Online Business Consultant

(Definitive Guide 2022) 

Do you find it challenging to start or grow as an Online Business Consultant? 

I hear you!

You’ve arrived at the right place to unfold the long held secrets of Business Consultancy...

If you're already an Online Business Consultant, or wish to quick-start,

then I’m thrilled you’re here right now!

This Online Business Consultant Definitive Guide is my special gift for you.

There’s never been a better time to be an Online Business Consultant!

The demand for Online Business consultants is at a historical high! 

More people want it. More Businesses need it to overcome their ever more complex challenges.

The demand for Online Business Consulting is expected to skyrocket over the next few years...

Can you be part of the successful few consultants who leverage this huge demand & are making exponential profits by fulfilling it?

The global consulting industry revenues (including HR, IT, strategy, technical, operations, management & business advisory services) were about $506 billion in 2019, according to Plunkett Research estimates. 

If you want to quick-start or grow your online consultancy business, this post will help you start or get you to the next level on this amazing venture...

Congratulations & Let's Jump In!

So Get Excited! 

Or do you want to wait & see if it’s the right path for you first?

That’s totally fine too. Just reading this guide will inspire you & give you amazing insights...

Let's first flip the coin & ask:

Why Most Online Business Consultants Are Unsuccessful?

Because they procrastinate & come out with all kinds of excuses not to do the work from the get go.

They don’t get any results because they don’t do the right things at the right time.

But if you want to super succeed as an Online Business Consultant or skyrocket your consultancy business, you’re exactly where you’re meant to be.

It all happens for a reason!

But you must be gentle on yourself. 

Be grateful for who you are, what you have & what you've experienced.

Be thankful for your life scenario & the person it has turned you into.

Develop a solid sense of self. Make peace with yourself. Make enough peace with your past so that you can move forward & say "hello" to the future that you can totally & predictively have.

Confront your inner critics & devils head-on. Don’t numb them out using medicine, drugs or alcohol or some other woo-woo practices.

These will never work!   

There is a reason why you’ve reached this point & are reading these word right now.

You probably have many questions like most consultants who come to me for guidance.

You’re in the right place to find some answers. 

It’s fine to ask for help.

Now, open your heart & mind to receive it. 

If you are a high earning consultant or dream to become one, this post will give you the right perspective & more clarity no matter where you are in your journey.

Read carefully to discover the precious insights & secret sauce to growing meaningful profits in the coming months offering your clients the exact consultancy services you’re passionate about.

Are You Ready For This Adventure? 

Your silence can mean a “no” or “yes”. I guess it’s the latter. 

Say it out loud: “Yes I’m ready to grow as an Online Business Consultant right now”.

Enjoy reading the following words, reap its lessons & most importantly - take massive action right after.

When you finish reading to the end. Write down 5 action steps you’re taking this quarter to grow your Online Consultancy Business. Why is it important to you? How will it make you feel to achieve it? 

Now, schedule it on your calendar.

Remember: If it’s not scheduled, you’re not committed & it’s not real.

Here's an overview of what we'll cover:

Who Is A Consultant?  And How Can You Become An Online Business Consultant?

Consultants are professionals. They offer expert advice in a specialist field. Examples include accounting, law, marketing, etc...

Have you wondered why many average consultants are making more money than you, despite them not being any more passionate, knowledgeable, talented, or skilled?

Do you know that according to the U.S Bureau of the Census, the average personal income is $31,099 per year in 2016? 

Families making $250,000 a year, belong to an elite group who represents the highest 5% of society in the USA!

Why are only 5% making more money than the remaining 95% of the total population?

According to MCP's blog, salaries for undergraduates, graduates, and entry-level consultants are:

Based on these figures, a consultant’s income is at least three times more than the average personal income from other jobs.

That’s why it is lucrative to be a consultant. A profession that attracts employees and entrepreneurs alike.

Let’s have a look at the major advantages of being a consultant...

But before we do that...

Let’s Dig A Bit Deeper

Stop reading now. No matter where you are in your journey at the moment. 

This is going to be worth your time. It will give you more clarity.

Write down a few sentences describing what type of consultant you want to become or dream to be? What are you willing to do and give up doing to achieve that? 

Notice that all these questions are about “What” you want and not “How” you will achieve it?

The clarity about the “How” will come when you take action. You don’t need to know all the “How’s” at this point.

Don’t take dozens of courses. Don't watch or read hundreds of videos or books. Don't try to figure out everything related to consulting all at once. 

