How to start a consulting business and find customers
You want to escape working for someone else using your years of specialized experience, but you genuinely do not know where to begin. The biggest hurdle is finding customers and gauging if small companies actually have a use for outsourcing your specific role. This struggle to grow the business makes the first three years very lean.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Start with one narrow industry you already know and offer a fixed-scope audit with a written findings list to make the first sale easier.Did this help you?
- 2waiting for the perfect time to make the leapDid this help you?
- 3seeking validation from peers who have already transitionedDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I’ve been working in tax for 5+ years now and I’m getting tired of the rat race and working under someone.”source ↗
“The hardest part is finding the customers and growing the business at first , first three years are skinny”source ↗
“I’m trying to gauge if there is a market for this and whether small companies that don’t have dedicated compliance teams actually have use for outsourcing compliance or hiring a fractional compliance officer and so on?”source ↗
“This has been the work ive done for almost a decade and i don’t really have another skill set. Am I barking up the wrong tree?”source ↗
“I genuinely don’t know where and how to start.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Where to get hands-on accounting experience
- 2Can I start selling before my LLC is officially approved?
- 8How to get clients for a new accounting practice
- 11How to quit a corporate job to start your own business
- 2How do you stop researching forever and actually start a business?
- 47how do I get my first client?