March 2006

Question

I love my work. After all, I get to pick and choose what I do and with whom I work for. Yet, I have noticed that only a few consultants get rich—really rich. I want to be one of those who get rich. How can I make more money? 

Answer

First of all, you may be asking the wrong question. Perhaps you need to ask questions from another perspective? Try these. How can I serve more clients? How can I add more value? How can I serve more clients in less time? What opportunities am I missing? How can I make money while I sleep? You can make more money by the way you deliver services, the kind of consulting you do, the way you price your services, or the extra products or services you provide.

How you deliver services

• Speaking. You may make more money from speaking than from consulting. A 45 minute speech often garners thousands of dollars.
• Seminars. You may start your own seminar company in your specialty area and deliver seminars for 500 to 1000 people at a time at $100 to $500 or more for each person.

The type of consulting you do

Turnarounds. Working with companies who are in trouble can be both a huge challenge, as well as a huge reward (both intrinsic and financial). You can be paid creatively by taking a piece of the action, either in stock or cash.

Brokering. Consulting with company owners who wish to sell their companies can earn you large transaction fees.

The clients you select

Know your Numbers. Figure out where the money is coming from and follow it. Which projects make the most per hour? Which type of clients are the most lucrative? To make more money, follow the trail.

Large Companies. You may wish to simply work for companies who have more opportunities and can afford a higher fee. Small companies often choke on a multi-thousand dollar per day fee.

Your corporate structure

Consultant Practice. Create a company, find the work, and hire others to consult. You will pay others a salary that will be less than what you charge your clients.

Subcontractors. Accept large jobs and hire subcontractors to complete the work. You will receive a percent of their fee.

The way you price your services

Pricing. Examine your pricing structure. If you are still pricing your services by the hour or the day, you are limiting your wealth by the number of hours in a day. Read what I have to say in The Business of Consulting about pricing by the project.

Pay for Results. You may be able to make more money by pricing your services based on results. The second half of the secret is to only take on clients that you can help in a big way.

Finders Fees. Find work for other consultants and take a fee for delivering the client.

Extra products or services you provide

Books. You may be able to make money from book royalties. Mind you that only the really big authors like Tom Peters get wealthy writing, but it is possible to have additional income from books that you write or edit. This also boosts your credibility so you may increase your consulting fees.

Patents. Some of your ideas may be worthy of a patent.

Royalties. You may wish to sell your products to companies on a royalty basis.

Reports. You may make money by selling well-researched, high-quality, high-priced reports that are of interest to individuals in the market place.

Outside interests

Start a Company. Who says you need to make all your money as a consultant? Have you ever had a desire to do something completely different? Maybe you should start another company. Not a consulting company, but something different. I did. I opened a gift shop. It was fun and I learned a great deal about marketing in the process.

Investing. Someone is always looking for a loan. You may consider investing in people and companies that you expect to be big winners. I’ve loaned money to other consultants to get them started. Most recently I loaned $90,000 to a builder who was getting started.

Real estate. I personally have been investing in real estate for the past 20 years. I was never able to figure out the stock market, but have always been knowledgeable about real estate.

Of course there are drawbacks to each of these. But let’s leave that for another column! All successful ideas start with a plan. So begin your plan today.

Question

I have been working with a company for several years. While I believe they are happy with my work, I would like to do something more to add value to what I already am doing. Do you have any creative ideas?

Answer

Take a good hard look at your client’s web site. In today’s Internet-influenced economy web sites present the organization’s face—often the first encounters and impressions of the organization. The web site is often the place where people who want to buy the company’s products are “steered” by search engines. Is it easy to place an order or do customers become so frustrated they give up?

Your client may use the web site to capture much information about visitors, buying habits, and other market and competitive information. It is also where the competition goes to see what your client is doing and vice versa.

Good consultants realize how much of a role organizations’ web sites play in the new market dynamics dictated by the Internet. Savvy consultants share what they have learned with their clients. Go a step farther. Visit your clients’ competitors’ sites and do a comparison. You will learn even more to share with your clients.