From June 23-26, I attended the IABC World Conference in New York. During the second day of the conference, I was sitting in the lobby waiting for my next session and started a conversation with a fellow communicator also playing the waiting game. When I told her I ran a content creation consultancy, she said she’d been thinking about also becoming a consultant. “What advice do you have for anyone thinking about taking the leap?” she asked.
Did I tell her to set up an LLC? Write a business plan? Determine her accounting structure?
Certainly not.
What I told her—and what I would tell anyone who asked the question—was that before starting out as a consultant or freelancer, get clear on where your clients will come from and how you’re going to get them to pay you (and pay fairly) for what you do. Determining your pipelines—whether it’s strategic partnerships or allies who are decision-makers or connectors who know your work and can refer you—is critical.
So why is it so hard to have an honest discussion about this? Do we think that by having conversations about sales and attracting new business we’re trading secrets that should be protected?
During the conference, I attended the session, “So, you want to go out on your own…” which promised to be a good primer for 9-5ers looking to dip their toes into the 1099 waters. The panelists discussed saving money so that you can leave your job somewhat comfortably, obtaining individual health insurance plans and local small business resources, but talk about getting clients was minimal. That is, until audience members began asking what everyone was thinking. “How do we get those clients who will sustain us financially?” one audience member asked. “How do we get those pipelines going?” The panelists promised to address this later in the session.
However, one piece of valuable advice panelist Dr. Amanda Hamilton-Attwell provided was that hunters should work with farmers—hunters being the consultant who attracts business and farmers who do the work but may not be skilled in business development. Dr. Hamilton-Attwell is managing director at Business DNA in Pretoria South Africa.
“Should hunters work with hunters?” I asked.
“Very carefully,” said panelist Suzanne Salvo, co-owner of Salvo Photo & Video in The Woodlands, Texas.
With more than 40 percent of the American workforce, or 60 million people, set to become freelancers, contractors and temp workers by 2020, it’s time we begin to have honest conversations about what it takes to be out on your own and getting clarity on how clients and earnings will manifest.
Share with us: What’s the best advice you received before you started your consulting or freelancing career?
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