WATCH | How to be a Marketing Consultant

Are you considering a transition in your career to freelancing or consulting?

Consulting and freelancing is both rewarding and challenging. Also, technology and the general employment landscape has made it more appealing than ever – for the right people.

In our June webinar, we discussed the practical, financial, and emotional aspects of the industry with our esteemed panelists who have “been there and done that.”

We covered the factors to determine if one is ready or not for the transition, practical advice on tools you need, handling the emotional ups and downs and, marketing and selling your services with lots of their real life experiences.

Additional resources from our panelists are also listed below. See you at the next webinar!

Sabrina Galati’s resources and tips:

Legal

To create a LLC, I used LegalZoom – It helped me set up my LLC very quickly and sends me all the reminders of when I need to file with the state, etc.

I would advise having an attorney on the side to help with contracts and similar matters.

Billing and Finance

Have a good CPA that can advise you on what you can write off as a business expense, tax help and best ways to pay yourself.

All of these resources have helped me track time, invoice directly from the platform and keep all my finances in order. My CPA has a direct plug in so that he can access my books for quarterly taxes.

Business Suite

  • I have used Google for Business to set up my gmail etc – very easy to set up and cost effective

SBA would be my #1 to go to as they have resources to connect to. Oftentimes free of charge also. Can direct to local legal or financial support for businesses.

Rene Asis’ resources and tips:

  • Leverage your network: Your past colleagues can be great advocates and resources!
  • Work with a good lawyer and accountant
  • Your local SBA (Small Business Association) is a great place to start

Legal Resources

Identify your legal needs as you will likely need contract, business and possibly privacy experts to discuss your needs with or negotiate on your behalf.

  • RocketLawyer
  • LawTog (Primarily for Photographers but has some good legal templates)
  • Law360

Billing and Finance

A good accounting/bookkeeping firm, and a good CPA to advise on your financial strategy.

  • Quickbooks Online (Lots of resources online and CPA firms oftentimes will provide training.
  • Google Docs or Office365 to capture hours, create spreadsheets. Lots of templates available for both.

Business / Marketing / Other

  • Google Business – Has a suite of products from Docs to your email and web presence.
  • LinkedIn – lots of training, marketing groups and new business information.

Marketing

  • LinkedIn is a great resource for prospecting. But leverage your network.
  • Your social presence can be a great tool to market yourself. Create short clips on YouTube or Instagram.

Calendar / Organization

  • Calendly (really helps organize and keep track of meetings from multiple calendars)
  • Google Calendar Docs (noted above is a great way to manage hours, calendar)

Additionally, there’s a lot of AI tools that can help create documents, proposals or generate templates for your contracts, such as Chat GPT.

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SPEAKERS

Sabrina Galati, Executive Marketing Consultant | LinkedIn

Sabrina Galati is an accomplished advertising and marketing veteran with over 25 years of experience working with brands across a multitude of industries including automotive, telecommunications, QSR and technology companies. She has served as an executive leader at some of the largest global agencies and has recently found a passion to take her unique skill set to consultancy services. This has allowed her to broaden her approach of creatively solving business challenges across a wide range of businesses including helping early stage start-ups with seed funding. Through this, she has found a new love of doing the work she is truly passionate about while balancing a healthy and virtually stress-free lifestyle. She currently resides on the beautiful island of Oahu with her husband.

Rene Asis, Principal Consultant, Shifting Scales | LinkedIn

Rene Asis is a seasoned Ad Technologist with 25+ years of experience in digital marketing infrastructure and data strategy. He recently has focused his career around the world of B2B Marketing helping his customers navigate the always evolving space of Digital. With his expertise in integrating emerging technologies, he helps Brands, Platforms and Data Providers, understand how to efficiently utilize technology within their respective vertical while remaining accountable on their investments.

Rene’s thought leadership leverages his tenure; fostering collaboration across multidisciplinary teams while mentoring aspiring ad technologists. With a strategic mindset, he shapes ad technology in marketing, unlocking its full potential for organizations.

Eric Weidner (Moderator), Owner, Workbox, Inc. | LinkedIn

Eric Weidner co-founded Workbox in 1997. Eric’s expertise lies in helping clients translate their business goals into something highly usable on the Web. Throughout his career, he has crafted this skill into a practical, systematic process – launching successful online marketing campaigns with skilled, distributed workforces for many types of ambitious, dynamic companies across the globe.

About The Author

Eric Weidner has been a AMA SF member since 2010. His vision for a successful AMA SF is to bring together technology, knowledge and thought leadership to help others in the marketing community succeed. He wholeheartedly believes his fellow members and the AMA SF’s resources have helped him stay informed and connected to the overall practice of great marketing. As the owner of Workbox, Eric provides leadership to his clients by tapping into his extensive marketing and technology background to design and build websites and web apps, and run sophisticated online marketing campaigns.