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Introduction to the Consulting Business

So, you want to be a consultant, eh? It can be a highly competitive, extraordinarily difficult, and frustratingly challenging business to be involved with at times, but the level of freedom and amount of experience in many facets of the business universe are a very positive trade off for all the hard work. When handled correctly - and planned with care - a career as a consultant can yield much more financial and personal freedom for the professional.

An experienced consultant can make several orders of magnitude more salary for a comparably educated and experienced "company employee", and can enjoy many other benefits, such as making your own schedule, working on challenging and interesting projects within a wide range of companies, getting responsibilities to match your experience and your technical know-how, guiding your own career development through obtaining multiple simultaneous experiences in diverse professional sectors, and increasing autonomy and responsibility along the entire scope of your career.

Individuals who are attracted to the consultant, professional, styling are usually described with terms like "self starter" and "go-getter". Certainly this type of career decision will demand a certain level of sacrifice, particularly at the onset of your career. But through the steep experience curve and unavoidable initial difficulties, many professional have emerged with greatly satisfying, highly compensated, and most importantly…immensely rewarding careers in the field(s) of their choice.

Types of Consulting

There are nearly as many types of businesses in the consulting universe as there are in the realm of traditional business. Nearly every industry under the sun has spawned a thriving ecosystem of self-starters and professional gurus who have chosen to make their services available to the highest bidder. Some of the most active and lucrative industries conducive to supporting a consultancy career are listed below:

1. Computer consulting: There are many choices in the realm of computer consultancy. You can find work repairing, maintaining, and teaching people how to use various hardware and software, assist major corporations in maintaining network infrastructure, serve as a database admin, or any of a number of computer related consultancies.

2. Business: If you are really good at setting up fledgling businesses (and as a consultancy entrepreneur, it is highly likely you are), business consultancy might be the right thing for you. This makes an excellent side business that can work within your existing paradigm. For example, you may primarily set up your business as a computer consultancy, but in the process of setting up your business, discover that you are also a naturally fantastic business person. In keeping with the multi-pronged approach to business (which we will go over in more detail later), you may find that there are times you can "farm out" your peripheral talents in getting people started in businesses of their own (for a fee, of course) all the while maintaining your primary technical consultancy. Utilize your diversity.

3. Advertising: Advertising firms and freelance designers of all varieties are being used in a consultant capacity by everyone from small companies to huge multi national corporations
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4. Accounting: Every company needs someone to "do their books", and accountants are the fastest growing segment of the consultancy class today.

5. Communications/Public Relations: This is an area commonly outsourced by companies for whom it is simply not cost effective to have a full-fledged internal communications or public relations department. Also, as companies grow, they may find the need to add on a small staff, over time, to handle these tasks. If finding a permanent position within an organization via your consultancy is your goal, then communications/PR consultancy may be just the field for you.

6. Auditing: Companies outsource a wide variety of auditing responsibilities to third parties due to efficiency and lack of bias that could cloud the judgment of internal employees. One example of a thriving auditing consultancy is the current booming retail inventory market, which is currently dominated by the large inventory firm, RGIS, but has room for individual entrepreneurs to generate a fair amount of business.

7. Gardening: A green thumb is a god given talent that not everyone in the world is gifted with. You can network via golf courses and social clubs to attain highest visibility amongst those who may wish to retain the services of an expert gardener

8. Human resources: HR is the perfect fit for those out there with highly refined people skills. If you have strong communication skills (both verbal and written) and enjoy working directly with people, then an HR consultancy is right up your alley. This is also another common position for companies to outsource, particularly amongst high tech startups.

9. Payroll management: This is an area that companies commonly do not wish to handle internally. It requires a skill set that shares characteristics of accounting and human resources above, and can be very lucrative if done well.

10. Marketing: Much like we outlined in the Business example above, in the course of building your own consultancy, you may find that marketing is a particular strength of yours. Companies will often hire consultants outside the hierarchy of the internal "org chart" in the interest of getting a "fresh viewpoint" or "thinking outside the box" when it comes to marketing a new product or service as well as kick-starting existing campaigns.

11. Executive headhunters: These are a common "bounty hunter" type of consultancy available in the modern corporate world.

12. Writing services: The pen is truly mightier than the sword (and the word processor can kick the pen's butt to kingdom come!). If you have the gift of the scribe, you will be able to find numerous outlets for your services.

13. Publishing: People are publishing via a variety of methods in today's world. Newsletters, articles, Internet, magazines, and many other varieties of print and digital publishing are very popular in the corporate sector as well as within the government (the government is a great client for consultancies, by the way).

14. Taxes: Just like accounting, taxes are another area that companies often need help with. If you are a tax whiz, this may be your calling.