Article summary

 

I have been in the consulting business for more than 20 years and have learned a lot along the way, largely through trial and error.

For a while, I have being pondering the best way to impart this knowledge to others in the field so that they can learn from my mistakes and benefit from my discoveries.

The significant shift to online learning caused by the Coronavirus pandemic got me thinking: What if I devised an online education programme for consultants, and supposing I did, how much interest would there be from the consulting community?

The course could be broken into sections such as the following:

• Back to basics
• Getting down to business
• Business administration
• The nitty-gritty
• Technology
• Politics in business
• Business management

What do you think? Are there other subjects that you would like to see covered in such a course. I would appreciate your feedback, please.

 

How About an Online Education Programme for Consultants?

 

I have been in the consulting business for more than 20 years and have learned a lot along the way, largely through trial and error. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot!

 

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For a while, I have being pondering the best way to impart this knowledge to others in the field so they can learn from my mistakes and benefit from my discoveries.

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The significant shift to online learning caused by the Coronavirus pandemic got me thinking: What if I devised an online education programme for consultants, and supposing I did, how much interest would there be from the consulting community?

These are the questions I would like you to consider. At the end of this article, I will ask you for your feedback, please. If there is enough interest in the project, I will certainly begin working on it.

 

A Wide Range of Topics

 

The consulting profession covers a wide range of topics with plenty of scope to find subject matter for such a course. I guess we would start at the beginning.

 

Back to Basics

 

 

When starting out on a course, it is always useful to get back to the basics and revisit the ground rules. This course-element would cover some of the following topics:

• Looking and acting like a consultant: First impressions count and unless you come across as being thoroughly professional, you will not attract clients.
• Speaking skills: Not only do you have to know what you are talking about, you also have to know how to say it.
• General attitude and mindset: How to formulate the company’s ethos and decide its way of doing business.
• Being realistic: Learning not to take on what you can’t do.
• Building the gravy train: How to foster client relationships, become a trusted advisor, and build referrals.
• Communication and social media: How best to use social media to build your profile and get your message across.
• Time required: Calculating the length of time it takes to set up a business.
• Buy-in: How to get buy-in for the ideas, advice, and proposals you provide to clients during a consulting project.

 

Getting Down to Business

 

 

Some consultants love handling the business side of their vocation, others loathe it, but there is no escaping it. This course would provide a step-by-step, easy-to-follow guide to the business side of consulting. Topics that would be covered include the following:

1) Deciding business goals

2) Style: Determining the name of the business to be registered with the regulatory body

3) The 80/20 rule and its implications for your business plan

4) Complex systems of accounting and tax

5) Legal matters, including contracts

6) Getting to grips with insurance issues

7) Drafting business and marketing plans

8) Calculating costs and drafting a budget

9) Setting income targets

10) Understanding the business of selling

11) How to optimise pricing

A breakout section might look in-depth at complex matters such as:

• Ownership/business format: Choosing whether your business will be a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a corporation, a limited liability company, or a franchise. Each has different tax implications.
• Stock options: On this list would be exchange-traded options, over the counter options (OTC), cash-settled options, and employee stock options.
• Shares and dividends: How shares are issued and traded, how dividends are paid to shareholders
• End game: This involves defining the long-term goals for your company, be it going public, selling it, handing it over to your children, or retiring and living off your share of the earnings.

 

 

 

Business Administration

 

 

Unless you are a solopreneur, you will have to deal with administrative matters such as the following, all of which we could cover as part of our consulting-education programme:

• Staff relations: Drawing up a code of conduct.
• Staff salaries: Calculating the cost to the company of each staff member.
• Hiring, firing, and rewards: How to hire, how to enforce discipline, how and when to offer incentives.
• Place of work: Where to site the office and how to arrange the space efficiently.
• Working hours: Fixed or flexible shifts?
• Staff support: How to create a network that offers support to employees.
• Motivation: How to motivate and inspire staff members.
• Remote working: The pros and cons of staff working from home.

