Hi, I'm Danilo.
The Business Development "Sparring Partner" For Your Micro Consultancy
Consulting, mentoring, and advisory for partners looking to build a profitable boutique firm.
First Time Here?
If this is the first time you come across me or my work, I suggest you scroll around the Boutique Consulting Club, which is where most of my writing and services are located. This will allow you to check what (if any) of my content and resources is more helpful to you and your consultancy.
Mat Freer
The Culture Experiment, Client
It's always a pleasure working with Danilo! He has the patience of a saint, brings deep expertise and passion, whilst being challenging and provocative in all the right ways. Time spent with him is always worthwhile, and I feel he's constantly looking to bring value to our business wherever possible!
Katherine Scheibli
LeapQ Limited, Client
"We have been working with Danilo for six months now and continue to be impressed with the value he brings to our marketing campaigns and business. His approach is professional, considered, flexible and highly tailored to our needs.We’ve been impressed by the investment he has made in understanding our business – his pro-activity, expertise and collaborative working style has allowed us to adapt our campaigns to the emerging opportunities and challenges presented by Covid.We intend to keep working together highly recommend him to anyone looking for a focused approach to building the long term success of their business."
Marco Yashiro
Quantiz Pricing Solutions, Client
"What I liked most about the training is that Danilo showed us that even for people who don't know how to bring new clients, having the right tools and methods can help in this process.The content of the training is really complete and enlightening, and Danilo has a great didactic to explain it.Overall, it doesn't matter if you already have experience or you are a beginner. For sure Danilo's training will improve your ability to bring clients, projects, and financial health to your consulting firm".
Ed Lander
Bristol Neurodiversity Consultants, Mentee
"Danilo approached me at a time when my business was ready for outbound sales strategy development. I had been previously approached by others, however I was very mindful of having an approach in line with my values that wouldn't harm my brand or my personal reputation. I was immediately impressed with Danilo and his level of professionalism, expertise and experience."
Fábio Vakuda
Quantiz Pricing Solutions, Client
"We carried out training with Danilo, who was always extremely helpful, genuinely interested in helping the partners to learn, and sharing in-depth knowledge ref boutique consultancies.In my opinion, his training is distinguished by the practical approach throughout the process - during the training we were already using the tools presented and putting everything into practice."
Kim Youdan
Youdan Design, Client
"Danilo is a pleasure to work with. I’ve really enjoyed our collaboration over the last 8 months and his support has been unwavering.The confidence I gain and the time I save whilst working with Danilo and his team contributes to my business and also my personal wellbeing."
Stephen Blanchette
LeapQ Limited, Client
"Danilo has become a trusted partner to our business. Why? First of all, because he is a great listener and has come to understand our business very well. Secondly because he is thoughtful — he looks for new ways to help us and his contributions are always well considered. Thirdly, because he knows how to build strong relationships. And lastly because he is a very good and decent human being. It’s been a great pleasure working with him."
Resources
Here are free resources I've put together to help you on your consulting journey.
Daily Emails
"Adding Value" Newsletter
The goal is to provide, every day, seeds of insight that can spark interesting discussions for you and your team.In this daily newsletter, you will find:
Expert advice and insights for delivering exceptional value to your clients, managing a boutique consultancy effectively, and driving business growth;
Actionable ideas to do better business development - by improving your marketing and sales capabilities, developing and pricing new offerings, or leveraging systems and resources;
Opportunities to connect and network with other consulting professionals and boutique consultancy founders.
Signing up for "Adding Value" is quick, easy, and free, and you can unsubscribe at any time. And it will never include any guest post, sponsored links, advertisements or direct requests. Subscribe here.
Free Scorecards
Does Your Consultancy Have The Right Fundamentals In Place To Grow?
This takes only 3 minutes, and helps you avoid wasting time, money, and energy before planning or implementing any growth initiative. You get a personalized report with actionable steps on how to address potential blind spots. Start here.
What Is Blocking The Growth Of Your Consultancy?
Depending on your results in the fundamentals scorecard, you might also go on and complete this business development one. It takes around 10 minutes to complete, but will give you a more detailed picture of potential issues and help you avoid wasting time and money working on the wrong things.You won't be asked to provide your numbers or any sensitive data, and will receive a free consultation to discuss in-depth results and get actionable business development advice from me. Get it here.
Live Online Workshops
The Journey Of A Boutique Consultancy
We tend to believe our goals, vision, and aspirations are unique. And they are. But once you look and analyze the data from thousands of other consultancies, you quickly realize the journey is way more predictable than you think.Even though there's not a single recipe to build and grow a profitable consultancy, you can (and should) learn from others. This will not only save you a lot of time, money, and energy, but also make it clearer what the main growth levers for your business are.Twice a month I deliver this free and live workshop where you will learn what this journey looks like, what kind of consulting business you want to build, and how you can prepare for the challenges along the way. Check the next dates here.
Say Hello
If you're leading a consulting and advisory practice, I'd love to connect. Feel free to say hello on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Or simply join the Boutique Consulting Club to receive new and thought-provoking ideas every morning.
About Me
Bio
Hi, I'm Danilo.I help partners of boutique consulting firms double their effective hourly earnings.My learnings come from advising +30 boutique consulting firms in Europe and the UK, Canada, and Brazil. I also write daily at the Boutique Consulting Club - we have over 300 posts there, and you can join the email list to get them every morning.
