Online courses for consultants

July 7, 2021 12:12 PM

I'm looking for an online (or local in Seattle) course or two that will help me develop a new line of business in my B2B consulting practice. Other (non-scammy) resources would be great too, but I'm especially looking for a bit of hand-holding from a course.

I've been on my own as a consultant/freelancer for almost four years and honestly, it's gone very well. However, I've always pretty much just taken business that came my way. I've decided that if I want to do this long-term, I need to more proactively build a business around the kind of work I want to do.

I've developed a concept for a product I could offer to clients. I think it serves and unmet need among my clientele, and I'm excited about it. But I'm having a bit of trouble getting started. Really, I think it's mostly inertia plus some imposter syndrome. A friend of mine recently wrote a book, and she said the most helpful thing she did was a 10-week course that walked her through the steps for writing the book each week, with assignments, etc. If I could find a course like that for starting a consulting business (or launching a new product), I think that would be really helpful.

What I'm looking for:
- The ideal: a course that will guide me through taking a consulting product concept from just an idea to a real product with paying clients
- Online or in-person (is that a thing yet?) in Seattle
- Ideally it'll be offered in real time, over a course of 1-3 months, though I'm open to a course that has pre-recorded modules if it's really good
- Have assignments that help me do the things to build my business
- Not just a funnel for 1-1 coaching or otherwise scammy
- Really geared towards the practical steps of building a business, not theoretical concepts or a lot of cheerleading
- Oriented towards B2B. A focus on mission-driven orgs would be nice but not necessary.

I'd love suggestions of books, podcasts, youtube channels as well, just because it's so hard to find the good stuff in the middle of all the "build your FUNNEL with these secrets!" crap. But I'm mainly looking for a course.

posted by lunasol to Work & Money (2 answers total)

I think Ramit Sethi's courses Earnable or Build a 6 Figure Consulting Biz (which seems to be closed currently) might suit your needs. I haven't bought those courses, but have bought a few of his other courses and they have been great -- very actionable steps and practical guidance.
posted by chiefthe at 1:42 PM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

So they don't make this info terribly easy to find, but I think a class I took comes close to this: Small business management (BTM 228). It's on page 235 of this course catalogue (pdf) for Seattle Central College. It basically walks you through writing a business plan, spending each week on information that goes into part of it. It spent a lot of time on practical things like who your competition is, who are your target clients, how much money do you need to make, where are you marketing, and how will you do things better or cheaper to get business. It's pretty easy to enroll in Central and they're comfortable with students taking a class or two for professional development.
posted by blueberry monster at 4:22 PM on July 10, 2021