You’ll never figure it all out anyway! 

Remember what Einstein said,

Shift Your Focus 

From yourself to your clients. Focus on their wants & challenges.

You need to learn what’s necessary for you to take the next step, not ALL the steps on the way to your destination. 

Think of riding a horse or driving a car. You can’t see all the way through to your destination. 

You need to see what's ahead of you to know when to make a turn, slow down, speed up or stop, or even make a U-turn. 

Learn what you need as you go.

The best way to learn is through repetition. 

The easiest way to repeat what you’ve learned is by discussing, sharing or teaching it to other people. With your friends, colleagues, prospects, and clients. 

You’ll discover when you work that there is no end destination or goal to your growth as a person or professional. It’s all about enjoying your growth journey and being grateful for it.

Your goals will keep changing & growing along the way.

The more goals you hit, the more new goals will arise. They move with you the further you go. 

The Most Practical Tech Stack I Use

There are some tech tools you'll need to setup your online consultancy website. The list below is what I've used and feel is the most practical and user-friendly:

Domain Name: Hover*
Your digital online business consultant address.

Hosting: SiteGround*
Your digital plot of land where your online business constant will be built.

Website Builder or CMS: WordPress*
The digital premises or building where your operate your online business consultant.

Theme & Plugins: Thrive Themes*
The look & feel plus functionality of your online business consultant website.

Legal Pages For Your Website*: E-Corporate Lawyers.
These are the terms, policies & disclaimers that legally protect you as an online business consultant. 

The Main Advantages Of Being An
Online Business Consultant

There are many perks to being a consultant. The following is a good starting point to warm you up. There’s much more to discover about the pros and cons of consultancy that are beyond the scope of this post. 

Suffice to say that these (below) are the ones I consider most important and would like to share with you:

1. A Flexible Schedule

Consultants have flexible working hours. It's the type of work that can depend on their scheduling. This allows for a good work-life balance.

2. The Joy Of Working With People

A nice social aspect of consulting is that you work with people. You’ll have the opportunity to share interests, and ideas. You can work with all kinds of people, in any language and in any field.

3. The Opportunity To Hone Your Skills

Consultants use their problem-solving skills on a daily basis. This is how they create value and make clients happy. This persuades you to think out of the box and stay creative!

4. Plenty Of Variety As An Online Business Consultant 

As a consultant, you can break the boring 9 to 5 routine by varying your schedule. You can have morning, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly routines. Tweak your routines to keep things fresh, interesting and varied.  

5. Constant Improvement

People perceive consultants as experts. It means you’ll always need to learn and improve. Follow new trends, influencers, thought leaders, events, and associations in your industry.

Don’t worry if it sounds overwhelming, your routines will soon become unconscious habits. The results are well worth it!

6. Exponential Growth Opportunities

Consultants can experience exponential growth early on in their business. Some consultants reach seven figures in a few years. They follow a proven process, show up, and do the work.

7. Opportunities To Work In A Wide Variety Of Sectors

Consultants choose their niche from all types of industries. Red and blue oceans! Every client has different expectations, problems, and wants particular services. Consultants get involved in projects of all kinds!

8. Attend Fun Networking Events

A consulting career can be glamorous. From fancy suits, big clients, private jets, vibrant communities, and prestigious events! Networking is crucial to becoming a successful consultant. It’s important to be sociable, interested in people and in their thinking at a deeper level.

9. You Don’t Need A Large Capital To Get Started

Your consulting business will not need large capital investment to start. You can start at home. Today, with the internet, an email, laptop, and mobile phone, anyone interested in consulting can start their own business. 

You need to discover what you’re good at, who can you help and what set of problems can you solve? What kind of unique transformation can you help your clients achieve?

10. You Don't Need A Specific Education To Be
An Online Business Consultant 

One of the greatest things in consulting is the low barrier to entry. No specific degree is required in most cases. Developing happy and loyal clients and long term relationships is what matters. You can, however, get certified by the Institute Of Management Consultants if you wish.

According to the Career Explorer website, 70% of consultants have a bachelor's degree, with the second most common being a master's degree at 28%. About 11% of graduate consultants held a degree in business, 7% in economics and 4% in finance.

The good news is you can be a consultant in any field you want. 

The Most Popular Types Of Independent
Online Business Consultants

Financial Consultant 

Finance is essential for every business. Financial and accounting consultants can help a business with its numbers and finances. They are highly paid. That’s why this niche is very competitive.

