The New Consultant's Quick Start Guide

The New Consultant's Quick Start Guide

Author: Elaine Biech

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2019-04-16

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1119556937

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An action plan for working as a consultant Management consulting is a $250 billion industry and growing at a rate of over four percent annually. Many predict that more than 40 percent of the U.S. workforce will soon be contingent, freelance, or consulting members of the workforce—making this book more relevant than ever. Individuals become independent consultants out of necessity or preference: necessity because they lost their job or the company offered an attractive exit package; preference because they want a career change, more control over their time, or an enriched, varied work situation. Consulting also appeals to the Millennial workforce who are searching for careers that offer a good salary as well as meaningful work. The New Consultant’s Quick Start Guide: • Serves as a companion to The New Business of Consulting • Provides you with a place to plan your transition into consulting • Helps you identify your niche, develop a business plan, charge what you’re worth, and create a marketing strategy to ensure a steady stream of clients • Prepares you for changes you will encounter beyond your professional life, including social, family, and financial aspects The New Consultant’s Quick Start Guide helps you work through the challenges of consulting such as working alone, deciding on necessary insurance coverage, finding your first clients, struggling with cash flow, and understanding market trends.


The Consultant's Quick Start Guide

The Consultant's Quick Start Guide

Author: Elaine Biech

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-12-03

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0470450525

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The Consultant's Quick Start Guide offers a practical approach to setting up a consulting business. Throughout the guide, Elaine Biech--author of the best-selling The Business of Consulting--shares both her own secrets as well as those of numerous other successful consultants. With a focus on the business side of consulting, Biech takes you through a painless, fill-in-the-blanks, step-by-step process for setting up your consulting firm. New sections include: Why A Consulting Career—Five Reasons Why You May Be a Good Investment How Much Will Clients Pay? Your first "To Do" List What to call your business Creating and writing Business Plans Office Location Options Setting up your office, including Furnishing Your Office and planning your Technical Needs Electronic Records, including Monthly Expense Records, Revenue Projections, and Invoicing Staying Organized, including a Session Planner Determining your market niche Creating your marketing plan Developing your website Reviewing your first year with your family Electronic resource list, available online Skills And Knowledge Required of Consultants


The New Business of Consulting

The New Business of Consulting

Author: Elaine Biech

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2019-05-07

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13: 1119556902

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Everything you ever wanted to know about consulting—a practical roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs Seismic changes occurring in the workforce are leading to more and more people entering the world of contract, freelance, and contingency work. Rapid changes in demographics and advances in technology have led companies and talent to engage in profoundly new ways and consulting is one of the keys to success. The New Business of Consulting is authentic and practical, and shares the knowledge and skills required to start and grow a successful consulting business. From how to make a smooth career transition, to how to determine a consulting fee, to how consultants inadvertently create a bad reputation, it covers everything you need to know to thrive and flourish in this competitive field. Covers contemporary topics, such as how to achieve success in the gig economy Discloses a reliable technique to land the clients you want Presents options to help you balance your life and your business Prepares you for naming your business, managing critical financial issues, and building a client relationship Shows you how to take your income and impact beyond working as a solopreneur The crucial start-up days of a consulting business may be frenetic and fraught with questions. This new edition provides sanity and answers all the questions. It includes practical tools, templates, and checklists that you can download and implement immediately.


The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients

The Irresistible Consultant's Guide to Winning Clients

Author: David A. Fields

Publisher: Morgan James Publishing

Published: 2017-03-21

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1683501659

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This deeply insightful guide to understanding what clients really want is “an indispensable resource for consultants” (Keith Ferrazzi, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Never Eat Alone). Independent consulting is a potentially lucrative enterprise—but the reality seldom matches the dream. Most solo consultants and boutique consulting firms are perpetually within six months of bankruptcy due to the sputtering unreliability of their new business engines. The problem, according to international consulting expert David A. Fields, is twofold: 1) lack of a consistent, proven plan, and 2) fundamental misunderstanding about what clients want in a consultant. Fields, who has helped hundreds of consultants and boutique firms worldwide build profitable, sustainable practices, replaces the typical consultant’s mindset of emphasizing expertise and differentiated processes with a focus on building relationships, engendering trust, and solving clients’ existing problems. In The Irresistible Consultant’s Guide to Winning Clients, Fields synthesizes his decades of experience into a step-by-step approach to winning more projects from more clients at higher fees. From nuts-and-bolts business advice and tactics to a deeply insightful breakdown of the human side of a very human profession, Fields, named one of Advertising Age magazine’s “Marketing Top 100,” delivers a comprehensive guidebook that is at once highly approachable and satisfyingly detailed. “If I could have just one book on client strategy, this book would be it.” —Marshall Goldsmith, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Triggers


Start Your Own Consulting Business

Start Your Own Consulting Business

Author: Entrepreneur magazine

Publisher: Entrepreneur Press

Published: 2014-05-19

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1613082673

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Leading entrepreneurs into the multi-billion dollar consulting industry, the experts at Entrepreneur show you how to capitalize on your talents to help others achieve their business goals. Coached by experts, learn to define your market, find and keep clients, obtain licenses, set rates, monitor cash flow, hire staff, prepare contracts, agreements, and reports, and more. Includes new interviews with successful consultants, updated answers to frequently asked questions, and a completely refreshed list of the top 20 consulting businesses.


