Can you Consult without a degree? here’s how to do it
[Disclosure: this post may contain affiliate links, this means I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links. This is at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure information for more details.]
Are you looking to venture into the consulting business but don’t have a degree in any field? You don’t have to stress about that too much since it’s possible to start your business first and grow from there.
Businesses are always looking for great consultants; unfortunately, degrees are one of the main things they look for as a qualification. Therefore, you need to work on attaining some sort of educational qualification, even if you have decades of experience.
Who Is a Consultant?
A consultant is an expert with ample experience in a particular field to offer professional advice to a business or other individuals. Consultants also go by the name analysts or management consultants, and they help boost your business profits and improve efficiency.
As a consultant, your main job is to propose and implement strategies to improve performance.
What Does a Consultant Do?
Running a business doesn’t always mean that you understand or control every aspect of your business. Therefore, hiring business consultants is a great idea if you want to make your business more efficient.
With high competition among business owners and fast-growing technological advances, hiring a consultant can be a great idea. Some of the tasks and services that consultants offer include:
- Analyzing business data to identify any internal blindspots that might negatively affect the business.
- You can work as a freelance consultant to fill a contract staffing gap.
- Consultants also offer guidance regarding solving problems or implementing working solutions to boost efficiency and productivity.
Types of Consultants
Though you can become a management consultant working in multiple fields, it’s best to specialize in one field that you’re great in. If you are wondering how you can become a consultant without a degree, you need to focus on things you have vast experience in. However, you can get interested in a field and work to become great at it. The following are some of the types of consulting fields that you can venture in.
Safety Consultant: First, you can work as a safety consultant and deal with business security. Your job would be to analyze any dangers and come up with solutions. Organize meetings bi-weekly or even monthly to discuss these problems and solutions with your employer.
IT Consultant: Second is an Information Technology consultant. With the fast changes in technological advances. It can be tricky for a small business to keep up. An IT consultant helps ensure that your business isn’t left behind. They set up networks for businesses such as healthcare facilities, businesses, and educational institutions.
Education Consultant: The third option on the list is to become an educational consultant. Since education is ever-changing, it’s important to have education consultants who keep track of college, high school, and grade school. These consultants help improve the school curriculum to include relevant lessons.
Sales Consultant: Finally, you can opt to become a sales consultant. Here your focus will be on supporting managers and sales representatives of the business. You can help by developing ideas for new business acquisitions and marketing strategies.
You can also consider consultancy jobs such as operations, marketing, financial advisory, HR, and design consultants, among many others.
How to Become a Consultant Without a Degree
If you are wondering how to become a consultant without a degree, there’s one sure way that you can opt for. Look for online platforms that offer freelance business consultancy services to business owners. The enrolment process to such platforms is simple and doesn’t require any certification, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some papers.
On the other hand, if you’re intent on starting your own consulting business, there are several things that you should look into.
Your Job Experience
Since you might not have any certifications at the moment, you need to have at least some hands-on experience in the field you want to consult in. For example, if you’ve been working as a social media influencer for years, becoming a Social Media consultant would be ideal.
Though you can venture into a consultancy field in which you have no experience, it will take more dedication and effort to make it work. As your job is to offer advice and recommend solutions for problems, it would be easier if you already have knowledge in the field.
Leverage any little experience you might have to ensure that you provide value to the business owners you work with.
Get Your Hands Dirty
When starting out your consultancy business without a degree, you need to be ready for anything. Since most business owners don’t know you, do all you can to get their attention. If you’re looking for a job and all you can find is an internship, take it.
Since you’re likely to do a mountain of “voluntary” work as a newbie, it’s important that you look for a field that you’re passionate about. This will help keep your levels of motivation high. Working for free or at discounted charges will help you get your name out among business owners.
Networking
You need to start creating a network of clients you can work with in the future. This list will grow faster if you’ve been offering your services to business owners who didn’t know you a while back. Networking will go a long way in helping you grow a healthy list of customers you can work with presently or in the future.
When doing your job, you need to give your best to ensure that the business owners you work with call you in the future.
Reading Widely
Even if you’re looking into how to become a consultant without a degree, you still need to read a lot. Consume as much knowledge as you can possibly get your hands on. This can be in the specific field you have an interest in or general material.
There are blogs, vlogs, and books on consultancy and business that you should familiarize yourself with. Once you acquire the knowledge, ensure that you put it into practice to gain vital experience. Reading alone isn’t enough; you need to implement what you learn to help boost your consultancy business.
Pros and Cons
Like most businesses, becoming a consultant will have its ups and downs. The pros and cons of starting your own consultancy business include the following.
Pros
- Quickly increase your growth and network
- You’ll only be limited by your drive and work ethic without a boss
- No monotony
- Control your time and the types of jobs you take
- You have the freedom to increase your charges
Cons
- You’ll need time to study any new trends in your field of work
- The tight schedules most clients will have you working on can be quite stressful
Conclusion
Now that you know how to become a consultant without a degree, it’s time to get down to business. Since tech keeps changing, you should always set yourself up for success by familiarizing yourself with new trends.
Once you start your coaching business without a degree, you should work on improving yourself through education and experience. This will also prove your expertise to potential customers in the future. However, though your educational qualifications might not be vital to start your coaching business, it would be prudent to acquire some later on.
