Three Tips to Start a Consulting Business, pt.3
I am proud to bring you the last tip to consider before you start your consulting business. If you haven’t done so yet, I invite you to read part 1 here, and part 2 here. The previous two articles offer details to the summary listed below. Here’s a summary:
Tip 1. Establish your reputation before striking out on your own
- Join a Professional Associations and participate
- Network Within Local Communities
- Offer content through your own website
Now that you’re all caught up, lets get right down to business and discuss the next tip.
Tip 2. Partner with another firm while building your business
- Join a complementary company
- Offer your expertise/service as a freelancer
Now, I am proud to bring you the last tip to consider before starting your own consulting business, differentiation.
Related Content: How Do You Price Your Products? Here’s a simple How-To series
Tip 3. Differentiate your products and services
As is the case with most businesses, in order to be successful and 
stand the test of time, a business must offer distinct advantages. One of the best advantages is offering a different product or service than the competition. Here are a few suggestions to differentiate your products and services accordingly:
Product.
Offer a product that is unique or trendy. This in itself is easier said than done, however, as an industry expert you have keen insight unto processes, tools and possible products that can revolutionize an industry or niche.
Extend the product by adding complementary products or service add-ons to make the product more useful to the customer. An example, if you were to offer a guidebook as part of your consulting services, you may choose to include some guides, checklists, database templates, etc. It truly depends on the field in which you operate.
Service.
Understanding that consulting can be considered the product AND 
the service, when I refer to service in this example I mean the customer service portion of consulting. How do other consultants in your field provide service? What works? What doesn’t? What additional value can you furnish? What is the delivery of said service and is there any way to streamline it or make it more responsive to the customer’s needs?
Although consulting is often delivered on an hourly basis, I suggest packaging the consulting service based on a clearly defined, tangible outcome. This will differentiate you from competitors and demonstrate to your client you are a results-driven professional, and not just another ‘expert’ seeking to drain their accounts.
You may find it important to communicate and educate your client on your distinct differentiation. Intent is a tricky phenomena to communicate to your client, and as such, I find it important to provide clear objectives that describe how you will be evaluated.
El Fin
I hope you found this article series insightful, and encourages you to 
launch a successful consulting business in your area of expertise. Thank you for all of your comments, likes and shares. Are you still considering launching your own consulting business? Do you have any tips to share? Please share with us, we’d love to hear about it!