21 Ideas to Grow Your Consulting Business (Even During the Pandemic)

Authors: Elaine Biech and Halelly Azulay, creators of the Building Your Successful Consulting Business online course and The Consultant Quarantine Quick Start Hustle.

Whether your area has gotten the green-light to go back to work or you’re still anxious to get out of lockdown, everyone is off their routine a bit (or a lot) these days. We get it. If you have your own consulting firm, you have probably already completed many actions to enhance your business. We’ve collected ideas from around the world and from other consultants. These may spark actions you can take to grow your consulting practice. The ideas are in three categories: Survival; Planning and Project Ideas; and Marketing Ideas. Lock down or not, we’re certain you’ll get a few new insights from the list below. 

Survival Ideas

If business is slow, or even nonexistent, what can you do to survive a few more weeks?

• Continue to conserve cash. Create a cash management plan reviewing every line item to determine what expenses you could cut or reduce.
• Need to tap cash reserves? Weigh all the pros and cons for taking out a second mortgage, raiding your retirement, or giving yourself a stockholder loan.
• Stay in touch with your clients and prospects. Ask what you can do to help them, perhaps delivering a book to their homes, or even just a card to say you are thinking about them. Ask how their world has changed?
• Coordinate your clients. If you serve a particular department in organizations, facilitate a Zoom meeting with the IT, HR, or other department leaders from several of your client companies. Introduce them, ask a few pertinent questions, and have them share ideas.
• Plan to obtain a line of credit. Banks prefer to give money to those who don’t need it. So now is not a good time to ask for a line of credit. However, it is a great time to put your paperwork in shape so you are ready to ask for it in six months when you are back in business.
• Reset what you offer. Do you have a product that’s not doing well? Perhaps it’s time to eliminate it and use the resources to create that new service or product you’ve been thinking about.
• Revisit your crisis continuity plan. Yes, it’s too late to plan ahead for COVID-19, but there will be another crisis. You can be ready for it. Today’s experience will provide insights for a future emergency. While they are fresh in your mind, identify your failure points from this experience to prepare for the next crisis.

Planning and Project Ideas

The world has changed and your plans will too. Consider how things are different. How can you take advantage of those differences?

• Review your strategy. Create a short-term strategic plan. Determine what you need to do to get through the summer of 2020. What will you do in the next 30, 60, 90, and 120 days?
• Revise your budget. Plan to open soon but be conservative in your plans. Look very carefully at cash projections. And remember your clients may be in dire straits like you.
• Review your communication and marketing plans. What are you doing now that you could do better? What message do your clients need to hear? Will you market in the same way? What new channels have opened during the pandemic?
• Review your website. Is it clear? Do people know what to do when they reach your site? How can it be improved?
• Reinvent your business. How might your offerings change? What products and services do your clients need now? Have you asked them? Resiliency? Innovation? Agility? Online learning? All are needed now.
• Digitize your business. Think about what’s happening: Google is a digitized library and Zoom has digitized in-person meetings. What should you digitize now?
• Write a book. That book you always wanted to write is probably still unwritten. Get it started. There is still time to at least create a table of contents or conduct the research.

Marketing Ideas

Marketing is the lifeblood of your consulting practice. What can you do now?

• Review your social media. Update your LinkedIn profile. Or create your professional Facebook page for your company or your professional identity using your name.
• Create your one-sheet. This single page document showcases you for public speaking or pitching yourself as a guest on podcasts or for other interviews.
• Create a podcast list. Identify 15 podcasts on which you’d like to appear as a guest to showcase your expertise and reach potential clients. Draft and send your pitch letter.
• Plan your content. Make a content publication schedule for the next six months. Map out the content (such as blog posts, YouTube videos, or podcast episodes) and create a production schedule. Consider batching multiple pieces in one sitting while you’re already warmed up and the ideas are flowing.
• Reach out to a dozen former connections. Connect with people you had a close connection to but haven’t spoken to recently. Send an email or call them to catch up. Be genuinely curious in what they’re doing and what they’re planning. Offer sincere support. Being a giver with no strings attached is a great way to maintain your network. Value comes back, in unexpected ways and from unexpected sources. Trust.
• Refine your elevator pitch. Practice saying it, writing it, and get some feedback from trusted peers.
• Join 3 LinkedIn groups. Find groups related to your niche or area of expertise. Look for the ones with the most member engagement. Join the conversation in a helpful, non-salesy, generous way. Get engaged.

Yes, there are plenty of things you can do now to grow your business and prepare for the ultimate opportunity to get back to a more “normal” volume or flow of work. By taking proactive, productive steps during the downtime you may have now, you’ll be poised to bounce with greater successful.

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We want to help you!

As we watched our business world go on lock-down due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we realized that with so many in a similar situation, this might be a good time to offer a quick start-up event.

We’d love to help you use your time in isolation to think through your dream of becoming a consultant. And not just think: we want to help you START!

That’s why we’ve just launched The Consultant Quarantine Quick Start Hustle – a 2-day program that will take place on May 19-20, 2020. It’s 6 live, interactive online sessions plus in-between, guided implementation hustle breaks over a quick 2 full days, with us – Elaine Biech and Halelly Azulay. You get to learn and apply, get real time feedback and support from us and a cohort of peers.

We’ve never offered it before and probably never will again. For just $99, you can use this opportunity to invest in your future now and be ready to start when business re-opens. For more info and to enroll, visit https://bit.ly/QuickStartHustle. We look forward to helping you capitalize on the pandemic to quick-start your business and be ready to go as soon as we are out of isolation. Let’s do this!

About the Authors

Elaine Biech and Halelly Azulay are successful consultants with a combined 50 years of experience. Both are leaders in the talent development field, volunteers for ATD, and mentors and coaches for new consultants. They are the creators of the online course: Building Your Successful Consulting Business. Elaine has published 85 books, including The New Business of Consulting and Halelly produces and hosts The TalentGrow Show podcast where she interviews legends such as Daniel Pink, Beverly Kaye, Dorie Clark, and others.

“In Elaine and Halelly you've got two of the smartest women in the business. Draw on their experience and years of success practicing what they preach to build your own successful consulting or training business.” ~ Michael Bungay Stanier, Author of the WSJ-bestsellers, The Coaching Habit and The Advice Trap

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