How much can a solo consultant make?
When I joined the EO Accelerator, a program you're only eligible for if you're doing more than $250,000 a year, the people running million-dollar businesses were the ones we were supposed to look up to. We were the little guppies.
Then, in a small-group conversation, my mentor, whose company did five times my revenue, casually mentioned that he was taking home less money than I was. I called my friend, who was also running a $300,000 business, and we just laughed.
So when someone asks me how much a solo consultant can make, I answer with a different question: how much do you want to keep? What matters is how much money you personally want to take home to support the life you want, and how much revenue your business needs to generate to make that possible. I call that your Freedom Number.
Revenue is the number everyone can see
In that same conversation, he mentioned that he was running his father's company, so he hadn't actually built it himself.
I was out-earning this person I'd been measuring myself against at a fraction of his revenue.
Revenue is often seen in a networking room, creating an illusion of hierarchy. But you can't see the profit or the freedom, ease, and peace of mind the person running the business has. Someone can be generating a fortune in revenue but actually be taking home very little. Someone can be taking home plenty of money, but is never home to have dinner with their family.
Which number are you asking about?
When someone says they want to make $100,000, do they mean that's the top-line revenue before expenses and taxes? After taxes? What they personally want to take home after business expenses and taxes?
Most people don't know.
Say you want to take home $200,000 personally. Divide by 0.7 for taxes (a quick-and-dirty formula that assumes roughly 30%) and you need about $286,000. Add what it costs to run your business, say $35,000, and you need to generate $321,000 in revenue.
So "how much can a solo consultant make" has two answers: what the business brings in, and what you keep. A solo business has an advantage on the second one. There is no payroll between the revenue and you.
What it looked like for us
Within twelve months of letting our two employees go, Steve and I had gone from $40,000 in debt to $500,000 in revenue, just the two of us. No employees, no Facebook ads, no digital course, no big marketing machine to pay for.
(Yes, that's two people, not one. He's the designer and I ran everything else.)
We didn't change what we were selling; we changed how we were packaging and delivering it.
The business Steve and I built generated between $250,000 and $500,000 a year, and I've helped other experts build businesses around that model.
Money is only half of "make"
I have watched this model give people things they did not think were possible as a solo business owner without employees.
Students who never work in August. Students who take the entire month of December off every year and build it into their calendar before they even start booking clients. Students who have taken on one $25,000 project, delivered it in a week, and then had three weeks completely free before their next client started.
The honest drawbacks
I would be doing you a disservice if I only told you the good parts.
This is not passive. You are the product, which means you have to show up to deliver. You are also the one responsible for keeping the pipeline full. When you stop doing the work of nurturing your network and closing clients, the pipeline eventually dries up.
Start here
Before you compare yourself to anyone's revenue, find your own number: what your life costs, plus taxes, plus what the business costs to run. That's your Freedom Number, and it's the only one that tells you whether your business is working.
Why I think staying solo is a choice to be proud of is on the Small on Purpose page.
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