How to Build a Public Health Consulting Business

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Starting a public health consulting business doesn't require a perfect website, a full team, or years of prep — but it does require the right foundation. In this solo episode, Dr. Des breaks down exactly how to build a public health consulting business, drawing from her own journey of launching Strickland Health Consulting seven months pregnant and landing her first contract before her daughter was born. You'll learn the minimum experience you need, why an LLC matters (and what it protects you from), the two assets that are non-negotiable before you apply anywhere, and the two paths to landing your first client. No fluff, no gatekeeping — just the real starting point.

In This Episode, You'll Learn

1. Why you need at least five years of direct work experience before you start consulting — and how to translate any niche into contracts
2. The real reason to form an LLC before you sign your first contract (hint: it's not about looking professional)
3. How to pick a consulting niche even if you can do "all the things"
4. The two minimum assets every new public health consultant needs before applying anywhere
5. The two paths to landing your first client: marketing your services vs. applying to RFPs — and how to choose
6. Where to find 80+ non-federal RFPs every single month as a club member
7. Why you don't need a website to make hundreds of thousands in consulting

Resources Mentioned

1. Subcontracting to Six Figures — Dr. Des's signature course for building and landing consulting contracts; join the waitlist 
2. Most In-Demand Consulting Skills Report — free download at publichealthclub.com → Resources → Free Resources
3. Vanessa Da Costa's Consulting Resume Workshop — available on-demand inside The Public Health Club
4. Dr. Des's Digital Portfolio Workshop — available on-demand inside The Public Health Club
5. The Public Health Club — publichealthclub.com (7-day free trial)

About The Dr. Des Show

The Dr. Des Show is the go-to podcast for public health career development, consulting, and entrepreneurship. Hosted by Dr. Desiree "Dr. Des" Strickland — DrPH, public health CEO, and founder of The Public Health Club.

Connect with Dr. Des:

1. Join The Public Health Club: publichealthclub.com
2. Instagram: @DesireeCourtneyJ | @the_publichealthclub
3. LinkedIn: Dr. Desiree Strickland | The Public Health Club

