Consultant from Unscripted

[alex90048]

Dear all:
In the book Unscripted , MJ gives the account of a consultant in the fitness industry who asked the forum some ideas about how to crystallize her knowledge of her industry into a scalable business. The individuals on the forum gave a bunch of suggestions, and she dismissed all of them apparently.

I, too, have a legal and consulting business, and I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find the thread that MJ references in Unscripted , as I think that some of the suggestions may be helpful to me, even though I am not in the fitness industry.

As a consultant, I basically work with entertainment and technology companies to advise them on how to make better deals. I also have a law practice that services companies in the entertainment/copyright/trademark fields.

Ever since reading TMF , I have been thinking about ways that I can scale either of these businesses. At first I felt neither was scalable, because as a consultant or lawyer, your first job is usually to assess risk, and be aware of it. But the people on this forum changed my opinion, and now I am trying to think of a way to scale.

 

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[sdbrownlie]

I'd look to understand how the big consultancies work. The partners just sign off on work their graduate word monkeys generate etc. Obviously because they're huge the products they offer are 'infinite' - they'll just take any money for anything. But getting started you probably want to think more strategically about what 90% of your work is and then productise that first.

The key is to first productise your business.

So instead of 'I solve everything' you have to list things you can solve as a product. I don't know what part of business law you consult in but ... 'produce an international trade agreement' or 'renegotiate up to 10 key supplier agreements' might be things that are a 'product' rather than 'consulting vaguely'.

For me, as an example, we went from our old business that just did 'linkbuilding consulting, training and SEO advice' to:

'making linkbait - content that's good/people will link to'
'outreach to get links to exisitng content' etc

Then you need to systemise your business.

The things you do/analyse/think about when you do each part needs to be something you could train and hand to a 21 year old grraduate (just using the consulting firm example but no need for a degree - you get the idea - just someone with a brain but no experience).

Then for each product you write sales copy/a landing page, and a process for the actual workers. So you can just sell it. Overview the final output. Eventually you hire a consultant who just does that for you and at that point you're in the fastlane. You own a consultancy where people buy specific things, delivered in a specific way, and managed by your replacement.

 

[Andy Black]

I'd look to understand how the big consultancies work. The partners just sign off on work their graduate word monkeys generate etc. Obviously because they're huge the products they offer are 'infinite' - they'll just take any money for anything. But getting started you probably want to think more strategically about what 90% of your work is and then productise that first.

The key is to first productise your business.

So instead of 'I solve everything' you have to list things you can solve as a product. I don't know what part of business law you consult in but ... 'produce an international trade agreement' or 'renegotiate up to 10 key supplier agreements' might be things that are a 'product' rather than 'consulting vaguely'.

For me, as an example, we went from our old business that just did 'linkbuilding consulting, training and SEO advice' to:

'making linkbait - content that's good/people will link to'
'outreach to get links to exisitng content' etc

Then you need to systemise your business.

The things you do/analyse/think about when you do each part needs to be something you could train and hand to a 21 year old grraduate (just using the consulting firm example but no need for a degree - you get the idea - just someone with a brain but no experience).

Then for each product you write sales copy/a landing page, and a process for the actual workers. So you can just sell it. Overview the final output. Eventually you hire a consultant who just does that for you and at that point you're in the fastlane. You own a consultancy where people buy specific things, delivered in a specific way, and managed by your replacement.

Productising your service could be a great way to scale a consultancy. I think there's other ways too.

I quite like having a few consulting clients that use my brain to make work. I enjoy it and learn from it.

I also have some productised service clients where we're building tools to encapsulate my knowledge. Less experienced people can use them, or I can do more faster.

A consultant can scale with combinations of people, processes, and technology. But more important is the business model I think. E.g. having clients continue to pay every month after the initial large consulting is done. Maybe that's a flat retainer fee or you somehow get paid for results after you've setup their systems.

I'm curious what other consultants suggest.

 

[Skroob]

A consultant can scale with combinations of people, processes, and technology. But more important is the business model I think. E.g. having clients continue to pay every month after the initial large consulting is done. Maybe that's a flat retainer fee or you somehow get paid for results after you've setup their systems.

I'm curious what other consultants suggest.

Alan Weiss is real big on the retainer concept as well. If you're in a knowledge field, getting a business to pay $x per year just to be able to call or email you with questions, sounds pretty good to me. My consulting businesses never got there though; I was building apps for money and couldn't shake out of that rut. If I was going to do consulting again (I always loved it, so you never know...) I would put all my energy into finding a way to make that retainer my number one product.

 

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