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The practice founding pack: positioned, evidenced, and proposed to a real client

The capstone project for Building a Consulting Practice — a free Business course. Pass it and you earn a certificate anyone can verify.

Start the course free Download the project workbook

The project unlocks once you complete the lessons. The workbook is free to download now so you can see exactly what is expected.

What you will submit

A written pack of roughly 1,500 to 2,300 words containing: the positioning sentence with its three-circle defence and territory; the credibility shelf with one portfolio treatment and one numbered case study labelled real or capstone; the fee floor computation with billable-day deductions shown, the buffer position, and the anchored fee territories for the core engagement and diagnostic; the ninety-day plan with named rooms, a fifteen-relationship ledger, the specific referral ask, and the Friday rhythm; the qualified target with the four lights assessed and three behaviour-over-intention questions; the complete proposal with two scoped tiers, anchoring, evidence and the practical spine; and the three-risk register with indicators and pre-decided responses, plus the walk-away line with its referral.

What to do, step by step

  1. Define your ground. Write your four-slot positioning sentence — who you serve, the problem you solve, what makes you credible, what the buyer gets — and defend it in a short paragraph against the three-circle test: your evidenced capability (name the evidence), a problem buyers pay for (name what it costs them), and thin competition (name who else serves this ground and why there is room). State which of the five market territories this position lives in and how that territory buys.
  2. Stock the credibility shelf. List at least four artefacts a sceptical stranger could inspect, with at least two that exist TODAY (capstones from this sequence count, described honestly as what they are) and at most two planned with dates. For one existing artefact, write the two-page portfolio treatment in summary: the question, the method, the key exhibit, the answer. Then write one numbered case-study paragraph — real or from a sequence capstone, labelled which — in the situation / intervention / measured-result format.
  3. Set the money. Compute your fee floor: your honest billable-day count for the coming year (show the deductions that got you there from 250), the income the practice must produce, and the resulting required day rate. State your buffer target in months and its current honest level. Then set the fee territory for your core engagement and your paid diagnostic — both priced above the floor, with one sentence anchoring each against what the problem costs the buyer.
  4. Plan the ninety days. Name the two or three rooms (real associations, networks, communities — by name) where your buyers gather and what you will contribute in each. Open the relationship ledger: list fifteen real relationships (initials or roles for privacy) with how each connects to your ground and the first touch you will make. Name the referral ask you will make, to whom, and at what moment. Commit the weekly rhythm: what happens in your Friday minutes.
  5. Qualify a real target. Choose one real, named target client (initials/role for privacy) you could genuinely reach. Assess the four lights honestly — the problem and its cost in naira, who holds authority, evidence of means, and the timing trigger — and state which lights are on, which are unknown, and how the first conversation would test the unknowns. Write the three most important questions you would ask in that conversation, phrased as behaviour-over-intention questions.
  6. Write the proposal. Produce the complete four-page-style proposal to that target client, compactly (700–1,100 words): their situation and problem in their words and numbers; the objective in one sentence; the approach week by week in plain language; the investment presented in at least two scoped tiers (your diagnostic may be tier one) with the fee anchored against the problem's cost and the payment structure from the delivery course; one piece of evidence from your shelf; and the practical spine — timeline, what you need from them, validity. No hedged grammar anywhere.
  7. Close with the honest risk view. Name the three biggest risks to this practice in its first year — chosen from position, pipeline, cash, and craft — each with the early indicator you will watch and the response you have pre-decided, in the live-register format from the delivery course. Then state your walk-away lines: one kind of engagement you will decline even in a famine month, and why, and the referral you would offer instead.

Files to work with

Project workbook (fill in, then submit)The whole brief, an evidence checklist, the grading rubric as a self-check and the link-sharing steps in one file. Opens in Word, Google Docs or WPS.Word · 8 KB

How it is graded

CriterionWeight
The position is sharp and defended: a four-slot sentence a referrer could repeat, the three-circle test answered with named evidence, a named cost to the buyer, named competition — and a stated territory with how it buys15%
Credibility is artefacts, not claims: at least four inspectable items with two existing today and honestly labelled, one portfolio treatment showing question-method-exhibit-answer, and one case study in situation/intervention/measured-result form15%
The money is honest: billable days derived with visible deductions from 250, a required day rate computed from stated income needs, a buffer target and current level, and both fee territories priced above the floor and anchored against the buyer's cost15%
The ninety-day plan is real: named rooms with stated contributions, fifteen genuine relationships with first touches, a specific referral ask with its moment, and a committed weekly rhythm15%
The target is qualified, not imagined: four lights assessed with honesty about unknowns, a test for each unknown, and three questions phrased about past behaviour rather than future intention10%
The proposal would survive a real reading: the client's problem in their words and numbers, a one-sentence objective, a plain-language approach, two scoped tiers anchored against the problem's cost with a payment structure, evidence from the shelf, the practical spine, and no hedged grammar20%
The risk view is live and self-aware: three first-year risks with observable indicators and pre-decided responses in register format, plus a walk-away line with its reason and the referral offered instead10%

You need 65% overall to pass. A failed submission comes back with feedback and can be revised and resubmitted.

Before you submit: make your link public

If your work lives in Google Drive or Google Docs, open Share → General access and change “Restricted” to “Anyone with the link” (Viewer). Then paste the link into a private browser window: if it opens without sign-in, you are ready. A private link cannot be graded — it is the single most common reason a good project fails.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to finish Building a Consulting Practice before submitting the project?

Yes. The submission screen opens once every lesson in Building a Consulting Practice is marked complete. The lessons are where the methods, the Nigerian context and the worked examples the project depends on are taught.

How is the project graded?

An examiner scores each rubric criterion from 0 to 100 and weights them as shown on this page; you need 65% overall to pass. Most submissions are graded within minutes and you get written feedback on what was strong and what to improve.

Can I resubmit if I fail?

Yes. A failed project comes back with feedback; revise the weak parts and resubmit. A passed project is final — the certificate is issued and cannot be re-rolled.

What do I actually submit?

A write-up of what you did (under 5,000 characters). You can mention a public link to supporting files in the write-up. The free project workbook on this page walks you through all 7 steps.

Is the certificate real?

Yes. Passing this project issues a certificate with a unique verification code. Anyone — an employer, a client, a school — can open the verification page and see that the certificate is genuine and which project earned it.

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