Unemployed and Looking for Consulting Gigs? You Need to Look Like a Consultant

Brochures: Showing up with a resume will send the wrong message. You can always provide a full resume if a prospective client wants to know the complete details of your background (they rarely will). Your brochure doesn’t need to be complicated. If you have some visual talent, you can design a brochure with your word processing software. Find a local artist if you’re not that great visually. You can buy tri-fold brochure paper that comes with an imprinted background design (see the photo below), and then you can print it with black ink only. If you use one of these types of brochure paper, you will make your brochure look like it has been commercially printed, because the paper is multi-colored, and comes with an imprinted design. Avoid printing a three- or four-color brochure on white brochure paper using your home printer - the line edges won't be sharp, the ink will smear, and your end product will look amateurish. Although you may be able to design your black-print-only brochure on your word processor, don’t print it on your printer. Documents printed by even the finest laser printers smear when mailed (do a test mailing to yourself if you don’t believe me). Instead, have it commercially photocopied.

Tri-fold Brochure Paper

Preprinted tri-fold brochure paper looks like this before it is printed and folded into a size that will fit into a standard #10 envelope. Make sure you buy the type that is scored so you can easily fold it into a crisp-looking brochure. Typical cost on these is about 13 cents each before photocopying charges. Masterpiece Studios makes the item shown above, and has many other styles available.

Web Site: Once again, you can develop a web site yourself if you’re handy, using free software like Kompozer. If not, you can work from some of the many templates out there to produce a web site that looks professional. My search firm web site (www.alandarling.com) was professionally designed, but is intentionally austere, because I want to send the message that I’m very good and don’t need to brag. You can host your web site on GoDaddy for about $50 a year. Although you should submit your web site’s site map to Google so you show up on a web search, don’t expect leads to come in from your web site. The most important thing your web site will do is prove that you are a legitimate business (its secondary function is that it will act as your e-brochure). Even if it is homemade, make sure it doesn’t look homemade, and remember that there are many web developers who produce small business web sites inexpensively (the Job Magician site didn’t cost that much, although that may not come as a surprise to most of you).

Business Cards: Once again, avoid the type you print yourself, or the Staples and corner print shop quickies that smear.

Professional Dress: Don’t dare dress business casual unless your potential client knows you well and will be put off by you dressing well. Just as I’ve said again and again on Job Magician, dress well. There are several articles on dressing for the interview on our interviewing page (click here to see a list of these articles).

And finally, you must avoid asking for a job! Your credibility will be gone, both as a consultant and as a job seeker, if you start out talking consulting and hint again and again that you are available for full-time employment. If they think they want to hire you, they’ll bring it up. And you may be better off starting out as a consultant, anyway. That way, you’ll get to know whether they’re nutty or nice, and they’ll get to know whether you’re a good fit for their company. Your consulting/trial period will prevent you from getting quickly fired or from getting into a company from which you’ll soon want to run for your life. Your exit as a consultant will be easy if it becomes necessary.