Can Consultancy Be An Easy Way To Make Money?
December 31, 2011 1 Comment
Many people are looking for ways in which they can earn a little more money or even give up their day-to-day job altogether. One of the easiest ways to do this is to choose the career or business they are already in and simply start selling their services themselves. This is effectively starting a consultancy in a subject area that you know most about.
The immediate reaction to this suggestion is that the new business is the same as the old. The whole point of wanting to get out of the day job was to get away from what you were doing. Whatever consultancy experience is used, owning your own business is going to be better than being employed by someone else. No matter what industry or sector, being self-employed is the key requirement when wanting to give up a day job and start new business opportunities.
Starting with your most familiar skills will assist the start-up of your new business. You know what customers want, you have the skills to give them and you might even know a few potential clients to start with. Of course you will have to be careful not to “poach” clients from your old boss in a way that might be illegal.
So how do you choose what skills you have that might be of use and how do you decide whether or not there will be a chance of easy money-making selling them to clients? Remember, you will probably be charging three, four, five or more times as much per hour as you were being paid before. Can you convince somebody that your services are worth as much? You have to remember, you are charging more because that it what the client is used to paying, only previously the profit element above your salary went to your boss paying him and covering his overheads.
Most skills and professions can be tailored into a consultancy. The obvious ones include accountancy, bookkeeping, legal, property surveying, banking, languages and the like. Every single one can form the heart of a business that can be developed into a profitable hourly charge. However, there are many more jobs that can be turned into consultancy and thereby provide an easy and quick way to make extra money.
Think of where you might work now, in a printing shop, builder’s yard or factory. Various areas connected to the safe or efficient running of a business could be the foundation for a consulting company. The areas that you are familiar with need to be identified, or areas that you want to find more about – to polish off your skills.
For example, you might have been involved in your company’s attempts to obtain some form of accreditation for a quality mark, or alternatively assisted with the application for government funds as a grant for some project. These are both areas where you can quickly research a bit further into each subject, then sell yourself as a consultant able to help those who are seeking similar things.
There is no end to the diversity of skills a consultant can sell. For a consultant to know just a little bit more than the potential customer is a critical point. The next critical point is the ability to convince the potential customer that you know a lot more than them!
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