you need to set up things before you go on holiday, the less efficient your business system is. 

Otherwise 

You’ve found yourself another job, not a business!

Having a business that runs without you offers freedom. It frees up your time and energy. It gives you the option to do what you want with your life and business. Sell it, keep it, pass it to the next generation in the family. Whatever. 

“Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?”, Steve Jobs.

Don’t be the bottleneck. Trying to do everything yourself. Don’t micro-manage. 

You're the orchestrator, not the orchestra! 

You can’t play all the musical instruments at once on your own. Remember, business is like a music band or team sport playing live.

You don't want to be the smartest one in the room either! You need to surround yourself with a team that is smart. Find smart people as early as possible. Try to resist the urge of doing everything yourself or asking for help.

This Is A Bit Hard For Most Entrepreneurs

Particularly those who are multi-passionate, on a mission and want to change the world! If you feel or do that at the early beginnings, it’s ok. 

You're not alone...

It may be even recommended in some cases. Notice it when you tend to do and be everything. Become more self-aware. Be gentle with yourself though. When you recognize this behavior, find people who are where you want to go and ask them for help. 

It will surprise you how many experienced and successful people are willing to help you!

Look For 

A teacher and the book will fall off the shelf!

Successful people are not always good teachers or coaches. Others are busy. So don't take it personally. Don’t let anyone turn you down if they say no or don’t show up for you.

Think of external events as neutral circumstances. How you think about it, is what creates emotions that you attach to. How you feel about something will influence how you act. Your action determines your results.

Positive thoughts create good feelings. Feelings inspire positive action. Action causes good results. As simple as it sounds. 

Stay On Your Game!

Get ready to receive a lot of rejections. It’s fine. No risk no fun. At least you learn what doesn’t work and the list of what can work gets smaller and smaller. 

No risk - no reward. They go hand in hand. You can’t get one without the other. It takes guts to take a calculated risk though. It’s ok if you don’t have all the answers. Nobody does.

In case you wonder who’s Mohamadino. It’s my nickname.

Up your game. Evolve your mindset from an employee to an entrepreneur and later to a business owner so you can work on your business, not in it.

Following these guidelines, you can scale your business by running ads. The traffic from the adds will go to a well converting sales process (or funnel). 

If you’re short on money, then you need to reach out through direct messaging or cold calls to at least ten prospects per day for the first few months. 

This will make you reach 300 prospects or potential clients per month, or 900 in your first quarter. It seems reasonable to expect that you close your first few clients when you reach these numbers.

Beware 

That you’ll be tempted to do anything but these reach outs for directly selling strangers. It sometimes feels icky, sleazy or slimy. It gets better with practice I promise you. Keep it simple and do the work. Close the freaking sale. 

Then you can start a digital marketing campaign. 

Search For Keywords 

Check out what keywords people type to search for your services:

To design your sales process based on what people want not what you think they want. 

So that your ads lead to free content (article, audio, video, course, membership site, or live session). Include a built-in opt-in or squeeze page in it (app to acquire their contact details and links to your email autoresponder) that leads to a lead magnet (some more in-depth free content sent by your email autoresponder). That drives your subscribers to your paid offers (automated sales funnels) or an email sequence (series of emails) where you include your other offers, cross-sells, up-sells, and down-sells.

If you drive your subscribers to a sales funnel (several subsequent offers). It makes sense to offer a low ticket, then up-sell (subsequent offer if they buy your first offer) through an order bump or pop up. 

For example, you can sell a free plus shipping or a $9 book or ebook. Upsell them its audio version for $19. Then you can upsell your core offer (a $199 - $1999  workshop or course) to learn how to apply the principles and framework included in the book.

From there you can offer your clients your premium offer or service. This can be a yearly $1999- $19999 membership site or a mastermind, for example. If you can sell a $1000 dollars course to 1000 clients, you’ve got yourself a million-dollar business.

I suggest you start by crafting your core offer (medium ticket) to people who know you. Then your premium offer (high ticket) to your clients. And finally, your front offer (low ticket) to drive more cold traffic or strangers to it.

To build a business you need to build a client list or an email list of clients using list building tools.

Your List Building Tools

It has typically three items:

Lead Magnet

A free offer that educates, entertains and inspires your prospects to quickly get a gist of your offer. Like the amuse-bouche, you get when you enter a restaurant.

Squeeze Page

It’s where your audience put their emails to get your lead magnet. It squeezes because your prospect only has two choices. Give you his email or leave. It connects to your email auto-respondent so that it delivers your subscriber a link to the promised lead magnet. Which can live on Amazon S3* in the cloud.

Traffic

People commonly think that when they build their websites or sales funnels, clients will come. No. They don’t. You have to drive them there. Through free content or what’s called organic traffic. Or Through paid traffic or what you call advertising.

It's that simple and doesn’t need to get more complex.

Now, You Need To Figure Out

How much it costs to get a new client through paid advertising if you chose this route.

So you need to figure out how much money your client spends to get your service. Your fees. You extract your profits after deducting all other costs, insurance, and taxes to get your net profits.

Your profit is yours, but don’t spend it all. You should reinvest a decent portion back into your business to grow it.

Having good enough margins is important to give you enough room to maneuver to cover up for your costs and ads spend. 

Test different offers. Messages or copy. Audiences. Creatives (photos or videos) until you find a combination that resonates best with your audience and prospects. Test one variable at a time. Many tools offer A/B testing capabilities.

Testing different headlines, sub-headlines, price points, and calls to actions makes a lot of business sense too. 

When you get a winner ad formula, you should know to the dollar how much it costs you to get a sale. A predictable system that generates clients to your consulting business is priceless.

You can thrive as a consultant if what you pay to get a new client is less than or equal to the fees you get out of each new sale.

You may wonder “am I not breaking even if what I spend to get a new client is equal to the fees he pays me? how can I thrive in this scenario?”

I Hear You…

This is a million-dollar sales formula just so you know. If you upsell your client a high-end service at the back end of the first sale, then you've sold a second sale sell at no extra cost. You’re not spending any more money for every next sale or upsell you make to that client. 

You already have the client and covered the cost of its acquisition! 

We’re at the hardest time to get new clients. It's nonetheless the easiest time to upsell an existing client who trusts you.

With every new sale you make, there’s a new set of problems that the clients will face, that you can still solve for them.

The sky's the limit as long as you’re not scratching the same itch!

A visual representation of a consultant online business development overview can look like this:

The good thing about being a consultant is that you don’t have to stick with it for long if you don’t like it for any reason. You can shut it down at any time once you don't have ongoing consulting contracts. 

It’s a business that’s easy to exit. Since you don’t have inventory, premises, assets other than your own tears, sweat, and blood.