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You’re listening to the suede life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hey there and welcome to the sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast, episode number 174 I’m April beach, your host, and I teach entrepreneurs and small businesses how to launch and scale online. This is another podcast delivering new step-by-step business coaching that you can apply right now in your business. We love to give you proven strategies that you can take to the bank.
In fact, many of the strategies we deliver on the show, other coaches charge thousands of dollars for, so we’re just continuing to pour into you to help you grow your business online. Thanks so much for joining me. In order to access all the show notes that are going to be available to you and the bonuses and everything else. If you’re on the go and you can’t take notes, you can cruise over to sweet life, podcast.com forward slash one 74 and find the notes of everything that we’re chatting about here on today’s show.
Today’s show is for those of you guys that are just thinking about launching your own consulting practice. So you might find yourself in a place where you’re worried your company is going to lay you off or maybe your company has laid you off. I know that the economy is tough right now on corporations and we actually have a lot of friends who have been laid off recently. And the blessing in disguise for these friends is they were already thinking about launching their own business. And so this is just the ship guiding them in a new direction maybe a little bit before they had planned on it.
But nevertheless, they’re excited about the opportunities ahead of them. And so this really prompted me to make sure that you, if you find yourself in that situation, have reliable, trustworthy steps to launch your consulting practice. And then on top of it, I’m going to teach you how to do it in 10 days here on this show. So if you find yourself where you’re ready to launch your own consulting business, you are not alone. And this show is going to give you the exact steps. And I’m going to show you how to do it faster.
So if you’re ready for that, let’s go ahead and dive in.<inaudible> so if you’re thinking about starting your own consulting practice, the number one thing I want to say first is you need to start your business and something that you’re very good at already. This is not the time to be launching a company and actually learning a new skill. If you’re launching a consulting practice, I highly recommend that you are skilled in the area in which you’re consulting. I know that might sound like common sense, but you’d be surprised at how many consultants launch businesses and they have absolutely no clue whether they’re consulting or coaching on.
And I want make sure that’s not you. So as you’re thinking about it and you’re thinking about your skillset and what you’re really good at, this is where we kind of run into problems. It might be hard for you to realize that other people value possibly your knowledge or the job that you’ve been doing for a really long time. Not because it’s not valuable, but because you’re so close to it. It’s second hand nature to you. What you do. Sometimes it’s hard to see that other companies and other people don’t know how to do the things that are very easy to you.
So the first thing I want to encourage you to do is really look at the duties and the skills that you have been providing for your employer skills. That may seem very simple to you that you’ve been providing, you’ve been doing in your work, whether it’s just research skills or standard operating procedures, maybe creating standard operating procedures, maybe you’ve been helping communicate content or information to clients, or perhaps your job was just to manage communications with clients. Those skills are absolutely the ones that you can start a consulting practice around.
So the things that you might take for granted that you think every company knows, you’d be shocked about the number of small businesses and midsize businesses that need to have their staff learn how to do those things, or entrepreneurs and small business owners need to know how to do those things on their own. So the very first thing I recommend is to choose your consulting niche. So what do you know how to do right now? Again, don’t take for granted the things that seem super simple to you. What do you do on a daily basis?
What are activities that you have done again and again that just seemed like the back of your hand. I guarantee you those systems and processes you can consult and you can teach another business or an entrepreneur and they have absolutely no idea. So the first step is to choose your consulting niche. Don’t look over the easy things, and I want you to make a list after you’ve identified what you do on a regular basis,
what you’re really good at. I want you to make a list of three different markets that need to know how to do those skills right now.
Three different types of businesses that could benefit from understanding how to do the skills that you do every single day.
So first you’re going to identify your skillset and then you’re going to list three different markets that could benefit from understanding either the owner of those businesses understanding themselves or training their staff on how to do those,
how to perform those skills. And here’s a tip. They’re usually smaller businesses, small to midsize businesses that can benefit from the skillset that larger corporations have had the opportunity of having you provide for them.
A lot of small to midsize businesses do this all on their own, and they could really benefit from your niche training,
your very specific training coming in, consulting them on how to do that so that they can continue to provide these services themselves.
So step number one is to choose your consulting niche and to list three different types of businesses or markets that could benefit from understanding how to do those skills right now,
step number two is showing up with a reputation that demands your fees. And I know that might seem tough at first and you’re probably thinking,
okay, April, this is a new business. I’ve never actually consulted professionally in this before. What can I charge?
And shouldn’t I kind of start by lowballing it? Well, here’s the deal. If you have done an incredible job at what you’ve been doing for your corporation and you’re either ready to quit your job or they’ve laid you off and it’s time to start your own consulting practice providing these services,
I guarantee you that there are people that you have worked with in the past that can testify to how great you were at doing this,
whether they’re clients or whether they’re colleagues. And so I want you to show up with your new consulting business,
with a reputation that you have earned from years and hundreds of hours providing amazing step-by-steps to this particular niche and service.
And here is how you do it. I want you to gather testimonies, gather testimonials from colleagues, gather testimonies from other clients.
