Launch guide
How to launch your consulting business: the first 90 days
Package a focused engagement and connect discovery, delivery, pipeline, and cash.
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Business education for your next chapter
Consulting resource library
Practical material to adapt with your professional advisors, your local requirements and the business you actually want to run.
Copy and adapt
Four working templates
Replace every bracketed prompt. Review professional, privacy, advertising and platform requirements before using these drafts. Never add sensitive client details to a general contact record.
Initial inquiry response
Acknowledge the request and collect only enough context for a business next step.
Thank you for contacting [business]. To help us identify the next business step, please share organization type, your role, the broad business challenge, and desired timing. Please do not include confidential or sensitive records. We will reply by [realistic date] with availability and the appropriate next step. This exchange does not establish an engagement.
Three-touch follow-up
Use only for appropriate, expected business follow-up; stop after a decline or opt-out.
Touch 1: Are you still interested in discussing [requested service]? I can clarify the business next step. Touch 2: Do you have any questions about the proposed scope, timing, or booking process? No decision is required today. Touch 3: I will close this follow-up for now. You are welcome to reconnect if your plans change; no reply is needed.
Business intake checklist
Administrative intake only, separate from technical or professional assessment.
For business setup, please confirm engagement sponsor, billing contact, decision process, meeting availability, and approved document exchange arrangements. Provide only information necessary for these arrangements. Do not send passwords, payment card details, health information, or sensitive records in this message. We will explain any appropriate separate process if additional information is needed.
Optional honest feedback request
Check platform and professional rules first. No incentives, filtering, or required private step.
If permitted by the relevant platform and professional rules, you may share honest feedback about engagement coordination and administrative communication. Any rating or perspective is welcome. Feedback is optional, with no incentive, and does not affect access to services. Please omit confidential or sensitive details. You may also send feedback privately; that is not a prerequisite for public feedback.
A realistic owner week
Your first week
Move the blocks around your professional obligations and existing commitments. The point is a repeatable rhythm, not a perfect calendar.
Monday
Prospecting and planning
- Referral outreach
- Confirm this week’s delivery commitments and available capacity.
Tuesday
Delivery
- Engagement delivery
- Record agreed next steps and outstanding inputs.
Wednesday
Delivery and administration
- Engagement delivery
- Engagement administration
Thursday
Delivery and learning
- Engagement delivery
- Discovery method learning
Friday
Money and next-week review
- Invoice and pipeline review
- Review expected receipts, committed costs, and next week’s schedule.
Plain-English business terms
Business words nobody taught you
- Engagement
- A defined arrangement to provide consulting services.
- Discovery
- The process of clarifying a potential project before defining its scope.
- Sponsor
- The client contact who supports and coordinates the engagement.
- Scope
- The agreed boundaries of the work.
- Deliverable
- A specified item you agree to provide.
- Dependency
- An input or action needed before other work can proceed.
- Retainer
- An ongoing fee arrangement with terms that define the work or availability.
- Pipeline
- Potential engagements organized by their current next step.
- Utilization
- The share of available working time spent on client delivery.
- Overhead
- Operating costs not assigned to one engagement.
- Receivable
- An invoiced amount that has not been paid.
- Runway
- How long available cash may cover planned costs under stated assumptions.
Learn without expensive detours
Three common first-year mistakes
1. Selling an undefined fractional role.
Instead: Specify responsibilities, access, meeting cadence, and exclusions.
2. Stopping outreach during a full engagement.
Instead: Keep a modest weekly pipeline block.
3. Ignoring preparation when setting a fixed fee.
Instead: Track all engagement time and use it to refine estimates.
Rookie Runway is general business education, not legal, tax, financial, medical or brokerage advice. Licensing and practice rules vary by state. Check with your board, broker or advisor. Business education only. Check any licensing or professional requirements for your services.