Episode 103: How to Become a Consultant with Patrice Davis

Acquania Escarne 0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to the Purpose of Money podcast. If you want to build a business as a consultant, you must listen to this episode with consulting genius Patrice Davis.

Acquania Escarne 0:12

You are listening to the Purpose of Money podcast, a podcast where we talk about ways to build wealth and create more freedom in your life. Today. I am your host, Acquania Escarne

Acquania Escarne 0:24

Patrice Davis is an amazing woman and the creator and founder of grants works, a grant consulting company that helps businesses organisations and municipalities find secure and manage government and foundation grants. She has over 13 years of experience in the grant writing space, and her company has applied for and manage $131 million in government grants. But last year, she discovered another passion she can do dynamically well, and that is help you become a consultant and find your way into the space where you can make money, offer the expertise, you know, and love. So today, we are going to dive into part two of our series with Patrice Davis. And we're gonna specifically focus today on the consulting space. So Patrice, thank you so much for coming back to the show, and now sharing with us how we can make this money as a consultant. So, the first conversation we had was the bomb. If you guys didn't listen to it, go ahead and listen to part one, especially if you are a business that could benefit from Grant and foundation money. Okay, aka free money for your business. But today's episode is for that entrepreneur, who is looking to monetize your skills and expertise as a consultant. Yes. So purchase, I did a little bit of research. And before we met, I found out that the consulting space is a billion dollar business, almost like $130 billion business in the United States to be exact. And it is a space where more and more people are getting into this every single day. Okay, especially 2022 to 2023. The industry grew by 3%. Yeah. So today I want to talk about how in the heck do you get into the space? And then what are the realities, the challenges the money that people can expect. So if they're even thinking about it, they can have everything they need to get started. So I know a little bit about you already, because we had this conversation about your Jamaican roots, and how you came here to blossom into an amazing grant writing guru. But I now want to know, how did you go from grants to finding the inspiration and the desire to create an accelerator programme? Ready, set, go consult? Like, what was your aha moment for that?

Patrice Davis 3:10

You know, my aha moment happened when I realised that it took me two years to figure out what tools I needed to run my consulting business, make sure I had, you know, things like proposals, emails, you know how to operationalize a business, it took me two years to learn that and I knew that there were other people who had the same drive skills, expertise and wanting to maybe monetize that expertise, but didn't know number one, how to launch a consulting business. Number two, they didn't want to spend two or three years doing the research that I ended up having to do. And, you know, I knew that there was a way I could help people accelerate their launch. And if they already have a burgeoning consulting business, I can help them scale their business, because I was able to figure out how to do that in the second year of my business. And so and I also kind of came up with after thinking through my journey, I came up with a an approach that I knew was that could be duplicated. My approach, and I won't go into that now really, really focuses on as our conversation about grants, was about really telling that story. But then making sure that your story is relevant to your prospective clients. And what does that mean really positioning yourself and being comfortable positioning yourself as a thought leader, because when you do that, then you are almost attracting clients to you because they feel a little bit more confident about your expertise. And that just helps remove that that one of the roadblocks to being able to make that sale.

Acquania Escarne 4:49

So I do want to be clear, like consultants can be two different ways. There's many different types. So let's kind of break down definition because I don't Want to assume everyone knows. But out in the industry, you can consult on IT, you can consult on Operations, you can help people with Strategy, you can do Financial Consulting. And my husband is in the information technology space. And he works for a consulting firm, right! Yes. So he's in one of those big four firms that goes out and consults for other businesses. So in your definition of consulting, what is someone doing? And are you helping accelerate people to being a consultant for a fIrm? Or do you help people become a consultant, who's independent and helps other companies? What's your preference?

Patrice Davis 5:38

Excellent question. Thank you so much for making that distinction. So yes, what Acquania is saying is that we know about those big four, right? We know about the KPMG and the PricewaterhouseCoopers. cross borders. Okay,

Acquania Escarne 5:49

Price Waterhouse Coopers, that's where my husband is. Yes, I know. PwC.

