Welcome to episode 173 of the grow. Your independent consulting business podcast. This is Melisa Liberman. And today I'm so excited to just. Go back to the fundamentals. A lot of times on this podcast we talk about more advanced concepts in. Terms of running your independent consulting business. And today I just wanted to go. Back to the basics. And that is a two part
episode. I broke this into two parts. Today is part one of launching or relaunching, depending on where you're at launching your successful independent consulting business. So that's we're going to be focused on as we work through today's episode. I am excited to share this with you. Whether you are brand new to consulting or even considering consulting, this will help. You with a very clear cut plan. On what to do. What are the
ten most important steps. You can take as you are launching your independent consulting business?
And if you already have an independent consulting business, whether it's two months old or two years old or 20 years old, this is really a valuable episode for you because we're going to go back to the fundamentals and help you to come back to any steps you might have skipped over the years, over the months, or over the years, whatever the case may be, and really help you to optimize your business if you're already in that place of having
launched your business at some point in the past. So that's what we're here for today. And ultimately, when you implement these ten steps, I'm going to share with you. We're going to talk about six of them today and then four of them next week to complete all ten. So this is a two
part series. Once you've ultimately implemented and or optimized all ten of these, it's going to help you to grow your business more effectively, to land business more predictably, to price your services at a level that is commensurate with your goals and really shore up whatever it is you're doing. To run your business. So that's why this episode can be so valuable to you, regardless of where you're at in the lifecycle of owning a consulting business. So with that, I'm going to share with
you just first of all, the ten steps. So I'm going to give you a preview of next week's episode along with the steps that we're going to focus on this week. And from there, we'll dive into each of the first six steps and again next week, we'll talk about the remaining four. So let's start with the first six steps. I'll walk you through those. And if you're watching this, you can actually watch this on YouTube. I don't know if you're aware, but I have a YouTube channel as well. It's steadily
growing. Although I will tell you, my ten year old consistently reminds me that his. YouTube channel has more followers than mine. Does, which is fine. Well, let me just be clear. I think I'm a little bit competitive, so maybe it isn't so fine, but it is what it is and I'm working on growing it. It just hasn't really been the focus. This podcast has been the number one focus until very recently. So anyway, with that being said, we'll
also put this visual that I'm walking through. If you're not watching it on YouTube, we'll put the visual in the show notes so you can see this as well. But let's start off with the basics. And we're going to dive into these in a lot more detail here in a moment. But number one, deciding you're going to succeed, deciding you're going to succeed. I'll tell you more about what that means here in a minute, but I. Can'T tell you how important that is. And we'll talk about what
it looks like here in a minute. The second step is setting your goals. Then the third step is putting some basics in place. You may have most of these basics. In place if you're already in business. But we want to just make sure you're not missing anything. Then number four, we're going to create. An offer or series of offers for you. Number five, defining your pricing. And then number six, building just some very mvp type marketing assets. Minimum viable product type marketing
assets. I'll share with you a viewpoint that may be controversial, but I think is really help you to not go down a huge rabbit hole of both time and expense when we get to that step. And then the remaining steps are to. Start landing clients, identifying potential clients, landing. Your first engagements, then building a repeatable system. So the last two steps are learning. To balance delivery with running
your business and becoming a business owner. So those are the ten steps to launch your consulting business. And now we're going to go into. Those first six in detail. So that's our agenda for today. We're going to dive into those first six steps to launch your consulting business or relaunch your consulting business or get back to the basics if you've been in business for a while so that you are setting yourself up to have. A more solid foundation. And more importantly, as I
go through these six steps. Not only will I tell you what they are, but I'll tell you also. What they aren't, what things you might want to avoid, what the common traps are that you may fall into, and we don't want that to happen. And then again, stay tuned for next week. So we're going to go over those. Last four steps so that ultimately you have a comprehensive approach to launching and. Or relaunching your consulting business.
