Starting a service / assessment / consulting business

[anonymous-user]

Hello, I am after a bit of guidance / opinion on my idea and the generation of business.

Having sat through a number of 'cold' sells within our business and never meeting a business with the experience required I am deciding whether to strike out on my own when I return to the UK.

Quick overview of the idea;

Working within Supply Chain / Procurement in the aerospace sector I am, currently, the lead assessor and coach for our German division (global scope), my idea is to offer an assessing service to aerospace businesses; which I have already designed and is based on the (name removed) standards and the scope is that which is currently assessed by the (one of the largest aerospace companies) group.

I was hoping to offer the service to either the business who may already be an xxxx supplier and / or their respective sub tier suppliers as from my experience i know the smaller companies to be exceptionally weak in the area of supplier improvement / development and it is not always feasible to swap suppliers, etc.

The assessments normally take 3-5 days (including travel) and I would essentially offer a number of options;
A) Perform assessment
B) Plan and Perform assessment (extra day for example to plan)
C) Training in becoming an assessor (potentially)
D) I have a few other ideas but don't want to try to much to start

Why pick company a;
Independent view
Supplier / business could be compared globally against all the assessments I have performed
3rd party, no obligations to either party nor upsetting daily business by 'finding' issues (ie not impacting the relationship)
As this is a proactive / preventative methodology i know these types of activities are always the first to be cut during busy times / reactive emergencies / budget restrictions, etc; this means I would be completely isolated from the day to day business.

I have a BA / MSc and MCIPS with 10 years experience so I 'hope' I have the credentials to get in the door?

It's the favourite part of my job today, I am really passionate about it and always get good, positive feedback from the business.

Experience of operating from shopfloor - owner.

What I have zero experinace of, would be generating business, my plan was to use LinkedIn to initiate first contact; I don't want to jeopardise my current role so wouldn't be too comfortable trying to generate business from my existing supplier base, but would be comfortable in discussing the subject with one or two!

So ... what am I missing? What should I do be doing next, where are the gaps in my idea (i know I have details to fill in) but I am not in a rush.

[jammy-git]

You should absolutely use your current contacts and network. It will easily be your best source of business.

[technodup]

Trexthedinosaur said:

What I have zero experinace of, would be generating business, my plan was to use LinkedIn to initiate first contact;

And when nobody replies to you what do you do?

Not trying to be a btw, but IME email/LI type approaches are easily rebuffed/ignored. I'd imagine the industry you mention is somewhat limited in scope i.e. you don't have a million potential customers, so you don't want to burn them quickly (or be seen as a pest).

I'd suggest using LI to find the right people and start with a call with the view to arranging a meeting. Or email first and follow up on the phone. Don't try to sell anything on the phone. All you want is for them to agree they have x problem and accept a meeting for you to demo how you can solve it.

Ultimately you could have the best widget in the world but if you can't sell it it's not worth anything, to you or them.

[bga]

jammy-git said:

You should absolutely use your current contacts and network. It will easily be your best source of business.

This 100%.

Get that first project/assessment any way that you can. Even do it at for free if you can get a case study/written reference out of it (branded is good but can be hard to get, often people are OK to do generic ones).

Look to contribute relevant content/articles to industry media. If there are industry conferences then see if you can get on the speaking agenda. Do webinars, even if it is for other people - it’s getting your name out there.

At the start keep it simple and over deliver. Where you are benchmarking then make it very clear how you are doing it and make your customers comfortable that they are not just another data source.

There will be a number of channels to your customer. LI can work if you are generating good content that gets people engaging with it. If there are consultancies working in this area (but not in competition) then consider offering your services that they can white label or bring you in as a value add.

[SantaBarbara]

Is it manufacturing or assembly.. Or is it provision of Spare Parts too Shipping lines?

[anonymous-user]

Thanks for the info, I may approach one or two of my current suppliers to gain a little feedback as to whether they see this as a value adding activity (to them) and use it as a tiny market sample.

Linked In would only be a contact tool any discussions would be face to face.

Would it matter that all my experience is in a huge blue chip (Airbus), it's not like I have been trained and gained my experience in an unregulated, low value, low complexity environment; as many of you are business owners and / or employ these types of services would you see that as a credible reference to my skill-set / competence?

It's manufacturing / assemly, NPI, pre supplier selection; it is essentially an industrial assessment around their current capabilities, competency and process control focusing on 8 core topics, split into sub topics, not a tick in the box exercise yes / no audit.

It wouldn't be worth me offering my services under the banner of another business, I am on a cracking contract / wage / pension as it is, the aim of this is to be my own boss and create more time for 'life' rather than being a wage slave, i am not looking at it for earning potential but job satisfaction, genuine enthusiasm for this particular area and as I said to work for myself.

Hence there is no rush, I have been offered a new role within my current company industrialising a new major supplier in China, I could postpone this idea as I think the experience would certainly benefit me (having worked mainly in Europe / USA) and should develop my skills from a high value project perspective too; which i believe will support my current assessing experience.

[M511]

I admire that you are going out on your own.

I used to work for a defence company that shares it's name with a well known philosopher, and I used to deal with cold callers offering these types services.

My role within the org was to eliminate unnecessary expenses. The biggest expense they and their sister company had, was in using consultancy firms that seemed to sell you a product/tool that didn't integrate with their existing tech. This was my first run-in with consulting firms such as ----zant, m--- & comp, etc. I got rid of most of them, brought in young grads who had just finished a Business Degree and 2 years later; savings in the millions were seen. The ROI of bringing in young talent vs using a big consultancy was hilarious. It was a gamble I took and it paid off, I'm sure it doesn't work in all industries...

If I was still there and read the following;

industrial assessment around their current capabilities, competency and process control focusing on 8 core topics, split into sub topics, not a tick in the box exercise yes / no audit.

There would be no end of grief from my seniors and it would just remind them of the consulting firms we got rid in the cull. So may be looking at something that will increase their business, and be more value add for their bottom line.