As my business shows success, I am confronting a traditional dilemma: stay as a one-man-show and increase personal profitability through deepening my brand, or rather seek to expand and scale through setting up a team?
It is true that I could surf on my network and just expand my own expertise into a more and more profitable enterprise. In the short term it could be more profitable. Yet it is not what I am seeking.
Of course the answer to this question is biased in my case because from the beginning I had planned to involve other people. Still, it is true that expanding my company into a team introduces additional complexity. I now fully understand authors such as Alan Weiss that strongly recommend one-man shows for consulting companies and demonstrate through their own example how they can build such a setup to be profitable and eminently controllable.
Yet I find that there is also a lot of fun in developing a company by involving other people and scaling its impact through other contributors. Having people to discuss with, to work with, to confront difficulties with, is an unappreciated value that really changes the life of the entrepreneur. Yes, of course it involves more complexity and time to organize and manage a team. This time and energy is amply rewarded by the insights and the reach that is developed accordingly.
Not to mention that clients expect often consultant shops to be able to show a team with diverse and complementary skills and talents, that are able to tackle more complex and ambitious projects.
Without doubt, I can confirm that the way to go is to develop a team and expand by involving people. The right people of course, that are carefully selected to join the bus. But that’s much more fun than staying as a one-man show. And in the spirit of the Fourth Revolution, everything is in the team!
A first partner has joined and I hope more will come. I’ll share the learning in future posts!