Gather together in mine statements. Mine like, M. I. N. E. Dig for them statements of what other people have said about you performing this job.
We want to establish a track record of you being very good at that. Even if you weren’t consulting on it,
even if you were just providing the service, you want to collect data, the number of companies or other businesses or clients that you’ve served,
the number of accounts you possibly have managed, the number of different people you’ve worked with, whatever that looks like.
I want you to mind the data that proves that you have been doing this already for probably a very long period of time and I want you to ask your colleagues in a way to ask different companies you’ve worked with that you’re allowed to be in contact with to provide a statement about you providing those services.
The next thing I recommend that you do is you create stories of case studies that you have helped process through this area of expertise.
So in most cases you aren’t allowed to share specific names of different businesses or clients because of confidentiality. That’s okay.
You can share stories of different case studies in which you’ve brought different companies results or you have solved a problem in your area of expertise in your job.
So you’re going to do two things. You’re going to gather the information, gather the numbers of all of the hours and the work that you’ve provided,
whatever numbers you can gather, you’re going to gather testimonies from people you’ve worked with. So three things.
And you’re going to outline stories and case studies of you providing this service and the injuries adult to that client.
And then the third step you’re going to do is you’re going to launch a high caliber website fast. Okay?
So when I’m talking about a high caliber website, we have websites that look amazing and then you know you’ve seen them before.
There are websites that look like shit, right? We don’t want you doing that. You need to be launching out the gate.
So it looks like your brand demands the fees that your experienced demands. And the way to do that is not to get in over your head with technology,
but to do it super simple. So I want you to launch a home page on your website that clearly States who you are,
who you serve, and the problem you solve. If you can nail being able to communicate those three things on the first part of your website,
it’s called the top of the fold. It’s before anybody has to scroll down who you are, who you serve,
and the problem you solve. Then you have nailed the content of what needs to be in a high caliber website.
Now let’s talk about the branding of that website real quick. If you can incorporate video into your website,
there are many places where you can grab stock video, you can licensed the stock video and actually insert it into your website.
And I will go ahead and put some links to resources here in the show notes for you. You want to show video of what your clients can relate to.
So if you have a video in the background of your website, have it be what your clients are doing in their daily basis on a daily basis.
Have clients be able to see themselves in either the video or the photography that you place on your website.
So immediately they go to your website, they read who you are, who you serve in the problem you solve.
And in the background they see a video of what looks like them. You have taken all of the brainwork away and you have clearly served up what you do and who you help on a silver platter in such an easy way that they don’t even have to think about it.
Because if you build a website that makes them think, Hmm, should I call this person? Do I need this person?
You’ve lost that client. So very simple way to do it as launching a high caliber website with who you serve,
what problem you solve, and who you are on the top of it in. The best way to do it is video.
Video speaks volumes. If you don’t want to do video, then go ahead and choose photography that also shares a story.
Your picture should tell a story on your website and your perfect clients that you want to help, should be able to see themselves in the pictures on your website.
And then the third step to your website is making it really easy to contact you. So you want to include either an online calendar that you can integrate into your website.
And a contact form is, well, even if you don’t have your packages up, even if you aren’t really sure that the rate that you’re going to charge,
this is how you launch a very high caliber, beautiful website right away that demands attention and speaks directly to your clients.
So let’s just quickly recap those steps of what exactly does it you’re doing and then I’m going to dive in and give you the actual 10 day layout of what to do on what days.
So the high level projects that you’re going to complete our number one choosing your consulting niche. So exactly what you do remember,
don’t look over anything that might seem easy to you because I promise you other companies and businesses don’t know how to do that.
Number two, showing up with a reputation that demands your fees. And you do this by getting statements and testimonies by cataloging the numbers and the data of the work that you’ve done and accomplished and by gathering stories of situations that you’ve helped other companies with,
even if you can’t share those company’s names. And then number three is launching a high caliber website fast saying who you are,
who you serve, and the problem you solve, including video and including a schedule that people can contact you directly.
Even if that website only as one page, it’s just a one page website that is great to launch with.
You don’t need anything more than that to get your business off the ground fast. Okay, so now let’s like break it up and let’s talk about time.
So in days one through three you should be focusing on choosing your niche and making an outline of how you’re going to deliver your clients results.
So you’re going to choose what area of consulting you want to start out helping other businesses or other people or entrepreneurs sweat.
And then I want you to sit down and I want you to outline the steps in which you will teach them the steps to give them results.
This is super important and frankly, most businesses miss this and they turn out to not be great consultants.
You need to outline the pathway in which you will consult and that you will teach people. Now every single business is different.
And as a consultant, you’re going to need to modify your consulting, your coaching based on every single business,
but you have to have a framework by which to go back to, to make sure that you as the consultant are doing your due diligence to assure that every one of your customers,
every one of your clients has at least checked off the benchmarks that need to be in your area of expertise to get success.
So in days one through three, you’re going to choose your niche and you’re going to make an outline of how you will deliver your clients results.
Day number four is your day to email your friends, get testimonies, outline your stories, gather the data.
