With the right information at your disposal, you can be up and running by no later than tomorrow morning with your very own consulting business. Landing actual clients may take you quite a bit longer, but the core structure of the business will be there and your only remaining challenge will indeed be that of getting clients. So here’s how to go about it, keeping in mind that we’re targeting the kind of consulting business which requires no engagement beyond the digital world:
Register a domain name
Even if you don’t formally register a company for your online consulting business, a domain name can very easily grow into the brand you can work with for now and perhaps even forever if needs be. So register a domain name – it won’t cost you more than $10, but it’s important that you select a professional name which won’t cause any copyright issues in future and one which just by looking at it people would be able to tell what your business is all about.
Web hosting for your domain won’t cost you more than $5-$7 per month.
Install a ready-made CMS website template
Seriously, there are out-the-box Content Management Solution templates which basically operate on a digital turn-key basis, in that you simply install the template and effectively start running the business in a manner which allows you to automate some parts of the orders handling process.
Recruit staff
Any digital service which exists in the world can be sourced low one place and then resold somewhere else for a little profit, so you should start with recruiting staff. You don’t have to hire anyone right away. You can create something of a pool of freelancers via platforms such as UpWork, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour, etc, be it graphics designers, copywriters, etc.
Advertise your services
Now that you know where you’ll be going to get the job completed, proceed to advertise the services on so-called gig-flipping platforms such as Fiverr. The idea is a very simple one, which will entail simply advertising the service at a higher rate than that which you’d be paying the freelancer to complete the job. You can experiment quite a bit because you have nothing to lose, but don’t be greedy as far as the profit margins go.
Formalise internal operations
The internal operations you’d then need to formalise as the final step will make for an ongoing task, but you at the very least need to know exactly where you’re going to look when the need for them to be attended to arises. For example, you can use paperless check stubs as part of the accounting and payroll management process, perhaps in conjunction with some of that accounting software which offers different packages in addition one which can get you started for free.
Otherwise it is indeed important to formalise your internal operations because very soon your freelancing consulting business will start taking off in a way that will leave very little time for you to try and catch up as far as this formalisation goes.
