6 Steps to Create a 6-Figure Consultancy Firm in NJ

Hopefully you're smart, or else you should not waste your time reading these six steps to create a six-figure consultancy firm in New Jersey. Consultants are brains-for-hire, not the desperately unemployed looking for money. However, if you are one of the select few who have the ego of a pirate and the common sense of a squirrel, then you may be ready to put your expertise in the driver's seat on the road to limitless income. I want to show you how to create a six-figure consultancy firm in New Jersey.

I don't care if you were an engineer at Lockheed Martin, a commercial fisherman or an MBA with an unexpired parking pass from Rutgers-Camden—you have the power to improve the condition of other people. Notice I said people and not companies or firms. This is because people will be the ones hiring you and not some faceless brand. Even Starbucks has people that choose their consultants, not machines. The goal of your practice will be to listen to what people want, and then use that knowledge to prescribe what they need.

Eliminate whatever feelings of inadequacy you maintain stemming from your lack of education, experience or clients. The sum of your fee and self-esteem is a direct function of the value you leave with your client, and not how many business courses you have taken. Benjamin Franklin had no education or experience when he negotiated an alliance between the Americans and French during the Revolutionary War. He was the greatest diplomat in the history of America and the man dropped out of grade school. Like Benjamin Franklin, you need to focus on the output of your practice and not input. I operate the most dominant marketing agency in South Jersey. However, I never list the tasks I will need to conduct for a prospective client in their proposal. Rather, I list what benefits they can expect. When I order a hamburger, I don't care about the grill, kitchen or even the chef. I want a delicious hamburger that will satisfy my stomach. This is what you are selling—the full stomach, not the meat.

Here are six steps to create a six-figure consultancy firm in New Jersey:

1. Do you have a network of clients you have previously served in the past? This is how doctors form their own practices after leaving hospitals. If you don't, you need to begin making a name for yourself by continually creating fresh intellectual property and publishing it. Identify five major problems of your target market and address them in all of your writing. Start a website and begin producing blogs and short videos that cater to your market. Begin advertising free seminars that you host. This is always a foolproof way of gaining new clients. The bottom line is a client rarely wakes up and says: "I need a consultant." Usually they seek out answers online, and incidentally begin knowing, liking and trusting those who answer them. The largest appliance repair company in Connecticut didn't contact me because I am a marketing guy in New Jersey. Rather, his competitor was sabotaging his online presence and so he typed "how to cheat in SEO" into Google. Hire!
2. You may even cold-call prospective clients. The rule of thumb for this is simple: Ensure that you know something about them first. When I started Imprinsic, I found new prospects online and found major holes in their marketing I could talk to them about. Nobody who owns a car is in the market for a bus ticket, so find their need. Are you embarrassed to be cold-calling? Do you feel like an amateur? Do you think ADT is run by amateurs? Probably not, but they were the first sales call I received when we moved into our new office. By the way, this is the same company that maintains the No. 1 home security system market share.
3. Once you have new clients, begin requesting referrals two-thirds into the relationship. At this point they should be impressed by you, and very willing to give you the names of people they know who may also find your services valuable. Referrals are a huge part of our own marketing efforts, and it is easily the warm water situated between the hot shower of buyers from the proverbial "street" and the freezing cold water of the dreaded sales call.
4. I am a huge believer in value-based fees. Charging clients by the hour for intellectual work is like a cable company charging you for the amount of shows you watch each month. When somebody hires you as a consultant, they are getting you and all of your beautiful mind power which does not expire until your contract is up. But this concept of value-based fee is so much more. What you are charging people for is the value you have created for them when your relationship has eventually ceased. If I create a solution for a client after four hours of research, but it generates over $50,000 in sales, should I be compensated for the output, or input of my work? The answer is always output, and so you must base your fee on the long-term value of your service, and not the short-term process. This is the key to developing a 6-figure consultancy firm in NJ, and not a five-figure one.
5. The real world is tough. Don’t expect all of your clients to pay on time, don’t expect people to roll over to your negotiating prowess, and always be aware that the other person is trying to be cleverer than you. The solution is to have as many smart people around you as possible. Make friendships with the sharpest lawyers, the savviest accountants and the sexiest marketers (cough), and pick their brain continually. 
6. The sixth step toward creating a six-figure consultancy firm in New Jersey will end where it began with the fact that you are a brain-for-hire. You need to constantly be proving it by giving lectures, regularly producing content online, and, eventually, writing a commercially published book. You need to be perfecting your craft daily by absorbing every new trend, redundancy, avoiding the sycophancy, while embracing the consultancy infancy seeking legitimacy from positive consistency within your agency. In short: Plug in what works and discard what does not. I have published over a hundred blogs on our website and one-quarter of those have helped us attain a new client. A blog takes me about 20 minutes to produce which means approximately one hour every few days produces a new client. This is exactly the pace and justified ROI you need to discover, maintain, perpetuate and, most importantly, profit from.

Anyone who tells you this market is dry has their back turned to the well. Find the need, plant your seed and make your money breed. Good luck!