How can you turn consulting experience into entrepreneurship?

Many consultants dream of becoming entrepreneurs and launching their own ventures. But how can you leverage your consulting experience and skills to make the transition from employee to founder? In this article, we'll explore some of the ways you can turn consulting experience into entrepreneurship and the benefits and challenges of doing so.

Key takeaways from this article

Assess and bridge gaps:

Identify your strengths and weaknesses to determine where you need support. Invest in learning new skills or finding partners who complement your expertise.### *Validate before launching:Test your business idea with market research and prototypes. Gather feedback to refine your concept and ensure there's demand before fully committing.

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1 Assess your strengths and gaps

As a consultant, you have developed valuable skills such as problem-solving, analytical thinking, communication, project management, and client relations. These are essential for any entrepreneur, but they may not be enough to succeed in a competitive and uncertain market. You also need to assess your gaps and weaknesses, such as technical knowledge, industry expertise, financial acumen, or marketing savvy. Depending on your goals and ideas, you may need to invest in learning new skills, finding co-founders or partners, or hiring experts to fill the gaps.

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Olanrewaju Babalola

Business Transformation | Entrepreneurial Consulting
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As a consultant with relevant skills and experience across 4 industry domains, I was conscious of my educational background, the transferrable skills across the industry and how I performed on each of the job roles. A detailed analysis of these three helped me to identify and validate my strengths and weaknesses. Having the understanding of these has helped me know the area of entrepreneurship to focus on. It has also helped me to know areas of continuous learning for improvement to be a well-rounded, equipped entrepreneur that enables change.

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2 Validate your idea and market

One of the biggest mistakes aspiring entrepreneurs make is to assume that their idea is brilliant and that customers will flock to it. As a consultant, you know the importance of testing assumptions and gathering data before making decisions. You can apply the same principles to your entrepreneurial journey by validating your idea and market before launching. This means conducting market research, talking to potential customers, building prototypes or minimum viable products, and getting feedback. This will help you refine your idea, identify your target audience, and avoid wasting time and money on something that won't work.

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Olanrewaju Babalola

Business Transformation | Entrepreneurial Consulting
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Test marketing continues to remain relevant in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation. This is because without a market of customers, businesses should not exist in the first place. Hence, the recommendation to conduct varieties of market research technique to validate business idea. Currently as a small business consultant, I have experienced clients who have passion to go into businesses that does not have its customers around the proposed business location's region (and this is not a tech startup). I had to work with the client in re-defining and refining his passion to solve a business problem.

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3 Build your network and brand

Another advantage of being a consultant is that you have access to a wide network of contacts, including clients, colleagues, mentors, and peers. These people can be your potential customers, investors, advisors, or supporters. You can leverage your network to get referrals, introductions, testimonials, or insights. However, you also need to build your own brand as an entrepreneur, not just as a consultant. This means creating a compelling value proposition, a unique selling point, and a distinctive identity for yourself and your venture. You can use online platforms, social media, events, or media outlets to showcase your expertise, vision, and personality.

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Olanrewaju Babalola

Business Transformation | Entrepreneurial Consulting
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In my experience, social capital remains the most valuable currency for consultants to leverage when going into entrepreneurship. The information, expertise, trust and value that exists in the mutual relationship I have with client as a consultant can be carried into my entrepreneurial endeavor.

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4 Manage your time and resources

One of the biggest challenges of transitioning from consulting to entrepreneurship is managing your time and resources. As a consultant, you are used to working on multiple projects, meeting deadlines, and delivering results. As an entrepreneur, you have to juggle many more tasks, such as product development, marketing, sales, finance, legal, and operations. You also have to deal with uncertainty, risk, and failure. You need to be disciplined, flexible, and resilient. You also need to prioritize your activities, delegate or outsource what you can, and seek help when you need it.

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5 Learn from your mistakes and successes

As a consultant, you are used to learning from your experiences and improving your skills and performance. As an entrepreneur, you need to adopt a similar mindset and embrace the learning curve. You will make mistakes, face setbacks, and encounter obstacles. But you will also achieve successes, celebrate milestones, and discover opportunities. You need to learn from both your failures and your wins, and use them as feedback to improve your product, strategy, or approach. You also need to be open to new ideas, perspectives, and feedback from others.

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6 Enjoy the journey and the rewards

Finally, as a consultant turned entrepreneur, you need to enjoy the journey and the rewards of your transition. Being an entrepreneur can be stressful, demanding, and lonely. But it can also be exciting, fulfilling, and rewarding. You get to pursue your passion, create value, solve problems, and make an impact. You also get to enjoy more autonomy, creativity, and flexibility. You need to balance the challenges and the benefits of entrepreneurship, and appreciate the growth and satisfaction that come from it.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Francesco B.

Project Management & Innovation Expert | Digital Consultant | Youth Empowerment Advocate | Fulbright Alum
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Our experience as consultants will likely give us deep insights into specific industries or markets. If we use this knowledge to our advantage when developing our business idea and crafting our value proposition, we can gain a competitive edge and better understand our audience and their needs.

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Olanrewaju Babalola

Business Transformation | Entrepreneurial Consulting
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If as a consultant, you exhibit a growth mindset. You want to exhibit the double portion of that as you proceed to entrepreneurship.

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How can you turn consulting experience into entrepreneurship?

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3

4

5

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1 Assess your strengths and gaps

2 Validate your idea and market

3 Build your network and brand

4 Manage your time and resources

5 Learn from your mistakes and successes

6 Enjoy the journey and the rewards

7 Here’s what else to consider

Consulting

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How can you turn consulting experience into entrepreneurship?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Assess your strengths and gaps

2 Validate your idea and market

3 Build your network and brand

4 Manage your time and resources

5 Learn from your mistakes and successes

6 Enjoy the journey and the rewards

7 Here’s what else to consider

Consulting

Rate this article

Thanks for your feedback

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