An Insiders Guide To Building A Successful Consulting Practice

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.

Starting with understanding the types of consulting projects and how they originate, this book shows the reader how to develop networks that can play an important role in generating prospects for consulting projects. The reader is given the steps of identifying the objective of a project, establishing the project’s scope and deliverables, how insure a successful consulting engagement by having early agreement between the consultant and the client on the process, the deliverables, the timetable and the cost of the project. The author introduces a process that will guide consultants through the steps of generating a project strategy, tactics and execution plan, and how to present recommendations to the client. Finally, this book will provide insights and guidance on how to build a thriving practice through successful completion of individual consulting projects. The global consulting market was estimated to be $251 billion U.S. dollars in 2016 and is projected to have steady growth through 2020. There is no better time to pursue a career in consulting and this book will be a useful guide for consultants both established and aspiring.

Join the thousands of professionals who have already gotten Insidethe Technical Consulting Business -- and discover how to channelyour technical know-how into an exciting career as an independentconsultant. This Third Edition of Harvey Kaye's bestselling guidegives you the focused, no-nonsense help you need to start and runyour own consulting practice in today's ultracompetitiveenvironment. What's inside: Setting up your consulting business.The lowdown on finances, record-keeping, office space, taxes, andchoosing the form of business organization that's right foryou. Insider's guide to proposals and contracts. Gives plenty ofexamples to use in your own consulting practice. Marketing secrets your boss never told you. Tips on creating demandfor your services and keeping your clients coming back for repeatbusiness. PLUS ALL-NEW MATERIAL ON: * Creating your personal strategic marketing plan. A step-by-stepguide to developing and maintaining your competitive edge. * Learn from the pros. "Meet the Pros" interviews show howsuccessful consultants handled some of the very problems you'relikely to encounter. * Building successful client relationships. The inside scoop onkeeping clients happy while protecting your own professionalinterests. * The technical challenges of consulting. A consultant's primer onproblem-solving, coping with the information explosion, andorganizing for maximum productivity.

Contents: Foreward; Introduction; Part I: Planning (6 chapters); Part II: Implementation (9 chapters); Index. This is the comprehensive guide to starting, building and running a successful consulting practice. Based on the author's popular Harvard consulting course. Covers all practical aspects of consulting practices.

Make Consulting Your Dream Job-On Your Own Terms When you start your own consulting business, you can be your own boss, set your own hours-and make big profits! But that only happens if you're truly prepared. Are you familiar with the biggest consulting myths? Do you know the 12 success factors for consultants? Have you ever owned your own business before? How to Build a Successful Consulting Practice has all these answers and more-distilled by consulting guru Jack Phillips from years spent researching and reviewing successful firms that are still in business today. This essential volume shows how to: Develop a bulletproof business plan Find and keep clients for life Build your brand with magnetic marketing strategies Write spot-on proposals Use the Internet as a secret weapon Become a charismatic public speaker Avoid financial, legal, and ethical pitfalls Adjust to a new work life

This book describes, through a comprehensive approach that unites theory and practice, consulting principles for all those wishing to expand their abilities to initiate and implement organizational change. It lays the groundwork for the perceptive handling of each assignment through the integration of knowledge, experience, and instinct. It thoroughly examines the major aspects of a consulting assignment, along with the required practical skills and techniques. Explanatory graphics and case studies based on real-world examples abound to ensure that ideas can become roadmaps to developing important consulting tools.

Consulting is one of the fastest growing occupational groups in business today. For many talented individuals around the world, starting a consulting practice offers great opportunity for income growth and job satisfaction. Yet, consulting does have its unique set of challenges including lack of professional respect from potential clients and a high business failure rate. This book, Building a Successful Consulting Practice, will be helpful to anyone starting down this exciting and challenging road. It presents 12 case studies that analyze the success of consulting organizations. This book focuses particularly on small consulting practices, and specifically on those consulting practices closely related to the field of human resource development. You will find value in this book no matter where you are in the process of starting or running a consulting practice. No matter how you plan to use this book, the impressive group of contributors represented in this collection of case studies will be invaluable as you work to achieve your own level of success in the consulting business.

Consultants work in all fields. They operate from offices and from home, work for investment firms and as personal trainers, or have expertise as accountants and wedding planners. The independence, flexibility, and potential income it brings make for an exciting and satisfying career. And it’s an increasingly popular one for highly skilled, motivated professionals who’ve been laid off in this unstable economy. This guide features tips and tricks to help beat the competition, including how to: Set—and keep—personal and financial goals Organize important paperwork Price and market specific services Create advertising and publicity plans Grow a business, from finding a partner to managing employees Minimize and eliminate business risks Consultants are paid well for their advice—if they know how to operate a successful business. With advice from experts in a variety of areas, this valuable guide helps you create the business of your dreams!

This book starts with a self evaluation to help determine what skills needed to develop to ensure success. From that point on it explains how to build a successful consulting company. The Consultants Business Book guides the reader through the formation of a company, how to establish a business identity and how to create a business and marketing plan to help the business grow. Many consultants start their own small business and run it out of their home until it expands and needs office space. Finances, public relations and how to find and keep clients is covered in an easy to read format that provides a step by step guideline to creating a successful, growing business. How to establish prices for services and how to deal with competition is a section that even experienced entrepreneurs should review. The training section of the book provides insight into what makes training sessions come alive. It provides tips and techniques to help make presentations sizzle, and even reveals some magic tricks that trainers can incorporate into their routines. For those who want to start their business in their own home the book provides useful insights to make that office efficient and effective.

By reading this handbook readers will be able to: define a clear strategic direction for a business; create an effective marketing strategy; raise finance, price services and get paid; balance ongoing business with attracting new clients; and become a successful consultant.