Patrice Davis 5:54

Exactly. We know about the those two, those are two of the big four. And those are the those are, of course, Management Advisory consulting firms, huge firms who have been you have some of the other huge, huge multinational firms. And they go in and they help companies, primarily midsize and large companies, solve problems address an issue. But then you also have independent consultants. And that's what I'm doing. I'm help. I am an independent consultant, I knew that I had expertise on on not just writing grants, actually, my expertise is really managing government grants complying with government grants. And so I launched an independent consulting company using that expertise. And that is the expertise that I use it to deliver solutions for my clients. So for example, if I there is a nonprofit that received their first government grant, it's a $2.5 million government grant, they may have had foundation grants in the past where they submitted one report, and they were good for with with a government grant. Now they have to make sure their financial management systems are straight, their policies, procedures are intact. And so what we do is we come and help them basically modify their processes. We help them identify solutions and modify their processes so that they comply with the grant that they don't get in trouble. They don't have a bad audit report, and actually probably be able to get even more grant funding. So as an independent consultant, whether you're an IT, or maybe your health care professional, or even an educator, oh, my goodness, educators are, you know, educators can do so much they can work, they can be a consultant with, with, you know, companies that educational publishers, maybe they can be a consultant with instructional design, maybe they can be a consultant with the school district that they previously worked at. So there's so much one can do to use your expertise, and then figure out how to package that into a set number of services, and then deliver those services. There are ways to customise your expertise for certain clients. And after a while, you may learn that there are certain services that you can turn into a product, and then you can actually sell that product so that you're not having to customise every single service that you offer. So those are just some of the things to consider about becoming an independent consultant and what that looks like.

Acquania Escarne 8:22

Yes, I love that. And I love how you said eventually customising a service. So you finding your niche, and then you make that what you offer everyone, right or your target audience. So that's really good. And doing my research I found on Google that statistically, if you're a consult consultant, you could make on average $7,000 a month, which is about 85,000 a year, but there are some consultants out there making as much as $16,000 a month, which is closer to $200,000 a year. Is that what you've seen in your experience with helping people in your accelerator programme or even as a consultant yourself? Have you been able to see those ranges and income?

Patrice Davis 9:06

Um, you know, I was able to see that I have to tell you, I was able to see a close to $200,000, y'all in my not the first year because I started my business in January 2020. But by the end of 2021, I was almost at $200,000 a year, I was doubling my income as an employee where I made a little over $100,000 a year I don't mind putting that out there. So so there is depending on number one, your pricing, and I do make sure that in our folks in our accelerator that they don't undercut themselves and undervalue the services that they have to offer. I help them of course figure out who what is that target market that's going to pay for your expertise. So yes, one can make as much as you know, as you know, you know, the 7000 but sometimes you can have a six figure engagement. I you know, I won't go into too my specific numbers. but I it $200,000 is probably, maybe on the low side, you can really have a seven figure consulting business. And that's my goal. So consulting business, and maybe even multi seven figure consulting business when you consider especially the work that I do, there are not that many people out there that specialise in government grant management, government grant compliance. So think about what my market looks like. And I'm using this as an example for that person out there that maybe isn't IT, but maybe their specialisation is in cybersecurity or certain industry in cybersecurity, do you see how I'm taking it from a broader industry to, you know, narrowing it down a little bit, but then even finding a way to even narrow that down even further. So if you're an IT, but you're in cybersecurity, but maybe you specialise in cybersecurity, for universities, there your market right there.

Acquania Escarne 10:56

Wow. Yes, you will get down and grow less claiming that seven figure multi seven figure is also business, I'm here for it, we're gonna throw a party, I'm from Atlanta, I'm always willing to fly home. I agree, I always tell people, the greatest way to increase your revenue is to raise your prices, or to raise your prices and find your real target audience, right? There are people out there who are at a position in their business where they need your help, and they are willing to pay the price that you are worth. And under valuing your services is what I see so many entrepreneurs, including myself, when I got started, we do all the time, what tips do you have as far as the confidence to charge your work? What do you tell some of your students when they're struggling with? Should I charge $100? an hour for this? And you're like, girl, you gotta make them at $500 an hour? Why are you charging 100? So let's talk about that. What What's the mindset you need to charge your worth?

