Tap Into Consulting's Secret Club to Grow Your Business

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Tap Into Consulting's Secret Club to Grow Your Business

Last August I wrote a blog post about how labels matter, specifically that you should make more money by calling yourself a consultant instead of a contractor. But it’s not just about labels and language. It’s not enough to simply replace contractor with consultant on your résumé and LinkedIn profile.

I’ve been studying the LinkedIn profiles of various contractors and consultants I know and reflecting on how they usually get their work. What differentiates the well-paid rock stars of consulting from the plug-n-play contractors? Several variables affect the person’s brand. They include prior work experience (internal with a company vs an external consultant with a firm), their consulting niche, and how they market themselves, but the real difference is how they find and frame their work. 

Contractors find work through agencies or staffing firms while consultants are more likely to find work on their own, usually as a result of their professional network.

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How to Figure Out Your Consulting Bill Rate

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How to Figure Out Your Consulting Bill Rate

Dear Liz, 

I have a quick question. I know a consultant who is going to do some work designing a company’s program for high-potential employees. The consultant has talent but not much experience. What hourly rate would you consider low, fair, too high? Can you ballpark this for me?

- Louis

Although the question is brief, a helpful answer is not. Pricing consulting services is notoriously difficult, particularly for self-employed consultants. You need to consider the real and perceived value of your services, expertise, and experience, as well as geography and market conditions. Several factors need to be considered:

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Using Online Platforms to Boost Your Billings

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Using Online Platforms to Boost Your Billings

Independent consultants face the constant challenge of finding their next project. My last article discussed working with consulting agencies to supplement your business development efforts. This article offers tips for finding work through online platforms or marketplaces like Catalant, SpareHire, and TalMix. 

Consulting agencies and online platforms are similar in that they exist to bring consultants and clients together, but they go about it in different ways and charge different fees. Agencies involve people in the matching process and, typically, to oversee projects and “manage the client relationship.” (I roll my eyes at the last phrase because good consultants can do this on their own.) Agencies usually charge about 30-35%, which nearly always comes out of your pay. Online platforms, on the other hand, charge 20-25%, which may or may not come out of your pay, and they don’t involve people as middlemen. Instead they rely on their technology to match consultants to client projects. 

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Supplementing Your Pipeline with Consulting Agencies

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Supplementing Your Pipeline with Consulting Agencies

Perhaps the hardest thing for an independent consultant is not knowing where your next project is coming from, or when. While nurturing your own network is usually the best way to find work (see tips in my article), many consultants also supplement their business development efforts by affiliating with agencies and, increasingly, online platforms or marketplaces. This article summarizes the pros and cons of these options, gives you questions for starting your research, and introduces you to some of the better-known consulting agencies. 

First, let’s clarify what I mean by “consulting agency.”  

By “agency” I mean a company that matches independent consultants with client projects, like a talent agency. An agency is different than a consulting firm because agencies usually place one person at a time, and they assume consultants are bringing their own methodology and tools. Agencies don’t dictate the approach or oversee the work like a consulting firm does, although sometimes they require status reports or check-ins. To me, consulting agencies and consulting firms are both different than staffing agencies that provide tactical staff augmentation services, not consultants who diagnose and solve problems. This article is about affiliating with consulting agencies, not consulting firms or staffing agencies. 

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Quote Your Consulting Billing Rate with Confidence

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Quote Your Consulting Billing Rate with Confidence

It takes practice to quote your consulting billing rate with confidence. The tactics in this article will help if you bill by the hour or by the day. There are other ways to bill for your talent and expertise but those will be covered in another article.

Benchmark so you know your rate is reasonable. There are lots of ways to do this. Talk with other consultants, do a web search on typical management consulting rates in your city or state, and/or try converting your employee salary to an hourly rate. Warning: this last calculation will be quite low since it doesn’t include profit, expenses, or the time it takes to run your business; try increasing this number by 40- 50%.

It also helps to have an idea of what consulting firms charge for consultants of similar background and expertise. Although rate information is a closely guarded secret, based on my 20 years in the industry here are very rough ballpark numbers for “management consulting” (not IT consulting, project management, training development, etc.).

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