What is an entrepreneurial consultant?

An entrepreneurial consultant is a business owner who provides expert advice in a particular field or industry.

(More on this in the next section of the article)

If you’re a knowledge worker, an entrepreneurial consulting business is one of the BEST businesses you can start.

You’ve spent your entire career building up expertise.

Why not monetize your expertise and turn it into a business?

This article will show you how.

By the end of this article, you’ll understand what an entrepreneurial consultant is, why it’s the lowest-risk, highest-reward business, and how YOU can become one.

Let’s dive in.

An entrepreneurial consultant is a business owner who provides expert advice in a particular field or industry.

Entrepreneurial Consultant Definition

Before we define what an entrepreneurial consultant is, it’s important to define the two words that make up the phrase.

An entrepreneur…

• Owns & operates a business;
• Solves problems and makes the most of opportunities;
• Attempts to make a profit through selling their products or services.

Just because you’re an entrepreneur or own a business doesn’t mean you’re a consultant.

A consultant…

• Provides expert advice professionally;
• Works in a specific field or industry;
• Diagnoses problems, recommends actions and solutions.

So, an entrepreneurial consultant is one who runs a business where they provide expert advice in a particular field or industry.

When you learn about “consulting,” the focus is primarily on the deliverables; the consulting work done for a client. It typically involves no discussion of the “business” side.

That’s why the distinction of “entrepreneurial consultant” is important.

If you’re an entrepreneurial consultant, you aren’t just doing consulting work — you’re also running a business.

If you’re doing consulting work with one or two clients, you can call yourself a consultant.

But it doesn’t mean you have a business.

And if you become too reliant on a particular client, then you’re actually working more like a contractor, than a business owner.

To help make this more concrete, we’ll look at examples of entrepreneurial consultants.

Entrepreneurial Consultant Examples

Here are some entrepreneurial consultants in our Clarity Coaching community.

Nic Campbell

Nic Campbell is a non-profit/governance consultant and founder of Build Up Advisory Group.

She’s worked with clients like Dalio Philanthropies, NBA Foundation, Humanity United, and many more.

Her firm helps philanthropies and nonprofits scale their impact by scaling their grant-making and organizational structuring.

Nic started out as a solo consultant who struggled with common challenges:

• Creating a clear portfolio of services to offer clients
• Gaining clarity around the type of clients to work with
• Setting profitable pricing that is based on value
• Building a firm that is in alignment with her principles and lifestyle goals

Fast forward to today, Nic is now the CEO of the firm which employs a team of 8-10 people.

She’s also reached 7-figures in revenue with the help of what she’s learned in our Clarity Coaching Program.

Tony Velasquez

Tony Velasquez is an ERP consultant and CEO of Angelus Advisors.

His firm provides guidance on ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software for large-scale Fortune 500 companies.

When Tony first started out, he had only 1 client. He might have been a consultant, but he didn’t have a consulting business.

In our Clarity program, we helped Tony overcome some of the most common challenges new entrepreneurial consultants face:

• How do you effectively transform your expertise into a suite of offerings that would sustain a business?
• How can you craft impactful messaging that attracts the right audience?
• How do you set your pricing, structure your offerings, and get the word out?
• And can you grow your business enough so you can add other team members?

And now, Tony has grown beyond a solo consultancy by adding full-time employees — and growing his revenue by nearly 4X.

Aaron Cruikshank

Aaron Cruikshank is a research/data consultant and founder of CTRS solutions.

He helps his clients leverage marketing intelligence to improve their sales and marketing, and ultimately, reach a wider audience.

However, like many new entrepreneurial consultants, Aaron struggle with marketing and selling his own services.

He was too reliant on word of mouth and would take on any client who walked through the door.

Aaron knew that if he wanted to build a successful consulting business, he would have to diversify. And that means marketing like a real business instead of just relying on his network.

We taught Aaron one of the most important marketing and sales skills — reaching out directly to your clients and starting conversations.

As a result, his volume of sales conversations increased by 200%.

Aaron used to be a police offer. Now, he’s a successful entrepreneurial consultant.

If you’ve developed a particular area of expertise like Nic, Tony, or Aaron, then you have a chance to become an entrepreneurial consultant and build a successful consulting business just like them.

You’ll deal with many of the common challenges all entrepreneurial consultants face, like…

• Marketing: generating conversations with prospective clients
• Sales: turning conversations with prospective clients into paid projects
• Fees: figuring out what to charge for my services and why
• Project Delivery: delivering on projects for my clients
• Operations: setting up and running the business (accounting, legal, etc)
• Time Management & Organization: getting everything on my to-do list done
• Emotional: loneliness and frustration with starting a new business
• Knowing what to focus on and when

…but our programs will help you systematically overcome all of these challenges and help you build a sustainable, strategic, and profitable consulting business.

If you’ve developed a particular area of expertise then you have a chance to become an entrepreneurial consultant and build a successful consulting business.

How You Can Become An Entrepreneurial Consultant

So, you want to become an entrepreneurial consultant?

Here are some resources and steps to help you.

Step 1: Read Our How To Become A Consultant Study

In this guide, we teach you how to become a consultant.

From how to transition out of your full-time job to winning your first client, we’ll show you how to think and act like an entrepreneurial consultant.

This guide also contains our study, showing you the data on how to become a successful consultant.

You’ll learn why people become consultants, how to transition from corporate to consultant, how much consultants are making — and much more.

If you want to learn how to become a consultant based on the data from real consultants, this article is for you.

Step 2. Learn How To Start A Consulting Business

In this guide, we teach you how to start a consulting business in 6 steps:

• Step 1: Choose Your Consulting Business Model
• Step 2: Get Clear On Your Ideal Client
• Step 3: Write Messaging That Attracts Clients
• Step 4: Create & Price Your Consulting Offer
• Step 5: Rev Up Your Marketing Engine
• Step 6: Generate Meaningful Conversations (& Win Your First Consulting Project)

We’ve even included a “start a consulting business checklist” to make sure that you don’t miss anything.

At over 7000 words, this article contains all the information and action steps you need to start your consulting business.

Step 3. Take Action!

What separates wannabe consultants from real entrepreneurial consultants?

Their ability to take action.

In our guides, we’ve outlined the action steps for you to take.

It’s the same approach we take in our consulting program: giving you the information — and most importantly, the ACTIONS to take — in order to start a successful consulting business.

You don’t need more books, articles, and videos.

Start having conversations with the people in your network.

Start sharing with people how you can add value to their businesses, solve problems, and get results.

Start reaching out to potential clients and have meaningful conversations with them.

Now, I get it. You might have a full-time job and bills to pay. And starting any entrepreneurial pursuit is difficult.

With each of these steps, the details matter.

But remember — you don’t have to do it alone.

Inside our Clarity Coaching program, we have a wonderful community of consultants who are dedicated to seeing you succeed.

What separates wannabe consultants from real entrepreneurial consultants? Their ability to take action.

Get Help Starting Your Entrepreneurial Consulting Business

What’s the quickest, most inexpensive, and less-risky way to start an entrepreneurial consulting business?

To work with a coach and program that has helped thousands of others become entrepreneurial consultants.

At Consulting Success®, that’s our mission:

“Helping Entrepreneurial Consultants Build Profitable, Scalable, and Strategic Consulting Businesses”

We’ve helped people just like you do just that.

And if you’re ready to earn a higher income, have more freedom and flexibility, and reach your full potential, then we’re here to help you.