5 Steps to Become a Successful Power BI Consultant

I would not pretend that I have the final answer. The steps you are about to see are an evolving answer, that we are continually refining, working with the members in our Power BI Consulting Program (which we have been running since Jan 2019).

I would not claim that this is the only path to success. There may be many other paths. This is ours :-) You are free to adopt it as is, or take pieces and make your own.

So here are the 5 Steps:

STEP 1: Define Your Niche

If you don't know who you serve, then no one knows when and why they should hire you :-) Your journey starts by defining a specific business niche that you serve with your Power BI skills.

STEP 2: Create Your Pillar stone Story

In this day and age, you can't just work hard and hope to succeed (it just doesn't work that way. There's proof all around you, perhaps you have even experienced this yourself).

They key to success is...

Do Good Work...Tell Great Stories!

You gotta do good work, but you also need to tell great stories about your work. You need to let others know about your good work in a powerful effective way.

STEP 3: Get Your First Paid Client

This can be a unique chicken-and-egg challenge. If you don't have experience, why would someone hire you? And if you don't get hired, how would you get experience.

We needed some out-of-the-box thinking to solve this within our program. But it can be done!

STEP 4: Get Your Next Paid Client

Leverage you Niche, Story and experience with the first client to get your next client.

Believe in Yourself

I always have the members pause and reflect after they achieve this milestone. This is usually a big moment, a big inner shift.

At this milestone, we often see members get this unshakeable belief that:

I can help others!

And I can get paid for it!

It is a great feeling indeed and frankly, from this point on...their success is inevitable.

STEP 5: Build a Steady Stream of Clients

All that's left now is to take your knowledge & experience up to this point...Your Niche, Your Pillarstone Story, Your experience with Clients and turn that into a steady stream of clients.

p.s. Yes I know I could only cover each step briefly, I promise the intent is to make it easy to absorb. If you would like to get more detail on each step, then keep reading with  SharePoint Services Chicago.

Where Would You Go Next?

What you just read are the top lessons that I have learned from:

• 6+ years of teaching & coaching my students towards successful Power BI careers
• 15+ Years of My Own Struggle in Corporate America
• 40+ Years of Life Lessons :-)

Hopefully you learned one new thing // OR // gained a new perspective to look at the same thing. If so, please share your one takeaway lesson in the comments.

You Have a Choice...

You perhaps feel mildly inspired at this point. You are thinking about taking some action. You are perhaps even imagining a new life that you could create on a new path.

But I know that most people, don't end up taking any action. They just keep scrolling through their feed. Just move on to the next task in the never ending to do list or rush to the next meeting.