Become a Successful Independent Consultant
Become a Successful Independent Consultant
Share Your Expertise for Mutual Profit
About the Book
Do you want to become an independent consultant? You know you have expertise that potential clients need. This book helps you see how successful consultants apply their value to clients' problems.
In this book, you'll learn how to:
- Define your success to create the life you want.
- Create a resilient business model.
- Help your clients discover you through your expertise.
- Write winning proposals with value-based fees.
- Manage the client relationship.
- Create and manage your intellectual property
- Continue to learn as you work with your clients for everyone's benefit.
- Adapt and evolve your business over time.
And much more.
Whether you start now or prepare for the future, you can become a successful independent consultant.
About the Author
Table of Contents
-
- About this Early Release
- Acknowledgments
-
Part 1: Prepare for Your Success
- 1. Define Consulting
-
2. Define Your Success
- 2.1 See the Benefits of a Successful Consulting Practice
- 2.2 Define Your Why
- 2.3 Who Are Your Ideal Clients?
- 2.4 What Work Will You Choose?
- 2.5 Define Your Personal Values
- 2.6 What Does Success Look Like For You?
- 2.7 Assess Your Attitude
- 2.8 Now Try This to Define Your Success
-
3. Define Your Unique Value
- 3.1 Understand Your Skills
- 3.2 Non-Technical Skills
- 3.3 Inventory Your Skills
- 3.4 Articulate Your Value
- 3.5 Assess Previous Employee Work
- 3.6 Assess Previous Consulting Work
- 3.7 Choose Which Skills To Reinforce
- 3.8 Maintain Your Self-Esteem
- 3.9 Define the Problems You Solve
- 3.10 Now Try This to Recognize Your Value
-
Part 2: Discover and Serve Your Clients for Mutual Profit
-
4. Define Your Business Model
- 4.1 Define Your Driving Force
- 4.2 Your Expertise Drives Your Business Model
- 4.3 Define Your Products and Services
- 4.4 Offer Products and Services Based on Your Desired Consulting Role
- 4.5 Are You a Contractor or Consultant?
- 4.6 Create Multiple Income Streams for Resilience
- 4.7 Build Resilience into Your Business Model
- 4.8 Assess Your Business Model Over Time
- 4.9 Now Do This for Your Business Model
-
5. Help Clients Discover You With Content Marketing
- 5.1 Frame Your Successful Content Marketing Strategy
- 5.2 Create Your Soaker Hose for Your Marketing Strategy
- 5.3 Create a Positive Content Marketing Feedback Loop
- 5.4 Define Your Content Marketing Tactics
- 5.5 Make Your Soaker Hose Effective with Consistency
- 5.6 Create Your Marketing Plan
- 5.7 Consider This Marketing Plan Template
- 5.8 Consider These Content Marketing Tips
- 5.9 Now Try This to Help Clients Discover You With Content Marketing
-
6. Attract Clients with Active Marketing
- 6.1 Network with People
- 6.2 Create a Robust Online Profile
- 6.3 Finish Preparation for Your Active Marketing Conversation
- 6.4 Create Your Active Marketing Discussion Script
- 6.5 Call—Not Email or Social Media
- 6.6 Plan for Three Months of Active Marketing
- 6.7 Now Try This to Attract Clients with Active Marketing
-
7. Build the Client Relationship
- 7.1 Create Empathy with Your Client
- 7.2 Recognize Your Buyer
- 7.3 Beware of Fake Economic Buyers
- 7.4 Learn with a Discovery Call
- 7.5 Gain Agreement Before You Write a Proposal
- 7.6 Explore Alternatives
- 7.7 Decline the Work
- 7.8 Respect the Client
- 7.9 Now Do This for Your Client Relationships
-
8. Create Successful Proposals
- 8.1 Start with This Proposal Template
- 8.2 Clarify the Value in the Proposal
- 8.3 Use Time as Your Advantage
- 8.4 Fix Common Proposal Problems
- 8.5 Decline the Work When It Doesn’t Fit
- 8.6 Create a Retainer Agreement
- 8.7 Track the Proposal Process
- 8.8 Gain Awareness of Organizational Changes
- 8.9 Only Start Work With a Purchase Order
- 8.10 Now Try This for Proposals
-
9. Set Reasonable Fees
- 9.1 Money Creates Freedom
- 9.2 What’s Your Time Worth to You?
