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HR Consultancy Launch Programme · Stage 1 of 10
Choose Your Model & Niche
Make the decisions that shape everything else: what you sell, who you serve, and what you charge.
How long
1–2 days
You’ll have
A service menu, a niche, pricing, and clear boundaries
Steps
4 steps
Resources
2 resources
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01 Step 01
Step 01
Name your services
You cannot price, market or insure a service you have not named.
Do it yourself
- List the lines you will sell: retained support, ad-hoc advice, projects, investigations, training, HR software setup.
- Write each as one plain sentence a business owner would understand.
- Mark which are recurring (retainer) and which are one-off (project or day-rate).
- Flag the higher-risk lines, like investigations and dismissals, because they shape your insurance and scope.
Common mistake · Offering "everything", so the menu is impossible to price or to market.
Time~2–3 hours CostFree DifficultyEasy -
02 Step 02
Step 02
Choose your niche
A defined niche makes you the obvious choice for a slice of the market, not a generalist nobody remembers.
Do it yourself
- Pick an axis: a size band, a sector, or a situation like a first HR hire or a fast-scaling business.
- Sense-check real demand near you, and who already serves it.
- Write your positioning in one line: I help [who] with [what] so they can [outcome].
- Note the niche’s quirks, like DBS checks in care or high turnover in hospitality.
Common mistake · Treating "everyone under 50 staff" as a niche. That is a market, not a niche.
Time~2–4 hours CostFree DifficultyMediumResource for this step
PDFNiche selector scorecard
Score two or three candidate niches before you commit to one.
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03 Step 03
Step 03
Set your pricing
The model you pick, retainer or project or day-rate, shapes your cash flow and how clients read your value.
Do it yourself
- Choose your primary model: monthly retainer, project fee, or day rate.
- Anchor a retainer to something concrete, a per-employee band or a support tier, not "call me any time".
- Set a day-rate floor that covers your CPD, insurance and non-billable hours.
- Decide your position on contingent tribunal work (a new consultant should usually avoid it).
Common mistake · An "unlimited advice" retainer that becomes a loss-maker as the client scales.
Time~2–3 hours CostFree DifficultyMediumResource for this step
PDFPricing model builder
Compare the three models and build three retainer tiers plus a day-rate floor.
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04 Step 04
Step 04
Decide what you won’t do
Naming your boundaries now stops scope-creep into legal work you are neither insured nor permitted to do.
Do it yourself
- List what you will refer out: court litigation, immigration advice, tax and payroll, an employee’s settlement-agreement advice.
- Decide whether you will represent clients at an employment tribunal (allowed) or refer it.
- Write the boundary into your service descriptions so it is visible from day one.
Common mistake · Saying yes to "can you just handle the tribunal?" before you understand the litigation line (see Set Your Scope & Terms).
Time~1–2 hours CostFree DifficultyEasy
What you’ll have after this stage
- A named service menu, split into recurring and one-off
- A niche you understand and can market to
- A pricing model with a defensible day-rate floor
- A clear line on the work you will refer out