Luk’s Bi-Weekly 'Think Piece' For Consultancy Owners

EDITION #112

OCTOBER 30, 2024

Dear reader, 

Here comes the 112th edition of my newsletter. 

In my new article in this edition, I discuss thought leadership-driven business development for boutique consultancies.

I stumbled into this business development model early in my consulting career. I started sharing my expertise simply as a reflective exercise: I had aggregated a ton of knowledge and wanted to share it with my network. I soon discovered the immense potential of thought leadership as an unbeatable strategy for growing a boutique consulting business.

As always, I hope to create a bubble of calmness with my bi-weekly ‘think piece’, a place of stillness in the face of everyday stress—a chance to reflect on what really matters in your consulting work.

Enjoy reading, 

Luk

MY NEW ARTICLE

How Thought Leadership Has Been Driving My Business Development for 15+ Years

There is much research on the value of thought leadership to business growth. However, when I started my thought leadership journey, it wasn’t because of any such findings. I wasn’t even aware of the existence of those studies.  

I did it because, in my daily work as a consultancy owner and senior expert, I had a vast amount of knowledge from which my extensive network could benefit. My simple goal was to provide value to my immediate network – people I manually added to my Outlook mailing list.  

I didn’t realise then that this urge to share case studies, learnings, advice, and observations would become the most impactful business development strategy I could ever have hoped for.  

In this article, I explain why sharing expertise is a wise business development investment and how boutique consultancies can turn it into a win-win for their clients/prospects and their business growth.

READ MY NEW ARTICLE

MY RECENT ARTICLES

STRATEGYE

What Persuades Clients to Hire a Boutique Consultancy?

CONSULTANCY DESIGN

How a Boutique Consultancy Can Escape the Toxic Chasing of New Clients

MANAGING A CONSULTANCY

Is The Entrepreneurial Mindset Compatible With Managing a Boutique Consultancy?

BUSINESS GROWTH

Without Internal Alignment, a Boutique Consultancy Is Doomed

MY MOST RECENT LINKEDIN POSTS

MANAGING A CONSULTANCY - TOP RANKED ON LINKEDIN

Think hiring a business development leader will fix the consultancy’s growth problem? 

MARKETING

Have you ever wondered how writing 100 newsletters contributes to a consultancy's growth?

SERVICE DESIGN

A laundry list of consulting services? Profitability at risk! 

CLIENT MANAGEMENT

Why growing a consultancy client is different from developing a consultancy account!

STRATEGY

Business development in boutique consultancies has changed radically in the past years. 

CONTENT SUMMARY

Autumn reading! All my articles and posts summarised in one article. Q3 Content Summary.

MY WEEKLY BITE-SIZED ADVICE

In this section, I recap the pieces of advice and inspiration I share with my followers on LinkedIn every Monday – all learned or observed throughout my personal journey as a consultant.

Follow #consultingmonday on LinkedIn to never miss a dose of inspiration at the start of the week.

CONSULTING MONDAY, OCTOBER 28

More client education means more revenue.  

I’ve spent 20-30% of my time writing to educate my target audience for almost 5 years. And when I write, I never think of generating revenue. Never. But the more I educate (and write), the more revenue it generates. 90% of my new clients found me through the consulting experiences I share. It’s like real estate: the more assets you buy, the more value you create. Business development in consulting is rooted in educating the target audience. Building trust at scale.

CONSULTING MONDAY, OCTOBER 14

A laundry list of services is a profitability eater.  

In my experience, a lot of the diversification hassle in boutique consultancies is legacy debt. The consultancy owners kept adding new services in the past because they naively believed that ‘more services is more money’. They made new things up on the fly and ended up with an incoherent laundry list of services. Service legacy debt in a boutique consultancy is usually one of the biggest profit-eaters I’ve experienced.

HERE'S HOW I HELP CONSULTANCIES

If you knew a way to become a high-performing consultancy, would you adopt it?

Stupid question, I guess.

My High-Performing Consultancy Review provides a 360-degree evaluation of challenges such as:

- market positioning and target audience definition;

- visibility and reputation in the market;

- new client acquisition;

- existing client development and retention;

- pipeline management and revenue predictability;

- expertise differentiation;

- non-linear scaling/growing;

- business performance measurement (financial & consulting KPI's);

- key player attraction and retention.

You'll receive a detailed report of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and areas for improvement, along with quick wins and actionable insights to help unlock your consultancy's full potential.

Don't settle for mediocrity. Book your High-Performing Consultancy Review today and take the first step towards a brighter future for your boutique consultancy. 

Here's a detailed article explaining the Consultancy Performance Review. 

PS. My ideal clients: founder-led boutique consultancies with revenue between 2M and +/- 20M and/or between 20 and +/- 100 consultants. 

BOOK A CALL →

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