Tech Guru Marketing

You’ve decided you want to strike out on your own as a consultant, either as a full time profession or as a part-time opportunity to make some extra cash. Or maybe you’re starting out part-time with a goal of making this your full-time business once you grow it big enough.

That’s an important point, too. I would never recommend starting out as a consultant full-time unless you already have paying customers or you’ve been laid off and need to make ends meet until you find employment again.  It’s much better to start out working nights and weekends to build your practice while you still have a steady income.  It will put much less stress on you and you can build your business at your own pace.

Okay, making the decision to start consulting is a great step, but the decision itself isn’t enough.

You’re not in business until you get your first paying customer.

How do you do that?

Getting Your Message Across

First, you need to be really clear on what you are going to do for customers and you need to be able to clearly communicate it. You should be able to clearly state what you do, for whom you do it, and what makes you different,  in 30 seconds or less. This is your elevator speech, and you need to get it memorized so you can tell friends, colleagues, other parents at your kids’ school, and people you run into at networking events.

Set up a simple web site to let people know what you do. It doesn’t have to be anything super fancy (unless you are a web designer), just a page or two telling people what you do and how to reach you.

Get business cards made. Make them simple, but make sure they tell people what you do and how to reach you (phone, web site, and email at a minimum).

Offer your services for free to a non-profit organization that would normally not be able to pay for them.  True, you won’t make any money, but when your are just starting out, building your portfolio of clients and getting testimonials is key.

What About Social Media?

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social marketing sites can be great for getting the word out about your consulting business, but I don’t recommend using them unless you don’t mind if your current employer finds out about your side business, because they probably will.

Good Old-fashioned, Off-line Networking

Find out where your prospective customers hang out and hang out there, too. If you want to do IT consulting for small businesses, check out some of the small business networking events in your area. You can often find this information on your local Chamber’s web site. And if you’re lucky, you’ll have a resource like this available to list all the networking events in your town. And if you don’t, maybe you could be the one to start it. It’s a great way to get people to your web site and get publicity for your business.

Follow up with prospects you meet at networking events. Send them an email the same or next day telling them how nice it was to meet them at the event and offer your services if they should be in need of them. Then, follow up again either via email or phone a few days later to learn more about their business and see if there is anything you can do for them. After that, put a note in your calendar to check back in a month or two to touch base.

Don’t get discouraged if most people do not need your services right away. The goal is to make a good impression on the people you meet and keep in touch with them so that when they do need the services you offer, they will think of you.

Keep At It

Persist until you succeed. If you meet enough people, make a good impression, and make enough follow up calls, you will get your first customer.

Related posts:

1. The Secret Formula For Exponential Growth
2. Consultant Marketing Tool Number One: The Business Card
3. The Biggest Mistake Consultants Make
4. The How of Customer Retention
5. 10 Things You Can Do This Weekend To Get More Clients