Founding and Scaling Sustainable Consultancy Firms with Prof. Joe O'Mahoney of Cardiff University

<p><a href="https://joeomahoney.com/">Prof. Joe O'Mahoney</a>, Professor of Consulting at <a href="https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/">Cardiff University</a>, shares his expertise in the consulting industry. O’Mahoney goes in-depth to talk about setting up consultancy firms in a sustainable manner.</p><p>He has done research on how many great consultants have decided to start their own firm and fail at it. He’s observed that the reason for this is that, most of the time, great consultants don’t make great startup founders. He has noticed that these struggles often come from selling their services, pricing correctly, and developing systems and processes.</p><p>O’Mahoney advises consultancy founders to outsource their marketing strategy while keeping the content organic. For sales, he suggests that founders train this internally and in scale. This relieves the burden of selling from the founder to across the team. This also allows the founder to focus on what they love and are good at, and to target niches they can specialize in. </p><p>Pricing is a real struggle for consultancy founders. They should do their research, he says, including asking clients what they would pay for particular services. Consultants tend to default to value-based pricing, but O’Mahoney sees opportunity in this. He thinks that if the proper change control process is established and deliverables are defined, a fixed price could benefit the business. </p><p>Finally, he talks about the proper way to build your processes and systems. He thinks that this has to be thought of early on so consultancy founders can exit properly. These would be considered as assets and this would increase the valuation of their firm exponentially. It can also mean having the firm continue post-retirement, ensuring a steady stream even afterward.</p><p>Prof. O’Mahoney’s in-depth research and educational approach will benefit not only consultancy founders but business owners, too. His approach and outlook on founding, scaling, and exiting in a sustainable manner are fantastic