• Host – Michele Heyward, Founder, PositiveHire
• Guest – Lekisha Middleton, Founder, The Good Success Network

In Consulting 101 with Lekisha, she tackles the basic understanding of what consulting is, how you can get involved, and how you can start that process.

What is consulting?

Consulting.com defines a consultant as someone who has some level of expertise that people are willing to pay for because they find that as valuable. Consulting is not just giving advice, consulting should leave your client in a better state, than how you found them. 

Another thing to note is consulting and contracting are not the same. You can be a consultant who is contracted to do work, but a contractor is not necessarily a consultant. Whether it’s a long period or a short time contracting is more staff augmentation, consulting is a lot more broad. 

It may be a mix of doing the work and giving your advice, but it’s a lot more holistic, it’s a lot more strategic in nature as well, because what you’re doing is you’re going to that company, you are meeting with your client to define what is the problem that we’re solving here. So, your job as a consultant is to help them to get to the root cause.

Types of Consultants

There are times I will put on my consulting hat and times I will put on my coaching hat. It depends on the firm on which what type you are in. You have HR Consultants, Social Media Consultant, Management Consultant and many other firms. Depending on your experience, and what you want to focus on, these are just different typeset that exists.

 How to get started?

In general, these are things that you should do if you’re starting a business.

       1. PIPELINE – Make sure to have enough money saved up so that when you’re on your own, you won’t get stressed out about money, and that you had enough to operate your business.

        2. RESEARCH – Talk to people in the industry that you’re looking for, that you’re looking to get.

         3. CHOOSE YOUR SPECIALTY – Choose what you’re good at.

         4. DEFINING YOUR TARGET MARKET – You want to get strategic, and particular when you’re defining your target market. really fleshing out, not only here’s what my service offering is, but here’s also what it looks like.

         5. SETTING YOUR RATES – Your rate is your rate. Setting your rate is a big thing, it can be a big gap. You want to be competitive, but you also need to understand the value you bring and how much money you currently make for your employers. Do not lower your rate know your worth and charge accordingly.

When it comes to being a consultant, a lot of us may think you can’t do it, but you could! This was answered on the interview. Listen to Lekisha’s responses along with with other information that could help you on how to manage your time with the specialty that you have.  Also, find out more about the services provided by The Good Success Network.