Internet Marketing Consultant Or Online Marketing Consultant

Businesses hire an internet consultant or what other people call online marketing consultant to develop digital marketing plans, online sales strategy, and internet advertising campaigns.

Pay Per Click Consultant

Businesses hire a pay per click consultant to develop digital marketing paid traffic campaigns. Mainly with Google Ads or other smaller online pay per click platforms.

Social Media Consultant Or Facebook Ads Consultants

Businesses hire a social media consultant or Facebook Ads consultants to develop their social media presence, campaigns and sometimes large communities or groups. Facebook is the largest social media platform. This business consultant job normally includes copywriting, targeting and creative work for paid ad purposes.

IT Consultant

Businesses hire an IT consultant to help with information technology-related plans, software, hardware, cybersecurity measures, and network.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Consultant

Businesses typically hire search engine optimization consultants or SEO consultants to help their websites show up on the first result page of Google when searchers look for their type of business. SEO is organic, meaning no advertising payments are made. 

Online Business Consultant Job

An online business consultant job is to help online businesses grow & scale. Online Business Consultants help their clients with online business strategy, tactics, systems, plans, processes, resources & tools to achieve their online business's master strategic plans.

Career Consultant

Career consultants are in high demand as long as there are jobs. Career counsellors guide their clients on how to climb the corporate ladder. They help them stay safe, fulfilled and productive.

Insurance Consultant

Insurance is important. Most businesses need insurance to help them hedge their business and other life risks, so an Insurance Consultant advises people on the best insurance options for their particular needs.

Legal and Tax Consultant

Legal and tax consultants are lucrative businesses. These consultants help enterprises with legal compliance, contracts, how to optimize for taxes, and how to avoid fines. A good legal or tax consultant can help a business save or make millions of dollars!

You can join online and offline communities that share your consultancy interest or niche.  

Specialist Consulting Associations

• Institute of Management Consultants, in USA (IMC)
• National Association of Computer Consulting Businesses (NACCB)
• Professional & Technical Consultants Association (PATCA)
• Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
• The Society of Professional Consultants (SPC)
  
• Airport Consultants Council (ACC)
• Association of Professional Communication Consultants (APCC)
• International Association of Professional Business Consultants (IAPO)

Wondering why clients hire consultants in all these niches?

Reasons Why Individuals Hire Online Business Consultants & Enterprises Aquire Consultancy Services

There are several reasons why individuals and enterprises resort to the services of online business consultants including without limitation:

Problem Solving Consultancy

A consultant solves problems. That's when a consultant rides in on his white horse to show the way and save the day.

Outsourcing Consultancy

A consultant may substitute some employees. This can save time, payroll money or energy of hiring new full-time employees. Sometimes it makes business sense to hire a consultant instead of an employee.

Expert Consultancy

A consultant must have knowledge, skills, attitude, talents, and passion. It makes sense to hire someone who has a solid track record of achieving the goals you’re planning to achieve.

Drive Change Consultancy

Consultants act as change agents or succession catalysts. Change is hard. Coping with new generations, emerging cyclic trends or market patterns change fast.

Startup Acceleration Consultancy

A consultant can help new businesses or startups. There are consultants who are specialists in bootstrapping or quick starting new companies. They act as a launchpad for new business ventures.

Computer Consultancy

A consultant guides employees on how to use a new cloud platform, widget, app or piece of software. Tech Consultants teach employees new technology, computer, or other related tech skills. 

Consultants need the right professional attitude to complete these tasks efficiently. The mindset is key.  

Since 2000, I’ve worked, trained and taught many thousands of legal consultants, entrepreneurs, business owners, and university students around the world. 

Do you want to know what we’ve learned?

Traits Shared by The Most Successful Online Business Consultants 

They Have Empathy

They have pure hearts. They are authentically willing to help. For them, consultancy is not just to earn a living. It’s about helping clients achieve their full potential. They want to develop the world into a better place.

Curious About How to Improve Situations

How to optimize for maximum efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness. They feel a rush of enthusiasm for solutions. They are issue spotters.

Use Both sides of Their Brains and Intuition

They are wise and connected to their inner intuition. They ask the right questions even though they don’t have all the answers. They believe that the right questions reveal the right answers. They are humble. They hear and listen. They facilitate.

