independent consultant - how do you consistently get clients?
I've been out on my own for about 8 months now after leaving big 4. The feast or famine cycle is real. Right now I'm doing ok but I know I need to build a more predictable pipeline.
Currently getting most work through referrals and my network, but that feels too passive. I've tried cold outreach with mixed results - used Apo͏llo for a bit to pull contact lists but the data quality was hit or miss and I was spending more time cleaning lists than actually reaching out.
Those of you who've been independent for a while - what's your split between referrals vs outbound? And if you do outbound for lead gene͏ration for consulting, what's actually working? I've seen a few people mention Pro͏speo and Cl͏ay but haven't tried either yet.
I'm in ops consulting if that matters, mostly helping companies fix their broken processes. my boss used to joke that we were "professional mess cleaners" and honestly that's still accurate lol. just trying to figure out how to keep the pipeline full without it being a full time job on top of the actual work.