The definitive guide to getting out of the office and getting into consulting
Getting Started in Consulting, Fourth Edition is the acclaimed real-world blueprint to professional and financial freedom. For nearly two decades, this invaluable resource has helped thousands of people quit the daily grind and become their own boss. This practical and motivational guide provides the tools and knowledge to control your future and secure your fortune. From establishing goals and sorting out the legal and financial paperwork, to advanced marketing strategies and relationship building techniques, this indispensable book offers step-by-step instructions for you to establish and grow your own consultancy business. This extensively revised and updated fourth edition includes new and expanded coverage on topics including utilizing informal media, changes in legal and financial guidelines, key distinctions of wholesale and retail businesses, and much more.
Author Alan Weiss delivers expert advice on how to combine minimal overhead with optimal organization to produce maximum income. Every step in the process is clearly explained, including financing, marketing, bookkeeping, establishing your fees, and more. This guide is a comprehensive, one-stop source for everything you need to prosper in the rapidly expanding world of private consultancy.
Adopt a pragmatic and profitable strategy to achieve incredible results from your consultancy business
Learn to identify and address the most commons issues facing your prospects and clients
Leverage technology to reduce labor, maximize profitability, and increase discretionary time
Access sample budgets, case studies, references and appendices, downloadable tools and forms, and online resources
The modern business landscape presents unique opportunities for those willing to take the leap from corporate offices to home offices. Getting Started in Consulting, Fourth Edition is the must-have guide for anyone seeking to cut their own path to their own consulting business.
Chapter 1 Your Mindset Will Determine Your Success
You might be thinking that youâre entering a sales job in going out on your own. Or you may believe that the nature of this profession is all about methodology and technology.
Let me disabuse you of such notions right out of the gate.
This is the marketing business and youâre offering value to prospective buyers.
Please assimilate that before you read on. Your mindset is going to determine your success, and I donât mean that in the guise of some bizarre motivational speaker. I mean it as a businessperson who constantly seeks the highest profit with the least labor.
The Notion of Value
This is the marketing business. We may be consultants (or coaches, experts, facilitators, trainers, writers, speakers, and so forth) but nevertheless weâre in the marketing business. Get used to it.
Marketing is the creation of need. Most people know what they want, but few realize what they need until we propose it to them. If itâs strictly what people want thatâs in question, then the lowest price will often prevail in a commodity competition (lawn mower, computer, consultant). But if youâre presenting a unique need they hadnât considered (remote learning, Wi-Fi available in the car, a strategy in six hours), then you are creating something that isnât subject to fee sensitivity.
This is why your mindset must be about the value you bring to the economic buyer (the person who can actually approve the check) and not about making a sale. The former is about being willing and eager to approach people because you can help them with your value; the latter is about fear of intruding or being rejected because you are trying to sellâtake their money.
Itâs the difference between giving and taking. I constantly have to reinforce this with even veteran consultants.
When you arise in the morning, you attitude must be, âAnother great day to offer people my value,â and not, âAnother long, slow crawl through enemy territory.â
Alanism
Being an expert in the consulting field means focusing on marketing your value to true buyers.
Another benefit of identifying your value is that you wonât be intimidated by those who have been around longer, or work for large firms, or who have complex methodologies. I call this pursuit and creation of your personal value the value proposition. It can be broad or narrow.
For example, when my clients were primarily Fortune 500 organizations, my value proposition was âI dramatically improve individual and organizational performance.â Now that I work with other consultants (actually, the âretailâ business), my value proposition is, âI dramatically improve the businesses and lives of entrepreneurs around the world.â The value proposition doesnât have to be uniqueâa lot of people might claim what Iâve saidâbut it must represent the initial explanation of the value you convey, the tip of the arrow, so to speak.
So hereâs your first exercise: Write a one-sentence value proposition below. Try not to use âby,â âthrough,â âwith,â or other prepositions, because they tend to define methodology, not value. Think in terms of results, or: âAfter I walk away, how is the buyer better off?â
My value proposition:
Digression
Note that my value propositions are very broad. Yours can be quite narrow, such as, âI reduce sales closing time and costs of acquisition.â But donât believe the weak advice that you âspecialize or die.â My 30 years in this business has amply demonstrated that you can âgeneralize the thrive.â
Your value statement neednât be etched in stone, and you may well change it as you proceed through the book. But you have a start, and thatâs the main thing.
The chart in Figure 1.1 indicates the true power of value as a mindset. The difference between what a buyer believes is wanted and what you determine is actually needed is what I call the value distance. The greater the distance, the higher your fee. The smaller the distance, the less your fee, because youâre in the commodity sea.
Figure 1.1 Value distance.
The final aspect of mindset (for now) is that of your ideal buyer. There are still people who contend that everyone is a potential buyer, but that might only occur if your product were oxygen and sunlight, which youâll note are both free. Since you (and I) are lone wolves, we need to focus our precious time and energy on those buyers most likely to say âyesâ because they appreciate our value. While others may come our way at times, they are not the ones to whom we should aggressively market.
Thus, the ideal buyer saves us time and energy and maximizes our profits. The ideal buyer is that organizational executive who is most likely to need and appreciate our value. I know itâs early, but try to identify that person below (for example, the owner in a small business, the executive director in a nonprofit, the sales vice president or the chief operating officer in a large enterprise):
My ideal buyer:
You can see from Figure 1.2 that the ideal buyer is a slim slice of everyone out there. Thatâs because youâre not selling oxygen or sunlight, but rather value not generally available. I call these people âhang tensâ in reference to the most aggressive surfers who hang off the front of the board.
Figure 1.2 Ideal buyers (hang tens).
Letâs move now past your mindset to the mindset of those whom you want around you.
Support Systems
In addition to your own, proper mindset, youâll need the mindsets of others. Iâm discussing this prior to office space, bank accounts, insurance, or websites because all of that is relatively easy, no more than purchase decisions, which can be changed at any time.
However, there are two issues that will probably spell doom for any solo consultant: one is poor personal relationships, and the other is insufficient funds, and they are obviously inextricably connected. Weâll get to the easier of the twoâhow to make and keep moneyâa bit later. But letâs tackle the critical one first: relationships.
