As your consulting practice develops, you will find that you need to focus on different areas of your business.
- Should I consult? Early on you're wondering if you should leave your current situation to engage in independent consulting, and weighing the tradeoffs
- Brand new consultants? Once you've launched, you need to build a pipeline, get the first client, establish your brand and figure out your infrastructure.
- 0-$300K? You are trying to build a steady stream of clients, begin developing intellectual capital, and figure out what the best kinds of projects are for your expertise and market.
- Too busy, not leveraged? During your first few years, you will alternate between feast and famine–sometimes having more work than you can handle, and being busy nights and weekends, without the appropriate infrastructure to allow you to leverage your time–and sometimes having no business, and wondering if you will ever get another project. Figuring out how to ride the waves of consulting can be stressful.
- 6 figures to 7? You have a strong business, and are making a good living, but you want to take it to the next level. You are thinking about how to codify your expertise into products that provide passive income while providing tremendous value to customers, and how to build your brand as a true thought leader in your space.
In each of these areas, it is important not to be complacent, to notice where you are, and to actively work to continue growing and optimizing the work you do and the way you allocate your time.
