| | By Mick James
Starting and growing
your own consultancy is
one of the biggest steps
you can take, and all
too often it's one which
is forced on
consultants. Sometimes
the motivation is
different – to give
something back, to make
a different kind of a
difference.
Nicola Davis is very
much a career
consultant, having
plunged straight into a
consulting career after
leaving university.
"Management
consultancy seemed
sophisticated and
interesting, I couldn't
get my head round doing
a nine-to-five job in
the same place," she
says.
She joined a small,
entrepreneurial
consultancy in
Nottingham, after
writing a "cheeky
letter" in reply to an
advertisement for a more
experienced consultant.
She stayed five years
before moving to a
larger consultancy to
broaden her experience,
finally joining Deloitte
to experience delivery
and implementation on
the very largest
projects. There she met
her husband – also a
consultant, also named | |
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| | Nick – and by 2005 she
was beginning to
question her work/life
balance.
"I started to get
tired with the travel,
and because my husband
was also a consultant we
could both be sent
anywhere," she says. "I
wanted to be able to
choose the work I did,
and I didn't want it to
always be about
commercial decisions."
With her husband she
came up with the plan
for N² Consulting,
focusing mainly on SMEs
but also working with
the charity sector.
"We wanted to be able
to make an impact and
really take our clients
somewhere, so SMEs
really play to our
strengths," she says.
"Working in large
organisations, sometimes
the front line is too
far away. We like the
creativity of working
with entrepreneurs,
businesses that take
risks every day."
Charities seemed a
natural complement to
this work.
"The idea to target
the charity sector came
out of that," she says.
"We are not charity
specialists but approach
them as people who have
been firmly embedded in
the business world. That | |
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| | sector should be even
more motivated than the
commercial sector to
make a profit – the more
profit they make the
more people they help."
The initial plan was
that Davis would focus
on business development
and relationship
building, while her
husband would be the
"delivery arm".
"We wanted to build a
business, not just to be
a couple of
contractors," she says.
N²'s preferred route to
market is through
intensive networking,
both on a
person-to-person basis
and through
organisations, such as
the IoD (Institute of
Directors), where Nick
is a great believer in
"not just being
attendees but getting
stuck in" and involved
at the committee level.
Another route is to
offer clients a certain
amount of discounted or
free introductory work
upfront. "We do a small
amount of pro bono
work for charities, one
client at a time, to
show our commitment to
the sector and what they
will get for their
investment."
Davis will also run a
half-day workshop for
commercial clients. "I'm | |
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| | happy to spend the time
with them and see what
comes out of it," she
says. "Usually what will
come out of it is a
detailed set of client
requirements – you've
almost workshopped the
problem."
This is intensive
work, but ensures that
there is a genuine
empathy and cultural fit
with clients, which in
turn is a great
predictor of success for
the project.
Because of the
relationship-based
nature of the business,
Davis has found it hard
to step back from
delivery work, and for
this reason the firm has
decided to take on
another consultant.
Unusually for a small
consultancy, the initial
growth plan is to hire
graduates.
"Because all the work
with clients is so
personal they wouldn't
be happy just to be
handed to someone else,"
says Davis. "The new
person will work on
every project and do a
lot of the legwork –
there'll be a lot of
blending. The advantage
for clients is that
their budgets will now
go a lot further, they
can have us for longer."
Eventually the plan | |
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| | is to start more
graduates and as the
business expands and
they gain experience, to
also second them into
industry.
"It's a long haul,
but they will go through
a rigorous development
programme, which will
cost us a lot of money,"
says Davis.
It's very early to
say what shape the
business will take, but
Davis can look ahead to
a firm that might
consist of 25 people,
with a ratio of two
consultants to one
director.
"For me the perfect
size of a consultancy is
about 25; more than that
and you start getting
into procedures and
bureaucracy, and you
need a different type of
person to run it," she
says. "Getting there
might take the majority
of a career, and after
that we hope to see a
group of directors
coming up behind us."
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