16 Steps to Successful Consulting

A few years back, pre-Covid, I left my job after a 3-year stint in corporate America — my first in decades — without a second thought.

I was part of a corporate house cleaning. And I was greatly relieved because I was quite literally gathering dust in an intrapreneurial role that never quite came to fruition. (But that’s another story.)

When it was go-time, I marched up to HR, turned in my Amex card, my laptop, iPhone and my office key. I rode the elevator down to the lobby with my backpack slung over my shoulder and walked out of the building. No tears. No glances back. No sad good-byes.

Good-byes are not my thing.

The following Monday, I woke up, sat at my home office desk (in my pjs) with my daily eight shots of espresso and resumed my life as a branding consultant. A job I had done and was highly successful at for over 25 years. The transition was like riding a bicycle. It felt perfectly natural.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I was proud to be part of an elite corporation. I relished the validation. I really loved my title — SVP of Conceptual Innovation.

I adored the admiration. “That’s a really cool job,” people would tell me all the time. And it was. On paper, anyway.

I enjoyed the perks — a Cadillac health insurance plan, 501K contributions, bonus opportunities, stock options, 4 weeks paid vacation (that I never seemed to take), a company car and gratis product.

But despite all that and the relative autonomy my particular role afforded me, I still felt stifled. More like suffocated. The structure, the politics, the slow pace, the endless meetings and the never-ending No’s frustrated me. And my grumpiness became obvious. So much so that my boss told me in my semi-annual review, “Robin you are not corporate.”

She was 100% right. I am definitely not corporate. Give me freedom to call my own shots. Make my own hours. Binge work then take a break.

I thrive on the networking and the ability to meet new people and do something different every day. The unpredictability excites me.

There are no endlessly repetitive meetings with no solution. Clients are generally happy to see and talk to me — and are respectful of my expertise.

I can pick and choose who I work with. On projects that excite and inspire me.

Yup, life as a consultant is sweet! But it’s definitely not for everyone.

For those who are considering consulting — either by choice or circumstance — the transition is not always as seamless as mine. In fact, it can be downright daunting. “Who am I without my title?” “How do I structure my day?” (BTW: The word structure should be a dead giveaway.) “Where will I get clients?” “How much do I charge?” These are questions people ask me all the time.

Consulting definitely has lots of pros. The hours are basically yours. You control your time. You can go to the gym mid morning. Nap in the afternoon. No endless repetitive meetings with no solution.

For the most part, you don’t have to work for assholes — unless you want to. You can pick and choose your clients. You are creatively challenged in a whole new way. You are not bound by some company code of conduct.

So, if you’re about to unlock the golden handcuffs and leave life in the corporate world for the unknowns of consulting, here are some tips I’ve learned along the way.

1. Be sure to get an LLC or Limited liability company. It’s a way to protect yourself and your personal assets. It ensures that you’re not on the hook for business liabilities. And due to tax considerations, many companies don’t want to hire individuals.

2. Read the fine print on all NDAs. Make note the term of confidentiality. It can range from 2–10 years which in the world of social media is a lifetime. Check out the mutual indemnification. It may sound like legal mumbo-jumbo until your client is deposed and you become an accessory. Been there, done that!

3. Be trustworthy. Never gossip or tell tales out of school. You are your reputation and you won’t last long as a consultant if you blab about someone’s business. Trust is crucial in consulting.

4. Learn to ride the roller coaster ride. Consulting is often feast or famine. Prospective clients can make you jump through hoops — hurry up and wait — then they go dark for no reason. And as frustrating as it is, these days it can literally take weeks or months to sign up a project.

I believe that work begets work. During slow times, do some pro bono. It gives you an opportunity to talk about a project you have underway. Nobody needs to know it’s a freebee. And it makes you sound busy and desirable. Which is often a client turn on.

5. Develop your Spidey-sense about time wasters and tire kickers. They are numerous. They ask for repeat meetings. Spend most of the meeting talking about themselves — not the project. They hem, haw and haggle over price. And request countless revisions to a proposal. FYI: Never ever do spec work. That’s what clients should be paying for.