An Insider's Guide to Building a Successful Consulting Practice

An Insider's Guide to Building a Successful Consulting Practice

Author: Bruce L. KATCHER Ph.D.

Publisher: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn

Published: 2010-03-15

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0814414370

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Whether you’re a beginner just starting up a consulting practice, or a veteran looking for ways to invigorate your existing business, An Insider’s Guide to Building a Successful Consulting Practice is an invaluable resource. Featuring real stories from consultants in diverse industries, the book offers simple yet powerful ways to: Identify a market and narrow your focus • Make a smooth transition from employee to independent consultant • Sell effectively even if you’ve never sold before • Establish visibility through speaking, writing, and networking • Build credibility by leveraging the credibility of others • Set prices based on value • Develop a marketing strategy and divide your time between marketing and delivering your services • Keep plenty of work in your pipeline • Adapt and thrive in any market condition • And much more Complete with the results of an original survey of 200 successful independent consultants, this handy guide provides the kind of real-life advice you need to build a thriving business.


ATD's Handbook for Consultants

ATD's Handbook for Consultants

Author: Elaine Biech

Publisher: American Society for Training and Development

Published: 2024-05-28

Total Pages: 749

ISBN-13: 1957157356

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Turn to the Definitive Guide for All Your Consulting Questions ATD’s Handbook for Consultants unpacks what it takes to run a successful consulting practice that delivers world-class solutions for clients all with the benefits of a self-directed work life. As companies and organizations become increasingly strategic with how they use employee resources, more are engaging external consultants as highly skilled temporary labor when they lack the specialized expertise to handle their growing needs. Without the staffing flexibility to complete special projects that require more employee hours and specialized skills, companies recognize the benefits of fresh perspectives, new ideas, outside opinions, and the speed and efficiency of an expert consultant who in many cases has already tackled similar challenges with other companies. Consulting is at the top of the list of career moves for talent development professionals and others who have unique skill sets and expertise. Whether you’re considering branching out on your own, you’ve just launched and are struggling to keep yourself afloat, or you’re looking to take your business to the next level, this book will help you clarify your “why” and make your transition a soft landing. Learn to set a business strategy, write winning business proposals, and market your products and services. Gain perspectives on multiple consulting career paths—from forming an independent consultancy to joining a boutique consulting practice to consulting with a large company. Edited by consulting powerhouse Elaine Biech, this book is broken into five parts: Exploring consulting: So you want to be a consultant Getting started: Plan your consulting future Delivering results: The work of a consultant Developing business: Find and keep clients Focusing on your future: Define success your way Tap into the sage wisdom, actionable takeaways, and practical tools in this book, and set yourself apart from the competition on your journey to becoming a successful consultant.


Service Agreements for Smb Consultants

Service Agreements for Smb Consultants

Author: Karl Palachuk

Publisher: Great Little Book Publishing Company, Incorporated

Published: 2011-07-01

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9780976376026

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Service Agreements for SMB Consultants: A Quick-Start Guide to Managed Services by Karl W. Palachuk is an essential guide for I.T. Consultants. All forms are available to download online.Everyone knows it: Spoken agreements aren't worth the paper they're written on.The SMB Consultant is facing changes we never imaged a few years ago. Managed services are everywhere. Franchised tech support is taking off. And now big corporations are trying to compete in the "SMB Space." Whether you like it or not, you need to make some changes in order to meet the challenges of the next few years.Service agreements literally define your business. If you're not using them, you need to start today. If you are using them, great! Just make sure that they truly represent who you are and how you want to define your business.Whether you sell your services hourly, in blocks of time, or with a Managed Service plan, you need a good service agreement.As with his other books, Karl gives you more than just the forms. Service Agreements for SMB Consultants includes best practices and lots of great information to help you run your business more prosperously.


Consulting Start-Up and Management

Consulting Start-Up and Management

Author: Gail V. Barrington

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2011-10-31

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1412987091

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Looking to start up your own research and evaluation consultancy? For almost 20 years, Gail V. Barrington has run popular workshops to help professional researchers and evaluators determine if they have what it takes to succeed as consultants. This book makes that helpful guidance, and more, available to a wider audience. Barrington shows readers how to get started, set fees, find work, manage time and money, set up an ownership structure and business systems, manage contracts, and work with subcontractors and staff. With Barrington's advice and encouragement, independent practitioners have the roadmap to success!"I would highly recommend it to anyone starting a consulting career. The author has truly singled out the most important lessons to be passed on, both of the practical type and of those related to consultancy."-George Grob, Center for Public Program Evaluation"This book addresses a big and important gap in the evaluation literature. It provides a clear and concise account of what evaluators and applied researchers need to know in order to succeed in independent consulting practice." -Stewart Donaldson, Claremont Graduate University


Consulting Success

Consulting Success

Author: Michael Zipursky

Publisher: Consulting Success

Published: 2018-10-16

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 9781775041115

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How can you take your skills and expertise and package and present it to become a successful consultant? There are proven time-tested principles, strategies, tactics and best-practices the most successful consultants use to start, run and grow their consulting business. Consulting Success teaches you what they are. In this book you'll learn: - How to position yourself as a leading expert and authority in your marketplace - Effective marketing and branding materials that get the attention of your ideal clients - Strategies to increase your fees and earn more with every project - The proposal template that has generated millions of dollars in consulting engagements - How to develop a pipeline of business and attract ideal clients - Productivity secrets for consultants including how to get more done in one week than most people do in a month - And much, much more