Chronic Slowlaner Seeking a Change and Mentor

[alex90048]

Dear all:
Thank you for allowing me to be part of this community. My name is Alex and I am a 36 year old "entrepreneur" from Los Angeles, CA. I used to hold "prestigious" corporate jobs, and then finally 6 years ago, I could not take it anymore. At least I was wise enough to get out of that mill. However, I then decided to start a "business" which violates just about every commandment of fast lane success from MJ's book: a consulting and legal business servicing companies in the entertainment and technology industries.

I am stuck, and sick of it. Even though I am making what many would consider to be a good income, I have no control (at any point one of my clients can fire me, which will constitute a big hit to my income) and I am being leveraged like crazy.

Here is my analysis of the business I have right now, in accordance with the commandments in MJ's book:

1. Need: my clients do have a need for service I provide, but I am far from the only person capable of addressing it. Furthermore, my clients are large companies with a great deal of leverage.

2. Entry: there is no barrier to entry to starting a consulting business. Yes, you need to have expertise which comes with time, but all it takes to start is a few phone calls.

3. Control: I have none.

4. Scale: it is impossible for me to scale this business, as the clients want to talk to me only. Plus, I have about 7-8 clients, and clients in this industry and for the service I provide are very difficult to find.

5. Time: I am 100% trading my time for money - I work 7 days a week and have no freedom. I cannot even take a vacation. The other problem I have is that with constant meetings in the LA area as well as a staff, I am stuck in this city until I can get myself out of this situation. The added problem is that I do not really have the luxury of just stopping everything I am doing right now.

I am here in hopes that I can determine what kind of business I should start in order to be able to replace my current situation for a better one. I would love to find a mentor whom I can speak to about my particular circumstances.

There is a saying that goes: "the more I learn, the less I know." This is how I feel - even though I am doing fairly well in my business, I know I can do so much more. I wish that I had picked up MJ's book 10 years ago or more. But here we are.

 

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[Robdavis]

Welcome to the forum.

You said: "there is no barrier to entry to starting a consulting business."
You also said: "clients in this industry and for the service I provide are very difficult to find."
Sounds to me like their are high barriers to entry in your business?

You also said: "it is impossible for me to scale this business, as the clients want to talk to me only."
Why can't you take on a member of staff and do one of two things (or both):
1) Introduce your member of staff to your customers so that they get used to working with that member of staff.
2) Use that person as an assistant to do some of your work tasks so that you are not so busy all the time.

You also said:
"Control: I have none."
What are the reasons for this?

From reading your post, it sounds to me like you have a good business, it's just that you are possibly a bit swamped in it at the moment and so feel that it is worse than it is...

My suggestion would be to try to solve these problems rather than binning this business and starting again.

 

[alex90048]

Welcome to the forum.

You said: "there is no barrier to entry to starting a consulting business."
You also said: "clients in this industry and for the service I provide are very difficult to find."
Sounds to me like their are high barriers to entry in your business?

You also said: "it is impossible for me to scale this business, as the clients want to talk to me only."
Why can't you take on a member of staff and do one of two things (or both):
1) Introduce your member of staff to your customers so that they get used to working with that member of staff.
2) Use that person as an assistant to do some of your work tasks so that you are not so busy all the time.

You also said:
"Control: I have none."
What are the reasons for this?

From reading your post, it sounds to me like you have a good business, it's just that you are possibly a bit swamped in it at the moment and so feel that it is worse than it is...

My suggestion would be to try to solve these problems rather than binning this business and starting again.

Hey Rob:
Thank you so much for your response.

My answers to your questions are as follows:
1. Consulting businesses in general have low barriers to entry these days. All you need is a cell phone. You don’t need to order a big MOQ as in e-commerce or develop an algorithm as in tech. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on marketing and so forth.

2. However, clients are difficult to find precisely because of the low barriers to entry. Clients in my industry find good consultants and then hire them as employees, offering them stability. As MJ talks about in his book, the low barrier to entry in the consulting profession causes a loss of intrinsic value in what I can bring to my clients because there are many others who can do the same as I can.

3. It is very difficult to scale my business. Long hours are spent in meetings or strategy calls. My clients want to know they are speaking to me and not a kid I hired out of college. I do have an assistant but my issue is not the hard work as much as it is the fact that my building has a ceiling on it, and I am maxed out.

4. I have no control because I Have about 10
Clients and if any one of them (or all of them) decide to terminate my services then that causes a big hit to my income.

It is a “good” business and I make decent money but in order to be able to make what I want to make, I need a business that can really scale.

 

[Jeix]

I don't think customers leaving is a sign of not having control. It's like saying "if everyone stopped using apple products the company would fail". Of course it would, that's why it's in their control to develop better products and make sure customers stick around and new ones are found.
An example of no control would be owning a blockbuster location and being unable to make changes to it because you've bought into a franchise and your only options are sticking to a failing business model or closing up shop and doing something else entirely.
You are hardly in this position in my opinion.

 

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[Leo Hartas]

I can understand the position you find yourself. I've been freelance all my life (in a completely different as far less lucrative field!) and found myself is a similar trap with a few clients I relied on who chewed up all my time. The good thing is that you have clients and a viable business.

The difficulty is the transition to something else more scalable.

Disclaimer! Do not do what I am about to say without careful thought and a lot of discussion with your partner/wife if you have one! They need to be on board and supportive!

If I were in your situation I would set a longish, one or two year timeline to do the following...

