Key Questions to Ask About Consulting – Part 1 (Introduction)

January 20, 2023 marks the fifth anniversary of BZ Opportunity Management. I started BZ as a way for me to move from full-time employment to independent consulting. Today, the company is a full-service proposal consulting and training firm with a roster of over 40 talented proposal and contracts professionals. Over the last 5 years, I have consistently seen the need for highly qualified, high quality consultants, and the team at BZ works hard to fill that need for our clients.

Given our success, I often receive questions about beginning or continuing a career in consulting. It is a topic I love talking about. As I received invaluable support and advice when establishing  BZ, I do my best to pay that forward by freely sharing any knowledge and wisdom I’ve developed on my path as a consultant. The number of requests I receive for such advice and the number of people entering the consulting ranks made me realize it would be a great topic for a blog post series.

To me, there are four key questions anyone interested in consulting needs to consider. Each of these questions will be the topic of its own blog post in the coming weeks.

• What is your vision? You need to know what type of consulting career you want.
• What financial framework do you have? In order to succeed, there are several key financial considerations you need to be aware of.
• What tools do you have? Knowing the basic tools you require is critical to success.
• How do I stay connected and communicate? At its core, a consulting career is about remaining engaged.

There are multiple reasons why now is a good time to consider becoming a consultant, especially in proposal development, including:

• The increased recognition of proposal development as a profession. Over the past decade, there has been an increased recognition that proposal development is not just a function but a profession with clear skills and value. The work of our professional organization, APMP, and the continued development of certification opportunities continue to help define proposals as a clear area of specialization and expertise.
• The increased acceptance of remote work. Especially since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increased acceptance that people can do the vast majority of jobs for proposal development virtually. We have seen clients who used to demand people be onsite now willingly request remote support. The removal of geographic barriers allows consultants to support many more clients and opportunities.
• Client willingness to engage consultants. I believe there are multiple reasons more growth professionals see value in using consultants today. There are economic benefits to bringing in consultants. Consultants are the perfect solution for surge support or to avoid staff burnout. Small and mid-sized firms often leverage consultants for critical efforts to maximize their chances of success.
• Other factors. There are multiple other small factors that influence people making the move to consulting. The Affordable Care Act provides people an easy way to acquire health insurance without being  employed somewhere. Recent tax reforms provide significant incentives to being a small business owner, including consulting. Finally, the increased focus on wellness and work-life balance has opened people’s minds to careers that are not bound by the traditional office model.

This series of posts looks to provide people interested in consulting with some insight on what questions, issues, and opportunities are out there today. While consulting has worked well for me and many others, it is not for everyone. There is risk inherent in going out on your own. Therefore, even with the information laid out in these posts, I encourage you to take time and make sure you consider all the options, positives, negatives, and risks associated with consulting before making your own decision.