I didn’t put much thought into my capacity to do consulting work in the beginning.

In fact, I had a “quantity” mindset when I started out, taking on multiple projects at once to build my portfolio.

It was a lot, considering I was still working at my full-time job.

My thinking was that, in order to look more attractive to prospective clients and partners, I needed to have a list of organizations I could say I’ve worked with.

While I enjoyed building my skills and my portfolio, I wasn’t mindful of the timing of all these projects. They were mostly short-term (3-6 months) and they all ended at the same time.

At some point, I realized this wasn’t sustainable. Along with the day job, having multiple projects that started and ended around the same time didn’t help me feel financially stable in the long-run. Running out of projects at the same time is panic-inducing.

When I finally left my job, I had more time to devote to my business, yet I still didn’t feel I could sustain this.

Landing my first multi-year client is when everything clicked.

I had a 3-year project client with multiple moving parts. There was always something for me to do, so I never grew bored. Plus, knowing that I could count on a consistent paycheck also helped.

Soon after, I slowly took on more projects, of varying timeframes, based on where I was with the 3-year project. I was able to stagger projects based on the timing of the larger project, so that I wouldn’t be at the same phase with each project (like writing long evaluation reports for 2-3 projects at the same time, for instance).

I kept track of the start and projected end dates for each project, the project-based skillsets I relied heavily on, and the resources needed for each project. This helped me to be more honest with prospective clients and partners (and myself) about my capacity.

Knowing what you can and can’t do and how many projects you can realistically handle is a personal decision. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

First off, (since this is my first post of 2021), Happy New Year!

Now, let’s get into this month’s question.

This month’s topic is an umbrella question based on several emails I’ve gotten over the past few months.

I’ve blogged about this here and there over the years, particularly in my Keeping Your Sanity As a Solopreneur series, and since I’m getting more emails and social media DMs about, I thought it would be useful to share my advice in a more broader way as this may benefit more people.

A Google search of any variation of the question “How do I get into consulting?” will yield hundreds of links.

In short, consulting involves using your knowledge and expertise to help someone or some entity become more efficient and knowledgeable in their practices by addressing a problem they’re facing. How this looks may depend on your chosen profession.

How consulting looks for me depends on the project or study I’m working on. In some cases, I may be reviewing someone and offering insight or suggested changes. In others, I may be more practitioner-focused by working with my client or partner in completing tasks (which can include developing and implementing trainings, developing research or evaluation questions, implementing evaluations, analyzing data and developing themes and recommendations, facilitating meetings, etc.)

So, how do you get into consulting? Here’s some things to keep in mind:

Have you ever deconstructed the lyrics to a song?

I did that recently with Beyoncé’s Ring the Alarm from her 2006 album B’Day. In particular, the chorus/hook of the song.

If you’re not familiar, Ring the Alarm is about a woman contemplating whether to persist with a relationship that isn’t serving her versus walking away into the unknown (or in this case, with the understanding that she may be giving up on things that she’s grown accustomed to. Like Chinchilla coats, a Benz and the house off the coast, among other things.

Let’s look at it from a logic standpoint versus an emotional standpoint.

Logically, it doesn’t make sense to stay with someone that’s not treating you with respect. But emotionally, we’ve all lived through experiences where giving something up (in this case, a relationship) feels far scarier than ending it and going it alone. Plus, who wants to start all over?

I was asked recently if I’d ever gotten to a point where I wanted to call it quits from my consulting business. Yes I’ve gotten to this point plenty of times! I was also asked how did I know to stick with it.

Logically, I knew that I could always get another job. I had been with my agency for almost 6 years and it took around 3 months to land that position after graduating from my MSW program. Now that I’m a licensed social worker, I assumed it would take roughly the same amount of time or even less.

Emotionally, I’ve put a lot of time and effort into building my business and despite knowing what I logically know, it would be hard to let it go.

I realized it’s less about the time and effort you give to something. It’s about identifying your perceived return on investment (ROI). Here’s another way to illustrate this: