Every business company relies on consultants in order to improve their quality of work, productivity, strategy, and revenue.
Their input is so valuable because they bring specialized knowledge and expertise to a project or problem that may not be available in-house.
Usually, they are in huge demand because they provide an objective perspective and avoid any biases or conflicts of interest that may exist within the company they’re supposed to help.
And although there are quite a few popular agencies that hire full-time consultants, the increasingly attractive option to work from home has stimulated a lot of professionals to become freelancers.
Hence, the demand for building a service marketplace for consultants has spiked.
In this article, we’ll share with you everything you need to know before starting your own online consultation platform.
What is a consultation marketplace?
A marketplace for consultants is a platform or website that connects businesses or individuals with consultants who can provide specialized knowledge and expertise in a particular area or industry.
These marketplaces typically provide a range of consulting services across different fields, such as marketing, finance, technology, or strategy.
Contabi used 3veta’s marketplace builder to build an advisors marketplace.
Consultants can create a profile on the marketplace, highlighting their skills, experience, and areas of expertise.
Clients can then search within a website for consultants for a professional who can handle their specific needs and help them with difficult decisions. After reviewing their profiles and ratings, the client may engage them for a consultation.
What are the benefits?
Online business consulting offers several benefits to both clients and consultants, such as:
- Access to a wider pool of professionals: Clients can find and compare consultants from a broader range of locations and backgrounds, increasing the chances of finding the right fit for their project.
- Flexibility: Consultants can choose the projects they want to work on and set their own rates and schedules, giving them greater flexibility and control over their work.
- Lower costs: Marketplaces can offer competitive pricing for consulting services by leveraging economies of scale and reducing administrative costs.
- Reduced risk: Clients can review the consultant’s profiles, ratings, and reviews before engaging them, reducing the risk of hiring someone who may not be a good fit for their project.
Depending on the consulting niche and the nature of work (one-time, short-term, or long-term), there are different marketplace business models such as subscription-based and commission-based.
Some examples of marketplaces for consultants include Upwork, Freelancer, and Catalant. These platforms can be particularly useful for small and medium-sized businesses that may not have the resources to hire full-time employees or engage large consulting firms.
How do I start an online consultation platform?
Starting your own website for consultants is not so difficult nowadays.
All you need is to have clarity when it comes to your business plan and strategy and find a good white-label marketplace solution to help you with the technical stuff.
💡 Pro tip
Wondering what your consultation marketplace will look like? Play with 3veta and find out!
So, where do we start?
Choose a niche
A niche marketplace constitutes an online consultation platform that features specialists in a particular department that are ready to solve specific issues that customers usually experience.
By choosing the right niche within the consulting business, you’ll be able to target better your audience, recruit the best talents, and ensure that the needs of the clients are met.
Choose a business model
We already mentioned the most popular marketplace business models. The commission-based option means that the marketplace will take a percentage out of every successful payment.
Meanwhile, if the marketplace is subscription-based, sellers, buyers, or both need to pay a monthly fee in order to have access to the platform.
Of course, there are other alternatives such as lead or listing fees as well as featured ads that you can also make use of depending on the structure of your business idea.
Decide on the features you need
The most essential consulting marketplace features are the ones that enable service providers and their clients to go through with the purchase and completion of a task from start to end.
In the case of online business consulting, that would mean providing user profile management, listings, a search bar, filters, a payment module, video conferencing and scheduling, and reviews.
Naturally, there are many more that you need to consider that will make your website for consultants look a lot more sophisticated.
Find a white-label marketplace solution
After knowing what you want to achieve and having an idea of how you want your niche marketplace to look, the next step is to create it.
There is a common misconception that the process of building a marketplace costs a bag of gold and takes months if not years to perfect.
However, white-label marketplace solutions aim to help entrepreneurs to realize their idea fast and at a low cost, while preserving their identity i.e. their marketplace branding.
I’m sure we’ve managed to intrigue you, so read along to find out how the magic happens!
How to start your consultation marketplace with 3veta?
To give you a real-time example, we’ll explain how 3veta works because that’s the one thing we can full-heartedly give guarantees for.
As you might’ve guessed 3veta functions as a no-code marketplace builder which means that we’ve done all the dev work for you.
Our solution works perfectly for those with little to no tech skills but also serves great programmers because it saves them time and allows them to focus on something else.
We also define ourselves as white-label software which means that we allow you to put your logo and brand colors everywhere!
Furthermore, once you contact us with your idea, we give you an extensive list of modules (features) that you can choose from.
All of that takes 3 to 5 business days and then you’re ready to go!
But it doesn’t end here, we also take care of the maintenance – continuous backups and system updates with new features.
If you are ready to start your online service marketplace, let’s talk!
To sum it up
The field of online business consulting is vast and continues to grow as more and more professionals prefer the flexibility and freedom of remote work.
Hence, it could be a very fruitful venture for those who’ve researched the market and have chosen a niche in continuous demand.
Not to mention that technological advancements such as no-code marketplace builders eliminate the barrier that used to impede entrepreneurs with no tech skills from becoming marketplace owners.
Interested? Check out our interactive demo!