What do you need to start a design consulting business side hustle?
I have spent a lot of time in the past 4 years reading, searching, and trying new things with my consulting business. I hope the list below saves you time searching for questions on how to do things so you can spend more time making money!
Verify that your Side-Hustle does not Interfere with your Full-Time Job
Basically, you can’t do a side business in the same industry as your full-time employer, take work from your full-time employer, or use any of your employer’s resources (cellphone, computer, time, etc). Check with your full-time employee manual and HR to ensure you comply with this if you have any questions
Identify your Business Niche
Do you have an expertise in something like home design, interior design, or project management? Are you professionally licensed in civil engineering, architecture, structural engineering, mechanical engineering, or electrical engineering, etc? If so, are there portions of that career field that larger firms are not pursuing as they are not profitable to the larger companies but could be for a smaller one? You can always try to reach out to a local company performing work in that specific field. Many times there are project inquires these companies get that they do not service or do not have time to service. This can help to identify a market gap to help create your business niche.
Create a Company Name
I recommend you come up with a couple of options for a name and then do a business name search at your state’s business name directory.
Start out as a Sole Proprietorship (Recommended)
I recommend to start out as a Sole Proprietorship to help simplify things. Starting a business is exhausting and time-consuming, starting as a sole proprietorship greatly lowers the learning curve, cost, and paperwork of starting a business. When you get over 6 figures then you can look at a LLC, S – Corp, etc. After starting this route all you need to do is going to your bank and tell them you want to start a DBA (Doing Business As “business name you determined above”) checking account and DBA Savings account. Basically, everything you make goes through your checking account and then you transfer ~25-35% into your savings account for taxes. This simplifies the whole bookkeeping process we will talk about later.
Make a Company Website & Professional Email Address
You can create a low-cost website at either Bluehost or GoDaddy with a domain name “companyname.com” and then make get email addresses associated through it to. These give any future client a professional look to your business and help drive customers to you in the near future. One advantage to GoDaddy is that you can get a GoDaddy Website with Microsoft 365 that will get your office, cloud subscription, and email linked between GoDaddy and Microsoft in one simple step.
Insurance
I recommend you get general liability insurance and professional liability insurance (if applicable to your profession). Hiscox can help you obtain any type of insurance you need, wherever you are.
Architects and Engineers Insurance
Bookkeeping & Invoicing Software
You will be greatly consumed in marketing, doing work, and generally running the business. I recommend utilizing a software package like Freshbooks or Quickbooks to greatly reduce the time you spend bookkeeping and sending out invoices to clients. My first few years I used only excel and word which was extremely time-consuming. I wish someone would have told me how simple and automated program like freshbooks or quickbooks are.
Design Software
I started out using AutoCAD LT on a month by month basis. If i had work then I would subscribe for that month and then cancel if I had no work coming in to minimize my overhead costs. Now I upgraded to Revit LT which includes AutoCAD LT on a yearly basis. There are numerous other programs that you can buy like AutoCAD inventor, etc on a monthly basis to help save money when you are starting out.
Calculation Software
I utilize PTC MathCAD for a vast amount of the calculations that I need to perform for my consulting business. You can also save money by only using excel sheets through a Microsoft 365 subscription.
Business Cards
I bought around 500-1000 business cards through some of the specials that VistaPrint offers for an extremely low price for professional business cards.
Contracts & Legal Forms
I use US Legal Forms for any business or contract templates. You can find a lot of other contracts on NSPE.org or AIAcontracts.org. I do not deem to be an expert on contracts and you may want to consult with your attorney for any questions about any contracts or legal forms you may need.
Laptops
I’ve bought a couple cheap laptops off amazon that met all the requirements of the software I was looking to run on it. To minimize cost I have bought many refurbished laptops. Below are a couple of Laptops I recommend.
Laptop Lap Desk:
LapGear XL Laptop Lap Desk with Left & Right Mouse Pads – Black
Printer & Printer Stand
I bought a couple of printers over the past few years.
The below link is to an awesome high yield color inkjet printer/scanner that automatically feeds 11×17 (multiple late nights spending hours getting 11×17 to print straight on my old one justified this upgrade) I do not know why I did not upgrade to this one sooner. I also included another link with the high yield ink cartridges to save a ton of money on ink in the long run.
MFCJ6935DW with Super High Yield Inks
Printer Stand with Wheels:
Safco Products 5206BL Under Desk Printer/Machine Stand, Black
Paper & Envelopes
I go through a lot of Paper and prefer self adhered envelopes for all the direct mail marketing I do.
Below are my paper recommendations.
Self Adhered Envelopes:
