Start a Corporate Communications Consulting Business

1. 1

   Pick the moments you own

   Internal comms is a wide field, so lead with the moments that hurt most: change announcements (reorgs, leadership transitions, benefits and policy changes, new software rollouts), recurring leadership communications (all-hands scripts, CEO emails), or the ongoing employee communications calendar. Companies buy help for a painful moment first and keep you for the calendar after.

2. 2

   Build proof with before-and-after rewrites

   Take two real (anonymized or invented) corporate messages that were jargon-filled or tone-deaf and rewrite them: plain language, honest about what is changing and why, clear about what the employee should do. Put both versions side by side. This one page does more selling than any resume, because every HR leader has lived the bad version.

3. 3

   Sell to HR, operations, and chiefs of staff, not marketing

   Marketing owns the external voice; internal messages usually fall to HR, operations leaders, or an overloaded chief of staff with no writer on the team. Mid-size companies (big enough to have hard announcements, too small for an internal comms department) are the sweet spot. Pitch when change is visible: mergers, layoffs in the industry, return-to-office fights, new benefits seasons.

4. 4

   Package by engagement type

   Three shapes cover most of the work: a per-announcement package (message strategy, the announcement itself, manager talking points, and an FAQ), a monthly retainer running the internal calendar, and a communications audit that reviews how the company talks to its people and hands leadership a prioritized fix list. Flat prices; the deliverables are definable, so define them.

5. 5

   Always ship the manager toolkit, not just the memo

   The announcement email is a third of the job. The message survives or dies in the manager conversations that follow, so every engagement should include talking points, an FAQ with the hard questions actually answered, and guidance on timing and channel (what goes in the all-hands, what goes in writing, what happens face to face). This is the layer that separates a consultant from a copywriter.

6. 6

   Handle sensitive news with honest rules

   Layoffs, investigations, and benefits cuts have legal edges. Your role is clarity and humanity in the message, not legal judgment: work alongside the company's HR and employment counsel, never advise on what legally must or must not be disclosed, and never dress up a message to mislead employees. Being the person who says 'employees will see through that' is exactly why you get hired again.

7. 7

   Measure so renewals sell themselves

   Internal comms has real numbers: open and read rates on announcements, all-hands attendance, question volume after a rollout, survey scores on 'I understand where the company is going.' Baseline them before your work and report them after. Retainers renew on evidence, not vibes.

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