If you missed the previous posts, consider reading the articles below.
- Guide for Aspiring IECs and College Counselors: Series Intro
- Setting Up Your Educational Consulting Business
- How to Build a Strong College Counseling Network
- Finding Your Niche in the Educational Consulting Market
- The Importance of College Counseling Software
As we conclude this series, let’s reflect on the steps all take to become a college counselor.
Setting Up Your Educational Consulting Business
Make no mistake: setting up an educational consulting practice is a business. It’s not a charity or a passion project. To succeed, you must treat your practice as a business. In his book How to Grow Your Small Business, Donald Miller called this “professionalizing your business.” This entails incorporating your practice into an officially registered business.
You can do this yourself, hire a business consultant, or enlist an attorney to help you. Whatever you choose, you have three options for structuring your business. Those options are a sole proprietorship, an LLC, and an S-Corp. Let’s briefly review those:
Sole Proprietorship: A Personal Business Venture
Starting a sole proprietorship means taking full ownership of your business as an individual. This setup offers simplicity and cost-effectiveness for educational planners offering private college prep services and admissions advising. In this business format, you retain complete control over your operations and earnings with minimal overhead costs, making it an enticing prospect for independently owned enterprises. However, it's crucial to acknowledge the risks involved, including personal liability and high liability insurance premiums. Contingency planning becomes essential to mitigate potential setbacks, ensuring continuity and resilience in facing challenges.
Many first start their business as a Sole Proprietorship to avoid startup costs. Note that all but a select few college counselors I know have LLCs or S-Corps to protect themselves.
S-Corporation (S-Corp): Balancing Protection and Complexity
The S-corporation structure is a blend of shareholder ownership and pass-through taxation. Educational consultants seeking to share ownership with partners may find this option appealing. While it facilitates fundraising through stock sales and provides long-term strategic advantages, establishing and maintaining an S-Corp demands rigorous compliance and administrative efforts. Engaging a reliable tax preparer is essential to navigating regulatory complexities in operating out of an S-Corp. This ensures consistent income reporting to ensure everything is above board. Despite the additional complexities, an S-Corp offers scalability and control over ownership, aligning with ambitious growth plans.
Limited Liability Company (LLC): A Hybrid Approach for Security and Flexibility
Most IECs I know have LLCs. For those seeking a middle ground between sole proprietorship and corporation, the Limited Liability Company (LLC) offers an attractive solution. Combining the benefits of limited liability with pass-through taxation, an LLC shields owners from personal liability while maintaining tax efficiency. This structure suits educational planners who value asset protection and operational flexibility. With fewer formalities and greater management autonomy, an LLC streamlines business operations without compromising legal safeguards. Partnering with a knowledgeable tax advisor simplifies the setup process and ensures compliance, allowing educational consultants to focus on their core mission confidently.
Hiring an Accountant and an Attorney
Your IEC practice is business, not a passion project. Invest in your business by hiring a professional to guide you through the financial complexities. Whatever you make, you want that choice to be informed and deliberate. Don’t leave your income to chance.
How to Build a Strong College Counseling Network
No counselor can master every niche. But here's the secret: you don't have to! Building a solid network of college counselors unlocks a wealth of knowledge and support. Having trusted colleagues to handle international admissions or collaborate on customized test prep is a game changer. Your network becomes your extended knowledge base, ensuring you confidently guide students through every stage.
Free Resources for College Counselors: Building Your Network on a Budget
In our post on networking as an IEC, we delve into how to make these meaningful connections.
Collaboration fuels growth. Share expertise with other counselors to gain new skills, expand your thinking, and stay ahead of the curve. No more frantic searches – your network becomes your source of trusted, experienced advice.
Fortunately, free online resources abound! The
CounselMore Mentorship Circle offers expert presentations, while the
CounselMore Study Hall provides peer-led discussions. Don’t procrastinate getting plugged into an IEC community – actively seek out opportunities! Engage online, attend conferences, and connect with other counselors.
From Solo to Supported: Connect with Your IEC Community
Remember, community support is a two-way street. Offer your expertise as readily as you seek it from others. Build your network and nurture it. Success will come through referrals, sharpened knowledge, and a better-equipped team. Fundamentally, your network is your net worth. Don’t neglect to cultivate one.
Finding Your Niche in the Educational Consulting Market
The next post in this series focuses on niches. There’s an adage that claims, “Niches get riches.” While a gross simplification, having a niche in a market where many consultants have the same skills (college essay coaching and college list building) differentiates your expertise and business. Just like a store can't effectively sell everything, your educational consulting business needs a niche, a focused area where you shine. This specialization offers many benefits: enhanced client value, higher earning potential, and a more substantial reputation as a leader in your chosen field.
But how do you find your niche? Start by not forcing it. Start by analyzing your existing clientele. What services do they regularly seek? What questions do they frequently ask? Look for patterns and opportunities to expand within your already established client base.