Have A growth mindset

They take the extra mile. They get out of their comfort zone. They develop their knowledge, skills, and attitude. They believe perfectionism is the enemy of progress. The take bold imperfect baby steps. They don’t take no for an answer. They challenge themselves.

Share A deeper Sense of Awareness

They are logical, systematic and practical. They avoid cognitive biases and errors of thinking. They have self-awareness. They use their best endeavors to stay neutral. They have a natural talent for understanding people and their psychology.

The Most Common Biases & Thinking Errors That Successful Online Business Consultants Should Avoid At All Costs

Cognitive Biases

Anchoring, the sunk cost fallacy, the availability heuristic, the curse of knowledge, and confirmation bias.

(learn more about your biases)

Thinking Errors

All or nothing thinking, over pessimism or optimism, unjustified assumptions, fortune-telling, and labelling.

(learn more about your thinking errors)

There are thousands of online courses that offer several systems to help you start your online consulting business or as an independent consultant. 

Legal Errors

Commonly legal errors are not signing consultancy agreements with their clients to protect both parties' interests. Consultancy agreements is an essential tool for any consultant. It includes your scope of work, rights, obligations, remedies, indemnity, applicable law and dispute resolution. 

(Check Out The 7-Most Asked Questions About (“Consultancy Contracts”) Answered
& Your FREE Consultancy Contract Checklist & Contract Template)

It's by far Sam Ovens’ “Consulting Accelerator”.

This prominent online business consultant started his online businesses from scratch! 

Ovens grew his consultancy to a multi 7-figure online business in just a few years. In his course, the Consulting Accelerator, he teaches you the nitty-gritty you need to succeed as an independent consultant. 

Look no further. His systems are tested & bulletproofed to make thousands of online consultants succeed without any prior requirements other than learning and doing the work he clearly explains in detail. 

You can check out most of his students video testimonials too on his website.

This course is designed to help you work successfully as an Online Consultant in the simplest & easiest way. Nothing has helped me grow my legal consultancy business online more that this course. 

I too, think it's the best value for money out there.

I personally took it & strongly recommend it.

Get A FREE 7-Day Trial + A Huge Discount here!*

It's at ZERO cost & you can cancel anytime.

The Largest Consulting Firms In The World

• McKinsey & Company
• The Boston Consulting Group, Inc
• Bain & Company
• Deloitte
• PricewaterhouseCoopers PWC

Feel free to choose what type of consulting model fits you best.

What associations are interesting for you to join.

In any of the above-mentioned courses or companies, you'll be in the heart of the action with some highest-earning consultants in the world. 

You will know how to find your ideal clients. How to solve their most stressing problems for premium fees. 

If you feel that any of the above jobs or courses are a good fit, you have to invest and dedicate yourself to any one of these, follow the system and believe in yourself if you want to have a profitable consultancy career or business.  

My disclaimer is that success is not typical and not everyone will achieve it. There are lots of right things that you have to do right and at the right time. Good luck is also a factor. But as Oprah said: 

Be prepared to snag the opportunity when it comes to your door. So you can open when it knocks. Be ready.

If you can take these courses and do the work, you’ll be efficient at identifying issues, developing hypotheses, executing plans, testing it, measuring business metrics, interpreting attribution models, understanding data analytics, why it matters, KPIs, presenting recommendations to your clients, and much more sales and marketing tips and tricks to help you achieve your profit goals...

You’ll learn how to help your clients achieve their goals and overcome their challenges. Setting appropriate game plans to execute on vision, mission, strategy, and tactics.

You’ll use proven systems. Processes to hire and lead teams. Delegate like a pro, outsource and automate your tasks like Swiss clockwork.

You’ll have the tools, resources, community and accountability partners to help you succeed. You’ll set yourself up for success. 

As An Online Business Consultant... 

You need to set the right foundation for your online business.

You must treat your online consultancy business as a real business to support your future freedom.  

The right foundation means working through a commercial company. Not in your personal capacity. It’s very important to form a company to limit your legal risks and avoid personal liability.  If you act in your personal capacity, your personal money is at risk.

A limited liability company limits your financial risks.  

Find out how to start your own online consulting business in four steps

In most cases, the amount you invested in the capital of the company is the limit of your liability.

Another major advantage is optimizing for taxes. 

Businesses pay taxes on their profits. They first deduct their expenses from their revenues. Then pay taxes on their gross profits or what remains.

Being employed means that you get only what’s leftover after paying almost half your income in withholding taxes. So you get your salary after the tax is withheld by your employer at source and you get what’s leftover.

