How to Start Project Management Consulting Business?

For any project management professionals out there who want to level up, now might be the right time to consider establishing their own consulting business. One of the biggest advantages to working as a consultant is having a potentially wide pool of clients that you can work with, which holds especially true for anyone in project management.

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Although starting your own business can be scary, a consulting role can be extremely fulfilling for those who want a challenge. If so, read on below for some of our tips on starting your own project management consulting business.

Tips for Starting Your Own Project Management Consulting Business

#1: Define your niche

The first step to starting any consulting business is finding your niche. The nature of project management consulting means that your consultancy skills can be applied to virtually any industry, so you don’t want to stretch yourself too thin. In fact, narrowing your niche can actually lead to more clients, as news tends to travel faster within industry-specific networks. If you’re planning to set up a business with a partner, you might want to also consider their own specializations to see if you can amp up your services. As a general rule, it’s always better to dig deep within your chosen niche and excel in your field.

#2: Opt for the right business entity

Consultancy work is all about mitigating risk, and to that end, the business structure you choose can help address this. Project management consultants who are just starting out may want to consider setting their business up as a limited liability company (LLC) as this protects owners from incurring any personal liabilities. According to zenbusiness, the process of starting an LLC can be completed online. There might be some differences when it comes to specific state regulations, but the overall process should be relatively straightforward.

#3: Start marketing your services

Word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing is crucial for startups, so don’t underestimate the power of speaking directly to the family, friends, and even previous colleagues. Of course, it’s also important to remember that credibility is key to any WOM strategy. While you might want to ask people in your network for referrals, it’s important to remember that these individuals need to disclose their relationship to your company before giving an honest opinion. Being upfront with WOM marketing establishes your company as trustworthy, which can then go a long way in building brand loyalty.

#4: Invest in the right software

One of the biggest benefits of running a project management consulting business is that you don’t need a physical office to operate from. As such, you can opt to funnel these costs into powerful software that will streamline your operations. Our previous post on project schedule management cites the likes of Microsoft Project and Schedule Cleaner as software that can help you plan out your management process and clean up confidential information from your schedules. These are small tasks that can quickly add up and become difficult to manage on your own, which is why investing in software is necessary.

#5: Consider hiring experts

One of the easiest and fastest tactics in establishing a project management consulting business is by hiring an expert. Starting a business without an in-depth background in accounting, marketing, and other aspects of operations can be detrimental to your project management consulting business. Hiring experts to tackle some of your tasks can help you concentrate on the more essential parts of your business operations.

Digital marketing specialists are highly trained in implementing various strategies to help boost your business’s online presence. You can entrust your social media marketing, paid ads or pay-per-click marketing, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and other online marketing strategies to a reliable digital marketing agency.

Consulting experts can benefit your project management consulting business in so many ways. For instance, HubSpot consulting services can help you kickstart your HubSpot onboarding to improve your sales and marketing strategies for overall business success.

Below are the advantages of hiring experts in your project management consulting business company:

Employ technical expertise and experience
Saves time and effort
Improves productivity
High revenue start

You might want to hire experts for your customer service (offshore representative or remote call center), accounting and bookkeeping (accounting firm), IT security services, and human resource (HR) services, among others. Managed service providers offer excellent services at reasonable rates, cheaper than hiring an in-house staff to do the work.

Conclusion

Starting your own project management consulting business is an extremely exciting process. Not only will you widen your skills as a project management professional, but you’ll also be able to hone your organizational skills by building your business from the ground up. Note that you can benefit from working with business turnaround consulting services because they can be helpful for you while correctng business losses and cash shortfalls to avoid cash crisis.

When starting a business, it is important to make sure that your business is registered. The process is different in different countries and states. For example, if you are in South Carolina, you can form a South Carolina LLC.