3 Responses

1. Going it alone
   Hi Mark,

   Working as a consultant for four years until last summer provided some of my happiest professional years.

   I feel the you need to consider is between building a business for yourself with your own clients or working for others as an associate.

   If you want to maximise the time you spend training, as I did, the best route is that of becoming an associate trainer for others.

   In addition to spending your time training rather than all out selling, marketing and client management you also need less cash in the early stages to tide you over as you will start to earn quite quickly although not as much as with clients of your own of course.

   If you go this route be sure to make it clear to prospective companies what you expect to be doing for them and what they expect from you. As long as this is clear you will have many good relationships and the potnetial for a great variety of work. (Assuming you like variety as I do)

   You can meet lots of such companies at various forum meetings in your location such as CIPD, NLP (Various), UKHRD now TJ online and many others. In addition you can write to them on spec which worked for me a couple of times.

   The alternative is to set up your on business and find clients who may be more rewarding in the long. You will need more time and cash until you have a core of regular clients. I would guesstimate about two to three years from those I dealt with as an associate but it could take longer.

   You could also consider doing a part time job whilst you build up the business.

   You can do a bit of both but I preferred to stay on one track so as to avoid too many clashes of interest.

   All the best.

   Nick

2. A great career move
   Hello Mark,

   I’ve been a training consultant for over 20 years now and it’s a great career. It has enabled me to work with many varied organisations and industries on 5 different continents.

   As with all great things, one has to work for them. Some time ago I decided to write about learning how to be a consultant, so you can get some tips by going to my article “So you want to be a consultant” at http://www.nationallearninginstitute.com/index_files/Selfimprovementformanagers.htm

   If you have any questions after reading the article, I’d be very happey to discuss them with you (my email address is on my website).

   All the best with your great new career.

   Bob Selden
   Author, “What To Do When You Become The Boss”
   http://www.whenyoubecometheboss.com/

3. Back-up adn Face to Face Contact
   Nick’s point on the need to make a choice between going it alone and working as an associate is a very good one.
   Whichever you choose, bear in mind the time lag involved in selling training. First contact with a client to carrying out billable work can be a very long time.
   A training company carries that problem for you if you act as an associate.
   If you want to set up your own company make sure you have some other source of income over the first few years to tide you over. If you have a few clients already, to start the ball rolling, this problem is less acute.
   And finding work as an Associate? Nothing beats word of mouth or meeting people face to face. I have lost count of the number of CVs I have been sent over the years. I have never contacted any of them. I have no way of knowing who writes a great CV and who is a great trainer. So I stick to using trainers I meet and like. Or I book people who are recommended to me by other trainers I trust.
   This is a great job – but it can be a hard slog to get going. Once your reputation is established, building the business becomes very much easier. And it is great fun. Good luck.