Three Keys to A Successful Consulting Practice

Three Keys to A Successful Consulting Practice

There are three basic areas in which you can improve your practice’s performance immediately:

1. Top-line growth. The more business you bring in, the more profit should ensue (see #2 and #3 below). The most dynamic tactic for top-line growth: Thought Leadership. The more you are an object of interest and center of expertise, the more people will flock to you. No one grows through cutting costs. You grow through increasing revenues.

2. Improved margins. The key here is to mercilessly cut overhead. Too many solo consultants and small firms have excessive full-time and part-time help. If I can run a multi-million dollar top-line business, and have no ongoing staff, why do you need an assistant or office manager or receptionist or general factotum for a $200,000 business?

3. Reduced cost of acquisition. The royal road here is Market Gravity™. You must create multiple avenues for people to travel to reach you, and a siren’s call for your value to them. When people come to you, there is zero cost of acquisition and fees become academic.

For veteran consultants especially (or any professional services providers), if you’re incorporating methods to address these three factors on a regular basis, you’ll have a thriving, profitable, self-perpetuating practice.

How do you stack up?

© Alan Weiss 2010. All rights reserved.