Episode 270| Watch on YouTube | Listen on Buzzsprout
Twenty years of experience. Zero consulting clients. How does that happen?
Your employer pays you to solve problems. Coworkers ask for your judgment. You know things that took years to learn. Yet when you consider consulting, it can be surprisingly difficult to say what someone would buy.
The missing piece is often a clear connection between what you know and a problem a particular person wants solved.
Jonathan Stark explores that connection in his video, 5 Basic Steps for Starting a Profitable Consulting Business. Here is how I would apply the idea to people who have built their experience in engineering, management, education, or another professional role.
Choose a person you can recognize
“I help businesses” gives you very little direction. Which businesses? What is happening inside them?
A newly promoted engineering manager in a small manufacturing company is easier to picture. That person might be learning to manage former coworkers while also answering for project delays.
You have a situation to investigate, and you can ask someone in your network for an introduction.
Our homeschooling math business, AskDrCallahan, illustrates why specificity matters. High school math for homeschooling families gives the conversation a direction. “Education” leaves almost everything open.
For your consulting idea, describe someone clearly enough that a friend could think of a person to introduce. This is a starting point you can revise as you learn.
Understand where the problem gets expensive
A complaint alone does not establish a business opportunity.
Consider two hypothetical managers. One dislikes the weekly status meeting. Another discovers that a missing purchase order has delayed an installation and left people waiting for work they cannot complete.
Both might complain about communication. The consequences are very different.
Ask what happens because the problem exists. Look for rework, missed deliveries, lost customers, or time spent on a recurring workaround. Find out how the buyer measures those consequences.
The opportunity also has to fit your competence. A serious problem does not become your business merely because it is expensive. You need a credible way to help, and the buyer needs a reason and some ability to act.
Ask for a specific introduction
Your network can help more easily when you give people something recognizable.
Try a request like this: “I am looking into missed handoffs between engineering and purchasing in small manufacturers. Do you know an owner or operations manager who has dealt with that recently? I would like to understand what happened. This would be a research conversation.”
That request gives your contact a situation to match with someone they know.
A company expanding, hiring its first operations manager, or promoting a technical employee into management may offer a useful place to begin. Those visible changes are clues. They are not proof that the company has your chosen problem.
Be truthful about your purpose. If you are investigating a potential service, say so. And honor a promise that the conversation will not become a surprise pitch.
Investigate what actually happened
People who solve problems for a living often rush to the answer. I have to watch this as a professor. A short question can become a lecture before I have fully understood the situation.
In a research conversation, ask for a recent example. When did this happen? What did you do? What have you tried? What did it cost? Who decides whether to pay for a change?
These questions produce more useful evidence than asking whether someone would buy your idea.
I recently had a small problem at a rental property: understanding which freezer basket and door runners fit together. My need at that moment was very specific. A broad home-maintenance course would not have answered it.
Your prospective buyer may be equally specific. You may see a need for a complete management system while the owner is focused on getting the right materials onto three jobs this Friday.
Stay with their actual situation. Let them tell you when something is only a minor annoyance. That answer can save you weeks of building the wrong offer.
Define one result you can credibly deliver
Capture the language people use, with permission before recording. Look for recurring situations among similar buyers.
“I keep discovering we are late after we have promised the customer a date” gives you more to investigate than a phrase like “project visibility.” What arrives late? Which decision is missing? Who needs to know sooner?
A possible first engagement might be a review of one active project, with a map of its handoffs and a short list of recommended changes. That is an illustration of a bounded offer, not a universal prescription.
Define what you will examine, what the buyer receives, and where your responsibility ends. Discuss price in light of the scope and value, while accounting for your own time and costs. You cannot promise to eliminate delays caused by things outside your control.
An agreed paid engagement provides stronger evidence than a compliment about your idea. Until then, keep treating the opportunity as something to test.
Begin with evidence
You can investigate much of this while remaining employed, using your own time and respecting applicable outside-work restrictions.
Choose one recurring problem you understand. Write down who experiences it, what happened the last time, and what you still need to learn. Use your next conversation to fill those gaps.
The point is to learn enough to decide whether the idea deserves more effort. If nobody cares enough to act, revise it. If a specific group is already spending time and money trying to fix it, look more closely.
What is one problem people already come to you to solve? Who asks, and what are they trying to get done?
Watch Episode 270: [INSERT EPISODE LINK]
Source and inspiration: Jonathan Stark, “5 Basic Steps for Starting a Profitable Consulting Business.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjzPf68IpBw
Want help getting your interests and possibilities on paper?
Get my free Calling Exercise 👉🏻 My free calling exercise can help you explore what you love, what you have to offer, and where those things might lead. ⤵️
🌟 Download the free calling exercise at DaleCallahan.com/calling.
Choose one possibility and one step.
You got the salary. You got the title. Now build something that’s yours. That could be a company. It could be a path into work you’ve always wanted to do.
If this resonated, I share grounded insights like this each week in my LinkedIn newsletter
— focused on clarity, ownership, and taking control of your direction without hype.
If This Helped You
Follow the podcast and subscribe on YouTube. Hit like, follow, or subscribe — depending on where you’re reading this. 👍
It tells the platforms that this kind of clarity is worth putting in front of other professionals who feel stuck and want control of their career again.
Reach out if you want help with your next move.
And if you want personal help taking control of your career and income, grab a Strategy Session with me.
🎥 See the video on my Youtube Channel.
0 Comments