So before we dive in though, I want to share a resource with you that can be really valuable complement to today's episode, and that is a free ebook that I've created. It's called the twelve steps to start a successful consulting business. It gives you twelve steps. So some of the steps that we're going over in this episode and next week's episode are broken down into a little bit more detail in that ebook. So I would go download that. It's a perfect companion to go along. With this episode
and just gives you everything we're talking about in writing. So if you're walking or driving or doing all those things, you have a really easy way. What we're talking about today into practice in the form of a checklist so that download you can find at IC the letters iC for independentconsultantslaunch.com iclaunch.com and again, the ebook walks you through those twelve steps to start a successful
consulting business. So a couple of bonus steps. It also helps you with the top four mistakes that you want to avoid. So go grab that and it will help you put today's episode into action. Again, iclaunch.com dot we'll put the link. In the show notes as well. Okay, so now we're going to spend. The rest of the episode focusing on. The first six steps. The first six steps to launch or relaunch your consulting business. Most people
think the first step is. To set up an llc or to update your LinkedIn profile, or to get some business cards, or to create a one pager. But that is not the first step or to create even a set of goals. Those are not the first step. The very first step is for you to decide you're going to succeed. The very first step is for you. To decide before you have any evidence of it, that you are going to succeed. I was talking with someone who was considering independent consulting a few weeks ago.
He may be listening to this episode and he was telling me, you know, Melisa, I've been an independent consultant before. I kind of go back and forth every few years between consulting and full time work. And I'm at the point now where I really think that I want to focus on growing my consulting business and. Not kind of being in this no. Man'S land trying to decide, you know. What I want to do next or. If I want to commit to a consulting business. And so as we
were talking through it, I asked him, you know, what is your plan? What is your plan for relaunching your consulting business? And he told me, you know, I'm going to talk to a few of the trusted people that I have in my network. I'm going to get their feedback on. The direction that I'm planning to take. And then see if I can land a client or two. And then if all those things kind of lines up, then I'll commit to it. And I know that I'll go all. In on focusing on this as the
direction for my professional life. And I said, you know, you've got this backwards. You've got this backwards. In order to succeed at a consulting. Business, the fastest, most direct way to. Succeed, without a lot of second guessing. I don't want to say a lot of second guessing. Without as much second guessing, let's say it that way. Without as much second guessing, without as much of trying to compare and contrast. Should I go back to corporate or not?
Should I do something else or focus on my consulting business? The fastest way, the most effective way to succeed at launching and growing a. Consulting business, and you've heard me say. This before, is up front to decide you're going to succeed no matter what. It's not. Let's see what happens. It's not, I hope that I land a client. If I don't, I'll do something else. It's you going all in on your business. If
that's the decision you want to. Make, and from the frame of mind that you're going to succeed, set a. Time frame for yourself. It might be three months, it might be six months, it might be a year, whatever makes the most sense for you. I tend to like a shorter timeframe. Myself, like three months, because we usually take as long as we give ourselves. So let's say you set yourself up. For three months and go all in. And when you notice your brain trying. To decide again,
redecide, am I going to do this? Is it working? You remind yourself that that's not what. You'Re doing right now. You've committed to yourself that you're going. To succeed no matter what, at launching or relaunching or optimizing, whatever your goal is your consulting business and you're not. Entertaining other offers right now. Think about in your past. You might have had an amazing job. With an amazing company, and you loved it, and recruiters would call you and you wouldn't even call
them back. That's where I was for a long time in the startup that I helped to create here in Colorado. There was such a long period of. Time in that startup where I was. Probably working 70 or 80 hours a week. It was incredibly stressful. We were always wondering, like, what might be the next huge challenge that we had to overcome. Just so many challenges along the way. It was a very, very difficult assignment. A very, very difficult career path, a very, very
difficult, you know, time in a company's life. But recruiters would call me. They would call me quite often and leave messages and email me. Whatever it was. I'd never called them back. I never called them back. Maybe toward the end, I was starting to entertain it because it was starting to become a mid sized company and a lot of the fulfillment that I got was turning into bureaucracy. But I. That's a story for another day. What I'm here to say to you. Is imagine yourself in that job that you
loved. That might have been incredibly challenging, but it didn't matter that it was challenging. Because you were all in on it. And when recruiters called you, you didn't answer, you didn't call them back. And this is the same thing. When your brain starts kind of tempting. You with other solutions, with pursuing a. Full time role or pursuing other options. You don't call them back. You set yourself up in the sense that you have no interest in pursuing those
other opportunities. That's important. This is foundational. And if you're at the place in your business, maybe you've been in business. For a while and you're feeling shaky, you're feeling like things aren't going the way you want them to go. I strongly suggest that you take this. First step, which is decide again that.
