So you want to become a consultant...

Happy Monday to fellow consultants making a living on their wits, experience, knowledge and the hope the business world can see and understand your value. I'm preparing for a day funnily enough with a group of senior managers who are thinking of joining our ranks. Thought I'd share some experiences, feel free to share back, makes me feel like it's not just me living in this parallel universe...

1. Network for England!
2. Don't think about taking the plunge until you have an anchor client to get you up and running quickly. A business you have worked with/for extensively who you trust ticks the box.
3. Don't panic and ever undersell yourself. Have a fee structure and stick to it, people talk! You'll set your level too low if you panic and too high if you take advantage. Both events will come back and bite you.
4. You'll probably be starting with just you, you can only be in one place at a time. Make that place in the heart of what you really excel at, your niche. Temptation to take something on that is not quite you is high in the early days, but see point 3 and beware!
5. Make friends and network with former competitors and businesses who chose your competitor when you were employed by someone else. Humility and courage are admirable qualities in scarce supply, this is a fresh start so start afresh!
6. Make time to attend trade shows and industry events and keep up to speed with industry trends. It's an incredibly low budget way to achieve point 1 and take conversations onto a new level that could benefit the two parties, including you!
7. If you're going to have longevity in the consultant world, recommendation/word of mouth and your connections will keep you going if you do a good job for your clients. Always remember you're always selling yourself.
8. Don't pay fees to recruiters/listings/directories etc...too impersonal, remember you're offering a very niche service, you only have to win one project to be busy!
9. Make sure your client understands the benefit of using your service...you can start quickly, plug a departing senior manager size hole as an interim or train a team who need your knowledge quickly without delay. Don't forget, not all clients weigh up all the financials of taking a consultant on. Sure the daily rate alone may look high to them, but illustrate savings on recruitment fees, sick pay, employment contracts, holidays, pension contributions etc
10. Network for England!

Hope you found this ditty amusing and maybe a little nugget or two in there will resonate. I've probably done all the above to some extent, well you live and learn!