How to be a self-employed training consultant

There are many benefits to pursuing a career within training; there are also many to being self-employed. This article will highlight a few reasons to become a self-employed training consultant. It will also offer you some guidance on making that a reality, with valuable tips. 

This article covers: 

• Benefits to being a self-employed training consultant 
• Finding your niche
• Defining your offering
• Finding your audience
• Managing your finances

Teaching in any capacity or discipline can be an enriching career. Finally, you can focus on your passions and knowledge. Allowing you to focus your energy and time on things you care about, the more you get to geek out, the better you will be. 

On top of that, you get to excite someone else on the same topic. Sharing everything you have learned, you get to embrace your passions while creating someone else’s.

When it comes to training, you are taking this further than standard teaching because there is much more focus on relating. You have to connect with your community of learners and understand their needs. They provide you with excellent communication skills and grow your abilities to get work.

You have to work out how to train people by trying different things and continuously designing and testing. Some things you try might go better than others, but the satisfaction will be incredible when something works well. There is a lot of scope for the workshops, products, content, information, and solutions.

Having a niche is an essential part of being a training consultant. If you are too broad in your approach to your topic, potential students might pass you up to go for others who showcase more expertise. It is easy to choose a niche, and you can master it when you have one. 

Focusing on a niche requires time, dedication, and potentially money to deepen your knowledge of the topic. You will have to read all the best books, watch the best videos and put time into learning from others within those fields. 

Your best option is to choose a niche that you are passionate about already. The best teachers talk with a clear sense of love for what they are teaching. So find what you enjoy about your area and become the best expert you can be.

After gathering all of this knowledge and building on your passion, think about what you will offer. There is a wide range of options to consider. 

Firstly, you could offer courses for your audience to read your information by writing books, blogs and guides to give all relevant information and encourage the trainees to take notes. Secondly, you could offer a more audible experience through podcasts or conference calls, or possibly even CDs, depending on the audience. 

You may find that people often learn in different ways. Some may respond better to online tutorials on YouTube or webinars over Zoom. Since COVID has become the way of the world, it may be an excellent choice for presenting all the information to people wherever they are. When restrictions allow, you could put on in-person seminars, workshops and even make rest retreats.

There is also the possibility of creating full-service packages, perhaps creating mentorships — an excellent way to teach people in a hands-on industry. Whatever you choose to offer, make sure that it will be relevant to what you are teaching, and it allows people the opportunity to come to you more significantly. 

As a consultant, in particular, you could put out one or two of these things, and you would likely find that people will start to come to you looking for guidance in creating their training programmes.

Make sure you present your service in the right way by seeing how to write a product description that converts.

Based on your niche offering, you may already have some idea who will need your training most. That said, it is wise to consider who you would benefit from the most and who will pay for the knowledge you can provide. 

There might be some questions you need to ask of your audience to find out what their goals are and to what they would be most responsive.

Do some market research and try to speak to as many people as possible. LinkedIn is an excellent tool for you to find professionals within specific industries. By reaching out to people in friendly ways, you are likely to get some responses. Make sure you have the right questions to ask, especially if you get to have some meetings. It would help if you found out who the audience is for your service to start marketing towards them.

There are many ways to do successful marketing, and we have lots of articles to help. You can read how to create a successful marketing strategy for a small business or what is the best marketing for your business.

Once you have started to find your audience, you will begin taking on work. When this happens, it becomes crucial that you start managing your finances properly. Thousands of self-employed people across the UK use the Countingup app to make this easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. With features like invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools and cash flow insights, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. 

Find out more here and start your three-month free trial today.