You'Re going to succeed. And if you get nothing else from. The rest of this episode, I implore you to really focus in on this step number one, because it's so important for you to set yourself up to achieve what you want to achieve in your business. So that's step number one. Decide you're going to succeed ahead of time, before you have a client, before you even know what you're doing, before you have set your pricing, before any of this, before you've received the feedback. From the people
that you really respect. Before all of that decide you're going to succeed. And then when the internal recruiter calls or the external recruiter calls, remind yourself. That you are not here for anything else than to succeed with your business. And that's what we're focused on. All right, until that timeframe is up and then you can redecide again. Number two is for you to set your goals. Get very
clear again. A lot of times I hear from. Consultants I don't know what my goal will be because I've never done this before or I don't know what's possible for me or maybe I'll just replace my corporate income as a goal. And of course we need a starting point. So the first thing I want to say to you is pick a financial goal. There's often times where I talk with.
Independent consultants, whether they're brand new or have been in business for a while and we have a consultation to see if coaching would be a good fit. I send a whole kind of a pre work packet to them beforehand and in there it talks a lot about what is your financial goal like really thinking that through. So when we get on the call. It can be an even more effective call. And when we get on the call and I can't tell you the number of times people know that I'm going to ask this question and
I ask. The question what's your revenue goal for this year? And they say, I knew you were going to ask me that but I don't have one. Or I'm thinking it might be this. Range or I was planning on this number but things aren't going the way that I thought they would. So I don't know what the number is now. Whether you're brand new or have been doing this for a while, it's incredibly important to set a goal. I didn't say it's incredibly important to hit
your goal. I said it's incredibly important to set your goal, to set your financial goal, to set it at a place that. Feels like a little bit of a stretch for you or maybe a big. Stretch for you, but set it at. A place that then you can measure against it. It might be that you want to. Set a goal to generate twenty k per month or whatever the goal is. Set it so that you have a. Baseline against which you can measure and figure out if all of the
components. Of what you're doing is going to lead to you reaching your goal or not. This is incredibly important. I'm not trying to convince you to. Set a goal so that you can feel bad if you don't hit it. Or feel great if you do hit. It, that's not what we're doing. We're setting a goal so that you. Have a target against which to operate a business. So set the financial goal. The other thing that I love to set is not just a financial goal where we're pushing against, you know,
a certain number at all costs. But I love to look at the goals in four quadrants. What are my financial goals? What are my lifestyle goals? Maybe you want to work four days a week. Maybe you want to take off two months a year. What does your lifestyle look like as. The business owner and the person operating the business? The third quadrant is, what is the fulfillment look like? What will make you feel fulfilled? What will help reinforce
for you that. This is the best choice for your career? And when that recruiter calls or the. External recruiter, or the internal one, in. Your mind, you don't even entertain that conversation because you're so happy with the. Company you've created, the role you've created for yourself. And then the fourth quadrant I like. To encourage you to explore is what's important to you, what's important to you? What is that fourth quadrant of your goal look
like? So we've got the four quadrants of setting your goals. That's step number two. The four quadrants are financial, lifestyle fulfillment, and whatever other component is really valuable to you. So you're building a sustainable business model. That where you are the employer of. Choice for yourself and you're not focused. So focused on one thing that it's. At the expense of something else. Like you might have really focused in on the
financial side of this and then realize you're overworking. And so you've got to come back and reassess and rebuild some of your business model. If you're newer, let's do this from the very beginning. And if you're not newer, you've been doing this for a while. Let's pretend that you're newer and refresh. And revisit so that you have the components in place to create the business of your dreams and ultimately be the employer of choice for yourself. So I've given you, hopefully a few
confronting things here in these first couple of steps. Now, let's make it a little bit lighter and talk about just some of the business basics that you want to have in place. So this is step three. Just make sure that you have your business basics in place. I'm not going to list all of these things off. You can go download that checklist for [email protected]. but I
