When you started out as an independent consultant, your business boomed! You felt confident that your decision to go out on your own was the right move.
But now, well, the story is different. Despite your experience, expertise, and commitment, you’re struggling. New clients aren’t coming in consistently, revenue is unpredictable, and the strategies that once worked no longer seem effective. You’ve tried different approaches, yet you’re not connecting with the right people. Simply, you’ve hit a plateau.
The worst part? You’re exhausted, frustrated, and know you can’t continue down the same path. Something needs to change.
Does the story sound familiar? How about this story?
While searching for a new position, a former employer reached out with a problem they knew you could solve. Although they couldn’t offer you a full-time role, they could bring you on as a consultant. You agreed, thinking it was just a temporary solution. Then something unexpected happened.
You realized you enjoyed the freedom of being your own boss and taking charge of your own future. However, as the engagement wrapped up, you faced a new challenge: finding your next client. You knew that if you wanted to succeed, you had to figure it out that next step—fast.
If either of these stories sound familiar, you’re not alone. I’ve been there. I know many other independent consultants have been faced with the similar challenges.
But all of us had one common driving force. We all wanted to be successful and that meant we needed to change if we wanted to not only survive but become known as the “go-to” expert in our field.
Change meant each of us needed to simplify what we were doing and eliminate or stop doing anything that was not absolutely necessary. It required following a “less is more” approach and implementing realistic, repeatable techniques and tactics that fit each of us and met the needs of our ideal client.
Change also meant we each needed to take a step back and find a consulting framework that worked for us. Then we needed to adapt that framework to work for us and our clients.
When I started my own business years in 2002, I used a framework that I knew. It was a big four consulting framework that really didn’t work for an independent consultant or smaller consulting business. It was too much. Oh, make no mistake. To this day, I use numerous aspects of that big four framework in my business.
What ended up happening is a several years ago I create a framework known as The Consultant’s Blueprint©. The Consultant’s Blueprint is my Point of View, my approach, to helping independent consultants and smaller consulting businesses.
The Consultant’s Blueprint is a framework that is based not only on my years of consulting experiences, but on the feedback and advice received from numerous successful consultants, struggling consultants, and consultants who simply gave up. Since its initial publication, the framework has also evolved thanks to feedback from my clients to where it is today.
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The Consultant’s Blueprint©
Pillar 1: Clarify Your Business Core (The Foundation for Success)
Pillar 2: Build Awareness (The Marketing of You)
Pillar 3: Develop Trusted Relationships (Become Known as the Expert)
Pillar 4: Obtain Engagement Commitment (Turn Interest In You into Clients)
Pillar 5: Deliver with Excellence (Client Satisfaction Transforms into Long-Term Trusted Relationships and Repeat Business)
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It is great to have a framework that I can personally use and one that helps my clients, but in an effort to help anyone who can relate to either of the two stories mentioned in this article, I recently created The Ultimate Guide to Building a Successful Consulting Business. This guide is a 12-page resource that explains the five pillars of the Consultant’s Blueprint. Included is an overview diagram, short explanations of each pillar, and an “ingredient list” for each pillar to help you focus on what truly matters to succeed.
The philosophy behind the Consultant’s Blueprint and this guide is simple:
>The best consulting businesses follow a “less is more” approach.
>You don’t need to try everything or chase every recommendation that comes your way. Instead, you keep to the fundamentals. You refine, add, and eliminate as needed to build a business that fits you and your ideal clients—leading to the right clients for you, consistent revenue, and more freedom.
Here is a download link to the guide: The Ultimate Guide to Building a Successful Consulting Business.
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Laura Burford helps independent consultants and smaller consulting businesses create the right clients leading to consistent revenue and time to enjoy life on their terms. She is the founder of Laura’s Consulting Guide, host of a YouTube channel, and is known for her Consulting Mastery program.
