Owning your own human resources consulting business requires you to wear many hats. You’re an entrepreneur, accountant, marketer, officer manager, and HR expert rolled into one. How can you make your HR consulting business stand out from the competition? We’ll give you marketing techniques, business tips and keep you up-to-date with what’s trending so that you can differentiate yourself from your competition.
Choose a Niche
Within the field of HR Consulting, you can be a generalist or a specialist, according to SHRM. You may have the skills necessary to perform a wide variety of HR tasks, but understanding a specialty of HR gives you an edge that competitors don’t have. Taking this a step further, you can develop yourself as an expert in a specific niche.
Your niche may be specific to your target audience. Perhaps you can market yourself as an HR expert specifically for micro-businesses with under 10 employees. If your skills align well with a startup environment, market yourself as an HR consultant with expertise in startups. You may also find that you’re drawn to large corporate clients and want to consult and advise large corporations with existing HR departments on streamlining their processes.
Discovering your niche may relate to a soft skillset as well. If you’re passionate about developing company culture, develop your HR consulting business around that theme. Focus on DEI initiatives and how to incorporate those in your consulting plans. With many employers turning to remote work, there is a great need for expertise in remote HR, and this is an underserved niche market in HR consulting.
Whichever niche or specialty you choose to set yourself apart, be sure to incorporate it into your branding and marketing efforts so that it is clear to your potential clients. Clearly discuss your audience’s pain points and how you can resolve their problems on your website, landing pages, and in your social media posts. Use clear, concise, and consistent language throughout your marketing.
Use Tools and Trends to Your Advantage
Utilizing tools, technology, and trends is one way to stand out from other consulting firms. The more options you offer to your clients, the greater likelihood that you’ll have a solution that works for their needs. Staying current with the latest trends and technology in the HR world makes your services more appealing to clients.
Tools like our assessment and PIC report give you an immeasurable lead against your competitors. The PIC report provides a holistic overview of a candidate, which takes into account the way that they think, their behavior, and their environment. It provides an in-depth review of their role compatibility and position benchmark scores. This enables you as an HR consultant to place candidates in the correct role for their strengths. You can also utilize the PIC report when conducting employee reviews or for internal mobility to determine the best position for employees within a company.
Our platform SUM enables your HR consulting firm to specialize in team building. Use SUM to see, in real-time, how team dynamics impact team communication. You can work with a team of employees to determine how they behave as a group. Learn their strengths and biases, and how they can improve their communication to become more cohesive as a unit.
Research Your Competitors
Understanding what your competitors offer gives you an understanding of what is available in the marketing. Find out what your local competitors do best and what markets are already saturated in your niche or specialization. Inc has a list of the best HR Consulting businesses. Review the best businesses and see what makes them stand out. See what you can do to make your own business stand out as well.
If you’re just getting started with your own HR consulting business, make sure that you keep a list of all of the business items you need to accomplish before launching. Truic offers a guide to start your own LLC, and SHRM has excellent guidance in HR consulting.
