A few characteristics of independent contract work:

• Fill a temporary need of an organization.
• Often work full-time (40 hour + work weeks) for a specific duration.
• Paid on an hourly or daily basis.
• Typically do not have access to benefits, such as health insurance and vacation time.
• Often brought on to work on a specific project.
• Often find the contract through typical job search / application methods, i.e. the employer has an open position that you are hired to fill and may work with a recruiter or recruit independently.
• Will spend the vast majority of their time doing contract work and less overall time marketing themselves (except during “in between” times when they are not on a contract).

A few characteristics of independent consulting work:

• Typically work on an “engagement” or make a specific contribution to an organization.
• Often contributions are strategic in nature, such as establishing a new process.
• Often paid a set fee for the engagement that represents a high hourly rate.
• Bring special expertise or experience that is high-value to the client.
• Often find opportunities through professional networking it is more of a sales process than a job application process as often there is no open “position”.
• Will often spend a larger portion of their time marketing their consultant practices and less overall time doing consulting work.

Of course, there are gray areas. My contracts often blend elements of consulting and contracting. I might find the opportunity on my own, but bill hourly. I often combine project and strategic work as I help establish new business analyst practices. It’s less about following rules and more about finding a mix that works for you (and that’s marketable to potential clients).

As business analysts, I think it’s rather difficult to work on more than 1-2 big projects at once, making full-time contracting a more attractive option than consulting in many cases. However, spend too much time on contract work and your marketing/networking time goes down, resulting in difficulties finding your next gig.

What path is right for you? I’d start by asking yourself the following questions:

• How much time do you want to spend marketing? (networking, selling, researching potential clients, etc)?
• How much time do you want to be doing business analysis?
• Are you willing to have longer periods of time between engagements in order to secure a higher rate / hour?
• Do you want to secure some time off between contracts to pursue other interests?

>>Looking for BA Contract Work?

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At Bridging the Gap, we focus on helping mid-career professionals build the foundational business analyst skills that are essential to success in any type of business analyst role, and that includes business analyst consulting.

What you may not know about our history is that my original goal was not to starting an online training and certification company. In fact, I started doing independent consulting as a business analyst.

In this post, I’ll answer some of the more frequently asked questions about consulting as a business analyst, and share some of my experience.

How do you land your first clients as a business analyst consultant?

When I was originally consulting as a business analyst, I explored a lot of possibilities. I went to networking events, small business meetings, IT meetings, and any event under the sun within my limited budget.

I found many of my first opportunities through technical recruiters – I thought of them as my high-paid sales staff. (And the nice thing is that the “pay” they get is a surplus on your contractor rate, so you don’t shell any money out of pocket.) Recruiters provided an in to some contract positions and this became the foundation of my business.

I also found a few clients through word of mouth and direct referrals. One client I had met a few years back, kept in touch through LinkedIn, and then was able to provide some help when he posted a question on LinkedIn. This led to an initial meeting and, a few months later, a short contract.

Believe it or not, your past co-workers could be your best avenue to your first consulting clients. If they’ve moved on to a new organization, they might be in a position to recommend you or even hire you. And don’t be surprised if an organization you previously worked for full-time is willing to hire you back as a consultant or contractor to help with a project.

This is what happen to Todd Fleming, after he reached out to his past employer to volunteer to do some business analysis as part of The Business Analyst Blueprint® program.

When planning out how to land clients, consider where people in a position to hire you are likely to be and make yourself available in those places. Keeping in touch regularly with your professional network is also a good way to get referrals and remind people you are open for new opportunities.

When you first started out, do you offer a discounted rate, or free, for your first clients as a business analyst consultant?

I did not do this. In the beginning, I considered a year-end promotion to give away “two weeks of business analysis” to a non-profit. I was thinking of this as a way to contribute and get my name out and build some consulting experience. But then I landed a paid contract (that I very much needed at the time) and set the idea aside.

However, if you’ve been looking for new clients for more than a couple of months, volunteering to do business analysis work, or offering a small amount of discounted or pro bono (i.e. free) services can be a great way to expand your experience and get a couple of consulting projects under your belt. It’s also not unusual for pro bono work to lead to paid work, so always follow-up and see if the client is willing to hire you once your pro bono project is complete.

How do you charge for your work as an independent business analyst consultant?

Most BA consultants charge on an hourly basis and if you are just starting out, set rates that are competitive with BA salary in your local area. Realize that if you find work with the help of a recruiter, their surplus needs to be taken into account since the employer is often paying 25-33% more than what you make as a contractor. When you land a contract directly, you can most often charge a much higher rate.

While you might be pressed to create a fixed bid, that’s challenging when offering BA services. To offer a realistic fixed bid contract, you need to define scope. Once you define scope, you’ve delivered a significant amount of your business analysis value.

Another option is to charge for your services under a retainer agreement. A retainer is essentially a guarantee to be paid upfront each month for a set number of hours. This model will provide more consistency in your revenue stream. It works well for follow-up work on projects that are in implementation mode or when there is an ongoing stream of work to handle.

What sized companies are most receptive to business analyst consulting services?

This depends on your BA qualifications. I have had most success with smaller organizations because I use a less rigid business analysis process and I am very flexible. I also have typically worked in smaller organizations and built new BA practices in 2 separate organizations. I found that a potential client for me is a small IT shop that is taking on a project larger in scale and complexity than they normally have to deal with. They may not need a business analyst full-time, but they greatly benefit from BA support for special projects.

A larger organization would likely have a BA team in place on a full-time basis but they might be receptive to contracting with a business analyst for a special skill set or to help them mature their business analysis practice or provide coaching for their BAs. Oftentimes larger ERP deployments, CRM deployments, or accounting system migrations require BAs with domain knowledge.

On the other end of the spectrum are very small businesses. While these businesses might need a business analyst, I’ve found they are more receptive to someone who can manage a project end-to-end and wear multiple hats, including somewhat of an operational role.

What skills do you need to succeed as a business analyst consultant?

Just like with any business analyst role, to succeed as an independent business analyst consultant, it’s important to have the foundational business analyst skills. In fact, because you’ll be switching domains and collaborating with new stakeholders on a regular basis, your foundational skills are even more essential.

Some key skills to focus on are:

• Requirements documentation
• Business process models,
• Functional requirements specifications,
• Data models,
• Glossaries,
• Use cases, and
• Wireframes

You’ll also want to have a business analysis process framework, so you can lead your clients through a process. At Bridging the Gap, we teach an 8-step business analysis process framework to being effective and successful as a business analyst.

>> Start YOUR Path to Success

If business analysis is a career that you want to pursue, the absolute best next thing to do is to join my free Quick Start to Success Workshop. In that workshop, you will learn more about the business analyst career path as well as details about the business analysis process framework that will give you the structure that you succeed as an independent business analyst consultant.

>> Click here to join the Quick Start to Success workshop <<