Finding The Right Lever(s) In Your Consulting Business

You’re doing some—or maybe even MANY—of the right things to grow your consulting business.

And yet your progress feels agonizingly s-l-o-w compared to what you know, deep in your bones, is possible.

If you could just amp up your velocity—crank it up a notch or two—you’d be unstoppable.

The trick is to find the right lever(s).

What I mean by levers are small movements that will help you achieve outsized results.

They may even be counter-intuitive.

I’ve worked with many clients whose levers were all about targeting smaller:

Niching down to a vastly smaller target market to make offerings more relevant.

Focusing on a narrower area of expertise to go deeper and provide more value.

Jettisoning clients that gobble up a large percentage of your attention, but contribute limited value to your financial or intellectual/emotional bottom line.

Making any of those changes doesn’t feel small—and yet they stick by making small deliberate actions, repeated over time.

The first time “Alex” said good-bye to a bad-fit client, he agonized over the five-figure hit to his bottom line. But the next day he woke up thrilled to no longer have to deal with the off-target tugs at his time and head-space.

A month later, he doubled that revenue by growing an existing account and attracting a new, best-fit client. Now, he has set up a series of hurdles that potential clients have to jump before he even considers new business conversations.

But your lever might be the opposite.

Maybe you have perfectly defined the target audience you want to build, but you’re looking for a new platform (lever) to distribute your authority—a podcast, a course or a book.

Or maybe you know you’re spending your time on low business value activities—and a simple pivot to outsource the dreck becomes the lever you need to charge ahead.

As with Alex, once momentum takes over, you’ll start seeing snowballing results that tell you you’ve found one of the right levers for your business.

The first step?

Take a good look at the evidence. What isn’t working for you—and why?

Then choose the potential lever you believe is most likely to have an outsized effect.

Why not make this year the one you work less and achieve more?