Today, many people recognize the importance of ensuring that businesses comply with environmental law. Regulation is crucial for protecting our planet. If you’re entering the legal field, or you’re simply curious about career opportunities in the “ECOpreneurship” niche, you might be wondering how you could run your own environmental consulting firm one day.
With a legal background, you can be an asset to businesses as an environmental consultant. Courtesy of Steroid Lawyers, here’s how to decide on your area of specialization, hire the right employees, and connect with clients who want to run eco-friendly operations.
Determine Your Specialization
Many environmental consultants specialize in one particular niche within their field. My Law Questions states that most environmental legislation falls into two categories: laws are either specifically aimed at preventing or decreasing pollution, or determining the use of land and crucial natural resources. You could specialize in an area like wastewater treatment, stormwater management, carbon emissions, or land preservation. Consider your passions as you decide! You should also think about the potential revenue stream and demand across different specialties – after all, you do need to make sure that your business is profitable.
Potential Business Model
The term “consulting” can refer to a wide range of services. Before you start creating a business plan, it’s important to consider which specific services you plan to offer. For instance, you might assist companies in developing waste management policies, identifying contaminant sources, conducting environmental impact assessments, and more. If you’re approaching this career path with a legal background, you will likely be helping businesses ensure that they are complying with local regulations and environmental legislation.
Necessary Qualifications
You don’t necessarily need to graduate from law school in order to run an environmental consulting firm, but if you’ve earned your Juris Doctor degree and passed the bar in your state, your legal qualifications will allow you to offer a greater variety of services than other consultants. With your rigorous academic and professional background, businesses can trust that you have a thorough understanding of environmental law.
Business Formation
You’re almost ready to start hiring for your business, but first, you need to complete a few important legal obligations. For example, you can file the paperwork to establish your company with the appropriate business structure. In addition, you may need to choose a “doing business as” name, also known as a DBA name. If you already provide other business services under your own legal name, you’re a good candidate for selecting a DBA name for your environmental consulting firm. This will allow you to sell different services as a separate entity under the appropriate business name. More on this here.
Hiring Staff
When you’re hiring employees for an environmental consulting firm, you want to make sure that they bring relevant experience and a passion for this cause to the table. Constellation recommends using recruiting software and applicant tracking systems to streamline the hiring and onboarding processes. When it comes to writing job descriptions, make sure to clarify the primary responsibilities for this role and include the key skills that applicants should possess. You’ll also want to highlight your salary and benefits package – this is essential if you want to attract top talent!
Marketing Your Consultancy
Your clients can include private companies or public organizations that need to operate within the boundaries of important environmental legislation. Therefore, you’ll want to emphasize your core mission in your marketing materials and branding. You could share educational blog posts about environmental law on your company blog, share news articles about important new environmental legislation, and even post about business initiatives on social media. Localizing your content can help you demonstrate your impact on your own community. And as you develop your branding scheme, it never hurts to incorporate colors like green into your digital and print marketing materials!
If you plan to go into environmental law, running your own business is definitely a viable career option. You can be of service to the planet as a consultant! With these tips, you’ll be eager to take the next steps towards opening your consulting firm.
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