Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Key Takeaways
- In today’s economy, businesses value nimble and fractional consultants who can bring value rapidly. That is a great wave to surf this summer!
- To allow yourself to moonlight effectively, you must intentionally structure your engagements to be time and resource-efficient.
- To protect yourself, you must be aware of ethical boundaries and design a delivery model that stays within them.
If you are looking forward to longer days and more sun, not only because you want to hit the beach but because you also want to harness that energy to diversify your income, this article is for you.
In recent years, companies globally have increasingly sought fractional help. Why? Because independent consultants provide faster time-to-value with a lower financial commitment. Consultants who do this best are incredibly clear about who they can best help, and they efficiently structure engagements to drive rapid results.
If you want to start consulting on the side this summer, you will have to strategically design a delivery model that gives you the tools to both quickly onboard clients and collaborate effectively. But you must also be pragmatic and consider the ethical implications of your side hustle before you commit. The last thing you want to do is to lose your main job by acting in bad faith, even if by accident.
So, let’s dig deeper and start working on your side-hustle strategy.
Who needs your help?
I need to start with a clear warning. If you are a junior consultant, this journey may not be for you … yet. I typically coach budding solopreneurs to wait until they have five years of experience in their domain before seeking clients independently.
This is because you need wisdom gained from your career to accurately define your Ideal Client Profile (ICP). Who you can best help is the first question you need to answer. Articles like this will give you the tools necessary to do exactly that.
Then you must empathize with your ICP. What are they feeling pressure and stress about today? You work with folks like this daily, so tune into their reality. Ask your current clients what they consider the biggest value you bring to their team. It is these painful problems and valued solutions that your Ideal Client Journey (ICJ) should address.
As you carry out these strategic exercises, try to visualize what delivery will look like in reality. You must intentionally eliminate time inefficiencies in managing these relationships. Remember to think about how to reduce the time your client needs to spend managing the relationship, as well as making delivery time efficient for yourself. The clearer you are on who and how you can best help, the more confidence your prospective clients will have in your ability to assist them.
How do you work fractionally, flexibly?
If you are working a rigid 9-5 job, your delivery will have to be done outside of those hours. This means you must set expectations with your clients about when and how you will interface with each other.
One phenomenal way I drive engagement momentum without being face-to-face with my clients is by using questionnaires. As you design your ICJ, think about how you can start every deliverable with a simple but thorough list of questions the client can answer in their own time that will give you the information necessary to do your work.
That said, nothing beats having live conversations. But your client is unlikely to want to meet you in the evening or on the weekend. So, you may want to think about finding clients who are a few time zones away from yours. This way, an early morning or evening meeting for you may be at a perfectly normal time for them.
Next, don’t price your work by the hour. You want to be well compensated for the results you drive, not for the time it takes. Instead, explore value-based pricing or follow my lead and set a weekly or monthly rate for your efforts. Your pricing model is the main driver of flexibility in delivery. You don’t want your client to expect you to submit timecards or office hours; this is the opposite of flexible.
And lastly, don’t be afraid to lean on your client’s team by giving them homework, setting a direction and letting them build parts of the deliverable themselves.
What are your ethical obligations?
If your current job is fully remote, you may be able to fit client meetings in during regular working hours. But if you do so, you run the risk of leaving a Slack message unread and having your boss breathing down your neck. This is just one of the ethical considerations you must think about as you embark on this journey.
Read your contract! You must either stick to the letter of your signed agreement or move in the shadows and risk significant turbulence if found out. My recommendation, even if your contract is against moonlighting, would be to have an open conversation with your superiors about how you can ethically take on extra work.
The main concerns for your employer will always be a combination of you acting as a competitor commercially and the perception that your efficiency and focus will degrade. You have to empathize with your employer on these matters. No matter how bullish you are about this side hustle, ignoring these factors may bring about a much worse reality — namely, the loss of your main job.
My hope is that you work with people who are logical and who support your aspirations. But facts are facts; this ethical concern is the biggest hurdle to your success. Don’t ignore it!
In my experience, having open and honest conversations before you start a side hustle is the best way to ensure a positive outcome for both you and your employer, not to mention avoiding a lot of stress.
I wish you luck in making 2026 the year you start your side hustle. You’ve got this!
Key Takeaways
- In today’s economy, businesses value nimble and fractional consultants who can bring value rapidly. That is a great wave to surf this summer!
- To allow yourself to moonlight effectively, you must intentionally structure your engagements to be time and resource-efficient.
- To protect yourself, you must be aware of ethical boundaries and design a delivery model that stays within them.
If you are looking forward to longer days and more sun, not only because you want to hit the beach but because you also want to harness that energy to diversify your income, this article is for you.
In recent years, companies globally have increasingly sought fractional help. Why? Because independent consultants provide faster time-to-value with a lower financial commitment. Consultants who do this best are incredibly clear about who they can best help, and they efficiently structure engagements to drive rapid results.
If you want to start consulting on the side this summer, you will have to strategically design a delivery model that gives you the tools to both quickly onboard clients and collaborate effectively. But you must also be pragmatic and consider the ethical implications of your side hustle before you commit. The last thing you want to do is to lose your main job by acting in bad faith, even if by accident.