6. Treat every client like they are your one and only. Clients are like lovers. They know you’re probably seeing other people, but they don’t want to hear about them. If you can’t make a requested meeting or deadline, propose an alternative, but there’s no need to say why.

7. Remember, everybody loves a lover. Had a bad day? Got stuck on the subway? No one wants to hear about it. Save it for when you get home. Put a smile on your face and get on with it!

8. Be generous to others. Many clients will come from referrals and word of mouth. To succeed as a consultant, you need to build quality relationships. I believe in “Give Get.” When opportunities come your way that are either not in your wheelhouse or you’re booked (blessed be!!!), be sure to refer someone in your network. And don’t ask for referral fees.

I also don’t subscribe to the adage: If you pick my brain, you pick my pocket. It may not always be the best business practice, but it pays to help others with your time and advice. What you put out into the universe, comes back to you big time.

9. Titles are for books — not for small businesses. As a consultant, and often a solopreneur, you are chief cook and bottle washer. You are the mail room and the CEO. There’s no such thing a grunt work! And the more diverse your experience, the better your business will be.

10. Build a template for proposals. You don’t want to reinvent the wheel every time you pitch a new project. Creating a template will ensure your work is consistent and covers all of the relevant points so the quality of your service stays at its best. I have an InDesign document that I customize for my clients. It begins with the Urgency (my Insurgent way of describing the Problem), followed by The Insurgency — a bit of a teaser on my solution. Just enough to excite my client. I then have a menu of services — also in my proprietary brand language: Detonate, Articulate, Illuminate, Active and Accelerate.

11. Charge fairly and be flexible. Pricing is a catch 22. You need to charge enough to stay in business but be flexible enough to be fair and equitable to your clients. As a general rule: ask for 10% more than you think you should to cover your project management, office expenses and overhead, if any, as well as the work itself.

Sometimes — as with start-ups — clients have limited budgets. You may decide to reduce your fee to get some experience in a new category or because you think the current work may translate to on-going future assignments. Sometimes the project is just plain too sexy to pass up. It’s called dynamic pricing, and lots of businesses do it.

12. Avoid hourly rates. They can make you seem like a commodity. Bill by the scope of work and value of the deliverables. One formula; decide how much you’d like to earn in a year and do the math to turn that figure into an hourly rate then multiply that by how many hours you expect to spend on the project.

13. Ask for a percentage upfront. It sets the tone and says that you take yourself seriously. It also protects you from getting screwed. Yes, it does happen. And more often than you can imagine. Then bill the remainder of the fee based on milestones. Don’t forget to add an expiration date to your fees and timelines. This informs potential clients that your services are valuable.

14. Always have an iron or two in the fire. To succeed as a consultant, you’ll need to devote as much time acquiring new business as to doing the job at hand. Be on the lookout for your next opportunity. Talk to anybody. Talk to everybody. You never know where your next gig will come from. Once you’ve solved the project problem, always be ready to move on.

15. Never fear categories outside of your wheelhouse. It’s your skill as a marketer or creative that counts not just your industry expertise. The fresh thinking an outsider can provide is often a real asset to a client that is trapped in the same-old, same-old solutions.

16. Be prepared to wave your best ideas goodbye. I call it a “Moses Moment.” You can lead the people to the land of Israel — get your client to buy into your strategy for redemption. Then it’s anybody’s guess how religiously they’ll stick to the program. In other words, you can’t control the execution. I often find myself delivering innovative concepts only to be frustrated from afar as I watch marketing or in house creative slash the budget or imprint their own ideas upon a solid single-minded idea and turn it into a pile of poop.

So, there you have it. My Sweet 16 tips for consulting success.

Last word of advice: Don’t quit your day job…unless you are: resilient, patient, self-motivated, agile, confident. And you’ve already purchased a ticket to the Cyclone.