I tweet a daily consulting tip on the @artofgig twitter account and compile them every couple of weeks here as a newsletter issue.
Here are tips 45-59.
Consulting Tip #45: Incorporate in the lowest-overhead way possible according to the laws of your country. In the United States, a single-member LLC is generally the appropriate vehicle.
Consulting Tip #46: Even if you’re making very little money right now, keep your business and personal finances separate by opening a business bank account and credit card. It will make book-keeping and taxes vastly easier.
Consulting Tip #47: Give yourself a regular (preferably informal) “paycheck” via automated transfers from business to personal bank, but give yourself permission to modify amount/timing as needed. Best way to maintain a sense of cash flow predictability without being bound by it.
Consulting Tip #48: Hire a professional book-keeper the moment you can afford to. Not only will it take a chore off your hands, it will force you to learn minimum viable financial discipline in a way a janky spreadsheet and a shoebox of receipts won’t.
Consulting Tip #49: Resist the urge to define what you’re doing in general terms or come up with a clear elevator pitch too early. Wait till you’ve actually billed about 100 hours across at least 3 clients to take stock, otherwise you’re theorizing your business in a vacuum
Consulting Tip #50: Try and define what you do via negativa, by identifying things you won’t do (or would rather not do except under significant financial pressure). Job descriptions are for employees.
Consulting Tip #51: Keep products — workshops, keynotes, training offerings — separate from, and subordinate to, your consulting work proper: customized, personalized, bespoke services. If they start driving the action, you are a startup entrepreneur rather than a consultant.
Consulting Tip #52: Avoid the trappings of full-featured corporations — office, mission statement, admin staff — unless you plan to scale from indie consulting to a partnership firm. For solopreneurs, if it’s not billable, it’s almost certainly low-leverage vanity overhead.
Consulting Tip #53: Partnerships are demanding relationships and fail more often than they succeed. Test any potential partner through a subcontracting relationship or small collaboration before committing to deeper/longer-term arrangements.
Consulting Tip #54: Figure out what tribe within a client company you’re working for. It may not map to the org chart in obvious ways. There’s usually at least 2 or 3 in a typical organization jockeying for relative power, and in some state between peace and war with each other.
Consulting Tip #55: Pay your own subcontractors as promptly as you can. Right after receiving their invoices if possible. Nothing breeds goodwill and trust like helping address other people’s cash flow precarity when you can. Don’t be like BigCos, paying as late as possible.
Consulting Tip #56: Keep your awareness of your own knowledge /ignorance up-to-date. If it’s been more than a few years since you last worked on a type of problem, assume your understanding of it is worthless until you can convince yourself it is still good.
Consulting Tip #57: Beware the joyless cashflow grind of leads —> closings —> billings —> referrals/testimonials —> more leads. It feels like 100% of the game when you start, but if it stays that way, you will burn out. You are not an SEO/SEM automation script.
Consulting Tip #58: Reflect periodically on the proportion of your work that comes from following a client across roles/jobs, versus working with whoever is in a given role/job in an organization. Dog consulting vs. cat consulting.
Consulting Tip #59: As an outsider in a client’s world, you will hear a lot of jargon you can’t parse. Pick your battles in asking clarifying questions vs guessing vs ignoring. A consultant who is constantly asking clarifying questions is too annoying to get to be useful.
Here is Compilation #3 (28-44) if you want to backtrack and catch up.
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