6 ways to conquer challenges of being a consultant
Working as a consultant can be challenging, especially in our industry where we are trying to combine family / life balance with customer satisfaction and meeting deadlines.
Among the most common problems is developing good time management skills and learning to balance all of these new responsibilities. When working alone, staying focused and completing projects on time is critical. Depending on your availability and desired frequency to work, maintaining your workload from existing customers while also securing new work to keep the income steady can be just as important, let alone your family demands.
Here are six simple tips to help you stay focused and on track as a consultant.
1. Establish set work hours
You may be working for yourself but it is more important than ever to maintain a set schedule. When you work is completely up to you, however, determining a standard time that you work provides a much-needed routine to keep you focused and allows your clients time should they need to contact you. Maintaining a fixed work schedule is simply a way of creating a good, consistent work habit.
2. Create your own work area
Having an office area does not mean you have to pay rent for a professional office. Instead, most consultants make the move into this role to enjoy the benefit of working out of their homes and being close to family. The key to staying focused when working from home is having the right office space. It should allow for plenty of privacy, be in a quiet area so you can concentrate on work, provide plenty of room for your work, and should include all working necessities - such as phone, fax, computer, desk and file storage.
3. Finalise your fee structure
It may seem obvious yet many consultants neglect to establish a written fee structure for work. Ideally try to create a firm price list for your services that you can readily provide to prospective clients, or refer to when submitting a proposal for work. The most common pricing method is to set a fixed, hourly rate. In addition, you may want to set a flat fee for certain services or projects.
4. Create your portfolio
Depending on what type of work you do, it is recommended that you create a professional portfolio of your work. Whether you are a copy writer, a graphic artist, secretary or web developer - you should assemble examples of your previous work in a nice binder or portfolio book. This allows you to have work samples readily available and neatly organised to show prospective clients. Not only does it enhance your credibility as a consultant but it is a good way to showcase the range of your capabilities. In addition, you may also want to include short customer testimonials along with the work samples for an added boost of credibility.
5. Use professional business cards
How many times have you been out and met someone you may want to do business with but neither of you have a business card. Scribbling contact information on the back of a shopping list is not the best approach for marketing yourself as a professional consultant. Keeping a simple business card with basic information on-hand at all times, remains the best method for trading contact information, it also shows that you are a legitimate professional.
6. Join an online community
Depending on how often you want to work, by joining an online community with other consultants, such as Consulting WorX (www.consultingworx.com.au), means businesses can come to you with new projects. This is an ideal way to market yourself and your skills to prospective clients without having to spend large amounts of time or money marketing yourself independently
By using Consulting WorX you can have:
Choice You get to choose from a noticeboard of jobs. Select one that suits your availability and skill level, perhaps one that is close to home or near the beach in summer!
Flexibility You can work when you want, take school holidays off, never work Fridays, go hard for 6 months to fund an overseas trip. Flexibility is the biggest advantage of being a consultant or freelancer.
Experience By working for a succession of growing businesses, you will develop skills that you would never learn if you just stayed with the one company.
More work If you are professional and effective, you will get return business, or be recommended to other organisations through the Consulting WorX system feedback.
Patrina Kerr is a Director and Co-Founder at Consulting WorX Pty Ltd.
Consulting WorX www.consultingworx.com.au is a website that connects businesses and consultants for various projects across Australia. We provide a new way of doing business that gives consultants and businesses a better work life balance as well as a great online network and community.
If you want to use this article on your website you may but please include the reference back to Consulting WorX.
