Setting Up A Consultancy Business / Company In The UK
If you are thinking of setting up a consultancy business or company in the UK, you will have a million and one thoughts and questions running through your mind. When I set up my consultancy business, I know that I did.
So, rather than allow you to make the same mistakes and go through the same challenges I did, I want to help you by sharing my experience of setting up a consultancy business in the UK so you can perhaps do it a lot easier than I did!
Here is my five part guide to setting up a consultancy in the UK.
1. Should You Start A Consultancy Business?
I left a well-paid job as a solicitor to set up a consultancy business because it is what I had always wanted to do. What’s more, I decided to do this at a time when I had a young family to support.
In hindsight you might say it was bad timing, I know that my wife thought so.
However, I knew it was now or never for me before I got sucked further into the life as a solicitor to the point that I couldn’t leave it due to the salary level that I was receiving. That would have killed me as I knew that being a solicitor was not what I was meant to do and it was eating away at me the longer I stayed in the legal profession.
So I jumped, and I jumped hard and far. I left the well paid job as a solicitor and went to earning nothing literally overnight. I did not keep a part time job, or start working on my consultancy business in the evenings; I just went for it straight off the bat.
I wouldn’t have it any other way!
For you now though, if you can set up your your consultancy business whilst also keeping your full time job, or even a part time job, then my strong advice to you would be to do it. If you can build up a bit of monthly income, or even enough to replace your current salary, it will save you from a lot of the usual stress faced when setting up a new business.
It could make your life a lot easier, including your home life, and allow you to be fully charged when you can finally make the leap.
However, if you too feel that it is now or never, in that if you don’t set up your consultancy business right now you will never do it, then do that.
The point here is that only you can decide. But if you are reading this and something inside of you is jumping up and down saying ‘do it, do it’, you know that whichever way you choose, you owe it to yourself to set up your consultancy business. Don’t let yourself down. Don’t put it off and then never do it. You spend a lot of time working in this life, so you might as well spend that time doing something you love: running your consultancy business.
2. Why Set Up A Consultancy Business?
Now I have covered the potentially ugly part, so now let’s have a bit more fun with this.
Here are some of my favourite reasons for setting up a consultancy business:
- You are master of your own destiny. If you earn good money, you can keep good money, it doesn’t go to the boss upstairs.
- You can set your own working times. Now I am not going to lie to you and say that it doesn’t involve a lot of hard work, especially at the beginning, but there are huge benefits to running your own business.I was able to go to all of my children’s plays and events when they were very young because I could set my own working hours and plan my day around them. Many of my ‘employed’ friends missed most of these events because they simply were not allowed the time off.
- You can set your own income limits. There is no limit to your income; it is completely within your own hands. At first you may well take lower paid consultancy roles, but as you grow in confidence and experience, you will soon realise the true value of your consulancy service to your clients and charge accordingly. What’s more, your clients will be very happy to pay it.
- There are many hidden benefits and opportunities of running a consultancy business. When you start your consultancy you will soon find all manner of opportunities to create new income streams alongside your consultancy or completely separate from it. This is exciting, although I would say that at first the key point is not to get carried away with all of these ‘future’ income opportunities. The key point initially is to concentrate on your bread and butter today rather than your jam tomorrow (which sadly never pays the mortgage or the other bills). You can build the jam tomorrow in time, but get the bread and butter coming in first and you will do really well.
3. Where To Set Up A Consultancy Business?
This is a simple question to answer, based on my experience of running a consultancy business from home and now from a suite of offices.
You can run your consultancy business from absolutely anywhere. Generally, the only person that this matters to is yourself. If you think a client won’t pay you thousands of pounds a week or month if you work from home, I can assure you that that is your own mental block and not your clients. Yes, really. I have done this.
I have found that I am far more focused and get more done working in an office, but that is very much just my personal preference.
At first, to keep costs down, it may well be sensible to run your consultancy business from your home.
4. When To Set Up Your Consultancy Business.
Nike it! Just do it.
The longer you spend thinking about it, the more excuses you will come up with not to do it, so don’t miss this opportunity.
If it is something you need to do, get started on it right now.
5. How To Market Your Consultancy Business And Win New Clients
- Get a website (a WordPress one would be my advice, costing around £1,000 – £1,500 is more than enough to get all you need to be up and running). Email me if you would like details of service providers.
- Promote your consultancy services using Google Adwords
- Set up your profile on LinkedIn and connect with all of your old colleagues and contacts who may need your services now or in the future.
- Attend networking events for two reasons. Firstly, to meet other business owners and see how they find new clients, and secondly, if your clients attend these events, to find new clients for your business.
That really should be enough to get you up and running, so what are you waiting for?
Free Guide: 8 Key Strategies For A 6 Figure Consultancy
Download this free guide to discover:
- How to generate leads for your consultancy, week after week.
- The secret to winning repeat client business
- How to price your services to guarantee success
- How to leverage your time to ensure that you are paid over and over again for work you do only once
- Easy ways to keep in touch with your clients
- Automating your business so that you can enjoy more time with your family or to enjoy your hobbies, ensuring you always stay fresh and focused for your clients
- The one mistake that could derail your consultancy (if you do not know about it)