4 Ways Consulting Can Help Your Design Business
Posted August 28, 2008 in Business, Graphic Design, Web Design 11 Rockin' Comments »
I’ve been a freelance web-designer for a couple years now and I recently started offering consulting services. Honestly, at first I didn’t think it would help me get more design gigs, I just thought it would be one more income stream and figured I’d try it since I was already giving advice about design and usability to my clients.
Actually, offering consulting services is probably the best decision I’ve made in my freelance career so far (after going full-time freelance of course) I get more requests for design projects now than before I started offering it. Why?
There are 4 main reasons why I do consulting and how I think it helps my design business. Keep in mind that these can also be applied to any other business like writing, blogging, programming, etc…
1 - It Positions You As Someone Who Knows What He’s Talking About (an expert?)
Offering consulting services tells potential clients that you actually know your stuff. Hey, if you can design and code a website and offer advice and personalized tips and tricks on top of that, tell me why I shouldn’t hire you? (especially if you offer a package that includes both design and consulting)
There’s a huge difference between being able to just do a job and being able to suggest improvements and ideas based on your experience while doing the job. One thing I’ve learned from blogging is that you should never assume the information is already out there when you write something. It’s the same with consulting except the information you give your client is very personalized.
2 - You Can Learn A Lot By Consulting
Every single time I have a new consulting client I learn something new! Everybody wants something different and have different needs. You can learn a lot by offering consulting services, it’s a win-win thing! You learn from your clients and your clients are happy you can suggest improvements, share your ideas, give advice and help him/her build a better business.
You’ve been designing for years, you sure know a thing or two about design and usability, right? Well chances are your client doesn’t. When you work with clients in different industries you learn a a lot each time, and that knowledge and experience that you gain can help you run your business better and help other clients in the long run.
3 - It Gives You A Break From Designing
I love to design websites and blogs, but sometimes it feels good to take a little break and do something else. Consulting gives you this, it helps break the routine and then you can go back to designing with a fresh perspective and new ideas. It’s like going for a walk when you got a nasty case of writer’s block, except you get paid for it!
4 - Build A Strong Ongoing RelationShip
Ok, so you can design a website, great! But why stop there? Why not tell your client about your consulting services? It’s expensive enough to acquire new clients (advertising, marketing, etc…) why not try to keep the ones you already have?
Sure some clients just want to get the job done and you’ll never hear from them again, but others will be more than happy to spend a little more and hire you as a consultant! If you can build a strong working relationship with your clients there is a good possibility you won’t have to work as hard to find new clients in order make ends meet since you’ll have money coming in on a regular basis.
Your Turn To Talk
What do you think? Have you ever considered offering consulting services? I know consulting is not for everyone but try offering a free report or something like a 1 hour Skype consultation and see where it takes you. I’m sure you’ll like it! :)
******
image in this post: Thomas Rockstar
About the author: Jon Phillips is a full-time freelancer, designer and blogger, he loves WordPress and plays guitar in a heavy act. He's also the founder of Freelance Folder. Oh and he'd be pleased if you would follow him on Twitter. :)
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11 Rockin' Comments
JamieO
August 28th, 2008 at 10:36 pmGreat inspiring piece Jon. From a web project point of view, it is not that dissimilar from the notion that our clients shouldn’t think of site as a static object that doesn’t change because it is built on a dynamic content management system. A strong individual can see ways that an organization can improve and the consultant is the one to teach the individuals how to make that change happen. As Jon observantly points out, you learn in the process. The educational model that we were raised in and often resort to for specific training doesn’t often lend itself to that growth on a personal level. For your client, it can be a great relief to have someone who can help them advance their business without having to give up any financial control of it.
FreelanceSwitch just put out a great post that relates on a design business about how to expand the scale of your business by hiring individual freelancers for projects. As a consultant you could offer someone a way to do the same thing to get towards the higher goals for their business.
Jon Phillips
August 29th, 2008 at 3:45 amHey Jamie! I’m glad you enjoyed the post! You’re right, for a lot of clients it can be a real relief to have someone who understands their business and wants to see it grow!
