How to be a consultant

We’re in a time of exceptional layoffs and uncertainty. A few people I know are weighing up options of taking a full time role vs being a consultant. Working for yourself and managing your own time sounds attractive, and it is, but it takes some work to get right.

Having been through the consulting ring a few times I wanted to put together a few tips and things to think through to decide if and how you want to be a consultant. These are based on my experience and often things I have learnt the hard way. I hope you find them useful. Please add anything I have missed in the comments, or feel free to contact me if you have questions.

Don’t make people work to find out how they can use you. Spend time thinking about your proposition. What types of company can you help? At which point in the product lifecycle? Think about 3–5 specific things you can help a company with. You are taking out guesswork for people and making it easy for them to understand how to work with you.

Write a short bio with career highlights and tangible success stories. You need this to show people that you can do what you say you can.

Set your rate. How will you bill your time? Personally I don’t like billing by the hour, mostly because I feel like I have to justify every single thing I do, which takes time in itself. I bill by the day mostly, with a half day minimum. When I write a proposal I am very clear on outcomes and days needed to get to milestones and desired outcomes. It’s highly unlikley you can negotiate a rate up so start with a relatively high rate that you can come down from. What number should it be? Think about the highest salary you would be on, add in a little extra for benefits and holidays that you would have got as a full time employee, then add a little bit more. This gives you a point to negotiate from. If it’s a single day on a project stick with your highest rate. If it’s ongoing or a chunck of time, come down a little and discount more as you get more work. Just think that a few days as a one off project is very different to 2 days/week for a year, or doing work that you tolerate vs doing work that you love. This may take a little trial and error. If you discount a rate always take something away or ask for something more.

Build a simple one-page website. No, LinkedIn is not enough. There are a number of tools that make it exceptionally easy. I know nothing about programming yet it took me about 30mins to get a decent website up. I use Strikingly which I highly recommend for the above reasons. You shouldn’t be expecting a lot of people to come across you, but you need something to point people to that highlights those few points you drafted before. And have something that other people can point potential clients to.

Here’s a few example pages for inspiration:

• Jodie Hopperton (my website) is simply about me, my background and what I can offer.
• Esra Dogramaci has looked at how she combines her experience and passion for digital news alongside her passion for yoga. She links them with connectivity of people, and connectivity of the body.
• Neeta Shah has leveraged her financial background and know-how from large financial institutions to offer herself as a ‘fractional CFO’ for startups.
• Or check out this Twitter thread asking: Who has the sleekest, cleanest personal website you’ve seen?

Use your network. If you have built up good will in your career, now is the time to use it. Choose 5–10 people that are well connected and/or have influence in their company/industry. Write to them explaining that you are starting a new chapter, what you are looking to do (i.e. your well thought out yet succinct proposition) and would be grateful if they could pass this onto anyone they think could benefit from your help.

If you need inspiration, at the end of this post is an example of one I have written that led to immediate work.

Promote yourself. Yes, I know many people hate this but why would someone else think you’re good enough if you don’t? I say promote but I mean talk to people and tell them you are out there. DO NOT OVERSELL. Listen just as much as you talk and ask people for advice. I promise it is not that bad. For reference Kaley Lillibridge Nichol hates this and I love it. I see it as a chance to go out and talk to people I like and respect in the industry. And although she says she hates it Kaley will grudgingly tell you that once she starts talking to people she really enjoys it. Either way, you need to do this if you go down the consultant route. Period. Here is where LinkedIn comes in. And Twitter. In fact all social media can help if you have relevant followers on that platform. Don’t forget to use hashtags and tag people for maximum effect.

If you want to go all out on PR start writing the odd blog post, share interesting articles and comment on what’s happening. Maybe even pitch a talk at a relevant industry event. Do this only on your specific proposition, otherwise it will be confusing for the audience.

Neeta Shah, who I mentioned above, is great at this. If you Google “neeta shah startup CFO solutions” you’ll find a whole bunch of articles and videos that she has done.

Get good at proposal writing. You want to have a clear proposition detailing what they want, what you can deliver, why they should choose you and how your costs break down. I try to give 2–3 options for any proposal and if it’s to work with someone new the commitment starts low, at a higher daily rate, moving to something more regular, at a lower daily rate.

Get something signed. This isn’t about having a contract per se, it’s more about having both parties acknowledge terms and expected outcomes. The thing you most want to avoid is having worked hard and being pleased with your work, having your client feel like you missed that mark because you weren’t working to the same goals. Having a clear statement of work and expected outcomes avoids issues further down the road.

This is an email I used to a few key contacts when covid hit and my business shut down unexpectedly so I started looking for some interim consulting. I’m sharing in the hopes that it will help you.

Hi XXX

Hope you are well. As you may expect my business FORE:media is on hiatus given the current situation with business travel. With that in mind I am actively looking for new projects. If you hear of anyone in need or you think may benefit from my skills and experience, I’d be grateful if you could send them my way.

I think you have a pretty good grasp of my background and skillset but I’ve included a little more detail below and more about my experience and references can be found at jodiehop.com and LinkedIn.

Many thanks,

Jodie

Commercial Strategy: from pricing models, content partnership strategies, data propositions, and onboarding procedures to diversifying revenue streams, I can help you structure a project or business for success. Example: taking Trint from beta testing to launch.

Developing Partnerships: from concept, developing the narrative, building out materials such as sales decks, one-pagers and designing product mock-ups and demo through to building and signing sustainable business partnerships. Example: building and running the New York Times Licensing Europe team, developing partnerships with news media in almost every European country.

Operations: taking complexities and turning them into more simple processes that makes everything work better for everyone involved. Example: structuring the Global Editors Network finance and operations, including hiring shortly after its launch.

Network: with over 20 years in senior roles within the international news media at executive level I have deep connections with executives. My LinkedIn connections and recommendations are testament to this.