Year 1 as a Consultant: A Guide to Sustainable Growth
Your first year as a consultant or freelancer is pivotal. Learn how to define your offer, balance projects and retainers, build your network, and set up essential systems for long-term success.
Your first year as a consultant or freelancer is pivotal. It’s about converting the contacts and reputation you’ve built over the years into tangible opportunities while setting up a sustainable and balanced way of working
1. Define Your Offer
Clarity is key. Your scope of practice needs to be razor-sharp so potential clients understand exactly what you bring to the table.
Specialisation: Identify your niche. Are you focusing on digital transformation, fundraising, user experience, or strategy - and in which sector? A good way to decide on this is to think of the people you know and ask them what they’re looking for at the moment…
Find your way - most people tend to start out with a fairly wide range of services they offer to clients. This is natural. It’ll take a bit of trial and error and discussion with people to work out exactly where the cross over is of what you can do, what you want to do and what people need
Deliverables: Be clear about the outcomes you provide, whether it’s strategy development, training, or campaign delivery. Try and describe these in the language that your clients use rather than your own. This can often be more specific than you might like - but this is the quickest way to get people to understand how you can help.

2. Apply the Kraljic Matrix to your offer
The Kraljic matrix defines projects based on the number of people that can do them and the impact on an organisation. As a freelancer, you can flip that view to understand where you should invest your time and effort. The matrix below breaks work down into:
Best Work: Building long-term relationships with those who align with your expertise and goals
Work to pay the bills: Projects that are well paid but low effort
Feel good projects: This work can help you to build your skills and the number of people that know you - but won’t be sustainable in the long term.
Decline: Minimise low value work whilst helping people to find others who are a better fit

3. Blend Retainers and Projects Wisely
Most service industries are feast and famine to some degree. It is often said that you are either too busy or too quiet, with very little time in the middle. However a mix of client relationships can help to smooth this out.
If you can sign up clients to some form of retained work - then this will give you a natural foundation to build from. This might be a fractional / interim role, ongoing coaching or long term content design - all of them will pay little and often which can be truly helpful.
A great approach is to remember to speak to your one off project clients about the possibility of future, ongoing work.
“One of the most valuable lessons I learned was transitioning one-off projects into long-term retainer clients. Early on, I would finish a project and move on without considering future opportunities. Now, I always provide a detailed scope of work for potential follow-up projects, inviting clients to continue working together. It’s a simple step, but it’s made a significant difference in building lasting client relationships”
– Dani Hughes
However you want to leave space for the one off projects where you can often help a client make a step change in their impact. They tend to focus on clearly defined, time-bound initiatives with specific deliverables.
4. Harvest Your Contacts
Your network is your greatest asset. When you start out, you should invest time in reconnecting with former colleagues, partners, and clients.
Get visible early: Aim to secure speaking opportunities at industry conferences before you leave your in house role. Visibility on conference agendas helps position you as an expert from day one.
Keep it personal: Personal outreach, such as tailored emails or calls, goes a long way in turning contacts into clients.
LinkedIn for the win: The main social network where people can see more about who you are and what you do. Don’t just stick to updates - try and get your face out there with video, imagery etc.
The reality of stepping out on your own is that meeting people is an important part of finding work. You can do this in lots of different ways that suit your personality and strengths, but you need to find a way to make it happen for you.

5. Create a Content Plan & stick to it
Content is the backbone of your credibility and visibility especially across networks like LinkedIn. Use the core model to think about the people you are trying to reach and what they need. Even better, use your contacts and ask them! It’s a great way when you’re starting out to build your understanding and get exposure to potential clients.

Once you have your content plan, keep at it. It’s so easy to put content writing to the end of your to-do list but if you can be consistent, you’ll be ahead of many others. If you manage one article a week, in a year you’ll have a book’s worth of content.
Finally, keep an eye out for opportunities to collaborate with others on creating content. It will help you create better outputs and reach a wider audience other than your own contacts.
6. Build Communities of Practice
Forming or participating in communities of practice not only generates leads but also provides invaluable insights into client challenges. Speak to people to find out what they need and then work hard to recruit a diverse group of people to help each other.
Structure the group: Define a clear purpose for the community, whether it’s skill-sharing or tackling sector challenges.
Lead with generosity: Share knowledge to establish your authority while creating genuine connections.
When these communities of practice become really valuable, you can even get people to pay to participate in cohorts. The amazing Ray Cooper and their facilitation cohort is a fantastic example, as is Ettie Bailey-King’s Bold Type and Paul McKenzie’s fundraising leadership groups…
See our own Yas Georgiou’s blog for some tips on how to set up effective Communities of Practice:
https://www.williamjoseph.co.uk/blog/communities-of-practice-an-introduction

7. Set Up Essential Systems
Efficient systems reduce friction and free you up to focus on high-value work. It’s not always the most glamorous of work, and it’s almost certainly not why you got into being a consultant, but if you spend time at the start of your journey it’ll really pay off.
CRM: Choose a simple tool like HubSpot, Copper or Zoho to manage contacts and leads. Even a well put together (and securely stored) Google Sheet is better than people just sitting in your email account. Gareth Ellis-Thomas has invested in this kind of tooling early and it really comes across in how you can get in touch with him at GET consulting
Accounting: Platforms like Xero help you keep track of income and expenses whilst allowing you to generate invoices. There are a wealth of accountants who can help you set this up and run your financial operations (including the fabulous Glyn from Summit Accountants) and they tend to be worth their weight in gold
Email marketing: Platforms like Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign ensure professional communication with your audience. When done well they can really add an extra dimension to your content and service offering


8. Balance Paid and Unpaid Work
One of the best things about starting out on your own is that you have more control of your time. No longer will you have huge, poorly designed meetings put into your diary or see it filled up with 1-2-1s and team management (you might miss this quicker than you imagine!).
However, that means it’s entirely your responsibility to plan your week to be as effective as possible.
Non-paid work, such as speaking engagements or volunteering for high-profile projects, can position you for future paid opportunities and are well worth investing in. However they take time and are best structured by allocating specific time weekly for non-billable activities like networking, thought leadership, or industry events.
9. Prioritise Partnerships & Community
40% of work in the agency sector is through partnerships according to the sector leading Benchpress report. This means that finding people who work in agencies, or other consultants, is crucial to helping your growth.
Be proactive and reach out to people you know, or those you don’t, that run other organisations. They are always looking for quality and flexible people to join their teams when demand is high. If you can spend time building trust ahead of working on a project together, then it’s much more likely to be effective.
It’s also worth spending time in communities of practice with other freelancers. Not only can it be helpful for finding work, it’ll also give you the human support that you need at this time which can be a big and challenging change. Check out Agencies for Good as a starting point.
Year 1 is about planting seeds for long-term success. By focusing on relationships, clarity, and sustainable practices, you’ll create a strong foundation for a thriving consultancy or freelance career.