“Expertise is gained by investigating why a system doesn’t work.”
💎 Why It Matters
Consulting helps you learn more and earn more.
See across environments and capture more of the value that you create.
🔍 Problem
Clients lack the expertise to solve their own problems.
💡 Solution
Consultants guide clients and sometimes implement solutions.
🏁 Players
- Stewart Townsend • B2B SaaS Consultant at Channel as a Service
- Yolanda Stephens • Agile Coach at Sprint as a Service
- Elom Ayeboua • Growth Consultant at Delverise
- Kevin Whelan • Marketing Consultant at Kevin C. Whelan Advisory
- Vishal Srivastava • Sales Consultant at Trainedge
- Montse Ventosa • HR Consultant at Neu21
- Vincent Haywood • Digital Consultant at VHDigtial
- Cole Grolmus • Cybersecurity Consultant at MetaSecurity
- Tem Nugmanov • Notion Consultant at Optemization
🔮 Predictions
- More consultants will outsource non-core competencies like accounting (Bench.co), scheduling (SavvyCal) and entity setup (Stripe Atlas).
- Consultants will become more specialized. Outsourcing non-core competencies helps you focus. Kevin aggressively automates and updates processes to save time.
☁️ Opportunities
- Build a product ladder to boost your credibility and earn scalable income. Ran Segall transitioned to Flux Academy from freelancing.
- Kevin Whelan has a course (Fundamentals Playbook)
- Craig Watson does group coaching (Product Buffs)
- Gene Maryushenko sells templates (SaaS Blocks)
- Paul Millerd has a book (The Pathless Path)
- Offer free top of funnel content to generate leads.
- Michael Zipursky hosts a podcast
- Kevin Whelan writes a daily newsletter
- Paul Millerd makes videos on YouTube
- Build on a platform to reduce market risk. See WordPress, Webflow and Shopify consultants. Timothy Ricks built a micro monopoly within Webflow.
- Switch to productized services to build a scalable and saleable business. See WP Buffs, Bench, Rev and others.
🔑 Key Lessons
- Do great work. This is your best marketing. Remark-able work helps you “live” on referrals. Stewart Townsend hasn’t worried about outbound lead gen in over a decade.
- Optimize for quality over quantity. Selling time doesn’t scale. Work with better clients to earn more instead of working more.
- Agencies have negative scale effects. As they grow, so do coordination costs. This leads to more revenue but lower margins.
😠 Haters
“I don’t want to trade time for money.”
You can skip steps in the entrepreneurial journey. But it tends to take longer. See the ladders of wealth creation.
“We already covered agencies.”
We also covered the differences between consultants, agencies and productized services. These are distinct.
🔗 Links
- Million Dollar Consulting • A primer on consulting.
- Developing Fatigue: Consulting • How a few developers broke into consulting.
- Become a High-Value Consultant • Chirs Do walks Ran Segall through improving his business.
📁 Related Reports
- Digital Products • On scaling income and boosting credibility.
- Agencies • Strategies and tactics to use when scaling up.
- Value-Based Pricing • On the possibilities and limits of value-based pricing.
- Online Courses • A deep-dive into building do-it-yourself offers.
- Lead Generation • How to generate leads for high-value transactions.
🙏 Thanks
Thanks to Stewart Townsend (Channel as a Service), Kevin Whelan (Kevin.me), Vishal Srivastava (Trainedge), Montse Ventosa (Neu21), Tem Nugmanov (Optemization), Vincent Haywood (VHDigtial), Daniel Wulf, Ray Deck (Sustained Ventures), Emmanuel Vivier (HUB Institute), Josh Spector (This Is How I Do It), Keanan Koppenhaver (Alpha Particle) and Cole Grolmus (MetaSecurity). We had a great time jamming on this report.
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