https://www.drdesshow.com/

https://www.publichealthclub.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome back to the Dr. Des Show. I'm Dr. Des, and today we are talking all about how to build a public health consulting business. Listen, I get this question so many times. Dr. Des, where do I start? What do I do? How much experience do I need? All of that. So today I decided to do a podcast episode where we are just breaking down how do you actually start? How do you actually start building a public health consulting business? And uh before we get started, y'all listen, like this podcast, subscribe to the podcast channel. Okay, whether you are on YouTube and you see my video in my face, or you are on Apple or Spotify, wherever you're listening, make sure that you subscribe. And don't forget to share this with a friend because one of the things I try to do is bring you all things that they don't teach us about in school, right? And these are the things we all need to know as public health professionals. So share this with a friend and let's lock in together, okay? We don't gatekeep over here. Y'all know that. Now, before we dive all the way in, one of the things I want to make sure you all know is around the time this is coming out, we're gonna have our free public health consulting 101 training that's going on, and that is live, okay, and it's free. So make sure that you sign up. I'm gonna put the link below. Make sure that you go ahead and sign up and get ready to go deeper with me. Um if this is like off season and you're not and you don't know, um, we haven't like put it out there that it's live, you will be able to click the same link and go to the wait list, okay? So go ahead, sign up. You'll get on the wait list for next time that it goes live. We're trying to do it more regularly now, so you'll see that, okay? Uh, but yeah. Just a little bit of background about me because I know there will be some people here who have never even don't know my journey in public health consulting. So I started my public health consulting business in 2022 when I was about seven-ish months pregnant. Um, because I thought I would be bored during maternity leave. I was not bored during maternity leave. It was, you know, it was not. But that's what I thought, you know, first-time mom, all the things. But I landed my first contract um a little bit before I had my daughter, and I started working on it uh during maternity leave and finished it out while I was still working full-time on the side of my full-time job with a newborn. So if I can do it, you can do it. Okay, I promise. Uh, but that contract was $40,000 to do health equity trainings and workshops for CDC Foundation. Okay. That was on the side of my full-time job. It may have taken me about five hours a week of my time, if that, depending on the week. And I did it. And then I went on to land other contracts with Asto, with NACHO, um, just other contracts with other organizations, right? And it's been amazing to be able to have that additional income, to be able to do those things, okay? And one of the things when I started in 2024, I started teaching other people how to do this because I would get the question all the time like, Dr. Des, how are you landing all these contracts? How are you doing this? And so I said, Okay, y'all, I need to build something out so I can actually teach you step by step because I can tell you and we can just sit here and talk about it. But actually showing you, holding your hand and teaching you step by step is what I can do for you. Because listen, I did program design, program management, all the things I know how to build out a program. I know how to build out a course. Why not? So that's when 2024 I built out subcontract in the six figures and a public health club simultaneously. So they both launched around the same time then. And subcontract and the six figures so far, it has helped almost not quite, but almost, I think we might be a little over actually with this last cohort. But about 200 professionals build consulting business and land contracts, right? If you scroll back through my videos, like there have been um some of my subcontract and the six figures alumni who have landed sixty thousand dollar contracts, who have landed thirty thousand dollar contracts, even made an additional five thousand. Like it's crazy. And the winds keep coming, the winds keep going. And I love that for y'all, I love that for us as a public health community, but we need more of it. We need more of y'all out there because there is money out there for everybody. And I hate when people try to scare people in going into public health and with your degrees and stuff, like, oh, there's no money, there's da-da-da. There is money in public health. You just have to know where to look for it. If you are thinking about consulting or building out a consulting business, then in the public health club is where I post all of these consulting opportunities, non-federal consulting opportunities, right? So if you are working for the federal government or adjacent to that, you don't got to worry about that. In the public health club, 90% of the ones we post are non-federal fund affiliated, right? Um, there are some that, you know, they do use federal funds, but it's not the federal funding agency that is coming through. But an average of I think it's 80 or 88 um RFPs requests for proposals that we post each month in there for you to take, apply to, and get started on landing contracts and making additional money right now. So, how do you get started? How do you even build? Number one, I always tell people you need at minimum five years of direct work experience to build a consulting business to start consulting. Because as a consultant, nine times out of ten, they want you there for a good time, not a long time. All right. They need you to come in, solve a problem, do work, do make a good product for them, and leave. Okay. With my first contract, they needed me to come in, do a needs assessment for their uh workforce and develop health equity focused trainings based on those needs assessments, do a report, do all the things, and get up out of there. And that is what I did. And I got my money and I left, okay. And I said, wow, this is a thing, this is what people do all the time. But I did not see anyone that looked like me in the space. So I decided to build that space so I can make more people who look like me and more people who just didn't never had the opportunity, I never seen this to go forward and do it. But you need that experience first and foremost, whether it's evaluation, program management, data analysis, whatever your experience is, it can be translated into consulting, okay? Because they need consultants for some of everything, all right. So, next, the next thing that you need to do is say, all right, I'm gonna do this. Get some confidence in it. That's what I need from you. I need confidence from y'all, okay? Because sometimes y'all be like, Yeah, I can, I I might can do that. No, I'm good and well, you can do it, and you can do it amazingly. Confidence. And then after that, I need you to explore the landscape of consulting and what that looks like. So if you go to publichealthclub.com and click on resources and go under the free resources tab, there's the most in-demand um consulting skills report that we did based on all the RFPs we posted over the past um two years from 2024 to 2025. It listed the most on like the most in-demand areas, and those were around strategic planning, evaluation, data analysis, project management, all those skills that we have and we do all the time, right? So pick an area, pick a niche, all right. One thing I hear all the time from from all of us, and this is something I like y'all tell me all the time, Donna Des, I can do it all, I can do everything. I know. Trust me, I know. From a girl who was doing the program management, the program design, the partnership management, the con I was a certified contract manager drafting up contracts. I did the evaluation, I did the data analysis, I did the graphic development, I managed the team. From a girl who has done all of that in one position, I get it. You we do it all, right? But for your business, one of the things that I love is that you can actually focus in on what do you actually like to do? Okay, what