University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
The Boutique
Book

The Boutique

How to Start, Scale, and Sell a Professional Services Firm

Greg Alexander
Advantage Media Group, 2020
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Applicable
  • Well Structured

Recommendation

If you want to launch a boutique or scale your existing boutique firm, seize the opportunity now, urges Greg Alexander. Boutiques enjoy a competitive advantage today. They can often disrupt legacy firms, while still charging a premium for their services, because boutiques are faster and easier to work with than legacy firms. Yet few boutiques take advantage of this situation. Alexander shows you how to launch, scale and sell your boutique while impressing clients, shareholders and stakeholders with your “wow factor.” Scaling properly can bring increased revenue and a higher sales price.

Summary

Identify a problem people will pay you to solve.

If you sell your expertise, you run a professional services firm. There are nearly one and a half million professional services firms in the United States, yet fewer than 1% of them reach scale as market leaders. But opportunities still abound for the 99.75% who operate as “boutique” enterprises. Today, many clients turn to boutiques when they need specialists and external expertise, as many lack those in-house services. That makes this the perfect time to start a boutique business. 

Reflect on the problem you will solve and ask:

  • Is it pervasive? – Do friends and family understand the problem when you explain it to them? Does it exist across industries and for companies of various sizes?
  • Would clients pay for a solution? – You will spend your own cash and work without pay as you establish your business, so find paying customers quickly. Consider the cost to potential clients of not taking action to solve their problem versus the paid solutions you offer.
  • Is finding a solution urgent? –&#...

About the Author

Greg Alexander is the chief investment officer and founder of Capital 54, a firm dedicated to helping boutiques scale.

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