Journey
Set up a management consultancy
Learning path for new management consultancies and head offices. Work out which rules apply, put your workplace, employment and electronic-marketing duties in place, and verify everything with a compliance checklist.
What this journey is for
Running a management consultancy or head office is office-based and relatively low-risk physically, but your duties as an employer still run deep. You have to protect your people from display-screen equipment risks and manage stress and mental health. You also have to carry fire safety and insurance duties and meet your equality and data protection obligations. If you market by email, text or automated calls, you also have to follow the PECR electronic-marketing rules. This journey walks you through that path in the order you will live it, from working out which rules apply through to checking you have everything in place.
It does not give you the step-by-step instructions or the figures — those live in the guides it points to. This map shows you where you are, why each stage matters, and which guide to open next.
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Work out which regulations apply to you
Start by getting the picture right. Every management consultancy carries the same core workplace and employment duties. The extra question is whether you market electronically — if you do, PECR adds consent and screening duties on top of the UK GDPR. Use the router guide to confirm what applies before you commit.
Which management consultancy regulations apply to your business
Work out which rules apply to your consultancy. A reference guide that routes you from the shared workplace-safety foundation to the PECR electronic-marketing duties.
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Put your workplace, employment and marketing duties in place
This is the universal spine. Risk-assess display-screen equipment use, workstation ergonomics, stress and mental health, and any client-site visits. Carry out your fire risk assessment, hold employers' liability insurance and meet your equality and data protection duties. If you market electronically, put your PECR consent mechanisms, unsubscribe processes and TPS/CTPS screening in place. Build this in from the start rather than retrofitting it.
Set up and run a safe management consultancy
The duties every consultancy shares — general health and safety, fire safety, employers' liability insurance, equality, data protection and PECR electronic-marketing rules.
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Verify you have covered everything
Once things are underway, review everything to confirm it holds together. A compliance checklist lets you confirm, in one place, that each obligation is genuinely met rather than assumed. That covers workplace, employment and PECR. Use it as your readiness review before you start trading, and come back to it as your business changes.
Management consultancy: compliance checklist
Verify you have covered everything — the workplace and employment duties, and the PECR electronic-marketing rules if you market electronically.
You will also need the general business set-up duties
Alongside the sector-specific path above, every business carries general obligations that are not unique to management consultancy but are just as compulsory. As you build the business you will also need to:
- protect the people who work for you — meet your workplace health and safety duties, including display-screen equipment assessments and stress management.
- hold employers' liability insurance once you take anyone on.
- handle personal data lawfully — most businesses must complete data protection registration with the ICO.
- meet your fire safety duties for the premises you work from.
These general duties run in parallel with the sector path rather than after it, so set them up as you establish the business. The spine guide and the compliance checklist bring the core duties together so you can confirm they are covered.
Where this leaves you
You now have the shape of the whole task. Work out which rules apply, put your workplace, employment and marketing duties in place, and verify the lot. Work the guides in order and you will have a clear, defensible position from your first engagement onwards.