Patrice Davis 12:03

Well, first of all, you need to be very, very clear on what your value is coming into this industry period. What is it that you've accomplished for your employers, before you even decided to launch your own business? Really, one of the things we do in the third week of that programme is we really have people do a really deep dive into all of their skills, their experience, the expertise and their knowledge. I'm talking right 345 pages, however many pages it takes, because by the time we finished writing it like why do I did all of that I really do have a lot to bring to the table, that's number one, knowing exactly what you bring to the table. Number two, find out what your target markets pain points are. So you don't want to know how to deliver a service, you're trying to figure out how to deliver a solution to their pain points, right. So when a client comes to me, and they say, we're having issues with XYZ grant, I'm not looking just how they manage the grant, I'm looking at the process that got them to that, and then I'm helping them address that process. So now you now you're not just delivering a service, they see you as a solution and a part of almost a part of their organization's capacity building initiatives or goals, right. So that's the second thing. Number three, make sure that, you know, when you think about your pricing, not just the time, but the value you bring. As matter of fact, I always tell my students, even the ones that are charging hourly, don't charge by the hour, because what you're really doing is in my opinion, you're basically harming yourself, because if in your one of your business, it takes you 10 hours to deliver a solution. But by year three, you're getting better at it and you're charging either at the same rate, or a little bit more. But now you can complete it in five hours, you're cheating yourself by sticking to that hourly rate charged by the value that you're bringing that, that your solution is bringing to the company. There are instances where a company where a person may want to, you know, ask you to lower your prices, Don't lower your prices, lower the certain that once they live with lower to service, but maybe offer to them and this has happened to me.

Patrice Davis 14:09

You know, this was a guy of Stanford PhD, you know, this CEO of this big, you know, med tech company. And I don't know what he thought, or who he thought I was. But by that time, I was very clear about the value that I have. And that can I can deliver, but what he he basically kept trying to have me lower my prices. And then my response in the response I recommend for anyone is in order for us to accomplish what it is that you want to accomplish. This is the price this is what it will take. And if you want to lower the price and then maybe what I can do is take out maybe these two or three parts of the deliverable so that now we're aligning up with the price that you want to pay. But of course in order for and make sure they're clear, though, in order for me to get to that target to get to that goal, they're going to have to of course, pay you what you requested. I have to all So point out really, really quickly one of the things he said, Well, you know, I checked and, you know, the people in this industry are making XYZ. And then of course, my retort was well, and I'm, you know, my record was all went really, really well, obviously, you know, this person became a client, we ended up doing great things for them. But my retort was, but I bring to the table, not just my experience working at let's say, XYZ University, I've worked in universities, I've worked at the federal government, I've worked for small nonprofits, I've worked in large. So what I bring to the table, is you really can't compare that to a person that's in this industry, you know, to a person that's actually working as an employee in this industry. So just different ways to make sure that you are charging what you're worth, and then sticking with your prices, and never backing down.

Acquania Escarne 15:50

In other words, the price is the price. The price price is the price. And yesterday's price is not today's. Right, though, I love that. And I've heard different perspectives. So I'll present here another alternative that I've heard because I asked this question to someone last week, actually. And they said to me, like, oh, well, if you are going to negotiate or change your price, just know that you can only negotiate the profit you built into the price, you're not able to negotiate this the bare costs that it takes to provide the service. So what I mean by that is, as a business owner, I hope you all are doing this, when you create a package for a potential client, you need to include the profit, you want to make off of that there's a cost to actually do the job, that's your labour, that's the supplies, if there's printing or something involved, you got to add all of those things out. And that might be the cost to do the project. But then you need to be a profitable business. So if your profit is 10%, or 20%, then you need to add that on top of that cost to do the project. So that when you decide to do a friendly discount, or a lets get started, the first three months will be discounted, you are only discounting your profit, you are not eating the cost, okay? That is super important. Because we are not here to work for free, and you still have to pay your T,you know, if you are someone operating in that team space, which I encourage entrepreneurs to do, then you need to be able to pay your team and you have to understand that you cannot compromise other people's money just for one client to come through the door. Yeah, might not be your client, or that might not be the client that needs to work for you right now.I had to tell people look, if you can't do their package right now, we can always revisit in six months, yes, see, if I will be a better fit for you, then I can't promise you the price will be the same. But I can definitely promise you that you can plan for me. And I do agree that there are businesses that can plan or save for the consultant they want to work with, right. So doing what they do well and saving a portion of what they make to be able to do that project. Now, what is your advice on how to retain and get repeat clients? Because in the consulting space, if you are independent you are, I don't want to say living project to project but you are dependent on businesses requesting your services. So what are some tips to help retain those really good clients?