- 9.3 Value Your Time
- 9.4 Higher Fees Mean Better Clients
- 9.5 Make Sure You’re Happy with Your Fee
- 9.6 Set Fees for Writing and Speaking
- 9.7 Negotiate With Companies for Speaking Fees
- 9.8 Tips to Set Reasonable Fees
- 9.9 Now Try This to Set Your Reasonable Fees
-
10. Maintain an Ongoing Client Relationship
- 10.1 The Client Has Conflicting Goals
- 10.2 The Client Wants to Change the Engagement
- 10.3 Please Tell Management for Me
- 10.4 You’re Working at the Wrong Level
- 10.5 You Want to Add More Work in This Engagement
- 10.6 You Decide to Fire the Client
- 10.7 You Need to Bring Challenging News
- 10.8 The Client Doesn’t Want to Change
- 10.9 The Client Does It “Wrong”
- 10.10 Ask for a Referral
- 10.11 Follow Up to Check on Progress
- 10.12 Now Do This to Maintain Your Client Relationships
-
11. Manage Your Intellectual Property
- 11.1 Read All Contracts
- 11.2 Understand Your Property Rights
- 11.3 License Your IP
- 11.4 Repurpose Your Content
- 11.5 Now Try This to Manage Your IP
-
12. Collaborate with Other Consultants
- 12.1 Refer Other Consultants
- 12.2 Write With Other Consultants
- 12.3 Speak With Other Consultants
- 12.4 Deliver Client Work with Others
- 12.5 Create a Legal Partnership for Specific Outcomes
- 12.6 Agree on a Contract
- 12.7 Collaboration Traps
- 12.8 Now Try This for Collaboration
-
4. Define Your Business Model
-
Part 3: Create Work Systems for Success
-
13. Manage Your Money
- 13.1 Start Your Business with Ease
- 13.2 Maintain Your Financial Health
- 13.3 Understand Your Cash Flow
- 13.4 Manage Your Income Streams
- 13.5 Track Revenue, Not Units
- 13.6 Write the Checks Yourself
- 13.7 Decide How You Will Pay Yourself
- 13.8 Don’t Let Your Clients Manage Your Money
- 13.9 Evaluate Requests for Your Work
- 13.10 When Should You Hire People?
- 13.11 Now Try This to Manage Your Money
-
14. Maintain Your Health
- 14.1 Enlist Your Family for Support
- 14.2 Build Your Symmathesy Support System
- 14.3 Plan Your Physical Health
- 14.4 Assess Your Emotional Health
- 14.5 Tips to Manage Your Health
- 14.6 Now Try This to Manage Your Health
-
15. Manage Your Calendar
- 15.1 Manage Your Actions
- 15.2 Manage Unplanned Work
- 15.3 Plan with Your Board and Calendar
- 15.4 Reflect Daily on Your Work
- 15.5 Reflect Weekly on Your Work
- 15.6 Schedule Longer Reflections
- 15.7 Schedule Time to Learn and Market
- 15.8 Now Try This to Manage Your Calendar
-
16. Start Your Business
- 16.1 Define Your Web Presence and Email
- 16.2 Create a Minimum Website
- 16.3 Select an Email List Provider
- 16.4 Start your Social Media Presence
- 16.5 Decide on a Business Phone Number
- 16.6 Open a Business Checking Account
- 16.7 File Appropriate Business Paperwork
- 16.8 Create Your Organized and Comfortable Place of Business
- 16.9 Assess Your Insurance Needs
- 16.10 Print Business Cards
- 16.11 Spend as Little as Possible on Infrastructure
- 16.12 Recognize Consulting Business Traps
- 16.13 Now Do This to Start Your Business
-
17. Adapt and Evolve Your Successful Practice
- 17.1 Choose to Adapt Your Practice
- 17.2 Practice Changing Your Business Model
- 17.3 The Market Decides When You Change
- 17.4 Evolve Your Practice Purposefully
- 17.5 Consulting Is Not for You—Yet
- Annotated Bibliography
- More from Johanna
-
13. Manage Your Money
- Notes
About the Publisher
This book is published on Leanpub by Practical Ink
Johanna Rothman's books on leanpub. Practical, frank, and often humorous tips you can put to work right now.
The Leanpub 60-day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
See full terms
Do Well. Do Good.
Authors have earned$12,130,341writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub, earning 80% royalties while saving up to 25 million pounds of CO2 and up to 46,000 trees.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them
Top Books
- #1
Ansible for DevOps
Jeff GeerlingAnsible is a simple, but powerful, server and configuration management tool. Learn to use Ansible effectively, whether you manage one server—or thousands.
- #2
Jetpack Compose internals
Jorge CastilloJetpack Compose is the future of Android UI. Master how it works internally and become a more efficient developer with it. You'll also find it valuable if you are not an Android dev. This book provides all the details to understand how the Compose compiler & runtime work, and how to create a client library using them.
- #3
Functional Programming Made Easier
Charles ScalfaniA Functional Programming book from beginner to advanced without skipping a single step along the way.
In my 40 years of programming, I've felt that programming books always let me down, especially Functional Programming books. So, I wrote the book I wish I had 5 years ago.
Functional Programming will never be easy, but it can be easier.
- #4
Windows 11 Field Guide
Rafael Rivera and Paul ThurrottThe Windows 11 Field Guide is a full-length e-book about the latest version of Microsoft Windows, aimed at those users who will upgrade from Windows 10 or acquire Windows 11 with a new PC.
- #5
Mastering STM32 - Second Edition
Carmine NovielloWith more than 1200 microcontrollers, STM32 is probably the most complete ARM Cortex-M platform on the market. This book aims to be the most complete guide around introducing the reader to this exciting MCU portfolio from ST Microelectronics and its official CubeHAL and STM32CubeIDE development environment.
- #6
Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA
Trisha Gee and Helen ScottIf we treat our IDE as a text editor, we are doing ourselves a disservice. Using a combination of tutorials and a questions-and-answers approach, Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA will help you find ways to use IntelliJ IDEA that enable you to work comfortably and productively as a professional developer.
- #7
node-opcua by example
Etienne RossignonGet the best out of node-opcua through a set of documented examples by the author himself that will allow you to create stunning OPCUA Servers or Clients.
- #8
R Programming for Data Science
Roger D. PengThis book brings the fundamentals of R programming to you, using the same material developed as part of the industry-leading Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization. The skills taught in this book will lay the foundation for you to begin your journey learning data science. Printed copies of this book are available through Lulu.
- #9
C# for Babies
Maarten Balliauw, Khalid Abuhakmeh, and Arina KovrizhkinaAn illustrated book perfect for teaching your little ones the basics of the C# programming language!
- #10
Introducing EventStorming
Alberto BrandoliniThe deepest tutorial and explanation about EventStorming, straight from the inventor.
Top Bundles
- #1
CCIE Service Provider Ultimate Study Bundle
2 Books
Piotr Jablonski, Lukasz Bromirski, and Nick Russo have joined forces to deliver the only CCIE Service Provider training resource you'll ever need. This bundle contains a detailed and challenging collection of workbook labs, plus an extensively detailed technical reference guide. All of us have earned the CCIE Service Provider certification... - #3
Pattern-Oriented Memory Forensics and Malware Detection
2 Books
This training bundle for security engineers and researchers, malware and memory forensics analysts includes two accelerated training courses for Windows memory dump analysis using WinDbg. It is also useful for technical support and escalation engineers who analyze memory dumps from complex software environments and need to check for possible... - #4
Software Architecture
2 Books
"Software Architecture for Developers" is a practical and pragmatic guide to modern, lightweight software architecture, specifically aimed at developers. You'll learn:The essence of software architecture.Why the software architecture role should include coding, coaching and collaboration.The things that you really need to think about before... - #5
The Python Craftsman
3 Books
The Python Craftsman series comprises The Python Apprentice, The Python Journeyman, and The Python Master. The first book is primarily suitable for programmers with some experience of programming in another language. If you don't have any experience with programming this book may be a bit daunting. You'll be learning not just a programming... - #6
1500 QUIZ COMMENTATI (3 libri)
3 Books
Tre libri dei QUIZ MMG Commentati al prezzo di DUE! I QUIZ dei concorsi ufficiali di Medicina Generale relativi agli anni: 2000-2001-2003-2012-2013-2014-2015-2016-2017-2018-2019-2020-2021 +100 inediti Raccolti in unico bundle per aiutarvi nello studio e nella preparazione al concorso. All'interno di ogni libro i quiz sono stati suddivisi per... - #7
Growing Agile: The Complete Coach's Guide
7 Books
Growing Agile: Coach's Guide Series This bundle provides a collection of training and workshop plans for a variety of agile topics. The series is aimed at agile coaches, trainers and ScrumMasters who often find themselves needing to help teams understand agile concepts. Each book in the series provides the plans, slides, handouts and activity...
