Every Tool to Run and Scale Your Consulting Business: The Complete Tech Stack for Consultants
Running a successful fractional consulting business requires more than just expertise and a client base. To effectively manage and scale your operations, you need the right set of tools that streamline your processes, enhance productivity, drive growth, and ultimately give you more time back. The new year is a great time to evaluate your tech stack and make changes for the year ahead.
Here we have compiled a comprehensive list of essential tools tested and approved by top consultants in the industry and by the Mylance team. From calendar management to lead generation and CRM to legal support, we have you covered with the complete tech stack for consultants.
Note: some links in this post are affiliate links
Calendar: Calendly and Calendar Bridge
Efficient calendar management is crucial for consultants who juggle multiple clients, calendars, and appointments. Calendly is a user-friendly scheduling tool that eliminates the back-and-forth of finding mutually available meeting times, saving you and your clients tons of time.
CalendarBridge syncs all your digital calendars in real-time, supporting Google and Microsoft, allowing you to track your availability and meetings across multiple clients and various email addressses.
LinkedIn Posting/Scheduling: LinkedIn Native Scheduling Tool (free) or Taplio ($50/mo)
LinkedIn is a powerful platform for consultants to showcase expertise and connect with potential clients. The native scheduling tool on LinkedIn allows you to plan and schedule your posts in advance, ensuring consistent and strategic content distribution.
Taplio is a powerful tool that gives you post inspiration, has an AI content creator, easily scheduling, and showcasing previous content from you and others that performed well. Further, it does a good job tracking your stats, and sharing with you data when you should be posting. Mylance uses this, and it can easily be worth the $50 / mo if you’re posting thought leadership online to attract new clients.
Repurpose LinkedIn Content for Twitter: Typefully
Typefully is a valuable tool (with a great free plan) that enables you to repurpose your LinkedIn content for Twitter. With a single click, you can cross-post your LinkedIn updates to Twitter, reaching a wider audience and maximizing your content's exposure. This saves time and effort crafting separate tweets while ensuring your Twitter followers stay engaged with your valuable insights.
LeadGen: Mylance Scale
Keeping your pipeline full is the most crucial part of anyone’s fractional consulting business. Mylance takes your background and ideal customer, and identifies companies that are a great fit based on the following criteria:
- Matches your niche / unique expertise
- Likely to have the budget
- Gaps on their team in your function
- Are fractional friendly
- Have warm connections from your network
We then share the company and the hiring managers at those companies with their email and LinkedIn.
Turn-key Website: Mylance HQ
Establishing a professional online presence is essential for consultants to showcase their expertise and attract potential clients. Mylance HQ offers a turn-key website solution tailored specifically for fractional consultants. With its easy-to-use website builder and customizable templates, you can create a professional and visually appealing website that effectively communicates your services, experience, client testimonials, and case studies.
Mylance HQ empowers you to have a polished online presence without the need for extensive web development skills.
Health Insurance: Free Guide and Consultation
As a consultant, navigating the complex world of health insurance can be challenging. We provide a free guide and consultation service to support consultants in finding the right health insurance coverage for your specific needs and situation.
This resource offers insights into different insurance options, helps you understand coverage requirements, and guides you in making informed decisions to protect your health and well-being while running your consulting business.
Taxes/Bookkeeping: Mylance Free Consultation
Managing taxes and bookkeeping is a critical aspect of running a successful consulting business. Mylance offers a free consultation service to assist consultants in navigating tax obligations, bookkeeping best practices, and ongoing financial management.
By leveraging this service, you can ensure compliance, optimize your financial processes, and focus on your core consulting activities.
Payment/Invoice: Melio, Xero, or Wave
Streamlining payment and invoicing processes is essential for maintaining healthy cash flow and ensuring timely client payments. Several reliable tools can help you manage payments and invoicing efficiently including Melio, Xero, or Wave, depending on your specific needs and preferences.
Outreach: Lemlist, Woodpecker.co, or Expandi
Effective outreach is crucial for expanding your network and attracting new clients. Lemlist, Woodpecker.co and Expandi are powerful outreach automation tools that streamline your prospecting efforts.
- Lemlist combines LinkedIn and email outreach, allowing you to personalize and automate your messages to potential clients.
- Woodpecker.co offers email automation and follow-up capabilities to deliver your outreach messages consistently.
- Expandi specializes in automated LinkedIn outreach, enabling you to connect and engage with prospects at scale.
These tools save time and increase the efficiency of your outreach campaigns. Mylance has had Expandi running for 2+ years, growing our following and sharing what we have to offer with potential customers. The $99 / mo is easily worth it.
CRM: Pipedrive or HubSpot
A robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is essential for managing client interactions, tracking leads, and nurturing relationships. Pipedrive and HubSpot are widely recognized CRM platforms that offer comprehensive features tailored for consultants. These tools allow you to organize and prioritize your leads, track client communication, and gain valuable insights into your sales pipeline. By leveraging a CRM system, you can streamline your sales processes, improve client management, and drive business growth.
Legal/LLC: Northwest Registered Agent
Setting up a legal structure, such as forming an LLC (Limited Liability Company), is important for consultants to protect their assets and establish credibility. Northwest Registered Agent provides reliable legal services for consultants, assisting with LLC formation, registered agent services, and other legal requirements. Their expertise ensures compliance with legal obligations and provides peace of mind as you focus on serving your clients.
Virtual Assistant: Athena
Managing administrative tasks and delegating responsibilities becomes essential as your consulting business grows. Athena is a virtual assistant service that supports consultants with various administrative and operational tasks. From scheduling appointments and managing email correspondence to conducting research and handling data entry, Athena can assist you in freeing up time and focusing on high-value activities.
Password Management for Client Accounts: LastPass
Consultants must often access various client accounts, such as social media profiles, analytics platforms, and project management tools. LastPass is a password management tool that securely stores and manages client account credentials. With its robust encryption and user-friendly interface, you can ensure the security of sensitive information while efficiently accessing client accounts when needed.
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Running and scaling an efficient fractional consulting business requires the right tools. Each of the solutions mentioned in this article has been tested and approved by both the Mylance team and top consultants in the industry. Each tool specifically supports different areas of your consulting business.
Embrace these tools as assets for your business and watch as they contribute to your success and profitability.
Get 20 Consulting Leads for Your Business
Ready to take your consulting business to the next level? Take advantage of our lead generation service, Mylance Scale, and get a targeted list of 20 potential leads that align with your ideal client persona. Start converting leads into paying clients and propel your consulting business toward exponential growth.
Written by:
Every Mylance team member has done consulting. We're experts, and we've seen what consulting enables: more time with our families, traveling the world, more time on passion projects, or to start that business we've been dreaming about.