Align your niche with your strengths and interests. Are you passionate about test prep? Consider specializing in helping students with specific learning differences or athletic aspirations. Pay close attention to emerging market needs. Are parents increasingly asking about gap year programs or international admissions? Consider certification to meet those needs and expand your service offerings.
College Counseling Niche Examples
Here are just a few examples of exciting niche possibilities:
- Aptitude & Career Counseling: Help students discover their strengths and map out their academic and career paths.
- Athletics Admissions Process: Guide student-athletes through the complexities of college recruitment and scholarship opportunities.
- Gap Year Consulting: Craft meaningful post-high school experiences that enhance college applications and personal growth.
- International College Admissions: Assist students in navigating the complexities of studying abroad, including visa requirements and application processes.
- Learning Differences & Neurodivergent Student Counseling: Offer expertise in crafting personalized college strategies for students with unique learning needs.
For example, I built my own business through the niche of
aptitude testing. I love psycho-analytics, but, more importantly, I knew that many of my clients were driving to Dallas to take an aptitude test that was not available in Little Rock, where I practice. I got certified, began marketing my services to my current clients, and the niche grew from there. I found a service I enjoyed providing and an audience willing to buy those services. Consequently, it’s become a large part of my practice.
Build your brand around a college counseling niche. Seamlessly integrate your expertise into your existing services, highlighting its value to clients. Target your marketing efforts to reach clients within your chosen niche. Stay constantly updated on trends and developments within your field to maintain your expertise and credibility.
The best educational consulting niche is the one you can sell
Remember, your niche is the intersection of your client’s needs and your services. Focusing on a specific area can add value, boost your reputation, and serve as the fulcrum to success in your educational consulting business. That said, we warn you not to pick a niche based solely on the fact that you enjoy it. You have to make sure your clients will buy it. Remember, this is your business, not a hobby. To carve out a profitable practice, you must be able to sell the service to your clients, not just offer it.
The Importance of College Counseling Software
Tools shape our profession. As a craftsman wears a tool belt, advanced software for college counselors is indispensable. It serves two critical functions: maintaining a comprehensive, current college counseling database to navigate admissions changes and organizing student information to optimize admissions chances. This is the final part of the discussion of building your educational consulting business. As such, it’s the most technical portion of the series.
The Role of Educational Consulting Software in Professionalism
Your educational software isn’t just for you; it’s for your parents and students. Adopting specialized educational consulting software goes beyond organization; it communicates to parents your commitment and strategic approach to college admissions. Showing the tools and systems you use provides tangible proof of your organizational skills and strategic planning, which is essential for gaining parents' trust. In a world that values visual evidence, demonstrating the software in action can substantiate your claims of effectiveness, enhancing parents' confidence in your ability to guide their children toward success.
Enhancing Your Service with a College List Builder
Our tools are digital. Unlike professions that rely on physical tools, college counseling utilizes software to guide students through admissions. This digital toolkit, especially a college list builder, allows us to document, track, and manage the journey, making our intangible services tangible and visible to clients. Without such tools, our services might seem abstract, similar to fields like corporate law or psychology. By leveraging college counseling software, we showcase the structured path we create for each student, highlighting our expertise and the tangible results of our efforts.
Summary: Advancing College Counseling with Digital Tools
To encapsulate the discussion:
- Essential College Counseling Database: Our practice's backbone keeps us ahead in admissions and managing student portfolios efficiently.
- Educational Consulting Software: Using advanced tools reassures parents of our organizational prowess and strategic foresight.
- College List Builder: The software makes our efforts tangible, illustrating the structured journey we design for students.
- Operational Efficiency: The technology enables detailed student progress tracking, comprehensive college research management, and assignment automation, elevating our counseling impact.
These adjustments do more than streamline your operations. They significantly enhance your service delivery, ensuring students and parents navigate college admissions with clarity and confidence.
Conclusion
Building a college counseling business is a study in improvisation. So much of becoming a college counselor involves building your business on the fly. There will always be an element of making it up as you go, trial and error, and embracing the inevitable uncertainty. However, it all doesn’t have to be.
With the practices covered in this series, you can have predictability in your business. That level of efficiency and consistency comes with time, but it starts with applying principles with a reliable foundation. Ryan Holiday wrote, “Principles are better than instructions and ‘hacks.’ We can figure out the specifics later—but only if we learn how to approach them.”
This series aims to provide that foundation. How you prioritize applying those principles is up to you. It will be dependent on your time, your willingness to learn, and, of course, the amount of money you have to invest in your business gradually. But with this series complete, you will be able to build the foundation of your business intelligently.
I want that for you. CounselMore and its team want that for you.
Becoming an educational consultant is a lot of work. However, I think it’s one of the most meaningful careers. We guide the trajectory of students towards some of the most personally and professionally formative years of their lives. It’s sobering work.
To do that work, you must treat that work not only like a calling, but a profession, a craft. And yes, you must treat it like a business.
We wish you the best of luck!
Happy Counseling,
-Marc
