Moving Into Consulting After the UN: Offers, Day Rates and First Clients

Consulting can look like freedom, until you have your first invoice. Here's how offers, rosters, subcontracting, day rates and your first clients really work.

Decide What You're Selling

Clients hire consultants to solve a specific problem, so be specific about how you can help them. Please don't call yourself an 'international development expert' (everyone else does). Pick one or two clear services instead, for example 'mid-term evaluations for maternal health programs' or 'humanitarian logistics training for emergency response teams.' Then test it: could a stranger tell, in one sentence, what problem you fix and for whom?

Rosters Are Slow, and People Are Faster

Many UN agencies, international financial institutions (IFIs) and large international NGOs keep lists of approved consultants, called rosters. It's worth registering on the ones that fit your skills. But think of a roster as a passive database: you sign up, and then you wait. (Sometimes for a very long time.) Talking to people will get you work much faster.

Where Your First Work Usually Comes From

Your first projects will usually come from one of two places:

• Direct clients you already know: Past partners, donors, national counterparts and former managers who trust your work and need short-term expertise.
• Subcontracting: Development firms, boutique consultancies and prime contractors often win large contracts, and then need experts to deliver them. Working under their contract means you don't have to write full proposals yourself. The firm usually sets the terms and keeps a share of the fee, so ask what you'll be paid before you say yes.

Work Out Your Day Rate

There's no single correct rate, but there is a smart way to find yours. Start with the income you need, add the costs a salary used to cover, and divide by the days you can really bill:

Day rate = (the income you want + taxes + health insurance + pension savings + business costs) divided by the days you can really bill

• Be honest about billable days: Start with the working days in a year, then take out holidays, leave, sick days and all the time you'll spend finding work, writing proposals and doing admin. If you can only bill half your working days, your rate has to double to earn the same.
• Ask peers: Talk to two or three established consultants in your field and ask what clients usually pay.
• Check agency rate tables: Some institutions use fixed fee scales, so find out whether your target clients do.
• Plan for the wait: Payment terms vary, and clients often pay weeks after you deliver. Ask for the terms in writing, and keep enough savings to cover the gap.

Here's a made-up example, only to show the logic. Imagine you need 100,000 a year to cover your income, taxes, insurance and costs. If you can bill 100 days, you need to charge 1,000 a day. If you can bill 200 days, a minimum of 500 a day is enough. Same year, very different rate.

Read the Contract Before You Sign

Check the delivery dates, the payment steps, who owns the work you produce, and what happens if the scope changes. Most contract problems are easy to fix before you sign and painful to fix after. If the contract is large or unclear, ask a lawyer to review it.

Taxes and Business Setup: Please Ask a Professional

As an independent consultant, you're usually responsible for your own income tax and social contributions in the country where you live, and consultancy fees are rarely tax-free the way a UN staff salary was. Whether to work as a sole trader or set up a company, what insurance you need, and how to handle clients in other countries all depend on where you live. I can't answer those questions, and no general article can. Talk to an accountant or tax professional before your first invoice, not after.

Win Your First Clients

Your first clients will most likely be people who already know how well you work. So, write a short, friendly email to past partners and managers and tell them what you now offer. Don't ask for a favor. Just let them know and let the quality of your past work do the rest. Then contact two or three firms that win UN or donor contracts and tell them what you can deliver.