did want to just really touch on a few key things. A few key things that I often see you want to have, obviously, a registered business, an LLC, if that's what is required in your country, a separate bank account. Sometimes I see consultants operating off of their personal account. That is not what we're here for. These basics are what you want to have in place. The other one, I want to point out, is having a domain, a domain. So that your email address can be a professional
email address from a company. And it doesn't saymail.com [email protected] or.com. I didn't even know AOL still existed. But it does. It does because I see independent consultant emails from time to time that say aol.com dot. So we want a domain for your. Business that then you can attach your. Email to and have a professional email address. All right? Like mine. Melisa Liberman.com is an example. But what I wanted to also focus. On here in terms of the business. Basics are
the things that you do. Not need, the things you do not. Need to start anyway. And sometimes it could be three or. Four or five years in until you need these things. So let's keep things simple in your. Business for yourself so that you can create the clients you love to work. With and balance business development with delivering. For the clients in a very simple, simple way. And so without putting a bunch of projects on yourself that you feel like. You have to do, and
you're not really even realizing or thinking to yourself, why am I doing this? What is the outcome I'm trying to generate? And so the things that I want. To point out to you that are not necessary from the very beginning are a website, number one. Now, I'm going to get a pushback on this because some of you think this is super important. In fact, I talk with consultants who tell me, you know, Melisa, I want. To talk with you about working with
you as a coach. Right now, I've invested in a website. And then after that, I know that. It'S important to have a coach and. Then explain to me the sequence that they're thinking in their head. Let me tell you how many times I see consultants invest in a website. That has to get redone. How many times I see consultants investing in a website that has no visitors invest in a website that they realize is not the best use of the. Time that they had
and in the time that they had spent working with. The designer on the website and writing the content for the website, they could have been out acquiring clients. Now you might push back on me and say, well, Melisa, it doesn't look like I'm a professional if I don't have a website. And if you feel really strongly about. This, I would say rather than arguing with me, go create a website. But give
yourself one day. Use a wix, like a template from Wix or squarespace or even canva, sort of the long term solution, but you. Can create basically a one pager and a website almost all at once. Go do that. Don't spend more than a day because the likelihood of someone going out to look at your website is very low. And you might say, well, Melisa, a. Potential consulting buyer will go look at my website to see if I'm real. And I will tell you, eight times. Out of ten they'll go look at your LinkedIn
profile. So if you feel really strongly about. This, don't waste time arguing with me. In your mind about is Melisa right or am I right? Just go do it. But give yourself a very short window to create the website that eventually, over time, once you've refined your offerings, refined. Your ideal client profile, refined what you're messaging, and have built up a very clear specialization that clients would be searching for to find you. That's when a website, like a professionally designed website,
can really come into play. And be effective for you. Right now it is typically for consultants who are just starting out. Especially it's a delaying tactic that makes you feel really busy and productive, but. It doesn't actually lead to you acquiring any clients. And the same thing goes for CRMs. I see consultants investing in time and money in things like HubSpot where not Salesforce so
much, although sometimes I'll get people telling me they need salesforce. But for the most part, I think most of us realize that that's probably more robust platform than is necessary. But something like HubSpot or Hypedrive, those types of CRM solutions are very helpful to independent consultants. I can tell you how many days I've wasted setting up CRN systems when. I was very early on in my business thinking, oh, this is going to. Keep me organized, this is going
to make me consistent. And all it really did was give me a dopamine hit for a few days while I was setting it all up. I love setting up technology. And then when it came time to use it and
actually do the types. Of legion that would be connected to. That CRM, I still tried to get out of it because it wasn't something that I felt comfortable doing so this CRM or even a website can be a delaying tactic that makes you feel really productive and that you're doing what you should be doing, when in fact it is just your brain trying to keep you from doing the things that are more impactful but a lot less comfortable. Okay, so go down that load that checklist as well. Then you can look
through everything that you need to put in place. But I've touched on the most important pieces here, primarily what not to do. Okay, so now let's move on to what I like to call creating your. MV's offer minimum viable service. Now, if you're brand new, you might be thinking, I don't know what I'm going to do, or I don't know who the ideal client is. Or if I do this, I'm going. To leave money on the table because. I'm really specialized and that's going to. Cut out so much other business.
