The Proven Process To Build A Highly Successful Management Consultancy Firm

Business success is what we all dream about when we start our own management consultancy business, whether our focus is on strategy or culture development, operations, technology or HR.?

But business success is an elusive target that many never seem to reach.

I’ve written this article to show you a clear, proven path to your next level of success - whatever that looks like for you. It may be to grow your revenue profit past the ceiling you’ve been at, build a business you could sell, or simply to reduce your hours and reclaim your freedom (through empowering your team and refining your systems).

Whatever it looks like - I’m going to help you get clear on your version of success - and explain why most owners of these firms are still trying to break through the one million dollar barrier at one level, or at the next level, get stuck between the 2M - 10M annual revenue window, and end up being trapped in the day to day operations of the business.

If you’ve ever…

·??????Worried about not having a consistent flow of highly qualified leads,

·??????Been concerned that your team can’t deliver with the same quality and passion you have, or

·??????Struggled to take time away from your business without worrying how it is going while you are away,

this article is the first step out of these traps - and into a new level of freedom and prosperity.

Now - because I know you are busy - I want to make it clear that I’ve specialized in scaling up and selling consultancy firms like yours (5 - 50 employees) for the last 25 years. I didn’t just start doing this yesterday. In my time I’ve started, grown and sold three firms of my own and honed the proven process to enables you to improve your consultancy marketing systems, team performance, and decrease the hours you spend in the business year over year.

What Is Business Success?

The most obvious fact is that business success means different things to different people.?For some professionals, it means to build a corporate icon like McKinsey or BCG or Bain.?You may feel that goal is out of your reach, but the guys who started those businesses started from exactly the same place you did, with limited resources and just an idea.?So, you could probably do it too if you really wanted to.

However, you may be satisfied with a more modest level, with a business that provides you with an income level and the freedom that enables you to have the lifestyle you want.?Just like Damien, who runs an IT MSP business that was, with our help, able to double sales revenue in 12 months, while reducing his work hours by 50%. Or like Helene, who ran a management consultancy firm with a team of 8 who not only doubled revenue in 18 months but went from working 70 hour weeks to taking a year off work to look after a new baby while the business continued to grow without her.

Let me put it to you this way.

In my opinion, the most basic level of success you can achieve in business is to have a business that runs profitably, provides you with an income that enables you to do what you want in life and allows you the freedom (time) to do what you want whenever you want.

Many people may want to go further.

However, I know that for some, that goal even seems out of reach.

Some people claim to be successful without that.

You may tell me that your business is successful because it provides you with an annual income of a million dollars.?My response would be, “That’s great.?You have made a good start.?But you don’t have a successful business until the business operates independently of you.”?Because if the business can’t survive without you, it’s not a business, it’s an occupation; you don’t yet have a successful business.

Now don’t get me wrong.?I’m happy for you to be earning a million dollars in your business as long as you understand that there is still some work to do to finish building your business to achieve real success.?Unfortunately, many business owners get stuck living in a business that is never fully built.?They may make a good income, but they don’t have the benefits of freedom and lifestyle that a successful business provides, if the business is still dependent on them.

If you are in this situation, it may be due to your concept of business success.

I find that most business owners haven’t really defined what business success means for them.

Most business owners I talk to are focused on the problems in their business and try to achieve success by working on improving the problem areas, trying to get their people to perform more effectively or efficiently, or to get more clients, or to achieve higher profit margins.?However, when you think about problems all the time, you usually end up with more problems.?What you think about is what you get.

The only way to avoid being consumed by the problems your business has (and every business has them), is to have something else to focus on.?What you need to focus on is a very clear definition of business success.?When you have clearly defined what your business will be like when it is successful, you can focus on doing what has to be done to get it to that level.

Most business owners never achieve the level of business success I am talking about.?The reason is they have never clearly defined what that success looks like.

Another problem that we face in developing our business success concept is that most business owners tend to think about their business from the perspective of an employee rather than the perspective of an investor.

When we own a business that we also work in, we have both roles. In the normal situation, we see the business as our vehicle to earn our living.?Therefore, we see ourselves operating as an employee in the business to earn our salary from what we do in the business.?However, a wealthy person who invests in a business has a very different perspective.

A wealthy investor sees a business as a vehicle to earn passive income or capital growth.

If the wealthy investor also chooses to work in the business, their role is often different from the employee owner.

The owner employee tends to work in the business focused on the work of the business, with most of their time spent on client focused work, sales or delivery.?The owner investor on the other hand tends to work on the business, creating systems that improve the business’ ability to generate better profits and capital growth.?The owner employee’s business is always dependent on the owner’s input.?The owner investor is always focused on building the business to run by itself.?The benefit of their involvement is that they work on increasing the business’ success, while the employee owner is focused on business survival.

How to Achieve Real Business Success

Achieving real business success follows a similar path to that of building an investment property.?You need to view the process as a wealthy investor would, not as an owner employee or as an owner builder would view building their own house to live in.

The house building process commences with finding the right location, conducting site tests and developing the plans for the house.?A builder could never build your house without a plan documented in black and white (or blue and white if it’s a blueprint, but you know what I mean).?Imagine trying to successfully build your house if you try to build the concept you have in your head without actually developing a proper plan before you start.?Can you imagine how disastrous that would be?

