What is a Consultant Anyway?

Consultants - if you want to start making decent cash it is by becoming a consultant.

And lucky for us, the Power BI world is very much suited to the consulting form. We're assigned a finite piece of work to deliver a specific outcome over a period of time, then we go again.

There is no need to hire us full-time - we're too expensive. There is a need for us and in the growing freelance economy, it's only a matter of time before this style of work becomes commonplace.‍

So what are they exactly?

Consultants are simply professional helpers.

They have specialised knowledge about certain domains - management, strategy, IT, and are deployed when a company can't meet the inputs to achieve a desired output. Let's face it, most jobs can be done internally - I mean, you can train staff to achieve the desired outcome but the question is: "at what cost?"

I was in a project meeting the other day and a graduate asked: "Why don't we just do this piece of work ourselves?"

Valid question. The project sponsor answers: "ROI."

Consultants - even at their higher price point - deliver better ROI than taking a staff member out of their job, taking the time to learn, train, and execute a project. I likeln it to plumbing. Sure, we can train our staff up to become plumbers, get them certified, and ready to fix the leaking kitchen tap.

Or I could just call a plumber and have it done in a day at a fraction of the price.

And how does this relate to Power BI?

Lucky for you, there is such a thing as a Power BI consultant. Consulting in the IT world in general is big business. And there is a shortage of good IT consultants. IT Consulting ranges from strategy, to data management, to system deployment. A Power BI consultant is simply a Power BI expert providing professional solutions to companies who wish to deploy Power BI. And you might be thinking, "ok, I'm not a professional" but in a lot of ways you are.

If you're working in the Power BI space, you know how Power BI relates to your business, you know how to manage data and security, you know what end users want to see.

And that's the difference between a consultant and an employee - the wider scope. All that's left to do is continually adapt and fill in the gaps.

Be modest and learn what you're not good at and shape your offering as a whole of business type approach as opposed to a developer approach.

Why would I want to be a consultant?

Simply - the rates.

When I first met Paul, I saw an invoice of his to the company I was working with.

$1800 Australian

Per...

Day...

I thought it was a mistake, I mean how could this dude be earning more than I make in a week in a day? Put simply, Paul held the responsibility for the strategy of a deployment we were working on. He fit existing processes into the new system and reendgineered how the company does things to adapt to the new system.

I.e. whole of business approach.

Ok, how do I do this?

1 - Decide that you are now a consultant. Congratulations!

2 - Set up a company. PTY LTD in Australia, LLC in the USA, LTD in the UK. (In Australia you cannot be a sole-trader). With this comes the understanding that you are now the operator of a company - not an employee. You'll need somewhere to keep your books, need to understand your tax obligations, insurance needs, and swallow the fact that you are now on your own. (this is a big step so be kind to yourself)

3 - Set up your LinkedIn. The bulk of my work comes through LinkedIn. Clean up your profile and align your job titles with Power BI Consultant (or whatever consultant ou wish to be). You probably don't need a website yet.

4 - Look for contract roles on your local job boards. These can sometimes look like temp roles however they are not. They are usually jobs with defined periods of time.

5 - Understand your offer. What is it you do exactly? Copy mine if you like: "I set up end-to-end data solutions specialising in Microsoft infrastructure. From data modelling to training, I can deal with the cleaner (janitor) right up to the CEO".  My offer isn;t necessarily the best Power BI dev going around (which I am far from) but I do offer clients 100% support. I build trust that they can rely on me to deliver their tools and make them feel like they're in control the entire lifecycle.

6 - Look for gaps and refine. Becoming a Power BI consultant isn't one and done. I mean look at this Fabric tool that has just come out. I spoke to a recuiter the other day who asked if I'd used it and I had to say no because I haven't had the time to even open the docs. Power BI updates every month - stay relevant.

Closing

Power BI consulting can open many doors to higher income and better work life balance.

Currently, I work from home office, get to see my 16 month-old and wife every day, and earn money I'd never dreamed of all because I saw Paul's invoice.

Consider this your version of Paul's invoice.

Get on the job boards and search for this stuff because there is a huge demand.

And now that you understand that care and trust are the name of the game, you can backfill your skills to to take the step up that will give you a bit of freedom in life.