For over 25 years, training was an important part of our consulting business. Financially rewarding, too. But I must confess we didn’t plan it that way…

Here is the story, as shared with colleagues in a program in which I participate. (Teach Your Gift Pro by Mirasee.) My first encounter with Mirasee was in 2018, when I enrolled in a class with the goal of converting existing live class materials to on-line.

Although the course was very useful, due to inertia (mine and the marketplace) I did not proceed — but then COVID changed all that. The result? Last year I did four live multi-day virtual classes on-line, with more in the future.

But as my wife pointed out, I am once again failing retirement. That’s OK, though, as I still meet my three pronged criteria of “Have Some Fun — Do Some Good — Make Some Money.”  This is from my post at Mirasee:

Hi B2B Colleagues,

Let me share some marketing insights based on 30+ years of B2B training.

Since 1987, my late business partner and I helped our engineering colleagues learn how to identify/prevent/fix Electromagnetic Interference (aka EMI) problems as part of our consulting business (www.emiguru.com). Yes, esoteric, but stick with me as I share a few things learned along the way regarding B2B marketing.

What started out as a request for help by a couple of clients (Can you teach us how to do a better job next time?) evolved into a financially rewarding training business. 12,000+ students (and about $15 million in revenues) later, the training part is still alive but at a lower level as I ease into retirement.

Not bragging — just offering some encouragement. When we started I had no idea where the B2B training would lead. It has been great fun and obviously pretty successful. But it did not happen overnight.

In 1992, we stumbled into working with a marketing partner — a prominent test equipment supplier to electronics designers (our mutual target market.) We ran the program (promotions, registration, and fulfillment, the latter including arranging meeting space and more.) We shared mail lists (both direct mail and email) and had great field support from their sales force.

We got revenue, and we both got highly qualified leads (those who were both interested and could spend money.) It was win-win-win as the students won too. That relationship lasted about 25 years until it died out due to the increasing cost of promotions and fulfillment.

In 2012, we were invited by a long established training company to be in their catalogue. Another marketing partnership. As they specialized in the defense industry, we developed a highly focused class for their market.

It was not too difficult as we had a lot of consulting experience plus existing materials. In this case, the training company handled the promotion, registration, and meeting arrangements. All we did was show up and teach. Now on line, it is even easier.

In 2018, I signed up for the “Course Builders Laboratory” with the idea of converting two multi-day classes from in-person to on-line. Learned a lot, but due to inertia (mine and the market place) did not move forward.

Then COVID happened. Last year led to four multi-day on-line classes (pilots?) with more on the horizon. The best part — no travel for me or my students — and the market is now world wide. Yea!

Today I am investigating a new potential partnership to resurrect the original commercial course. The financial equation is much more favorable with on-line delivery. Much less cost to promote and fulfill. No travel and hotel/catering costs, and a much broader potential market. I’m excited about the prospects.

As you can see, I am a big proponent of partnering in the B2B marketplace. I hope this has been useful, and that I haven’t blathered on too long. I know much of Mirasee’s past efforts have been aimed at B2C, but rest assured there is a huge market in B2B, particularly with the move to on-line learning. The marketplace if different but there is a lot of  lot of $$$$ to be had, along with great satisfaction.

Best wishes — Daryl

PS -Also working on a short B2C course on how to start/build/operate a small consulting practice based on my 40+ years experience. More of a labor of love (see my blog at www.jumptoconsulting.com.) But the real $$$ for me are in B2B – and that is still fun too. 

As I pointed out in an earlier post, there is a great synergy between training and consulting. Each can feed the other.

Training, however, requires a lot of time and commitment, so I don’t recommend jumping in with training when starting out in consulting. Long term, however, the payoff is there, and it nicely augmented our retirement funds.

If training has appeal, consider teaching for an educational institution, such as university, junior college, or adult educational  program. This can even be done prior to making a full time JumpToConsulting, providing visibility/credibility and experience. In fact, that is how we got started — moonlighting as evening instructors in adult-ed over 40 years ago.

Hope this has been helpful, and perhaps even planted some seeds on how to make your own JumpToConsulting!

P.S. – The $15 million was not all profit, as we had promotion and fulfillment costs. But it was still quite profitable ($10M+) while also feeding the consulting side of the business.  

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