How can you establish a strong brand as a freelance IT consultant?

Defining you niche can be a hard one but one easy-ish way to start is to make a note of the following: - Your passions - Your skills - Your previous work - Your desired outcomes - Market gap By combining these together you can find quite quickly couple of possible niches. They might be very specific in some cases so review them accordingly.

In portfolio you should focus on previous work done. It doesn't have to be a major bank where you helped them to rebiuld their whole IT (it would help though) but it can be a presonal project. Add details of the input you had and output you created. In case of the written word (audit, raports etc) try to bring out some details of interesting conclusions you arrived to (please be aware of customers privacy and security considerations). Possible partners wan't to understand what it is you are offering and at what quality. Show them.

This is not so relevant in some areas. Yes if you are consulting on UX and UI for web projects then showcasing your knowledge on personal website can be very beneficial. But in case of consulting your customers on hybrid multicloud infrastructure automation and business alignment, website won't be important. But some online presence is important. If you do not have a website then make sure your LinkedIn or other social media account is relevant and up to date. This will be your online presence.

Definitely create content, contribute to other's content, and have others share your content. The more (and more value) you contribute to the community, the more your street credibility and brand will increase.

In social media you can take multiple different approaches. Most importantly make a clear choice of how much time and effort you can afford to invest. In my experience 3 hours a week gives me around 2 posts and couple of engaments per week to post. If you want to build a big following and become a thought leader it will take noticably more time and effort. If you are willing to invest that time be aware that your consultation business can suffer from this. So plan out your time, time for your customers, for devloping your business and time for developing yourself.

Enhance IT Consultancy Brand From my experience the following key points matter; 1. Quality delivery of Customer experience. 2. This usually brings repeat contracts from same niche market. 3. Referral contacts are also created from there. 4. Ongoing skills upgrade in line with technological trends count. 5. Promotion and Publicity of the Brand strengthens it as well. 6. Through use of established Media Houses as well as Social Media. 7. Use of LinkedIn as a regular reminder to current and potential clients cannot be overemphasized!!!

Being a freelancer is hard work. The outcome of that work will become your number one reference and will either make your freelance career fly high or fall from the sky. So be sure that the outcome of your work is clear and understandable and what your customers expect from you.