The benefits of running a consultancy business from home

If you're looking to set up your own consultancy business, you needn't work from an impressive office space. Working from home can be cheaper and easier
offices at night
Lacking an established office hasn't been detrimental to Tom Albrighton's consultancy business Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Running your business consultancy from home allows you to create your ideal workspace, choose your own hours and keep costs to a minimum. But at the same time, you're forgoing a plush office with an impressive address and all of the prestige that carries.

To find out what makes a successful home-based business, and how they compete in a market where the competition has luxury meeting rooms and sought-after postcodes, we spoke to the owners who have already created their own success stories.

The first step is often the toughest, going from the security and routine of a paid job, to cutting all ties and braving it alone. Being wholly responsible for your own income, costs, marketing, paperwork and more.

When Lucy Haughey took this step, she was yet to reach her 30th birthday and expecting her third child. She was made redundant from her role at a major charity, and rather than choose to find a new employer, decided to go it alone and established the Plan B Partnership, a Glasgow-based social enterprise.

Haughey recalls: "I was ready for more autonomy, more flexibility and to use the skills I had been developing all that time."

Whereas some may see this as a new beginning, Lucy thought of it as the next milestone in her ongoing career. "I didn't see it as starting from scratch when I began, because I saw the past 10 years in the charity sector as my 'warm up' to the next phase."

That's not to suggest that the early days were easy. "It's actually very easy to have an idea, develop a skeleton plan and launch," says Haughey. "The hard bit is getting clients in the door who then want to pay you for what you say you can do. We live in a society where sheep seem to be everywhere. If one organisation uses a certain service or trainer, its peers will do the same."

To counter this, Lucy rolled up her sleeves and began nine months of 18 hour days, running free training courses and information sessions and getting her name not only widely known, but synonymous with quality finance-related advice in Scotland.

From this grew a huge list of potential clients and several stellar testimonials. Now the business has dramatically reduced the amount of time given away for free and uses reviews as the core of its marketing strategy.

Haughey adds: "It was about sacrifice as well as being creative and taking advantage of every opportunity to promote ourselves, even if it cost money rather than earned it. People know now when they use us, they get a very high quality advice service and a skilled, enjoyable training experience. That's what matters."

Once a business begins to grow and attract larger clients, it can be tempting to splash out on new equipment and new premises.

Tom Albrighton of ABC Copywriting had worked in publishing and in a design studio before establishing his own consultancy eight years ago. Though he has previously rented his own offices, he now works from home, which he prefers.

The cost savings, the ability to pick and choose his own schedule and the chance to work in solitude were all crucial factors. He expected that a nice office in which he could hold meetings would be important, but it turned out not to be so.

"People don't want to come and see me like I thought they would," he says. "Most businesses want me to go to them. The only businesses that suggest meeting at my premises are those that are also working from home. In that case, we can just go and have a coffee at John Lewis where we're usually surrounded by a lot of people doing exactly the same."

Lacking an established office hasn't been detrimental to the image his business projects, either. "Most of my networking is done online, through social media and through my website. I have spent a lot of time, effort and finances on my web presence and it impresses a lot of people," says Albrighton.

"I find that people aren't too bothered where you are based. They want to know about your skills, your personality and your testimonials. Once you can prove those, a customer's interest is yours to lose."

Tom does admit that being so nearby to his children at times when work is calling can be tough, and that a morning commute and change of scenery would help his creative process. But by setting apart a clearly defined workspace - and treating it as an office with all the associated admin and functional implications - he is able to separate his professional and personal areas.

It's important to be able to escape the outside world when work calls, and to be able to leave professional concerns at the door when it's time for a break. With this in mind, Tom's office is actually two doors away - with his workload and professional concerns on one side and the appeal and demands of his young family on the other.

"The fact that there's a small walk and two doors between the two, even though it's a small thing, helps me draw a divide. I can't 'just pop in to send an email', for example.

"You have to be self-disciplined and self-motivated, which works for me but not for everyone," says Albrighton, "and although I prefer isolation, I always have Twitter if I need some light interaction."

Further evidence that many businesses are happy for their consultancies to be based at home is Andy Turner of Six Sigma PR. He not only works from home, but his home is in rural France.

"I'm based near several airports and an excellent TGV rail system which ensures I can be in most European capitals within a few hours," says Turner. "In many cases, that's faster than someone based in, say, Dorset or Devon."

Turner's clients are based in the UK and throughout Europe, which makes physical meetings tough. However, avoiding them cuts down on wasted time. "I actively aim to limit the number of physical meetings I participate in, as many are unnecessary," says Turner.

"Ultimately you have to use your judgement about when you really need to travel and when a conference or video call will suffice. Social media like LinkedIn and Twitter can help keep your name in front of people, if used properly.

"I think I've proven over the last seven years in France that location is not really a barrier for running a successful consulting business - but if you want to grow it fast and sell out in five years, that's probably a good reason to be in a big city."

Content commissioned by Guardian Professional on behalf of Direct Line for Business
