13 Steps To Start A Consulting Business in 2025

Starting a business is not a complicated endeavor.  It just requires a LOT of work that the vast majority of people don't want to do. Here is the low-tech, easy-to-start method I've personally tested to start a consulting company in 2025. Here is my method I'd personally recommend to someone to start a company that generates proposals, and most importantly cash, QUICKLY. Just to be clear:  Consulting is when you provide a service to a company with a specific result in mind.  Coaching is more 1 on 1 and is typically more personal in subject later.  Consulting is better, at least the way I see it, because you can charge more when you target businesses than if you focus on individuals.

Step 1:  Pick A Niche That You Like

Let's say you worked for a company doing operational support and you're good at operational efficiency.   You then decide to pick a niche because you know "The riches are in the niches" Let's say you chose beauty salons.   Perfect:  You are now the consultant for beauty salons

Step 2:  Create a one-sentence headline and 3 Unique Selling Propositions

Now you need a quick elevator pitch to explain what you do.  Use Chatgpt if you'd like.  Here's an example: "At Beautify Consulting, we help transform your beauty salon to make more revenue with less work" Now you need 3 "Unique Selling Propositions" that highlight that how unique you are a consultant: 

• Operational Expertise:  I've been an operations director for 5 years and have helped scale companies to 7-figures.    I take that framework and strategies to help your salon.

• Beauty Salon Focus:  Unlike other consultants, I focus exclusively on beauty salons to make sure you get advice that best fits your business
• Proven Results & Measurable ROI:  I help track your key metrics and ensure you experience real, trackable growth from our efforts.

Step 3:  Make a flyer

Take the information you just generated and put it on a flyer.  You can make this in Canva.com in 1 hour.  Put some pictures of yourself and include your contact info (phone number and email) It could be a gmail, that's fine for getting started.  I know multi-millionaire business owners that still use gmail.

Step 4: Make a website

All the information on your flyer just goes on to a one-page website.  I used a simple software to build mine wayyyy back in the day.   Wix.com is easy to setup and it's not expensive. This should take about 1 hour

Step 5:  Print The Flyer

Not hard to do!  

Step 6:  The In-Person Approach

Go buy some small boxes of chocolate and create a list of 50 local beauty salons in your area. Go up to each one, dressed very sharply (ideally a suit and nice shoes) and bring your flyers and a box of chocolates (people like treats!) Say this to the front desk:  "Hi, I'm (your name) from Beautify Consulting, we offer consulting for local beauty salons to help them grow their revenue and improve their operations.  I brought a flyer to give to the decision maker.  Do you know who that would be?" Also ask:

• "Could I get this person's email?"
• "When is that person typically in the office?"

If they ask what you do.  Just repeat the main line about your company and include your 3 Unique Selling Propositions  If they ask how much you charge, say "I don't know because I need to diagnose the salon's current state to create a custom proposal." Talk to 50 clinics (about 8-10 per day) for 1 week

Step 7:  The Phone Call Approach

If you can't meet with these salons in person, then get your phone and get ready to call.   You say pretty much the same thing  "Hi, I'm (your name) from Beautify Consulting, we offer consulting for local beauty salons to help them grow their revenue and improve their operations.  I'd like to send a flyer to the decision maker.  Do you know who that would be?" Phone calls take a LOT longer… but they work.  Your goal is to get a 15 minute meeting with the decision maker

Step 8:  Follow-up 5-10 times

Take your salons and put them into a google sheet.  Add 10 columns and write "Followup 1" "Follow up 2" and all the way to "Followup 10"   Call once a week and send an email.  Send them to a link (you can use calendly.com) to book a Discovery call or you can schedule an in-person meeting.   Keep asking.  If they say "No" just wait 3-4 weeks and try again.  If they say "No" on two separate occasions, then you can stop calling them.

Step 9:  Book The "Discovery Call" or "In-Person Meeting"

If someone agrees to meet for 10-15 minutes, explain that you will ask a few questions, go over how your services work and then you will send them a custom proposal. The rough outline of this meeting is

1. Quick introduction
2. Ask them questions
3. What's the biggest problem for your business?
4. What's the second biggest problem?
5. What takes up a lot of your time that you hate doing?
6. What takes up a lot of your money?
7. Tell them you'll get back to them with a custom proposal

Find out all of their problems, right them down and ask "How much is the problem costing you per year?" If it's a sales problem, then say a better sales process could result in a 5-10% increase If it's an operations problem, maybe there is staff turnover issue that takes up 10-30 hours a month of the owner's time …which is worth $100-$200 per hour. You'll have to get creative. Your goal is to pitch a 12-week program that addresses this problem and solves it.  Just listen and ask good questions.

Step 10:  Create a Proposal

Open a google document, write down the problems you heard about and create a 12-week plan. Use ChatGPT to help solve problems.  It's surprisingly good. It's not complicated if you use resources wisely and do research into how you and your consulting can work with them 1-2x a week to fix the problem.

Step 11:  Present the Proposal

Within 24 hours of the first meeting, you'll have a second one.  It could be in-person or over the phone.  You present the proposal and go over it. The more detailed it is THE BETTER. Aim to charge $10,000.  But you can give them a deal because they are your first client at 50%-70% off if they sign and pay for it in 14 days.  Offer this to the first 2-3 clients so you can get some references AND testimonials. For payment:  Stripe.com is easy to setup.  But bank transfers work too.  Keep it simple

Step 12:  Follow-up on Proposals

Proposals need another 5-12 points of follow-up

Step 13:  Run The Numbers

It's a number game!  If you have 10 proposals, you'll probably close one.  Once you get one client, it'll help get you more clients. Book 5 clients and you'll have made $50,000.   You should do everything for the first 5 clients.  Hire a very inexpensive remote admin if needed.  Once you learn how to help 5 clients, you'll have a system that you can most likely hire others and delegate. Notice that in your the 13 steps I did NOT say things: Do a lot of social media!  You can do this a LITTLE bit, but focus more on the steps above (phone calls and in-person approaches) Read books on business! Do a lot of research! If you read books and "do research" or "study" then you're spending way too much time trying to figure out "business" without actually taking action.   It's the equivalent of reading about going to the gym when you know it's way way way more important to actually go to the gym and pickup a light weight and start lifting That's it! Go forth and start a business! Schedule a consultation with Eric Horwitz at this link.