$100 Startup: Business Consultant

In Chris Guillebeau’s $100 startup, chris discusses the consultant business. Chris starts with the story of Gary Leff, a part-time consultant who earns money through airline promotions. His business is to set up flight trips for others, including location, distance, airlines, and any restrictions that are needed. He sets up flight trips for a fee of $250 per traveler pair, which sounds extremely expensive when that kind of planning can be done by yourself, but the convenience of his business earns him a lot of attention and money. For this, Chris discusses how Gary follows a few very basic guidelines for his business, and then highlighted them for everyone else: 1) “Pick something specific as opposed to something general. Don’t be a ‘business consultant’ or a ‘life coach’ --get specific about what you can really do for someone.” 2) No one values a $15-an-hour consultant, so do not underprice your service. Since you probably won’t have forty hours of billable work every week, charge at least $100 an hour or a comparable fixed rate for the benefit you provide” the $100 per hour is a somewhat arbitrary number and it varies from business to business, but the point is to not undervalue your service; make it look professional. 3) when you help your clients they will receive some listed benefit. For that benefit you will charge some rate that you deem fair for you and your client. This process is supposed to be relatively simple and allows almost anyone to enter the business effectively, with creativity and promotion being the biggest barriers.