Really have a hard look at your personal expenses and see if you can slim them down to the bare minimum. Get a cheaper car, cut your household expenses, sell your stuff, even move to cheaper accommodation. Save! I don't know your personal position or how much this is possible. The idea is to give yourself financial wriggle room.

With a built up financial buffer start firing one, then another of your clients! The ones that take up the most of your time. The idea being to get yourself free time and headspace. Combined carefully with the point above you should be able to operate on fewer clients AND have enough savings buffer that you can afford to live if for some reason one or two of your remaining clients drop you.

Use that spare time to research other more scalable ideas. Your expertise in your field may be useful for smaller clients who can't afford your fees now but would pay for cheaper more generalised advice. For example, online training videos/courses/books they can access for a fee. For a period many years ago I was trying to get an animation company going. I had very little money so couldn't afford 'in person, one-to-one' legal advice, but would have gladly paid for a good course that generally helped me understand better the particular legal landscape I was entering.

Talk to your existing clients a lot about all the troubles they have, not just legal ones. Something may pop up that gives you an idea that may not be directly in your field but you can see as scalable. MJ's books are all about this.. listening for opportunities.

You had the courage to jump out of the corporate mill. I reckon you're half way to finding your dream life already. You can make the next jump.. just do it with care, thought, time, courage and research.

Best of luck!

 

[alex90048]

I don't think customers leaving is a sign of not having control. It's like saying "if everyone stopped using apple products the company would fail". Of course it would, that's why it's in their control to develop better products and make sure customers stick around and new ones are found.
An example of no control would be owning a blockbuster location and being unable to make changes to it because you've bought into a franchise and your only options are sticking to a failing business model or closing up shop and doing something else entirely.
You are hardly in this position in my opinion.

The difference is that if apple loses 1 customer, it hardly makes a difference. If I lose one customer it is 10-20% of my income gone. This is why I say no control.

 

[Jeix]

The difference is that if apple loses 1 customer, it hardly makes a difference. If I lose one customer it is 10-20% of my income gone. This is why I say no control.

The opposite is also true, if you can find a way to get and satisfy 1 more customer you can increase your earnings by 10-20%, a huge return for just 1 customer.
If you think you have no control over whether you'll lose customers or not, why aren't you as optimistic about gaining new ones as well?
You could be investing in employees and software to help you manage more customers, delegate and scale to the point where you don't need to work anymore. You are saying your customers only want you but there's huge consulting firms out there that don't rely on a single expert, why can't yours be the same? What steps can you take to replicate their success and achieve freedom?
The very fact that you are able to think and act to make these changes happen is the definition of control. If you were instead employed by a consulting firm and swamped with work your only choices would be to either suck it up or quit.

 

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[Andy Black]

Dear all:
Thank you for allowing me to be part of this community. My name is Alex and I am a 36 year old "entrepreneur" from Los Angeles, CA. I used to hold "prestigious" corporate jobs, and then finally 6 years ago, I could not take it anymore. At least I was wise enough to get out of that mill. However, I then decided to start a "business" which violates just about every commandment of fast lane success from MJ's book: a consulting and legal business servicing companies in the entertainment and technology industries.

I am stuck, and sick of it. Even though I am making what many would consider to be a good income, I have no control (at any point one of my clients can fire me, which will constitute a big hit to my income) and I am being leveraged like crazy.

Here is my analysis of the business I have right now, in accordance with the commandments in MJ's book:

1. Need: my clients do have a need for service I provide, but I am far from the only person capable of addressing it. Furthermore, my clients are large companies with a great deal of leverage.

2. Entry: there is no barrier to entry to starting a consulting business. Yes, you need to have expertise which comes with time, but all it takes to start is a few phone calls.

3. Control: I have none.

4. Scale: it is impossible for me to scale this business, as the clients want to talk to me only. Plus, I have about 7-8 clients, and clients in this industry and for the service I provide are very difficult to find.

5. Time: I am 100% trading my time for money - I work 7 days a week and have no freedom. I cannot even take a vacation. The other problem I have is that with constant meetings in the LA area as well as a staff, I am stuck in this city until I can get myself out of this situation. The added problem is that I do not really have the luxury of just stopping everything I am doing right now.

I am here in hopes that I can determine what kind of business I should start in order to be able to replace my current situation for a better one. I would love to find a mentor whom I can speak to about my particular circumstances.

There is a saying that goes: "the more I learn, the less I know." This is how I feel - even though I am doing fairly well in my business, I know I can do so much more. I wish that I had picked up MJ's book 10 years ago or more. But here we are.

The words you're using show your mindset.

Remove the word impossible for starters.

Small words make a big difference:

"I have clients but it's hard to scale because they all want to speak to me."

vs

"I have clients AND it's hard to scale because they all want to speak to me."

So now you know something you need to do to scale right? Figure out how to serve clients without it just being you speaking to them.


Consulting isn't typically low barrier to entry. You need to be able to signup clients and deliver your service. That's hard for people just starting out. And even if it was easy doesn't overcrowding just make it hard to signup clients again?


I don't think you've a problem with control as you describe it. Can one outside agency pull the rug from under you so you've no clients overnight? It sounds like you've a direct relationship with each client.


Stop working 7 days a week? Your health is suffering the way you're working. Start how you mean to continue? Force yourself to work 9-5 M-F or whatever your end goal is.

Consider raising prices and letting a client or two go. This may allow you to serve your clients better, and give you headspace to work on your business not just in it.

If your service is too niche then think of other types of businesses you can serve. If you know you can pick up more clients you'll feel less anxious about any leaving.

What's stopping you scaling? List everything out and you've listed your stepping stones to get there.