Unfortunately, many owner employees try to build their business without ever having developed a proper plan and without having done the proper site testing and location evaluation, i.e. environmental analysis and market testing.?This should be as hard to believe as it is to believe that you would start building a house without the plans and site testing.?After all, your business has the potential to be far more valuable than a house.

Once the plans are completed, taking into account the findings of the site testing, construction can commence.?Construction always commences with establishing the foundations.?In a professional practice, establishing the foundations is done by establishing marketing systems to ensure there is always a solid foundation of clients to build the business on.?Unfortunately, many consultancy business owners never develop proper marketing systems.?Often, their reliance on referrals and networking means they always struggle to find enough clients to scale successfully, because their marketing is haphazard and reactive.

Once the house foundation is established, the framework and supporting structure and wiring and plumbing systems are built.?Because these structures and systems are developed according to plan, they are purposely built for maximum effectiveness and efficiency.?In your business, this equates to establishing a sound organisational structure and developing the operating systems and management systems that will support the effective and efficient performance of the business.?Unfortunately, in many businesses that are built without proper planning, these systems tend to just evolve.?However, there is often little integration between the structure and systems and where the business is going.

Because the systems are just catching up with the growth, the systems are often inadequate to support the business as it grows.?This creates huge bottlenecks and limitations.?This is like setting up the wiring for a three room house, only to end up having to stretch it to an eight roomed house.?You could end up having to use 25 watt light bulbs where you should have 100 watt bulbs, just so you don’t overload the circuits.?Or you can never use the dishwater and the heating at the same time, because it will always blow the fuse.

Your house is so under powered that it creates frustration and difficulty for the inhabitants.?Imagine how the inhabitants of your business (the employees) feel by having under powered, inefficient and ineffective systems to operate your business. Can you really expect the business to perform brilliantly if it evolves like this, instead of being purposefully built?

After the structure is built, the roof goes on, the walls are clad and the internal decoration is finalised.?This process is analogous to recruiting and selecting the people in your business.?You need to follow your building plan to ensure you get the right fittings and fixtures and that the whole decor works well together.?Your business must also employ the right people in the right positions to enhance its performance.?This means that people should be employed as a result of careful planning, rather than in a reactive manner to fill a hole or to prop up a weakness.

Your house is now complete.?Does the investor owner move in and live in the house??No.?The house is let out to tenants who pay rent.?The owner earns a yield from the investment by way of rental income and eventually enjoys the capital gain that comes from the increased equity that grows in the property over time.?Once your business is properly built, you have the ability to earn income from the profits the business produces and you earn capital gains from the increasing value the business develops over time.?You need never work in the business again unless you want to.?The business is a saleable entity that has a high value if you sell it.

Where are You Living?

Are you living in your DIY business, or are you building it towards your freedom day when the construction is complete and you can enjoy the fruits of your labours and investment?

If you are living in a business that has an inadequate structure, incomplete walls and unsatisfactory decor, perhaps you haven’t really thought ahead about what success really means.?Most issues in poorly developed and underperforming businesses can be traced back to a poorly developed concept of business success and a lack of adequate planning.?Perhaps you are looking through the eyes of an owner employee rather than those of an owner investor.

The challenging business environment we see today results in many business failures due to never having established proper foundations.?Apart from the business failures, we also see many business owners trapped in businesses with inadequate structures and unattractive decor due to a focus on business survival instead of having a clearly defined and designed concept of business success and a focus on building the business to the successful level where the business operates profitably and free of the owner’s input.

If you feel trapped in a situation where your business is still dependent on you and you are not totally satisfied with the results you are achieving, examine your focus and see whether you have a clearly defined concept of success and a documented plan that is taking you towards that freedom day.?If that’s not the case, you probably need some professional help to plan and build your business as a wealthy investor would.

I don’t like giving generalized advice. To have real impact and value - it needs to be specific to you and your business. I invite you to come and do a Business Flightpath Debrief with me. Just as, for an aircraft pilot, debriefing is important to identify things that went wrong or not as planned during the flight: any issues or emergencies, as well as planned and unplanned decisions. Debriefing also includes reviewing performance, competencies and things that went particularly well or that you are particularly proud of.?

In the Business Flightpath Debrief you will:

·??????Identify the current marketing issues and the untapped opportunity for client attraction hidden inside your existing model

·??????Gain greater clarity on your vision and directional purpose for your business (that makes decision making easy)

·??????Understand how to increase your differentiation from competitors and to fly under the radar, making directly competing with you painful and difficult for others

·??????See how to maximize the opportunities you have with your existing client base

·???????Understand how to improve your operating systems to produce predictable revenue and client results

·??????Learn how to better train and leverage your team to be able to take over things that you are currently handling yourself

·??????Understand if your management systems are allowing you to make the right decisions to build value in your business and free up your personal time.

·??????What’s holding you back from transforming your business into a valuable, scalable and saleable asset.

The Business Flightpath Debrief is complementary and takes about 60 minutes.?That is a small investment of your time, when you take into account the cost of inaction.?What will it cost you now to go away and do nothing different, to keep the same problems you have and keep on trying to break through the barriers you face without help.

Simply click the link below to go to my calendar booking system to arrange your personal Business Flightpath Debrief now.

https://links.cometsuite.com/widget/appointment/strat-session/debrief

Go there and book now if you’ve ever wondered why your business isn’t as successful as you have wanted it to be.