Established in 2011,Westgate is a personal branding and career advisory services firm. We serve individual and corporate executives across industries, including private equity firms and their portfolio companies. Home of the 90-Day Plan. 

Market positioning for launching a consulting practice ...

In a conversation with my business coach this week (thank you, JB), he asked me what I would do differently if launching a consulting practice today. 

I fervently believe that we can’t do it alone. I believe the most effective business coaches invest in their own business coach which ultimately ensures the client receives the best value (two resources in one).

Here is what I learned over the last 12 years; I hope you find my lessons insightful: 

• Marketing: A foundational component of the marketing strategy is positioning. Marketing is essentially the conversation we have with those clients (or employers or boards) we don’t yet know. Communicating your value proposition (what you do to earn value in terms of growing revenues, avoiding costs, or solving a unique problem) to your targeted audience is paramount. There are many others, of course, but this is the first lesson learned. I would have invested in marketing earlier. 
• Business Development: Understanding your targeted client and regularly communicating with them are key elements of establishing relationships with the companies who need your services. This is pivotal. It sounds obvious, of course, but reducing your total addressable market based on an ideal client profile or persona is the fastest path to growth. I would have reached out to firms and boards earlier.
• Sales: While marketing is a conversation with strangers, sales on the other hand is a conversation you have with an individual or individuals who now know your brand and are ready to engage with your firm. Previously, I put the sales strategy before the marketing strategy, and this is the wrong order.

If I could turn back the hands of time, I would have invested in marketing and business development much earlier. While our firm focused on product development in the early years, I believe it was at the expense of regular outreach and visibility within our targeted market. Essentially, we should have been talking about our firm and directly reaching out to our markets much earlier. 

Who is our target market? 

Through our C-Suite Optimization Program, we work with mid-market CEOs and their boards to optimize leadership performance as it relates to market-facing stakeholders, including the public and private capital markets, regulators, suppliers, investors, lobbyists, shareholders, and of course, customers. Our value proposition is helping to protect the board’s investment in the CEO and other key people through clear messaging that opens doors and deepens relationships with stakeholders. Ultimately, this practice improves productivity. 

Through our Career Navigator Program, we support CEOs as they prepare for board of director roles, private equity portfolio CEO roles, and for those CEOs who are planning to launch a professional services firm as part of their corporate exit strategy. 

Today’s podcast is relevant to those who are planning for board opportunities, CEO roles, and those who are planning a business of their own. Ultimately, your audience needs to know who you are before you can begin discussing how you will serve them. 

In episode 70 of the Get Hired Up podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Patrick Allmond, owner of Focus Digital Marketing Agency, a recognized leader in the online marketing industry for more than 20 years. 

Patrick is a veteran, professional keynote speaker, pilot, TV media personality, and a two-decade entrepreneur. 

He is also a speaker and a frequent consultant for ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox TV and KSBI TV. His firm builds multimedia content for his clients and thereby supports their online presence. 
 

In this episode, we discuss: 

• Superman syndrome
• Click Funnels
• Key productivity tools for C-suite executives
• Optimizing your online presence
• And much more! 

If you’re planning to launch an online advisory services firm or business consultancy, you will find this episode insightful. 

I hope you enjoy the show.
 

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Serving clients globally since 2011.

A busy January ...

Here I am a couple of weeks ago with Dimitri Skambos (panel moderator & Co-Chair of the Forward Committee) and Dr. Aamir Rehman (Chair of Innate Capital & Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School) at the Bespoke DealSource event presented by the Association for Corporate Growth New York. 

Before the presentation, Dr. Rehman and I discussed some common benefits of working private equity firms: 

• PE firms provide funding to companies who may not qualify for traditional funding and will often rescue companies whose growth has stalled and require an infusion of capital to avoid closure or bankruptcy. 
• PE firms operating teams and general partners provide pivotal advice and resources to help their acquired companies grow and scale. 
• Private equity firms build sustainable businesses that succeed long after they have exited the investment. 

There are so many more.

One of my key takeaways from Dimitri and Dr. Rehman's discussion is the importance of investor/portfolio company values alignment for sustainable growth, always with a focus on relationships over transactions. 

Here I am with my cousin at a family birthday party on this past Friday evening. Taking time to reconnect with family and celebrate milestones is such fun. The party ended early due to a major stow storm that is blowing through Nova Scotia (CANADA). 

The snow has not ended yet and we're expecting more snow on Monday. 

Thank you for being part of the Westgate community. I hope you have a great day ahead where ever you are. Have an optimized week ahead. 

Maureen Farmer is a CEO career advisor and personal branding strategist for next-level executives, investors, and board nominees. 

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Westgate Executive Branding and Career Consulting Inc. would like to acknowledge that we are located in Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq People. We are all Treaty people.