Patrice Davis 18:34

Excellent. So one of the things that I typically do is, say if a client or prospective client comes to our company, and they say they need A, B and C, what I try to do is make sure that A, B and C or C always leads to a potential D and E. And so of course I give them exactly you know, when it's time to make sure we deliver the deliverables they get exactly ABC, A, B and C. But I also sort of always make sure that they're aware that there's a possibility that we can enhance on what we've delivered by force, providing you know what that next stage is one of the things that I also recommend people do, and then please be very, very cautious when you're doing this. I'm very careful about doing this because I've realised how much of a time how much time it takes to do what I'm about to recommend. There are some instances where there are requests for application requests for proposals or requests for quotes that are coming to you all the time. And once you once you start to establish yourself in the industry, as a consultant, you start to get you constantly you're getting RFPs RFPs and RFQs sent to you. Be very careful about the one you choose. And then be very strategic about what you actually submit for right You're looking for those that are going to give you at least one year or maybe two years or three years of a contract. And really think about how competitive your proposal will be, before you actually pursue it before you actually spend the time it takes to prepare a proposal or quote or an application. So I do think people should be open to those opportunities, because many times those are longer term. And so obviously, it gives you the opportunity to plan and have really solid projections, revenue projections over the next one to three years.

Patrice Davis 20:33

So that's one one thing that I typically do is, you know, I'm trying to think about my, my particular experience, thankfully, an opportunity like that came to me exactly a year after I launched, an RFA came to me, but I'm going to tell you how I got that RFA RFA came to me and thankfully, I had already done some work and in 2020. So I had a very strong proposal. And that led to a one year engagement, which turned to a two year engagement. And so I was really happy for that. And that was a my first six figure, contract. So just be on the lookout for those be prepared for those kind of goes back to what we've talked about a few times of flying and being able to tell your story. And so, so that's something to consider. Now, the reason why that RFA came to me out of nowhere was because in 2020, when things were just in flux, we know what was happening in 2020, I decided to put myself out there. And host a lot of free webinars on federal grants, not a lot of people were doing webinars on federal grants. And so that's how people started to learn about my business. I put myself out there, I got over myself decided that, you know, in order to actually, you know, so you have to promote. And as a result of all the free webinars I've been doing, someone heard about me and sent me an RFA. And you know, what that RFA was for was to develop a federal grant management training series for federal government agency.

Acquania Escarne 22:08

I knew if I could do this.

Patrice Davis 22:12

And it turned to be turned out to be one, obviously the biggest project I've had. And I wouldn't say obviously, but it turned out to be the biggest project that I had, they came back the next year and said, Oh, can you do this in Spanish too?

Acquania Escarne 22:26

So okay, you're saying! Yes,

Patrice Davis 22:29

yes. So what does that mean? That means I then have you have to be nimble, I then had to research okay, what are the language translation companies? What do they do? So just being able to be nimble to be responsive, and then, you know, present to them, how I can deliver that was really was really important. So being nimble and responsive is really, really important as a business owner. So I'll leave it there. But I have certainly a lot more to say about that being nimble and responsive is extremely important. As a business owner of I have found, I like.

Acquania Escarne 23:01

that. So being nimble and responsive is great. But I kind of want to go back to another point you said, which is being very strategic in what you apply to, because not every request for proposal is meant for you. And it does take time to fill these out. Right. So I think that's really important because getting in the wrong relationship can be a time suck, too. So I'm gonna ask you a real question. If you've never experienced that is totally okay. Yeah, in your honest opinion, what are some tips for firing someone? Meaning, I need to get out of this consulting relationship ASAP, because it's not working. What do you recommend we do?

Patrice Davis 23:43

So I have had one experience like that. And the what I did was, you know, of course early your business, you want to take on as many clients as you can, you want to get that experience. This particular client, I learned very early on that they required a lot more hand holding that I was able to, that I was comfortable providing, but I stuck with them because I cared about the work that they do. But then after a while, I realised that the handholding was really, really, it was just it was becoming very problematic for me. So what I ended up having to do was basically terminate the relate well, basically, I just didn't renew, I didn't terminate, I didn't want to terminate on them. I wanted to make sure I saw through, I did everything that we needed to do. We ended up working together for a year and a half. But that last six months is when I realised, wow, this isn't the best way for me to be spending my time. And basically, I told him, I was going to be redirecting, you know, my business and I really was actually figuring out how to change some of my services. And, and so that's what I ended up doing. I decided not to renew the engagement, but that is definitely one example. where it just wasn't a it was a state where they were starting at a point where I couldn't help and they needed a lot more work to get to the point where I could really make my contribution and our company's solutions for them really benefit them, they really couldn't benefit from it, because they were starting from from there were at a certain point where I think you know what I mean, they were just needed a lot. Yeah,

