An Insider's Guide to Building a Successful Consulting Practice - Softcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

BRUCE L. KATCHER, PH.D., (Sharon, MA) is founder and president of The Discovery Consulting Group. His client list covers a broad range, from Fortune 500 names such as Revlon, Johnson Johnson, Alcoa, and Merck to successful smaller companies. He is the author of the award-winning book 30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers (978-0-8144-0915-2).

Adam Snyder is avid writer and ghostwriter with Kevin Anderson & Associates. He has written more than a dozen books with top CEOs, been published in multiple national magazines, and he just completed his second novel. He is also president of the academy-award winning company, Rembrandt Films. Since selling their home in the NY Metro area in 2016, he and his wife have been living an untethered life in beautiful places with high speed WiFi.

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Do you relish your independence and autonomy? Are you looking for a job that makes use of your energy and expertise? How about a career that allows you to avoid the incessant layoffs due to downsizing, mergers, and acquisitions?

Whether you’re an experienced independent consultant, just beginning your career, interested in consulting part time, or tired of working for other people, An Insider’s Guide to Building a Successful Consulting Practice is the reference for you.

This practical, comprehensive guide gives you everything you need to understand the economic realities of independent consulting; choose the right business model; develop and implement a marketing plan; market your services through writing, speaking, and networking; write proposals that lead to business; and much more.

Each chapter is self-contained and can be used as a reference to address a particular area of interest or problem. Every chapter also begins with a real-life story that focuses on a specific challenge.

In addition, the book includes a special survey, conducted by the author, of The Consulting 200™, a group of successful independent consultants. Interspersed throughout the book are their responses to such questions as:

• Why they went independent

• How long it took to recover full income from their previous job

• What types of insurance they purchased in their first year

• How they charge for their services

Bruce Katcher, Ph.D., is an industrial/organizational psychologist and founder and president of The Discovery Consulting Group, Inc., a management consulting firm based in Sharon, Massachusetts. He has consulted to more than 100 clients and authored the award-winning book, 30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers: What Your People May Be Thinking and What You Can Do About It. In addition, he offers training and mentoring to aspiring and experienced independent consultants. Learn more at CenterForIndependentConsulting.com.

Adam Snyder is a freelance business writer based in New York. He has been published in dozens of national business publications, written numerous business books, and is president of Rembrandt Films (www.Rembrandtfilms.com).

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Introduction

AT APPROXIMATELY 2:00 PM on Thursday, February 18, 1993, I

was sitting in my Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, office at a large

international consulting firm. My new boss came into my office and

said, “Bruce, we are going to have to lay you off.” I was devastated.

Immediately, my mind started racing. How was I going to support my

family? How much severance would I receive? How soon would I have

to leave? Should I look for work at another consulting firm, or a corporate

job, or go back to teaching college?

I was anxious, scared, and angry. I felt powerless. What happened

next changed my life. A lightbulb went on in my mind. “I am not

going to let this ever happen to me again,” I said to myself. “Nobody

is ever going to have total control over my financial fate again. I am

going into business for myself so that I can control my own destiny.”

The experience reminded me of that famous scene from the classic

movie, Gone with the Wind, when Scarlett O’Hara returns at the

end of the Civil War to Tara, the magnificent Southern plantation

where she was raised. She finds that her home had been used as a

military headquarters. All of the artwork and furniture are gone. The

slaves, of course, have left. Her father has gone mad. She is devastat-

ed. She doesn’t know what to do. She’s hungry, but there’s no food in

the house. She goes out into the field in search of food, but it has

been totally picked over. She manages to find a root in the ground,

grabs it, holds it up to the sky, and declares, “As God is my witness,

they’re not going to lick me. I’m going to live through this, and when

it’s all over I’ll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk.… As

God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.”

That’s how I felt. At that moment, I made up my mind that I was

going to make it on my own. I knew that if I put all of my energy into

building an independent consulting practice, I would be financially

independent and never have to worry about losing a job again.

More than seventeen years have passed since that day, and I have

never looked back. I am not the world’s most brilliant marketer,

salesperson, or consultant. But I have learned over the years what it

takes to make it as an independent consultant. Through a combination

of continuous learning from my fellow consulting colleagues,

trial and error, and perspiration, I have made myself into a successful,

valuable consultant. And you can too.

It’s not rocket science. All you need is the willingness to expand

your comfort zone, learn, work hard, and meet the needs of clients.

You may ask, “To get started, do I need to incorporate, have a

website, a separate checking account, or disability insurance?” You

will most likely need to consider them all eventually, but the truth is

you don’t need any of these things to get started. You need only two

things: a client and a method for finding more clients. This book will

provide you with everything else you need to know to get started.

If you are already an independent consultant, this book will help

you to accelerate your practice. It will discuss how other consultants

have been able to grow their businesses into vibrant and dependable

sources of continuous income.

Who will benefit from reading this book?

- The Restless Employee: Employees who are tired of working for

someone else and the shackles of the corporate world, and who are

willing to take a risk with their professional lives. What you hold in

your hand is a guidebook for those who are sick and tired of having

their work schedule and activities dictated by someone else. This book

will help those who long for more control over how, where, and when

they work to decide if the time is right to leave their job.

- Those Seeking Financial Independence: Wouldn’t it be nice if you

didn’t have to worry about being laid off because the company where

you work merged with or was acquired by another company, or decided

to downsize, or your boss didn’t like you, or your employer was

being outsmarted by the competition? As an independent consultant,

you call the shots. You determine your own destiny.

- Those Desiring More Income: A career in consulting can be much

more lucrative than working for a corporation. Think about it. Your

employer is making a profit from your work. It stands to reason that

if you can satisfy the needs of customers without an employer, you

can keep your share (i.e., the salary you earned as an employee), as

well as your employer’s share (the profit).

- The Wannabe Consultant: Although working for yourself has

always been a desire of yours, it has been on the back burner. The

pressures of monthly bills, mortgage, car payments, college tuition,

health insurance, and saving for retirement have made the idea of

working for yourself seem too impractical and unrealistic. This book

will provide you with the tools you need to make the leap. It will

demystify marketing and sales and show you how many others have

successfully started and sustained independent consulting businesses.

- The...