Strategy Consultants: Forging Your Own Path To Independence

As strategy consultants, you are particularly well equipped for opportunities as a result of your training and work experience.

As a career path, consulting is a highly demanding taskmaster, often requiring extensive travel and long work hours. In any line of work you pursue, you may at some point decide to change roles, change companies, go back to school, or break out on your own. As strategy consultants, you are particularly well equipped for these opportunities as a result of your training and work experience.

Independent consultants can be the logical next step for strategy consultants seeking flexibility, diversified work experience, international exposure and potentially increased income. Working for yourself empowers you to determine your future career path and allows you to form the parameters you want to be identified with.

However, establishing yourself as independent consultants pose their own set of challenges. In today’s highly competitive business environment, there are a number of things to consider when starting out.

1. Psychology:

The decision to become independent consultants can look daunting once you’ve made the leap, but you have to be careful not to become too complacent. It is critical to be self-motivated and imbibe a growth mindset.

Start out small and don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Enticing, as it may seem to chase a “cash cow” client, you will need smaller projects to pay the bills and sustain you.

It is also important to identify a mentor and develop a support system as setting up your own business can be emotionally taxing. You will need guidance at times, and having people who can teach you from their experience and provide a third party perspective will be a boon.

Also, remember that you’ve become an independent consultant to work on your terms. Avoid the fallacy of working hard to achieve goals to the point of burnout. Make it a point to achieve work and personal life balance �" this will sustain you for the long-term.

2. Positioning:

With experience as a strategy consultant, you may believe that you have a clear view of the identity you want for yourself as an independent consultant. However, once you start researching the market and conversing with leads, you may come up with different projects that interest you and find that you have to alter your positioning.

That is not to say that you should go in as a blank slate. Has a clear idea, even if it is only in your head, about the industry you want to work in, the type of clientele your skill set can cater to, and the projects you want to pursue. It will assist you in establishing yourself as an independent consultant, even if it takes a few years to finally be doing what you really want.

3. Procuring Clients:

The majority of your client base will be developed through networking and referrals. Although you may initially choose to work with other freelancers or agencies and pay them a fee for every referral, establishing your own network will ensure a steady flow of work.

Business meetings and networking events are a good starting point to developing leads, but you have to go the extra mile to ensure top-of-head recall with them. Independent consultants have a number of ways to market themselves to potential clients. You can reach out to your market via blogs, e-mail newsletters, author a book or white paper, or speak at events. The possibilities for contact are limited only by your imagination and persistence. These activities serve independent consultants two-fold as they also form a part of your marketing strategy.

4. Pricing:

Pricing in and of itself has an entire industry devoted to it, and finding the sweet spot is a continuous challenge dictated by evolving market conditions.

Whatever pricing you choose to dictate for your work, ensure that you are confident about it and able to deliver the value expected for it. Don’t be vague about the numbers and don’t be afraid to negotiate if required.

Deciphering your value and asking for what you are worth is a core aspect of your role as a strategy consultant.

5. Problem-solving:

Starting out as an independent consultant will initially require you to act as a jack-of-all-trades. You will have to be present at your client’s offices and work with their team. It is beneficial to integrate yourself into the organization you are working with as will assure better co-ordination and communication to complete your deliverables.

You may identify inefficiencies or gaps in the organization during your project with them �" take the initiative and deliver above their expectations. You are building a relationship with the client and a reputation for yourself. Your work will speak for itself if done right.