A few years ago I heard a story about a blogger who yearned for greater notoriety and thousands of RSS readers.

He toiled day and night and after  about a year or so, his RSS readers numbered in the thousands. He was sought after by big name blogs for interviews and his days were spent making the rounds to all the big events in the blogosphere. 

The paradox is, of course, how his time was consumed by his notoriety. 

The Paradox of Consulting

This example is similar to what happens when you front-load your business with consulting.  While consulting is usually a necessary component of most small businesses, it can quickly consume all your time.

Consulting is a time eater.  It’s also represents a self-imposed income limit because if you’re not consulting, you’re not earning.

Consulting limits your income because there are only so many hours per week you can work and bill that time to clients.  Let’s say your consulting rate is $75 per hour. If you’re lucky enough to bill 10 hours per day for 5 days each week. 

A quick sum reveals a maximum income of $3,750. At first glance, that’s nothing to sneeze at.  But a closer look reveals the truth. 

The Consultant’s Snare

Not many people can bill for 50 hours per week. Depending on your industry, consultants average about 20 billable hours per week.  There is easily 10 hours per week lost to general office work, marketing, preparation, etc. Include out of town travel or daily commuting and your time pool shrinks further.

Billing 20 hours per week knocks your income (pre-tax) to $1,500. Still, a good income in many circles…you need to ask yourself this question.  

Is this the maximum I wish to make for the rest of my life?

The Safe Haven Clause

In Dan Brown’s novel-turned-film, The Da Vinci Code, protagonist Prof. Robert Langdon is being pursued by unknown enemies and find himself in danger of capture in the vault of a Swiss Bank in Paris.  

The Banker tells him that his is one of the oldest accounts on file and includes a safe haven clause…in effect…a clause in the fine print guaranteeing him a safe escape should the very situation presenting itself ever arise.

Langdon and his French police cohort escape from the bank in thesafe haven of an armored transport car.

Consulting’s Safe Haven

The solution to the consultant’s problem of being time-poor and idea-rich is diversification of her business structure.  Here at BlogAsReligion, we refer to this as the Holy Trinity.

Besides consulting, which is necessary and useful because it keeps us sharp and hones the skill required for operating a blog-religion in our field, training and leverage are the forms of diversification to consider.

Recall that the Holy Trinity of Blog-Religions includes consulting, training and leverage.  

By supplementing your consulting with training (really just group consulting), you leverage your time and a dramatic rise in income results.

Let’s say you hold a training session and charge each person $75 to attend. 10 people enroll in your training session and pay in advance.  For the same amount of time you will spend conducting your training session, you’ve managed to multiply your consulting income ten-fold.

You’ve earned $1,500 for a 2-hour workshop as opposed to the $150 you would have earned consulting at your $75 per hour rate with a single client.

While training sessions take time to prepare, once the initial organization is complete the workshop is self-contained for repeat sessions for as long as you are able to attract clients to fill the seats.  

With the availablity of free conference calling vendors, having your clients attend a training session via phone from their home or office is easier than ever.

What About You?

Is your consulting consuming your schedule?  How have you dealt with this paradox?  

If you enjoyed this post, please post of comment and let us know how you’ve dealt with the limitation of consulting or how you feel about the ‘safe haven’ that training affords.

 I look forward to your comments.