You can learn more about the legal steps to form a company & starting your own business.

How would you go about launching and marketing your online consulting company if you want to get the ball rolling and exponentially grow your business?!

Your Online Consulting Business

Phases of Development

Your Online Consulting Business has three distinct phases of development that you can achieve through online marketing and sales:

STEP 1: Research

The first step in starting your online consulting business is researching you clients and their challenges. Observing their common stressing problems (or dreams). Think pain and gain. Reach out to your circles to test your offer. You complete this step by retaining a few clients. This represents your proof of concept or your first little flame. 

By the end of this stage, you should be able to validate this sentence:

To give you an example, here’s mine when legally consulting online entrepreneurs:

It’s ok to not have a single niche. Especially early on when you’re starting out or if you’re a multi-passionate person. 

Don’t beat yourself up. Instead, prioritize and focus on a few endeavors of interest at a time. Ideally not more than 2 or a maximum 3 topics or projects in any single year. 

You don’t need to be the jack of all trades either.

Try to find a good balance pursuing your passions, in what you're talented and good at. The key is to focus on what you value most, serve your purpose, feels natural to you and who you are. And most importantly sparks joy in your life.

Imagine you have a set unit of energy and time. If you only value a few things, you have to give them the ultimate priority. Put the rest to rest. Don't clutter yourself with fluff that doesn't help you reach your goals.

It seems that success is more about what you chose not to do. It’s about how you manage your blind spots. What you don’t know. Rather than leveraging the power of what you do.

Being busy is not the same as being productive.

You’re in an era where everybody is competing to grab your attention. Don’t fall victim to these well crafted, written and designed campaigns. Beware of the too good to be true promises!

Learn to unplug, cut clutter, get rid of interruptions. Deeply focus on what matters to your business. Think of what’s sustainable and scalable. Be sensitive to your environment and the social impact of your work. 

First, help yourself then help others. Change yourself before you change the world. Like in-plane emergencies - take your own oxygen mask first before trying to help others!

Helping people is great, don’t get me wrong. We just can’t give what we don’t have. That’s the point.

STEP 2: Drive Paid Traffic

Pay for ads to speed up your results. This acts like adding gasoline to the fire. Your small flame mentioned earlier. You know you've passed this stage if you get a few hundred recurring revenue clients. This means you've done your ad hypothesis or test formula somehow right.

STEP 3: Scale

Scale your Online Consultancy Business through automation. Put repetitive sales and revenue on autopilot. Now, it’s time to grow your business, team, and scale. Online consultancy courses or memberships can fit here if you can productize your service. At this level, you need a few clients who pay you a few thousand dollars regularly. These recurring fees help you cross the 7-figure revenue mark and beyond. 

Beware though - you can’t automate what you didn’t validate!

You should tackle these phases in this exact order listed above. Like a video game. The next stage is not accessible before you pass the stage or step before.

One thing at a time. Bold imperfect and consistent baby steps forward. In the direction of your goals.

Make sure that you sell your membership site or course before you build it in full.

Build the sales, marketing assets, and the introduction module first.  Introduce yourself and give your prospects an overview of your framework or formula.

What If Your Offer Doesn’t Sell?

You don’t need to waste your time to build it in the first place!

What I mean when I say framework or formula is simply the basic structure of your system. The overarching concept. An overview of your general outline or method. Your particular perspective or unique angle.

Claim your knowledge. Own your space. Use your own creative terminology. Protect your proprietary information.  Declare your expertise in your marketplace. 

Do You Need Permission?

You don't need any permission from anybody! 

There is no official education or degree that can help you with that other than YOU.

Let your own consciousness allow you when it seems reasonable and feels right. The most successful people in the world who run the largest businesses are - school dropouts.

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Mark Zuckerberg are good examples.

If you still need permission and you've reached that far reading, you get it right here. Go take your first step now!

To be able to follow through with all that, you’d need to know yourself better. 

What are you good at and curious about? 

Study your market ecosystem. The stakeholders. The sectors. Niches and sub-niches. 

Speak to people. On both the supply and demand sides. Find out your dream clients. Identify them. Get their names and contact details. Sort their most stressing problem and wants. Reach out to them. Talk. Write. Listen.

What can you help them solve and achieve?  

Overdeliver

One word of advice I can give you is to Overdeliver. This is your core solution that offers this transformation for your audience, prospects, and clients. 

