About Us
The Consultants Index was conceived in a UK pub in late 2005. A group of friends who each ran their own consulting or advisory businesses were bemoaning the inequality of competing with ‘the big brands’ – we all know who they are and I’m sure you have all shared our frustrations at times! It just doesn’t feel like a level playing field most of the time! It seemed strange to us that in this internet era that there was no place on-line that prospective clients could go to find out the full list of consultants that might be able to support their next project. Of course there were sub-sections of the industry available on-line from the MCA and other representative bodies but most of those concentrated on ‘the big brands’. After a few pints we had each convinced ourselves that if a listing of all consultants was available then we could see ourselves paying to be listed so that prospects, who would get the service for free of course, would be as aware of our services as some of our larger competitors. After a few more pints we each committed some funds to do the research and build a business plan – as all good consultants do! (That’s drink pints, by the way!)
A few months later when client projects conspired to bring us together in another pub, we shared our research. Amazingly we found that there were 30,000 plus ‘consultants’ in the UK alone – a large enough market to target and of course if you add all the other folk who sell time (careful here! Some sub-sections of this market are well populated!) the audience is vast. Lots of ‘Googleing’ had not produced any serious competitors and we had dreamed up some clever ideas to keep us ahead of any new market entrants so all looked good. A budget was created; more monies were committed to fund the web development and a full-time development team was recruited.
A year later we had a product, an advisory board of four, a full-time development team but no customers. One of our throng had access to a ‘few hundred’ consultants through an existing network so we ‘soft-launched’ the product in early 2007 to test it ‘for a few weeks’ before intending to launch it to the paying public. We got a lot of feedback!! All of it positive about the idea which was great but lots of problems about ease-of-use, look and feel etc. Back to the drawing board!
Towards the end of 2007 – two and a bit years on! – We had a product that worked well and one that we would be proud to launch fully. Another stint down the pub! More pints and more funds committed – this time for PR, marketing and support.
At time of writing in early 2008 we have over 1000 subscribers and are just about to market to the client community. We still have a board of four, a development team and now marketing, PR and support staff. It’s early days but we have confidence in the product and the basic concept. We hope that The Consultants Index makes it easier for you to find new business and that your subscriptions are paid back many times over each year so you can afford to do what consultants do best!...........Yep, you guessed it, go and have another pint!
Good Prospecting!!
The Consultants Index Team