Create Greater Value
Are You a Young Consultant? This Piece Is For You To Make It: And as you’re creating greater value and working with larger clients on larger projects, it also allows you to earn greater compensation.
You can make a lot more money by working with larger clients on larger projects than you can with smaller clients on smaller projects.
If you’re working with significantly fewer clients on smaller projects, you’re creating a volume-based business because you have to work with a lot more clients to earn the same income that you could achieve by working with significantly fewer clients at higher fee levels.
There are certain situations where taking on smaller projects makes sense and can be a very effective strategy.
When You’re Getting Started
The first is if you’re just getting started as a consultant. You have the expertise, but maybe you haven’t put that expertise out into the marketplace yet, and so working and taking on smaller projects allows you to start getting results for clients that you can turn into testimonials or create case studies around.
You can then take that consulting expertise and that experience that you’ve now developed as a consultant into the marketplace and start to use them to land more clients and to build up your track record and experience as a consultant.
Rapid Growth Potential
The second situation where it makes sense is to take on a small project with a potentially small company that has the ability—or the potential—to rapidly increase in size.
What I mean by that, and a great example of that would be a startup company—let’s say they’re pre-IPO, or they’re not yet a public company, but they have a great technology or a great product, and you see huge potential. Maybe they’re the next Twitter, the next Google, the next Facebook, or whatever they’re going to be.
You know that working with them even on a small project is worthwhile, even if they can’t yet pay you the big fees because their revenues aren’t yet multiplying. Still, you know, and you can see and believe that their revenues can really grow and scale up very, very quickly, so it’s worthwhile for you to engage with them.
You’re not thinking only short-term. You’re thinking longer term, and you see the potential for you to work with this company now, even at a smaller scale and level, knowing that it’s going to become a much larger company very quickly.
That also will translate into your being able to work on larger projects for that larger company and then earning higher fees because that company will scale up.
Passion should play a role in the decision that you make in terms of the strategies and approaches that you choose. If you’re passionate about working with smaller clients or taking on smaller projects, that’s great. Enjoy that.
Many times, when you’re getting into a company like that on the ground floor, which has the potential to grow very quickly, you can arrange equity deals and get shares, so that provides a lot of potential.
There are some dangers around that, and I’ll explore them in a future video if you’re interested, so let me know. Certainly, working with a startup company where you see that potential is another situation that makes sense.
Looking Up
The third situation is taking on a smaller project at a larger company. This is a great way to get your foot in the door.
You see the potential to work with that more prominent company, but maybe you see it as difficult to land a much larger project.
Especially the first time, because it’s your initial engagement with them, starting with a smaller project can be a great way to build that relationship.
The goal is to prove and show your expertise and to demonstrate value to that client.
Doing that can quickly turn into you working on larger projects for that large client
Don’t Forget Your Passion
The fourth situation—and this one’s important, it’s one that many people don’t discuss enough—is passion.
Maybe you just enjoy working with smaller clients or smaller projects. That’s what your passion is about. Maybe income generation and revenue growth aren’t your number one focus, or maybe they aren’t even your big focus, and that’s totally okay. There is no right or wrong about that.
Passion should play a role in the decision that you make in terms of the strategies and approaches that you choose. If you’re passionate about working with smaller clients or taking on smaller projects, that’s great. Enjoy that.
Create the most value that you can in that environment and in that situation, but also know that the type of project that you choose does influence the type of business that you have.
Revenue and Large Consulting Projects
, If you’re thinking about revenue generation and if you want to grow your income, then doing it only through smaller projects and with smaller clients is much more difficult than creating opportunities and using the right structures and right fees, and strategies where you can work with larger clients on larger projects.
That will get you to higher revenue and income levels much faster.