Managers: What if you became a consultant?
18 July 2008
Read by 1841 persons
Experts, increasingly young, are trying the adventure of independent consulting. But to succeed in this role, precise rules must be followed.
Advice and creation of corporate blogs, Web 2.0 training or analysis of consumer behavior on the Internet… It is mainly around these activities that Rémy Butin organizes his days since he started, at the beginning of the year, as an independent consultant in interactive marketing and datamining. A project that had already crossed his mind six years earlier, but that he had not completed, due to a lack of both professional and market maturity.
Like Rémy Butin, many managers are tempted by the solo consulting adventure. “Several elements are boosting this market. Companies are outsourcing more and more services and therefore using external skills. And by choice of life, to relaunch a second career around the age of forty, to manage their own time and no longer depend on a hierarchy, managers are also more numerous who want to develop an independent activity”, observes Yves-André Perez, director of the Institute for the Development of Business Consulting, an institute specialized in training for consulting professions.
The Internet has only amplified the phenomenon: the Web is full of websites connecting with potential clients, networks of experts or opportunities to sell their skills via their personal page. Seniors excluded from the company are no longer the only ones to be seduced by this mode of activity.
For a few years, thirty-somethings have been strengthening the ranks of independent consultants, particularly in new technologies where they are preferred to their elders. However, euphoria is not in order. In its latest study, the employers' union Syntec management consulting notes that if the market has almost tripled in 10 years, 70% of it has been taken by only 9% of the firms in its sample, namely those that achieve at least 56 million euros in turnover. The 11,000 small structures (independent consultants or firms with fewer than 10 employees) not included in the study would share a market of 2.42 billion euros in turnover.
Showing small attentions
It is therefore not always easy to find a place in an already crowded consulting market. Yves-André Perez estimates the failure rate at around 40 to 50% after one or two years of activity… for those who have poorly prepared their project. One of the keys to success is indeed to refine your positioning. “The consulting market is mature. In our training courses, we therefore advise targeting a niche activity, or even a microniche. Around 100,000 to 120,000 euros in turnover so that the person earns in consulting what they earned in a company”, assures Yves-André Perez.
Information and communication technologies, sustainable development and executive coaching are among the activities that are booming and are ready for very specialized expertise. “Consulting does not only concern companies. Do not neglect local authorities or the parapublic sector, such as health, where needs are significant”, recommends Yves-André Perez. But when you are independent, it is not enough to have the best expertise, you also need to know how to sell it.
Catherine Pompéi, associate director of the Dirigeants et Partenaires firm, strongly encourages the independent workers she supports to strengthen their commercial and marketing approach. “Four elements are important to succeed: breaking down services to not immediately announce a hundred-day mission, bouncing from one problem to another, from one interlocutor to another, showing small attentions to your clients to always arrive on time, cultivating your network without neglecting the clients you know best”, she points out. Being an independent consultant is not suitable for all profiles: it is better to be commercial and autonomous, to have conceptual qualities, to know how to arouse enthusiasm and to work on projects.
Gaëlle Ginibrière
Published on July 7, 2008
Posted online on July 18, 2008
lefigaro.fr
Advice and creation of corporate blogs, Web 2.0 training or analysis of consumer behavior on the Internet… It is mainly around these activities that Rémy Butin organizes his days since he started, at the beginning of the year, as an independent consultant in interactive marketing and datamining. A project that had already crossed his mind six years earlier, but that he had not completed, due to a lack of both professional and market maturity.
Like Rémy Butin, many managers are tempted by the solo consulting adventure. “Several elements are boosting this market. Companies are outsourcing more and more services and therefore using external skills. And by choice of life, to relaunch a second career around the age of forty, to manage their own time and no longer depend on a hierarchy, managers are also more numerous who want to develop an independent activity”, observes Yves-André Perez, director of the Institute for the Development of Business Consulting, an institute specialized in training for consulting professions.
The Internet has only amplified the phenomenon: the Web is full of websites connecting with potential clients, networks of experts or opportunities to sell their skills via their personal page. Seniors excluded from the company are no longer the only ones to be seduced by this mode of activity.
For a few years, thirty-somethings have been strengthening the ranks of independent consultants, particularly in new technologies where they are preferred to their elders. However, euphoria is not in order. In its latest study, the employers' union Syntec management consulting notes that if the market has almost tripled in 10 years, 70% of it has been taken by only 9% of the firms in its sample, namely those that achieve at least 56 million euros in turnover. The 11,000 small structures (independent consultants or firms with fewer than 10 employees) not included in the study would share a market of 2.42 billion euros in turnover.
Showing small attentions
It is therefore not always easy to find a place in an already crowded consulting market. Yves-André Perez estimates the failure rate at around 40 to 50% after one or two years of activity… for those who have poorly prepared their project. One of the keys to success is indeed to refine your positioning. “The consulting market is mature. In our training courses, we therefore advise targeting a niche activity, or even a microniche. Around 100,000 to 120,000 euros in turnover so that the person earns in consulting what they earned in a company”, assures Yves-André Perez.
Information and communication technologies, sustainable development and executive coaching are among the activities that are booming and are ready for very specialized expertise. “Consulting does not only concern companies. Do not neglect local authorities or the parapublic sector, such as health, where needs are significant”, recommends Yves-André Perez. But when you are independent, it is not enough to have the best expertise, you also need to know how to sell it.
Catherine Pompéi, associate director of the Dirigeants et Partenaires firm, strongly encourages the independent workers she supports to strengthen their commercial and marketing approach. “Four elements are important to succeed: breaking down services to not immediately announce a hundred-day mission, bouncing from one problem to another, from one interlocutor to another, showing small attentions to your clients to always arrive on time, cultivating your network without neglecting the clients you know best”, she points out. Being an independent consultant is not suitable for all profiles: it is better to be commercial and autonomous, to have conceptual qualities, to know how to arouse enthusiasm and to work on projects.
Gaëlle Ginibrière
Published on July 7, 2008
Posted online on July 18, 2008
lefigaro.fr
