How many hours a week do you think you can bill? In the early days, I thought I could bill at least 40 hours a week and maybe 50 or 60. After all, like you, I had been working upwards of 60 hours a week for several years in my corporate jobs. I mean, who works 40 hours a week? This thinking led me down two bad roads. First, I thought I could work all those hours so I set my hourly rate too low. Second, it didn’t leave me the time I needed to build my business and keep my pipeline full.
Once I did some research, I found that 30 hours a week is considered fully utilized in industries that live and die by the billable hour such as consulting, law and public accounting. Now I shoot to bill 30 hours a week on average. I spend 10-15-20 hours a week doing networking, marketing and business development. And like it or not, it takes an average of 5 hours a week for infrastructure and admin. That adds up to 50-55 hours a week which Is about right.
I also never give any one client more than 10-15 maybe 20 hours a week. If you take up residence and give 40 hours a week, you quickly become a de facto employee. You lose all the benefits of being a consultant including, eventually, the money, because they will make you a job offer or attempt to reduce your hourly rate. You also put all of your eggs in one basket without any diversification of risk if that client suddenly cancels the project. And if you’re giving them 40 hours a week, you won’t have time to do the networking, marketing and business development required to keep your pipeline strong.
If you are ready to dig even deeper, please join me for my free webinar where I uncover the 5 step framework to building your 6-figure consulting business. You’ll walk away from our time together with a clear, stepwise approach to building your 6-figure consulting business. Register here.