Think about all of the clients you’ve served in the past. Sit there, compile the numbers, compile the data,
compile the social proof as what we call it. It’s proof that you can share socially, that you are in fact good at what you do and you’ve been doing it for probably a very long time and on days number five through eight you’re going to work on your website and your social media.
Now, I don’t always just recommend one website platform, but on this particular podcast I’m just going to tell you where the direction that I would send you if I were you.
If you don’t have a big budget, you don’t have a website design team, I would just go build a website.
In Squarespace. Squarespace is an inexpensive website where you can choose from a template. They might even have some built in templates that work perfectly that come with stock photography that could be perfect for your ideal client.
It’s a relatively easy site to build. You have control over it and they look beautiful. Not only that,
they’re mobile friendly and most people are viewing websites on mobile now. So it’s really important that you have a mobile friendly website.
So my recommendation in this case, if this is you, you’re listening to your this podcast, you want to launch this consulting practice,
you want to get it off the ground right away. In 10 days, I would just go and work on a Squarespace website and get that off the ground.
You always can grow into another website in the future. If you choose to launch online courses or if you choose to offer a membership community,
your digital products and downloads, some of those things Squarespace can can hold for you and can allow you to deliver those,
but as your company grows, you’ll want to grow into a more customized site. For now, it’s perfect.
It looks great. It’s going to look amazing. You’re going to put your brand out there. That’s a direction I’ll send you in and I will make sure I put a link to Squarespace inside our show notes.
We have no affiliate relationship with Squarespace. I don’t get any money for sending you there. I’m just telling you,
I think it’s a blast place for you to go and I want you to be successful. Okay, so five days,
five through eight, you’re going to launch your website, give yourself three full days to work on it.
Believe me, you’re going to stare at stock photography longer than you should in everybody does. It’s also going to take you a little bit of time to figure out what it is you’re saying on your website,
but just remember these three things, who you are, who you serve and the problem you solve. If you can clarify those three things on your one homepage that you build,
you’re good to go and launch your business. The other thing you’re going to do in days five through eight is you’re going to launch your social in most cases.
Now I’m not coaching you privately so I can’t give any other recommendations. Then one sided recommendations here. So I will say in most cases you should probably for sure be on LinkedIn.
So LinkedIn is a great place for high level quality consultants looking for clients. So I would definitely recommend that you build out a LinkedIn business page and if you haven’t updated your LinkedIn profile on a long time,
make sure you’re spending some time there. So this is days five through eight again, your website and at least LinkedIn,
and then on days nine and 10 okay, the hard work’s done. You’ve decided your consulting niche, you’ve gathered testimonies,
you can share some of those testimonials on your website, you can share them on LinkedIn. You’ve launched your website,
you’ve written the content to your site, and it looks fantastic because it’s a site that’s built to look fantastic in a very easy and cheap way and you’re present on social media.
So now we’re today’s nine and 10 this is when you reach out to your friends and you tell them what they’re,
what you’re doing. I would not personally reach out to anybody until you’ve completed the website and decided what specifically you’re consulting on.
We want your friends to be wowed by what you’re doing so much that they want to say, Hey,
I want to send Joe or I want to send Cindy over to your company right now. This is awesome.
I’m so excited for you, so reach out to your friends after you have your presence established. You also would this point in time of day days nine to 10 you want to share these case studies.
You want to share the data of what you’ve done. Where do you share this? You share this across social media.
You share this with people that you know you at this point in time are going to reach out to friends and other companies and start showing up,
sharing what you do and the problem that you solve and making yourself visible and making yourself available. It’s quite interesting actually the number of businesses that go through all of this work and then when it’s time to sell,
they just don’t really sell it. Okay to sell what you’re doing because you know that you are selling consulting that’s going to get other people results because you’ve taken the time in days one through three to outline how you’ll get people results through your consulting.
People need what you know how to do. I promise you. So again, don’t take for granted the fact that things may be easy to you if you’re interested in launching your consulting practice,
now is a great time to do it. We have so many different companies laying off amazing experts in so many new businesses launching right now.
It’s a perfect time for you to nail that hyper specific result that you deliver to businesses. Get out there and help people get results.
So that is today’s show. I have loved delivering this to you. It gets me super excited to give you the tools and strategies.
Again, we talked about the high level things that you need to be doing to launch your consulting practice and then I broke it up for you with the exact tasks you should be doing each day and you can have your consulting practice up in 10 days.
Is there more work that you’re going to want to do in your business, of course, but let’s do the work that really matters to get you off the ground.
First, thank you so much for listening to this show. I hope you found this information super beneficial.
I will make sure that all of the show notes have the links to the different resources that I shared here,
including Squarespace, including where you can find a great stock photography and other resources I think would be helpful for you to get your consulting business off the ground.
If you haven’t yet, and you are a new listener to our show, please cruise over to Apple podcasts and leave us a review.
We would love that. I’d love to hear your feedback, how this has helped you and I would certainly love you sharing this podcast with your friends.
Thanks so much for tuning in here with me today. All the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one seven four have a great one.
Talk to you guys soon.