Why It’s Okay to Be a Startup Consultant — And Show It

It seems we’re all hustling from home right now, whether we’re working from home for one’s bread and butter day job or working on our sole trader-type independent hustles.

Of course, I think it’s important to learn as much as possible about content marketing in regards to the latter — how to use a camera, light the area well for videos etc, know your audience, all that. And we’re all working towards a broadcast quality presentation, which is fantastic. And, we have wonderful free online mediums that we can utilise to get the word out.

Essentially, we all want to present as a trustworthy business in order to get clients.

But as a digital marketer who can help others with their online efforts, I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with letting clients know that you’re at the startup stage as a consultant, too. It doesn't mean that you don't know what you are doing. It means that your are new to consultancy and not to your specialty.

I think far too many people in the consultancy space overreach with their promises. Some folks in the SEO sector, for example, still to this day are promising “Your Website at #1 in Google”, which is broad and unhelpful, especially when they don’t understand a thing about the businesses they are targeting as a prospect. This adversely affects the perception of many people in the consultancy world who could indeed produce great results online for their clients.

To me, there is really not much need for acting bigger than you are. It can actually intimidate prospective clients — people are also tired of it. They scroll past it. They even unfollow or block it.

Imagine if a plumber came to your house promising to not only unblock a pipe but to also guarantee that the bathroom will smell delightful forever, thanks to his special level of expertise that nobody else has. You’d be very wary of this promise, of course, saying, “Look mate, just unblock the pipe and don’t charge me for anything else.”

So while there are many blue chip digital agencies out there that I could learn a thing or two from myself, and who do fantastic work for well-matched clients, I am completely okay with where I am at this point.

I know that I have helped others through my new(ish) consultancy business, and having recently had my day job hours reduced, I am now using the extra time I have to continue building it.

[www.gumbo.online by the way…ok, continue reading]

From an arborist to a small home recording studio, I know that what little I think I know is still way more than what most people know regarding digital marketing. I know whereabouts on the expertise scale I sit between them and the big kids of digital. And where I sit suits my clients.

In my guitar teaching days, I found that I was often learning something new myself and then teaching it to a student with a very short timeframe. It’s not all about imparting knowledge onto clients, it’s about passing knowledge on in the hope that it’s relevant and useful to them. Some things stick, some things fall by the wayside.

The very same goes for digital consultancy, although I think my clients find value in what I know because I’m a little more than just one step ahead of them, especially with SEO (my core specialty). I have worked in marketing and digital for nearly 9 years now, and my many mistakes are now my clients’ gain. 

This is why when shooting videos for Gumbo Web Advice, for example, I try my best: I can’t afford to hire a dedicated studio space, like many of my clients can’t. I can’t afford post-production services, like many of my clients can’t. I am doing this from home in the most suitable space possible, like my clients are. I am doing my best with my available time and skills, like my clients are.

I have always promised to never overpromise, but to instead show empathy as a small business myself running in a parallel (but pretty much identical) universe to my clients and prospects, in the hope that it gives them confidence to approach me as we both scale up together.

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Here, we see a startup consultant's current level of production capabilities: camera, mic, bookshelf, wicker stool and a pile of power tools and screws from putting the bookshelf up (off camera)...and that's okay.