Start a Compliance Consulting Business

Compliance sounds boring, which is exactly why the people who know it face little competition and charge well.

1. 1

   Choose the regulation you know

   HIPAA, OSHA, DOL wage and hour, or whatever your career already taught you. Your credibility is the years you spent living inside those rules.

2. 2

   Turn the rules into a checklist

   Convert the regulation into a scored audit checklist a business owner can understand. This one document becomes your product, your pitch, and your deliverable.

3. 3

   Set up the business properly

   LLC, errors and omissions insurance, and an engagement letter that frames your findings as advisory, not legal advice. Compliance clients notice when you practice what you audit.

4. 4

   Pick one target industry

   Dental offices for HIPAA, workshops and warehouses for OSHA, restaurants for wage and hour. Build a list of 30 firms where the fear is already real.

5. 5

   Land three starter audits

   Price the first ones at a starter rate in exchange for testimonials and anonymized case studies. After one real fine story in their industry, audits sell themselves.

6. 6

   Add training and retainers

   Annual staff training and quarterly compliance check-ins turn each audit into recurring revenue at 70 to 85 percent margins.

Read the full step-by-step guide →