do you actually like to do in public health? What's one of those things that you like? I really love doing this, right? This is so exciting, right? And for me, it was like trainings. Like I love, you know, clearly, I love doing trainings, doing courses, um, doing program development, program design. That's what I love. So I said, all right, if I'm doing a um consulting practice, that's what I'm gonna do. If I got to do evaluation, like I can do that, but I'm gonna outsource that out, right? And I'm gonna have one of my colleagues who their thing is evaluation, they love evaluation or data analysis, and I'm gonna get them to come in and do the evaluation, right? Because in consulting, we can partner with each other, we can share the wealth. It does not have to be just you, right? Because we're going in under your business. And that brings me to the next point. Dot it is, do I need an LLC to start consulting? The answer is no, you do not. However, the reason why you want the LLC, listen up, is because if you go into a contract with an organization and you are contracting with them directly, right? Just meaning it's your name on the signature page, it's just you. If they get upset about something or you did something wrong and they want to sue, guess what? They're coming for the dog, the house, the cars, all of it. They're taking it all, okay? And they're coming for your personal assets. What an LLC does is it separates you from the business. It is a legal entity that separates you from the business. So now if they want to sue you and you have an LLC, they're suing the business and the business's assets, not your personal assets, right? That is why we want to get an LLC. LLCs don't cost that much, um, depending on where you are. Now, sometimes I think California, maybe like New York, they're a little pricey, right? They can be, I I want to say someone told me it was maybe like $500, right? Like it was a crazy amount. $500, $500. But um, yeah, so I I think that's price. I don't know for sure. I'm not in New York, right? I know for Florida, I just renewed my LLC and I think I did like um $150 for three years, $150 for three years of renewing it. So uh do with that what what you will, I think to start it in Georgia is maybe like $100, but it's not that expensive to do um and get started with, right? So having that just make sure that you are protected, you're cupboard. Um, have a business name. Think about what do you want your name to be? It could be like your name, it could be like mine, Strickland Health Consulting, right? Simple, like super simple, super easy, right? But you can also have it like as something else, like you know, um dollhouse analytics. I don't know. Like I just it's a dollhouse in front of me, my daughter's dollhouse. So I just thought about that. But you can do that too, right? Uh, but just name it something that is going to align with the services you offer, right? So go for that, do that. Um, and then also like, you know, we want to have like whether it is you don't have to have a website, the minimal assets that you need, I will say, is you need your up-to-date resume that showcases all your skills, right? And if it's like you're honing in on program design, focus in on a consulting resume that hones in on program design. In the public health club right now, um, one of our club members who's now one of our coaches in the club, Vanessa, um, she just did a she not just, but it's a while she did it a while ago, but it's on demand in there. She did a whole workshop on building a consulting focused public health resume. So you have the tools, you have the the access in the public health club. So I don't know why you haven't joined yet. So and for my members that are there, go ahead and go in the workshops on demand area, uh, sift through like consulting, and you'll be able to find Vanessa's workshop that she did that taught you how to build a consulting resume. But resume and then also a digital portfolio. I have a digital portfolio workshop in the club too to show you how to do that. But um, digital portfolio, basically a portfolio that really showcases your work, okay? That those are the two assets I will say that you really need to get started, right? Um, legal structure, portfolio, resume, and you can start applying, okay? It sounds simple because it's not rocket science, okay? But it does take effort, it does take work, it does take asking questions because you're gonna have a lot of questions on this journey. And not because it's hard, it's just because you've never done it before. Um, so that is why we have, you know, public health consulting 101. That's why we have subcontract in the six figures. So you can join that and I can hold your hand throughout the entire thing. Remember, program designer here. So everything is gonna be designed, all the resources designed for you to come out of that course and know what you're doing and hopefully land your first contract. Okay. So those are like your minimal assets that you need. And like I said, we have public consulting 101 that's coming up. Sign up. If you see the link below, sign up. If it's inactive at the time you're watching this, it's okay. Just still click the link. You can get on the wait list, okay? Now, next, I think that the next thing you need to start doing is determine how you're going to land your first client. And you can do this one of two ways. Number one is marketing your services. Number two is going to be applying to RFPs, requests for proposals or requests for quotes. Um, pick which path you want. I highly advocate doing both. Uh, but if you just want to apply for proposals, that's a more discrete way. Because some of y'all be like, that it is. I don't want my job to know. I'm out here doing this. Okay, that's fine. But sometimes, you know, you gotta, you gotta let them know because you know, you gotta go for the ethics committee, like, and you gotta make sure there's no um conflict of interest with you doing that. And trust me when I tell you this is normal for organizations, for those in their ethics departments and their HR, whatever, this is a normal thing that they go through. Okay. So you are not like you are not doing something that's gonna start like a trigger for some. It is normal. People have outside employment, but you just gotta make sure it's not a conflict with the business that you're working on, and they'll walk you through that process, okay? But if you still like you got the conflict of interest sign, but you just don't want your coworkers knowing what you're doing, I get it. So you may want to just say, okay, I don't want to do LinkedIn, I don't want to build a website, and that's fine. You don't have to. I've never had a website for my consulting business. Yet I've made like hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting, right? Never had a website. Thought about building a website, but started on it. I actually have the the domain name and everything, but you know, just didn't do it. Because I focused in on building a public health club and helping other people to do this because you don't need it, right? But what I did have, like I said, is that digital portfolio to showcase my work and I applied to RFPs. Um, and I networked and I marketed my services through networking, through talking about it and landed clients that way. That's another way to do it. So we're breaking all of this down in public health consulting one-on-one. If you want to dive deeper and come and just join me in that, sign up. Come, let's go. And sign up for subcontracting the six figures because that is the course that everybody's been talking about. Like, I get, I don't know how many emails I get every other day now. Like, hey, Dada Des, when is Subcontract and the Six Figures gonna be open? Like the people are talking about it. I heard about it, like they're telling me to go take it, but it's not open, it will be open soon. Okay, and if you're listening to this and it's not open, still click the link for subcontract and six figures below, and you'll be able to get on the wait list so you'll know when it opens again. All right, I got y'all. So, all right, y'all. I've done all I can. Now it's up to you to go ahead and start and make it happen. But all right, I'll see y'all next time and I'll see you in public health consulting one on one. Bye.