The ABC revealed that managers and professionals have the highest retirement age in Australia:
For Baby Boomers retirement is either in the near future or a new reality. But whether you are one or twenty years off retirement, having a retirement plan is essential for a smooth transition.
Retirement and Mental Health
The Queensland Government’s research revealed that new retirees are increasingly experiencing depression and other mental health issues. Among other reasons, corporate retirees worry that their days will have less purpose now or that they’ll be bored.
Another reason that should not be underestimated is social connection. As a communicating species, humans benefit from socialising, whether you are introverted or extroverted. In our working days this need is generally accounted for through colleague and client relationships. When we retire, a big proportion of our socialising disappears, and with it comes feelings of isolation and loneliness.
How do we ease off our workload without experiencing the emotional rollercoaster of retirement?
The answer is simple. Transition your skills into a lower time-intensive format. A Harvard Business Review article reported that senior professionals don’t want to retire, but they don’t want to continue working at the frantic-pace of their corporate jobs.
For current or ex-corporates this could be achieved through starting your own consulting practice.
At first, the thought of starting your own consulting business may sound daunting. The good news is: there are businesses out there that specialise in training you to become a certified consultant and putting all the systems in place for your new firm to operate efficiently.
How would you tackle it?
There are two options to starting your own consulting firm; going it yourself, or, getting a consultant development company to teach you.
Going it yourself is appealing because it means that all revenue is kept by you, however, starting a consulting service as a one-man team is hard and slow – and that’s an understatement.
On the other hand, learning from a consultant development company will streamline and fast-track your business startup, as well as improving the quality of your consulting service expertise. While these programs often come at a cost, the value is easily recaptured by bundles of software and systems to help run your business.
If you decide to use a consulting development program, these are the features you should look for.
1) Credibility and thorough training
As you will be entering a competitive market, you will need to differentiate yourself through credibility. This can be achieved through taking a course that provides you with recognised certification as a business advisor or consultant. Additionally, look for a program that has been endorsed by high profile figures or institutions.
You may not be coming from a consulting career background, so it is important to take a program that provides a thorough education into consulting. It is also worth researching the course facilitator to double-check their experience and credibility.
2) Licence to use established IP
If you are investing a significant amount of money in the course you should expect to walk away with subscription based access to best practice systems, software and marketing to assist you with the operational running of your new consultancy. Specifically, you should look for programs that have developed cloud-based solutions. This is crucial for partial-retirees as the automated processes will allow you to carry out consulting activities for your clients while saving thousands of hours.
3) No lock-in contract or geographical boundaries
The lure of retirement is often flexibility, the ability to try and change new things. Around 70% of workers plan to travel as a retiree. This is something you should factor into your program decision, as some courses restrict you from using their intellectual property or being recognised as a consultant in other countries. For best flexibility, look for a program that does not restrict or lock you into a time or geographic contract.
4) No royalties
You need to keep in mind the fact that you are scaling down your working hours, and likely your income. Watch out for programs that lock you into royalty schemes – some programs can charge royalties up to 20%. You should expect to pay a subscription fee if you wish to use the providers systems and software to run your consultancy, but this should not exceed $6000USD.
Other considerations…
The program’s course time and location will influence it’s suitability for you. However, large consultant training providers offer courses worldwide.
The length and type of program you might take also depends on your proximity to retirement.
If you are looking to retire in the immediate future you should look to complete an extensive program such as the MAUS Partner Program, which will leave you with everything you need to press the go button on your new consulting business.
If retirement is 1-5 years away you should look to build the foundational consulting and management skills through the Certified Business Advisor Course.
A word from Peter Hickey
This week we sat down with the Institute of Advisors president, Peter Hickey, to provide advice for corporate professionals looking to transition to consultancy.
“I think the main thing is to look for value, if you are considering a top-end program you need to want to be smart with your money because let’s be honest, your retirement money isn’t something you want to throw out. Ideally, you want to come out of the program with not only the know-how of running a consulting firm but also the resources and tools to run it.
“If I was going to point you towards a program it would be the MAUS Partner Program. It really is a top of the range program and from what I’ve seen on the market it cannot be beaten for value.”
The next MAUS Partner Program is in November, 2019 in Sydney. Follow MAUS socials for updates – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter.
Click here to enquire about the program.
COURSE LINK: MAUS Partner Program
For an extensive review of this course, see this testimonial.