Guide them through their journeys. Show them a specific step by step process. The mindset, resources, tools, and systems. Offer them accountability and a supportive community. Help them build the habits they need to achieve greatness as second nature.

At your early beginnings, you’d want to reach out to people one on one. Use social media. Private messages to confirm your assumptions and genuinely help. To confirm your understanding. With consistency, you will find your solid proof of concept that gives the same successful result with each and every client. 

Resutls

At this stage, try to deliver results to at least your first few clients.

Document and record your process. Write down the frequent questions you get. Get feedback, testimonials, and reviews. Build your files and case studies. 

Turn your bad days into feedback and good data to learn from. 

You can use all these later for your sales and marketing. These will come in handy when the time comes to productize your service and scale.

Trade Time For Money

What you should take care of in the beginning is your 3Ps:

Position: It's how you position yourself in the market for your clients' eyes & perception.
Positioning yourself as a mentor & investor paves your way to what's coming next...
Pricing: What you should avoid is people who pick your brain for free. I'll get to that & the price levels of your fees in a bit.
Plan: It's your proprietary framework, system & process or IP that I hope you can register it as a trademark & process...

There are 4 levels of pricing your consulting fees...once you start to ask for money & get paid.

It's OK to trade your time for money at the early stages but not for long.
A flat fee to have access to you is a better deal structure for you.

What's even much better for you is to be a next level consultant. It's when you consult for percentage of profit (or revenue) or you mentor for a percentage in a company's equity.

Starting to build your equity in different businesses will come in handy to diversify when you reach the investor stage later in these blog post series. You'll learn more about that in the Investing Definitive Guide. 

You can check out Roland Frasier course on Consulting For Equity if you want to dive deep in this topic.

Work one-on-one until you book yourself solid for the first few months. You can charge high fees for this type of personalized and customized done-for-you client service.

Live feedback is where the gold is. Observe the trends. The blocks. Notice the common patterns that people struggle with and the similar goals they aim for. 

When the same pains and goals keep repeating and appearing over and over, you can start to productize your service. Here, you can focus on the 20% of the repetitive work that solves 80% of your ideal clients' problems. 

Automate 

Optimize your processes. Automate anything you can automate. Delegate or outsource any mundane tasks that you can delegate. Create your framework, systems, processes, templates & checklists. Free up your time as much as possible. Stay in your zone of genius. Your circle of competence. What you do particularly well and good. You can even delegate or outsource that and document the results. Nobody is irreplaceable. 

You want to have the freedom to step out of your business without causing any problems as soon as possible if it makes sense for you to do so. 

The more time you need to set up things before you go on holiday, the less efficient your business system is. 

Do You Have A Job or A Business? 

You’ve found yourself another job, not a business!

Having a business that runs without you offers freedom. It frees up your time and energy. It gives you the option to do what you want with your life and business. Sell it, keep it, pass it to the next generation in the family. Whatever. 

Don’t be the bottleneck. Trying to do everything yourself. Don’t micro-manage. 

You're the orchestrator, not the orchestra! 

You can’t play all the musical instruments at once on your own. Remember, business is like a music band or team sport playing live.

You don't want to be the smartest one in the room either! You need to surround yourself with a team that is smart. Find smart people as early as possible. Try to resist the urge of doing everything yourself or asking for help.

This Is A Bit Hard For Most Entrepreneurs

Particularly those who are multi-passionate, on a mission and want to change the world! If you feel or do that at the early beginnings, it’s ok. 

You're not alone...

It may be even recommended in some cases. Notice it when you tend to do and be everything. Become more self-aware. Be gentle with yourself though. When you recognize this behavior, find people who are where you want to go and ask them for help. 

It will surprise you how many experienced and successful people are willing to help you!

Look For A teacher and the book will fall off the shelf!

Successful people are not always good teachers or coaches. Others are busy. So don't take it personally. Don’t let anyone turn you down if they say no or don’t show up for you.

Think of external events as neutral circumstances. How you think about it, is what creates emotions that you attach to. How you feel about something will influence how you act. Your action determines your results.

Positive thoughts create good feelings. Feelings inspire positive action. Action causes good results. It's as simple as it sounds. 

Stay On Your Game!

Get ready to receive a lot of rejections. It’s fine. No risk no fun. At least you learn what doesn’t work and the list of what can work gets smaller and smaller. 