Acquania Escarne 25:21

They were at an earlier stage than they needed to be before working with you. And we talk about that in our part one of this series. So please listen to part one, where we talk about grants, because I also did ask the question, like, what part of your business do you need to be out before you come to Patrice? So there are definitely levels to this, and there are probably consultants out there who would have helped them at the beginner stage. So definitely, definitely check out part one of the show. And let us know what you think this has been awesome. Patrice, thank you so much for sharing your expertise, and really helping me understand more about how to get the grants that you need to run your business, and then how to turn your expertise into a consulting business. I love what you're doing. Please don't stop and keep going. Because that seven figure business is right around the corner. And I know that you are actually helping people create their consultancy businesses right now. Before we go, can you tell us a little bit more about your accelerator programme? What's it called? When is it happening again? And let's go.

Patrice Davis 26:36

yes. So the name of the accelerator programme is Ready, Set, Go, Consult. It is truly a consulting business accelerator. I would even call it a consulting business incubator because some people come and they're like, I know I want to be a consultant. I know I have all this expertise. And so I'm helping them figure out exactly what that expertise is that their target market wants. I even helped them to figure out what their target market is. It is an eight week programme. It is a live group coaching with me every Wednesday at 12 noon, for an hour and a half. So we take a deep dive into everything you need to do to build to launch and to scale a consulting business. So I have workbooks. I have I have every week I have a 40 to 50. Slides, deck guys, I don't play I mean government grants. So details are what I do. So you're not going to sit there and just look at a screen. Look, look at pictures on a slide deck. I have information, I have details. My workbooks are the same. The activities that you complete in the workbook, of course, are what gets you to that next level. I have great testimonials. So to answer your question, the next time we're going to be launching is when our next cohort starts April 5. And so we're basically going to open the doors on March 8. And for that, you know, four week period we're basically going to make sure that we're available to answer folks questions just in case they want to know more about the accelerator, but just Yeah, but you know, trust and believe on Wednesday, April 5 will be the the first session of that eight week accelerated programme. I love what I'm doing. Because it takes me out of that grant space. And I'm working with people and I love doing that. And so I'm looking forward to some folks in your audience reaching out and and maybe joining our accelerator again, readysetgoconsult.com We have an ebook there you can get if you want. We have a free masterclass you can get if you want. If you want to learn a little bit more about me and about the accelerator.

Acquania Escarne 28:42

Awesome. Don't worry guys, I will make sure to include the links in the show notes. And make sure that you have plenty of time to sign up for the next cohort. Patrice, thank you so much for being on the show today. Are there any other websites or locations on social media where people can find you and connect? Let us know now?

Patrice Davis 29:01

Sure. So So yeah, Instagram at Ready, set, go consult. And of course LinkedIn. I'm all over LinkedIn. I have a readysetgoconsult page on LinkedIn or grants works page federal grants simplified. And so yeah, it's connect with me on LinkedIn. Y'all. Follow me on Instagram. I'm always you know, sharing information on how to be a successful consultant. So please link up.

Acquania Escarne 29:30

I love it. I love it. Yes, guys. Check out the show notes connect with Patrice. Do all the things okay, we're trying to get the grant money this year. We're trying to get the consulting money this year. And we have given you in part one and part two of this series all the T. So you guys need to what take action and that's all I'm going to ask of you today. Take Action, wherever you're listening. If you enjoy this episode, please share it with friends and family on anyone else who needs to know and don't forget to leave a five star review so that other people know how much you appreciate the show and they get to see it too. Until next time, guys keep building generational wealth.

Acquania Escarne 30:13

Thank you for listening to the Purpose of Money podcast. For more resources and information, check out my website, the purposeofmoney.com. And while you're there, please sign up for our newsletter. So you'll have all the latest information on new episodes and blog posts. And so next time keep building generational wealth!

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