Lowest and Most Transparent Margins in the Industry

Our base margin for opportunities that our independent consultants bring to us is 5%. Most competing firms tend to offer margins for similar work in the range of 10 to 20%, with savvy consultants sometimes being able to negotiate a margin as low as 5% in exceptional cases. With us, 5% is our standard for consultants who bring their client opportunities to us. No negotiation required. And unlike some competing firms that carefully obscure the difference between the “to client” rate and the “to consultant” rate, we believe in full transparency at all times. Our consultants always know exactly what the client is being charged.

Generous Revenue Sharing

You might be able to negotiate a 5% margin with competing firms, but all of that 5% goes to their bottom line. The Lightning Tree business model takes 30% of that margin each quarter and puts it into a revenue-sharing pool that our consultants can draw from in proportion to their contributions to our business. For more information, see Our Business Model.

Business-Building Opportunities

Our low-margin approach and revenue sharing model strongly encourage our consultants to build their businesses alongside our business. Often a senior consultant who has a strong relationship with a client will want to leverage opportunities where their client is looking for other consultants with complementary skills. Within our model, if they can identify appropriate resources (either through their personal network, within the Lightning Tree consultant base, or other) they can profit from our referral plan as well as from any additional margin above 5% that the opportunity might yield. For more information, see Our Business Model.

Access to Major Supply Arrangements

We provide our independent consultants with easy access to major supply arrangements that they might not be able to participate in independently. In Ottawa, our success with supply arrangements such as TBIPS and TSPS provide easy contracting mechanisms for our consultants and their clients. For more information, see GoC Supply Arrangements.

A Collaborative Environment

Many consultant/consulting firm relationships are characterized by competing interests. The consultant wants to minimize the margin charged and the consulting firm wants to maximize it. At Lightning Tree Consulting, the margin is fixed and very low. Instead of arguing over margin, we spend our time with consultants working to increase their business and bring more money into our revenue sharing pool. We bring our consultants together regularly for social events – both to enjoy the company of others with similar backgrounds and to forge networking relationships.

So, if you are a seasoned independent consultant or are a long-time employee thinking of moving into independent consulting, come see us first! We can help you at every step of process – from setting up an independent consulting business to securing contracts and delivering quality work to your clients. And all within an innovative and respectful business model that puts more money in your pocket, allows you to share in the revenues of the company, and strongly encourages cooperation and recruiting of like-minded independent consultants.