No risk - no reward. They go hand in hand. You can’t get one without the other. It takes guts to take a calculated risk though. It’s ok if you don’t have all the answers. Nobody does.

 In case you're wondering who’s Mohamadino. It’s my nickname.

Up your game. Evolve your mindset from an employee to an entrepreneur and later to a business owner so you can work ON your business, not IN it.

Following these guidelines, you can scale your business by running ads. The traffic from the adds will go to a well converting sales process (or funnel). 

If you’re short on money, then you need to reach out through direct messaging or cold calls to at least ten prospects per day for the first few months. 

This will make you reach 300 prospects or potential clients per month, or 900 in your first quarter. It seems reasonable to expect that you close your first few clients when you reach these numbers.

Common Temptations 

Beware that you’ll be tempted to do anything but these reach-outs for directly selling to strangers. It sometimes feels icky, sleazy or slimy. It gets better with practice, I promise you. Keep it simple and do the work. Close the freaking sale. 

Start a Digital Marketing Campaign 

Step 1: Search For Keywords 

Check out what keywords people type to search for your services

Find Keywords on Jaaxy

Or use Google Keyword Planner

Step 2: Design Your Sales Process 

Design your sales process based on what people want NOT what you think they want. 

So that your ads lead to free content (article, audio, video, course, membership site, or live session), include a built-in opt-in or squeeze page in it (app to acquire their contact details and links to your email autoresponder) that leads to a lead magnet (some more in-depth free content sent by your email autoresponder).

Email Autoresponder: Active Campaign*

This drives your subscribers to your paid offers (automated sales funnels) or an email sequence (series of emails) where you include your other offers, cross-sells, up-sells, and down-sells.

If you drive your subscribers to a sales funnel (several subsequent offers). It makes sense to offer a low ticket, then up-sell (subsequent offer if they buy your first offer) through an order bump or pop up. 

For example, you can sell a free plus shipping or a $9 book or ebook. Upsell them its audio version for $19. Then you can upsell your core offer (a $199 - $1999  workshop or course) to learn how to apply the principles and framework included in the book.

Find Out More About Sales Funnels with ClickFunnels*

From there you can offer your clients your premium offer or service. This can be a yearly $1999- $19999 membership site or a mastermind, for example. If you can sell a $1000 dollars course to 1000 clients, you’ve got yourself a million-dollar business.

I suggest you start by crafting your core offer (medium ticket) to people who know you. Then your premium offer (high ticket) to your clients. And finally, your front offer (low ticket) to drive more cold traffic or strangers to it.

To build a business you need to build a client list or an email list of clients using list building tools.

Your List Building Tools

To build the email list for your online consulting business, you typically need three items:

Item 1: Lead Magnet

A free offer that educates, entertains and inspires your prospects to quickly get the gist of your offer. This is like the amuse-bouche, you get when you enter a restaurant.

Item 2: Squeeze Page

This page is where your audience puts their email addresses to get your lead magnet. It squeezes because your prospect only has two choices. To give you his email address or leave. It connects to your email auto-respondent so that it delivers your subscriber a link to the promised lead magnet. Which can live on Amazon S3* in the cloud.

Item 3: Traffic

People commonly think that when they build their websites or sales funnels, clients will come. No, actually they don’t. You have to drive them there. Through free content or what’s called organic traffic. Or Through paid traffic or what you call advertising.

It's that simple and doesn’t need to get more complex.

Now, there are a few things To Figure Out.  How much does it cost you to get a new client through paid advertising if you chose this route.

So you need to figure out how much money your client spends to get your service. Your fees. You extract your profits after deducting all other costs, insurance, and taxes to get your net profits.

Your profit is yours, but don’t spend it all. You should reinvest a decent portion back into your business to grow it.

Having good enough margins is important to give you enough room to maneuver to cover up for your costs and ads spend. 

Test different offers. Messages or copy. Audiences. Creatives (photos or videos) until you find a combination that resonates best with your audience and prospects. Test one variable at a time. Many tools offer A/B testing capabilities.

Testing different headlines, sub-headlines, price points, and calls to actions makes a lot of business sense too. 

When you get a winner ad formula, you should know to the dollar how much it costs you to get a sale. A predictable system that generates clients to your consulting business is priceless.

You may wonder “am I not breaking even if what I spend to get a new client is equal to the fees he pays me? How can I thrive in this scenario?”

I Hear You…

This is a million-dollar sales formula just so you know. If you upsell your client a high-end service at the back end of the first sale, then you've sold a second sale at no extra cost. You’re not spending any more money for every next sale or upsell you make to that client. 