One thing to keep in mind (forgot to mention this in the post) is that if you do offer consulting services and you’re good at it, it’s very possible your clients won’t need your services for a long time. If you can solve all their problems, why should they keep you? You have to make sure your clients see you as someone they’ll want to keep doing business with for years, like the ‘go-to guy’, the one that always brings something new and fresh.
Just a little something more to think about :)
JamieO
August 29th, 2008 at 8:15 amVery true. Such is the nature of the beast with any service-oriented job - do it too well and your clients don’t need you anymore. If as a consultant you can assist a client with that level of organizational change and growth, they would probably extol the virtues of your business to everyone in their network which would bring you more clients to further assist.
Danny Outlaw
August 29th, 2008 at 1:37 pmHey -
I have thought about doing this for a while. I do pretty much the same thing as you. I design wordpress theme, have a pretty good blog, and know a lot about both.
My question is…..how do you decide how much to charge for this?
Also, if you offer consultation services, where do you draw the line when working with a client who hasn’t paid for the consulting services?
Sanjay Kumar
August 29th, 2008 at 1:46 pmThoroughly enjoyed your post. Just wanted to add 2 things:
1. Many a times clients do not know what they are looking for, or at times you would realize that what they want to get done may not help them much. A little consulting help can be extremely useful for such clients.
2. Even if you solve all their problems and your clients won’t need your services for a long time, they are sure to send you many referrals. It is always good to provide as much value to your clients as possible, even at the cost of future business. The referrals and word of mouth will get you more work.
Jon Phillips
August 29th, 2008 at 1:50 pm@JamieO: Good points! Kinda brings us back to good old word-of-mouth, but I guess it’s even better. Clients can tell their network how much you helped them and what their results were, as opposed to if you just design a site (sure you clients can tell their friends how much they liked your work, but when you do consulting, you build a stronger relationship I guess)
@Danny: Excellent question! To be honest I’ve yet to come up with packages and plans for my consulting services (getting there) I usually just charge my regular hourly rate and adjust slightly depending on the client. As for drawing the line, well that’s the hard part cause it’s very hard not to answer when someone asks you a questions, especially if it’s something rather simple. What I usually do is right from the start I’ll tell clients that I think could use my consulting services that I will give them approx. an hour free to start, and then if they find it’s useful, just hire me! But yeah, it’s not easy to draw that line :)
Mason Hipp
August 29th, 2008 at 2:15 pmWhat I’ve typically done for consulting is offer about 30 minutes for free. Also, I always make sure the clients know that it is an introductory thing and if they want the full-fledged consulting services they will need to pay hourly.
Something else to think about is offering ‘packages’ with a certain number of consulting hours. This has worked really well for me as I can also set an expiration date and other things. It’s kind of a cross between hour-by-hour consulting and a retainer (which is something else to think about).
Danny Outlaw
August 29th, 2008 at 2:19 pm@ Jon and Matt
How do you calculate the 30 min / hour ? Most of my “consulting” happens via email as I am living in Costa Rica at the moment and Skype isn’t always an option.
Danny Outlaw
August 29th, 2008 at 2:20 pmwow…not matt….mason
Mason Hipp
August 29th, 2008 at 5:23 pmHey Danny :-)
That’s an interesting question…I typically consult over the phone so it’s easier for me, but have you thought about a time tracking app like harvest or freshbooks even?
Heck, there are a lot of free timers out there too — you could just start/stop the timer when you’re emailing and let your clients know when they’ve hit the limit.
Alternatively, you could create a specific ‘intro’ package where you would just offer one item for free (like a competitive analysis or something), and anything else would need to come from purchased hours.
Andy Howard
August 30th, 2008 at 8:33 pmGreat post Jon, and these comments are interesting guys. I’ve been doing more and more consulting these days, and I’m finding I prefer it over design and usability work. As Jon suggests it really does make it easy to sell your design services once you wrap the consulting.
@Danny: My consulting is all via email too. I track it using the free AIR app Klok, and in every email I add a ‘Time total since last invoice’ with the tally since last invoice sent. I send invoices for totals of 8 hours or 40 depending on the volume of consulting.