I can assure you, the more clear. You are about the type of problem you solve and for whom you solve. It, it makes it so much easier. For people to understand what it is. You do, who you help, how you might work with them or to whom. They might refer to you. When you're very generic, no one understands what you're talking about. And so when you're very generic, it can be very difficult for you to really hone in on client
projects because. People don't understand what it is you do and therefore don't really make the connections to the problems they have or that they are seeing with other people that they know that they could connect with you. All right, so the point of creating this MVP offer is to help you to articulate just at a very high. Level what it is you do. So that help advance conversations with your ideal clients, with connectors to your ideal clients, with channels to your ideal
clients. And start filling your pipeline. So the components of creating a minimum viable service for your offering, and these are in no particular order. I often start tackling one of these. And then move to another, and then. It helps to refine the one we just did. So there are four components here, but just keep in mind that this is. A very iterative, kind of fluid process here. And again, spend a day on this. Don't spend weeks trying to
figure this out because you're going to be wrong. I can almost assure you you're going to be wrong about this. When you first start out, you might not be clear enough, you might not be specific enough. You might realize that this, this is. Not actually what you want to be doing or the types of clients you. Want to be working. This will evolve. This will evolve. That's why it's called a minimum viable service offering. Give yourself a starting point. For
example, start with. Here are the four components of this. The problems you solve, the target ideal client, the outcomes you deliver, and why. Solving the problems and achieving those outcomes matter to your ideal client. Why does it matter to your ideal client? So, building this out, you can download that IC launch checklist. It will help you with some of this. Build this out and then go do. Some market validation interviews. By that I mean talk with potential.
Clients, talk with people in your network, see what lands, see what doesn't land. See what you're trying to have to explain multiple times. That isn't very clear. This doesn't have to be a complicated process. We're just having three or five conversations. To create some more clarity in your. Mind, to help you understand any blind spots that you might have, and to. Help you to the place where you. Now know what type of leads you want to pursue. So let me give you an example. Of a
minimum viable service offering. Might say, sound like this was mine. Not when I first started. When I first started, I made the mistake of saying I was a, I would do anything for anyone who needed it. That's what I started off doing for years actually. And I left a lot of money on the table and did a lot
of work that wasn't that fulfilling for me. So don't do what I did. But eventually, when I got to the point where I had more of a. Minimum viable service offering, it sounded like I specialize in helping series B tech startups to operationalize their implementation methodology so. They'Re more profitable, can increase client retention, and are able to scale past a. Billion dollars, something like that.