You already have the client and covered the cost of its acquisition! 

We’re at the hardest time to get new clients. It's nonetheless the easiest time to upsell an existing client who trusts you.

With every new sale you make, there’s a new set of problems that the clients will face, that you can still solve for them.

The sky's the limit as long as you’re not scratching the same itch!

A visual representation of a consultant online business development overview can look like this:

Online Business Consultant Infographic

The good thing about being a consultant is that you don’t have to stick with it for long if you don’t like it for any reason. You can shut it down at any time once you don't have ongoing consulting contracts. 

It’s a business that’s easy to exit. Since you don’t have inventory, premises, assets other than your own tears, sweat, and blood.

You Can Pivot 

Or you can even completely change your career. If consulting doesn’t spark joy in your life or feels like the right fit for you! Don’t worry. Your callings will keep calling and coming back to you until you answer.

It’s fine at this day and age to pivot and change career or profession. Most people do it two to three times throughout their careers. 

What other business models could give you this luxury? You don't have to have staff, or a product, inventory, overheads, or a specific license to start practicing consultancy?

I can hardly think of any other comparable option. Coaching has a lot of similarities though. We’ll discuss it in a future post and compare it with consulting.

Consultancy Books To Learn More

• 101 Ways to Succeed as an Independent Consultant, by Timothy R.V. Foster*
• The Freelance Consultant: Your comprehensive guide to starting an independent business
  by Richard Newton | 20 Apr 2021
• 138 Quick Ideas to Get More Clients, by Howard L. Shenson*
• The Management Consultant: Mastering the Art of Consultancy (Financial Times Series) by Richard Newton* 
• The McKinsey Way: Using the Techniques of the World's Top Strategic Consultants to Help You and Your Business Hardcover, by Ethan Rasiel *
• Cracked it!: How to solve big problems and sell solutions like top strategy consultants, by Bernard Garrette *
• The Business Plan Guide for Independent Consultants, by Herman Holtz*
• The Complete Guide to Consulting Contracts, by Herman Holtz*
• The Consultant’s Guide to Getting Business on the Internet, by Herman Holtz*

There are also other interesting publications & specialist magazines.

Publications:

• Consultants Magazine

• Consultant Journal

Go through a few consulting magazines or books. Then imagine yourself a few years from now being a high earning online business consultant Or starting your own online consulting business...

How Does Being A Wealthy Online Business Consultant Feel Like?

Being able to work from anywhere. On projects you choose!

Amazing, isn't it? 

Helping people with what keeps them up at night. Even, manifesting their dreams. It’s great!

To be the people’s and businesses’ saviour. Create jobs. Help businesses grow. Offer products and services. Make the world a better place. 

If this sounds interesting, check out this life-changing Consultant Accelerator Program* now to get an enormous discount coupon nobody else is offering. 

In addition to a free trial of Consultant Accelerator Course that you can cancel anytime you like with no strings attached or hard feeling. 

I strongly recommend that you also check out this Consultant Accelerator Program* that can change your life. It has plenty of Free Case Study in most niches, where you'll see how hundreds of entrepreneurs went from struggling to get a single client to $ 833,000 per month & how you can do the same.

No matter what niche, what experience you have, or how much money is in your bank account.

This program can change your life!

You’ll see in this blueprint the system & a step by step process of how normal people have built a 7-figure as successful consulting online businesses owners & so can you.

It takes a normal person work to become a high earning consultant. 

Nothing else matters.

(There you have it. You can do it on your own, or do a shortcut done-for-you with me.)

If You Know In Your Heart 

That this is what you were put on this earth for...

Or know that there’s nothing more meaningful in life than helping people improve... 

Or help businesses make the world a better place...

Not just for us but also the generations to come... 

Now look up & take action. Take your next step forward! 

Plan ahead with the end in mind & schedule action steps on your calendar.

Please make sure you don’t go to bed before you know what action steps you are taking tomorrow.

The world of online business consulting needs all these unique talents you now have!

Wishing you the best of luck & success! 

Now, let's move to the 2nd step on the ladder of The One Company Band For Digital Brands.

Ready to sell other people products online to grow your online business?

You'll discover how to grow your affiliate & content marketing brand, through growing your blog by creating & curating content that your audience can't resist to read & buy in 2022?

Check out your Definitive Guide To Affiliate Marketing Now!