Presented at Institut Pertanian Bogor Master of Business and Management's CEO and Entrepreneurial Development Forum on February 4th, 2014.

1. Image courtesy of www.robhartnett.com
Delivered at MB IPB CEO and Entrepreneurial Development Forum

2. Who Am I?
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3. ~ A anonymous consultpreneur
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4. Today’s Agenda
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5. Understand Consulting Requirements
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6. • Hard and soft Skills in expert level
• In-depth and broad Knowledge
• Positive and constructive Attitude
• Network, network, network: client,
contact, resources, partner
• In the end, consultant shall provide expert
advice in particular or a wide range of fields
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Image courtesy of Matthew Norris

7. TARGETING the Type, Segment and
Industry

8. • Ideally, identify which type of consulting field
where the diamond is
• If not, at those early days, determine specific
area(s) of consulting that
at the most
• Passion first, expertise (shall) follow suit
• Might decide to start with general consulting
• Later stage
to attain clients with specific needs
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Image courtesy of Patrick van der Pijl
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9. • Next: Which
segment are we
going to play?
• Micro, Small,
Medium, Big –
we decide
• Set the industry
we put our
priority at. Try to
in-line with our
background and
expertise
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Image courtesy of Patrick van der Pijl

10. Is Consulting Firm a Necessity?

11. • Stay as a professional,
self-employed, or move it
forward. Cast our vote!
• Comfort zone is
everywhere
• To grow bigger day in and
day out, take the risk as
long as we could manage
it
• Start a consulting firm
right away. Period.
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13. Try to Do this Exercise First
• Ask ourselves once again, do we really want to
become an entrepreneur?
• If yes, then decide: be a single fighter or go along
with co-founder(s)
• Do market research by:
– Scouting out similar consultants in our area
– Finding out expertise and services offered
– Figuring out their prices and marketing schemes
• When completed, then:
– What differ us from rivals: quality of deliverable, more
reasonable fee, faster execution and completion (?)
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14. …Let’s reaffirm ourselves by programming these
words until they are sublimed
“You say I dream too big. I say
you think too small.”

15. Upon Completion then…
• Decide source of funds: bootstrapped or?
• Name our business. Memorable but not
tacky
• Establish our company profile (objectives,
goals, mission, vision, values)
• Choose legal structure for our venture
• Craft a business plan. Not only for us but for
investor as well
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16. Upon Completion then…(cont’d)
•
•
•
•
•
Consider costs and funds for first year as a start
Obtain proper licenses
Start to set-up office
Prepare for office supply, equipment, resources
Define company policies, processes and
procedures. Formalize them upon completion
• Consider to form and think further of separating
management from governance
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17. Start Too Early Only If…
• Blue Ocean as Bulls-Eye
• To win the mind share
• Have adequate funds and
persistence to struggle and survive
• Able and willing to grab other projects
to sustain the business
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18. Rolling out Consulting Practice

19. Market Our Service
• Attend event, mingle and network with others
• Actively contribute for respective organization
and association
• Write at particular publications
• Deliver lecture, training and workshop
• Speak ourselves out at seminar and conference
• Obtain advanced degree, accreditation and
certification
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20. Market Our Service (cont’d)d)
• Capitalize on internet (blog, social network, any
other digital channels)
• Ask for referrals
• Give token for leads
• Offer low price services or more extremely free
to build up reputation
Bottom line
Make ourselves and expertise heard and read
(validated, acknowledged, recognized)
Image courtesy of Nanagyei
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21. Improve, Enhance and Boost Our Expertise
•
•
•
•
•
•
Reading
Practicing
Training
Education
Self-studying
….and many more
Cutting the case:
Internet and MOOC rock!
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22. Leverage Our Networks
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Parents
Spouse
Relatives
Friends
Colleagues
Children
Even our former boss, girlfriend, boyfriend…
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23. Better Start with Small
• Always dream BIG with our
feet
GROUNDED
• Start off with smaller paying clients
• Always eager to go for larger ones ASAP
• Don’t grow too fast unless we have “solid
back office”
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25. Be Pragmatic at Early Stage
• Going to where the money flows
• Affordable office: garage, virtual
office, co-working space as
options
• Host meeting at our client’s office
or public service
• Keep a healthy working capital
• Think of rolling out Stock Option
Plan (Why not?)
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26. The Time We Sign a Client the Day
We Start…Losing Them
• “Difficult” client is not an option
• Watch high churn rate out. No renewal
= (epic) fail?
• Be flexible. Do anything possible to
keep them
• Ad-hoc call or visit might needed to
ensure things going on the right way
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27. We are Worth Every Penny, So Show
Them the (Hidden) Money!
• Don’t we ever take crap from
clients; Nothing personal really
• Show them NUMBERS or any
other key metrics esp. financial
figures e.g ROI, NPAT, etc
• Bring in more money by
attaining more revenue or
reducing cost than “our price”
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28. Well oh Well, Dress up Please…
• The better we dress, the
higher of consulting rate
we can ask for
• This is to show potential
clients we are successful
• Boost our confidence
• Client will expect us to
bring same success to
their company
• Try it and see the result
Image courtesy of Alexander Rentsch
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30. Set Expectations from Day ONE
• Document important things, particularly
request for changes
• Get the approval as necessary
• Deliverable meets expectation = satisfied
• Raise the bar by always try to exceeds them
• Unrealistic expectations? Silence is not
golden here. Let the clients know why
• Refer other venture if needed
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31. Keep Them Happy from Time to Time
• Weekly updates telling what have you been
doing and addressing any questions raised
• Monthly reports. Graph and other forms of
visuals is worth a try
• Do follow-up by discussing it in an in-person
meeting
• Surveys – periodically and when project
completed by drawing specific questions,
both open and closed
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32. Keep Them Happy from Time to Time (cont’d)
• Send industry
updates and
news regularly
• Go further, do
anything to
makes them feel
special
• They could be
KING or
PARTNER
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33. Our Clients are always Right, EXCEPT…
• Keep “the door” opened by letting clients tell
what they want
• They shouldn’t tell us what we should be
doing
• Telling the client what is the best. We have
the expertise they don’t have, right?
• It’s a winding road thou. Prepare data to
back up what we want to do and show how it
fits at its best for them
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34. The More We Charge, The Less They
Complain
• Big clients have deep pocket so big spending
is no big deal
• They know that if they want to continue to
grow, they have to spend money
• Messing up with smaller clients, most
probably they don’t have enough money for
“switching costs”
• In most cases, the less we charge, well, it’s
too good to be true
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35. Clients to Pay Less For More
• No bunch of case studies nor years of
experience? Take it easy
• Figure out what separates our consulting
company from the giants
• If we show we are better than the bigger
ones, we will lock them in
• Clients always love to pay and work with
senior consultants rather than bigger firms’
junior’s
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36. • Our
strategy defines how we
uniquely and persistently
deliver value to our clients
• It's all about them, not us. It
always will.
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