Or you may even just make it shorter. I specialize in helping series B tech startups to operationalize their implementation process. Then you're quiet, and then you get feedback from the market validation interviews, and. Then you can iterate it from there. And it also obviously depends on who you're talking to. If I said that to a family member, they would have no idea what I was talking about compared to if I was talking to someone who's a
vc, then I might be even more specific. So you just want to get to. The place where you have a minimum. Viable service offering and can then leverage that as a launching point to start filling your pipeline. Two more steps here for part one today, and then again next week we'll. Launch into the last four steps of this ten step process. So the fifth step is to create some initial pricing. I find that a lot of times consultants skip this step. They wait and see
what is offered. To them, and then they decide in. The moment whether they'll take that or not. And I want to encourage you to. Just create some initial pricing for yourself. I have a rate calculator on my website. We'll put the link in the show. Notes as kind of a long URL. So I won't repeat it here, but you can even go to ictoolkit.com, the letters I see for independent consultant toolkit.com. And if you look on that page. You'Ll find the rate calculator pretty easily. And so it just gives
you a way to again, we're not just blindly. Deciding to replace our corporate income, where this gives you a very specific step. By step spreadsheet that you can plug. In numbers and then figure out what you want to offer as your initial rate. You might start off with an hourly rate or a daily rate. There's nothing wrong with that. So often I hear with from consultants who tell me, you know, I'm still offering hourly work. I know I'm doing it wrong, but that's how it is right now.
Everyone starts somewhere. It's very difficult to leap all the. Way from an employee to offering value based pricing. So start somewhere, but don't fall into. The trap of just offering, you know. Breaking down whatever you made in corporate. And making that your hourly rate. Really think about all the components of. What gets built into the rate in. Terms of what it costs you to. Run your business,
what it costs in. Terms of taxes and insurance and that. Kind of thing, and then build up your rate from that perspective and then align it to what you offer from a value perspective. You know, the types of results that. You provide to your clients and that will help you to just triangulate and get more comfortable with that rate. So that is, step five is to. Create your initial pricing. Again,
that gives you an opportunity to. Approach your business from more of a. Position of strength versus to explain when you get to the place you've created a lead and you're talking with a potential client. Now you are in more of a. Position of strength because you know what your rate is or what your pricing. Or fee structure looks like versus just waiting for them to offer a number to you. Okay. For
today's episodes, the 6th and last. Step of the ten steps to launch or relaunch your independent consulting business is to create very simple marketing assets. I will repeat, very simple marketing assets. Mostly this is for check the box purposes and also just to have a place online for clients to go, potential clients to go. So the two basic marketing assets that. You want to have are, number one, a one pager. So a lot of times you'll get. The question, hey, could you send me an updated resume?
Or hey, could you send me your one pager? And you don't want to use that. As a call to action or kind of a valid next step. You always want to get a more. Tangible next step, I should say that advances the conversation. But of course, this can be really. Important to check the box. So you just want to create a. Very simple one pager, which you can do from all of that messaging that. You created
in step four and were able to validate in step four. You can also go to my [email protected], comma, the two letters Ic for independent consultant toolkit.com. and you'll find a consulting one pager. Template on there that you can download. And then just populate for yourself and your business. And then the other component that you want to address as part of this minimum viable marketing materials is your LinkedIn
profile. Go change your LinkedIn profile. Make it look like you own a. Business, because you do, you know, it goes back to step one, which is. Deciding you're going to succeed. Don't hedge your bets and leave it. As I'm interested in both full time consulting work. We'll see what happens. No, go all in. Brand yourself and your business on your personal LinkedIn profile, because that's where 80%. If not more of the buyers are going to look when they want to look you up and
see what your. Past experience has been, what you're doing. And so that's where the focus of really putting your messaging will be. And it's something that you can create an update really quickly. All right, so those are the first six steps to launch or relaunch your independent consulting business. Remember to tune in again next week. Where we'll go over the last four. Steps of launching a successful independent consulting
business. And don't forget to go download that PDF that, the ebook that I shared with [email protected] it will give you the checklist of what we've been talking about today and additional detail along with the four mistakes that you want to miss. So go download [email protected] and I'll see you again next week. Take care. Thanks for joining me this week on the Grow your independent consulting business podcast. If you liked today's
episode, I have three quick next steps for you. First, click subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to make sure you don't miss future episodes. Next, leave me a review in your podcast app so other independent consultants can find and benefit, too. And finally, to put the ideas from today's episode into action, head over to melissaleberman.com for the show notes and more resources to help you grow your consulting practice from your first
few projects into a full fledged business. See you next week.