• 5 reasons to use weird business cards
• Give me one good reason
• Guest post: making the leap

My Canadian vocabulary often shows up in the newsletter, too. Subscribe if you’d like a taste of Canuck culture (or tips on jumpstarting your expert status!)

There’s a reason so many people hate cold calls. That’s because, most of the time, it involves calling people you don’t know, interrupting their busy days, and trying to build a relationship with them. And what kind of relationship starts with intimidation, unwelcome interruption and your lack of desire to be involved? Not one most people would want, that’s for sure.

It makes far more sense if you build relationships with people in incremental steps before doing something so bold as calling them. Start by indentifying people you suspect may be in your market. Work on turning them into likely prospects and nurturing them through your pipeline. That way, when you do call them, they’ll know who you are, what you do and why they need you. And they’re much more likely to be receptive and willing to buy.

Put some effort into finding prospects. By building relationships with people who stand a good chance of fitting your criteria for becoming a lead or client, you’re more likely to do business with those people.

In other words, a testimonial can help sell people on the merits of your services. If other people are willing to attach their name to positive feedback about you, it implies that you’re the real deal.

Six tips for getting testimonials

1. When a client says something positive about your company, products or services, ask if you can use those words and their name as a testimonial in your marketing.
2. Get it in writing. Use email or a letter to note the testimonial you want to use and ask the client to reply back with permission.
3. Request feedback. If clients haven’t taken the time to sign your praises, send a short note asking for feedback about your products and services. Tell them you welcome all feedback — heck, it’s a great way to find out where you should improve.
4. Try to get real testimonials. Sometimes, clients may ask you to just write something up and have them sign off on it. But the natural language of a true testimonial will always stand out more than polished marketing terms. Wherever possible, try to get words right from the client.
5. Include details. Note the person’s name, title, company and city (or a mix of these). "John D." sounds less legitimate than "John Doe, CEO, MegaCorp Ltd, Houston".
6. Share your testimonials with your existing clients. It helps reaffirm their decision to buy from you and may spark feedback.

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But there’s one thing you should never, ever do with a check.

In fact, if you do this one thing, the very future of your business may be uncertain, even if you’re commanding high consulting fees and you’ve got a long list of clients lined up. And you could find your business in ruins.

At Consultant Journal, we’re not normally doom and gloomers. We believe in the power of independent consulting. But we do know there’s one thing that can bring your business down.

Never, under any circumstances, cash that entire check. No matter how big or how small any check is, always put some aside.

No matter how successful your business becomes, you’ll always have to pay the Tax Guys come year-end. And you don’t want to be in a situation where your business earned more than ever before…but you haven’t got anything left to pay taxes and social security.

So always put some money aside. Talk to your accountant about how much you need or at least look at prior year’s taxes payable to estimate what you need to save for taxes. (And remember, you should always confer with your accountant or tax authority about taxes. At Consultant Journal, we can only guide you; we’re not accountants.)

And, remember, if you haven’t got an emergency fund to cover six to nine months of expenses, you might also want to throw some money that way.

Related to the one thing you should never do with a check

• How to save when you work freelance

Your existing customers, contacts and fans!

That’s right — the secret to your consulting success is in the relationships you’ve already built, not in some sort of secret lead generation tactic. After all, the clients who’ve already bought into your offering are already on your side. And they’re the people most likely to buy again, buy more or tell their friends and colleagues about the amazing work you do. In fact, even a happy low value client is better than someone who signs on for a one-off project that pays 10 times as much.

Look at it this way. Say you’re doing a $500 job for a very delighted client three or four times a year. Small potatoes, right? And you get a call from a prospective client who’s offering up a one-time $5,000 job. Which is the better job?

Well, if the small potatoes client buys from you over and over, you’ll likely make $7,500 to $10,000 in the next five years — and they may help you land other clients. In fact, if they sell their own contacts on your successes, it may be easier to win those contacts than the ones you turn up yourself. Meanwhile, that $5,000 client isn’t such a hot deal if you never do work for them again.

Of course, in a best case scenario, you make both clients so happy that they buy over and over and rave about you to their networks. So what are you doing to build a network of raving fans?

Related:

• What’s your desert island marketing tool?
• Become a Consultant course

If you have any questions — or if you run into any bugs — please let us know. We welcome feedback.

How does it work?

By leaving useful, engaging comments readers are encouraged to click on your link to find out more about you. And from a search engine optimization perspective, links on other websites that point to your website are a good thing.

Imagine that you’re a copywriting consultant. You come across a post on a professional writer’s blog that discusses the lack of good copywriting these days. You can chime in with some useful, funny commentary that positions you as an expert. For example, you could mention that you’re a professional copywriting consultant and you’re amazed at some of the copy that you’re hired to rewrite. You could share a few funny grammatical mistakes that you’ve caught, and you can sign your name and leave a link to your website.

You’ve just shared a funny story, positioned yourself as an expert and there’s no doubt that a few readers have clicked on your website link to find out more about you.

The key is to leave useful and engaging comments on blogs that are relevant to your niche.

A few tips to remember:

• Make sure your comments are related to the post;
• The most effective blog comments are detailed, engaging, humorous, and helpful;
• Recent blog posts get more readers, in general, than old archived blog posts; and
• Do not write off-topic and obviously promotional comments.

Related Posts:

• 8 reasons to write guest posts for blogs
• Becoming a consultant FAQ
• How to become a consultant
• Why become a consultant
• Should I become a consultant
• Consulting Fees: A Guide for Independent Consultants
• Discover Your Inner Consultant
• Discover Your Inner Entrepreneur (for moms)

When you become a consultant, you become more than a consultant. You’re becoming a business owner. That means you wear several hats. As time goes on, it may not make sense to wear every hat. Here’s how to tell when it’s time to outsource.

1. You don’t like doing the work. If you really dislike a particular task, freeing yourself from the obligation may have a pay off. Taking the weight off your shoulders allows you to focus on areas of strength and passion — which may leave you with more energy to build up your business.
2. You don’t have time. If you don’t have time to do everything that needs doing, it’s time to enlist help. Of course, before you start outsourcing, you need to consider just what needs to be outsourced.
3. You could make more money doing something else. By outsourcing lower value tasks to someone who earns less than you do, you can focus on higher paying activities.
4. You don’t have the skills. Faced with a steep learning curve, you may find it’s easier and more effective to hire someone who can hit the ground running.
5. You want a fresh perspective. By working with another experienced professional, you can gain insights from unbiased eyes.
6. You need a break. Sometimes, it makes sense to outsource your work while you take a vacation, a breather or just some time to refocus.
7. You need to put resources elsewhere. Even if it’s cheaper to do a job yourself, you may need to focus your skills and talents elsewhere. It’s important to figure out just where you add the most value in your business.

Once you’ve started a consulting business and established your fees, it’s important to look at how you add value to other businesses…and then how you can use other consultants and freelancers to add value to your business. After all, the reasons other people hire you are the same reasons you’d hire someone else.