Danilo Kreimer
My Story
I started my career as a freelance professional, working remotely and from anywhere in the world I could find an internet connection. Before running my own business, I worked with SMBs as a business development consultant and ran and launched several bootstrapped projects. Bringing new products and services to market always fascinated me, and I spent years experimenting and learning how to take new projects off the ground.As a solo consultant with no sales team, and receiving many requests from peers who'd struggle to generate opportunities, I decided to create an agency to serve this existing demand. Solving the prospecting challenges of small and mid-size consulting firms would become the mission of Singular Reach.Back then, we specialized in helping boutique consulting firms win their dream clients. Being critical of the lead generation industry as a whole, our small team worked hard to develop a unique prospecting methodology that emphasizes demand generation and relationship building, delivering consistent results for consulting firms with teams of 1-20 people that typically sell to large companies or see long sales cycles. Some of the brands we've helped our clients break into include Vodafone, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Microsoft, and Spotify.But then something I didn't expect happened. Solo and small consulting partners started to come to me with growth challenges that were not caused by a lack of leads. Some of them wanted to improve financial performance by changing their offering mix. Others wanted to take back control of their discretionary time, and make their working hours more flexible. And quite a few founders dreamt of making their consulting business less reliant on them.These projects were more challenging and enjoyable for me to work on, but I found myself at an ethical crossroads. How can I offer fiduciary advice as an agency founder?If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Agencies always have the incentive to recommend their own services, even when there are other better, faster, or more cost-effective solutions. But when you sell advice, your client's interest comes first. You don't prescribe anything before diagnosing. And this sometimes means recommending clients to eat meat, even though you're a lifelong vegan.This is when I decided to leave the agency and focus entirely on advising.My clients value having access to a fiduciary advisor. In my audits and 1:1 engagements, I won't sell or profit from any implementation work. I also refuse to mark up or take a referral from anyone I recommend. My role is to share the ideas, tools, processes, and relationships I have built and cultivated during years of working with boutique consulting firms.Every consulting partner can make more money by doing less. Working more hours are not the solution to your dry sales pipeline, unsatisfied clients, or management problems. The solution is not easy, but it's simple: What partners need is a process to ensure they're working on the right things. The best way to get it is by adding industry expertise, clarity, and accountability.If you want to grow your consulting business in a structured, profitable, and enjoyable way, let's chat.Free Time
In my free time, I enjoy reading, hiking, and playing chess.
Say Hello
If you're leading a consulting and advisory practice, I'd love to connect. Feel free to say hello on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Or simply join the Boutique Consulting Club to receive new and thought-provoking ideas every morning.
Services
With more than a decade of experience in business development and strategy, I advise founders and partners who are seeking to systematically bring more money and opportunities to their consulting business without increasing their workload. The main high-level goals we work together on are a combination of:
Improving the financial performance and security of their practice.
Taking back control of their discretionary time.
Making the consultancy less reliant on them.
This often includes helping partners build a healthy pipeline, create strategic partnerships, enter new markets, and develop new offerings. The work expands into different domains such as strategy, marketing and sales, and operations, and over the years I've specialized in serving micro and boutique consultancies with 1-12 FTEs (full-time employee equivalents).I work with a handful of clients every year, and typically for extended periods.If you are new to hiring advisory work, it might help to know I typically recommend beginning with a workshop or diagnostic - this allows us to identify risks and opportunities I can help you with. These small engagements often springboard into bespoke projects or ongoing retainers.
New Engagements
Get clarity and specialized support through these shorter (but packed with value) engagements.
Business Development Audit
Find out what is really blocking the growth of your consultancy.
Reduce overwhelm by identifying what you should focus on to generate more and better opportunities. You get an assessment of your current situation, prioritized recommendations for your consulting firm, and industry-specific advice.When you are busy managing the firm, it’s often hard to get the perspective needed to see the big picture. You or your partners may also lack the technical skills or experience needed to assess what to do, how to do it, and where you should allocate your time and resources, which is why a professional audit can be so helpful.
Group Workshops
Practical and specialized daily engagements to level up your team.
Workshops are often the first step toward a working relationship.The recommended topics are all packed with insights from my work with other boutique consulting firms, and the workshops are practical, fun, and backed by respected research. It's a chance for us to get to know each other better, and for you to have a taste of what working together would look like. Please get in touch for more information.
For Diagnosed Consultancies
Bespoke support to plan, oversee, and implement changes in your consulting practice.
Bespoke Projects
A hands-on advisor to help you get your marketing and sales initiatives right.
Once we get to understand what your current situation is, I may be able to offer custom support for you to improve pipeline, enter new markets, and develop new offerings.The value you get from this is huge: specialized expertise based on previous projects, accountability to help you, your team, and contractors stay on track, and access to my personal network of vetted specialists and resources. Please get in touch for more information.
Mentoring & Advisory Programs
A proven and customized program to help you build a successful firm on your own terms.
6-month programs that includes strategy work, 1:1 coaching, and a unique knowledge base for micro consultancies.While each program is individually customized, these engagements will always include deep dive advisory calls and workshops, a custom roadmap and structured assignments with due dates attached, and access to our "Boutique's Second Brain".
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