 

 

 

The Nitty-Gritty

 

 

This part of the course would take a deep dive into the consultancy business, covering subjects that include the following:

Risk management and contingency: How to identify possible risks or problems before they happen so as to avoid them or at least minimise their impact.

Compliance: How to ensure adherence to business policies, industry standards, and local rules and regulations.

Dealing with setbacks: What to do when things go wrong and how to address issues.

Project planning: Determining how to ensure the completion of a project within a certain timeframe using available resources.

Managing client expectations: This is an important aspect of a consultant’s job and involves setting clear deliverables, being in regular contact with the client, and being transparent and honest.

Target personas and avatars How to identify and attract your ideal clients through understanding their lifestyles, where they hang out, where they exercise.

The business proposal: How to write a clear and concise business proposal that includes details of the project, the proposed solution, a timeline, pricing, and billing.

Capacity planning: How to determine the required capacity of an organisation to meet the shifting demands for its services and/or products.

Processes: An exploration of the concepts of business and operational processes.

Managing quality: This involves creating and implementing a quality policy, quality control, and quality improvement.

Outcomes: How events and occurrences indicate progress towards the goals of a project.

List building: Developing a database of leads and prospects who would be interested in your products and/or services.

 

Technology

 

Advances in technology are taking place at such a rapid rate that it is difficult to keep up to date, which is why this section of the course would need to be constantly updated.

I envisage a number of sessions or modules, each one dealing with a specific aspect of cutting-edge technology.

 

1) IT Systems

 

 

The scope of this subject is extremely wide and includes:

• Electronic data processing
• Telecommunications
• Phone systems
• Inventory management
• Software
• Data bases

 

2) Web design

 

Topics here would include:

• Building a website: How to make your website stand out, how DIY sites such as Wix, Site123, Squarespace, Jimdo, Weebly, and WordSpace stack up.
• Lead capture: Explaining the process of saving lead information in a bid to convert the lead to a paying customer.
• SEO optimisation: How to make sure your page shows up in search engines.

 

3) Content writing

 

 

We would examine the important role that content writing plays in marketing strategies. The writing covers anything from blog posts and articles to press releases, social media postings, and white papers.

 

Politics in Business

 

As a consultant, it’s vital to understand the political factors that have an impact on the business world, so our program would cover elements of this topic. For example:

 

External politics

 

In this category would be actions of government, political conditions, the working environment, and local rules and regulations.

 

Internal politics

 

We would explore how politics and power have an impact on the working environment. Ideally, they should be used to ensure that tasks are carried out and procedures followed. On the other hand, if used negatively they can result in bullying, backstabbing, forming of cliques, rumourmongering, and other counterproductive issues.

 

Business management

 

While a full study of business management would be beyond the scope of this course (there are university degrees for that) we could look at some of the key aspects of this subject.

These could include:

Maintaining control: Organisational control entails setting out the rules and procedures to be followed by employees carrying out their tasks. The most common form of this style of management is top-down control—decisions are made by senior executives and passed down to lower-level workers. The course would examine this and other forms of organisational control.

Leadership: We would highlight the difference between strong leadership, which will ensure productivity is maximised and business goals are met, and weak leadership which has the opposite effect.

Organisational skills: Exploring the characteristics of successful business managers, we will discover that most of them are endowed with acute organisational skills and are able to keep tight control of functions such as managing deadlines, goals, and projects.

Planning: We will stress the importance of proper planning, without which a business can quickly become dysfunctional. Careful planning, for example, is essential when it comes to production, budgeting, supply management, goal development, and human resources.

 

Your Feedback, Please

 

Having provided a brief outline for a potential online course for consultants—it’s time to ask for your feedback.

 

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If there are subjects that you would like to see covered but that are not on my list, please let me know by posting your views in the comments section below.

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Likewise, if some of the subjects listed above don’t sound of interest to you, also let me know. I have no doubt that between us all we could devise the type of course that would include topics most beneficial to consulting professionals.

 

 

 

Best Regards,
Rob O’Byrne
Email: robyrne@logisticsbureau.com
Phone: +61 417 417 307