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.
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$11,577,045writing, 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), EPUB (for phones and tablets) and MOBI (for 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
Recipes for Decoupling
Matthias NobackSignalR on .NET 6 - the Complete Guide
Fiodar SazanavetsLearn everything there is to learn about SignalR and how to integrate it with the latest .NET 6 and C# 10 features. Learn how to connect any type of client to SignalR, including plain WebSocket client. Learn how to build interactive applications that can communicate with each other in real time without making excessive calls.
The BDD Books - Discovery (Japanese Edition)
Gáspár Nagy, Seb Rose, and Yuya Kazamaウクライナ難民を支援 - 2022年5月末まで延長!
この本の売り上げの50%は、 https://unicef.hu/veszhelyzet-ukrajnaban と https://int.depaulcharity.org/fundraising-for-depaul-ukraine/ に寄付されます。
本書籍は、振る舞い駆動開発(Behavior Driven Development, BDD)や受け入れテスト駆動開発(Acceptance Test-Driven Development, ATDD)の発見フェーズを最大限に活用する方法を提供します。
The easiest way to learn design patterns
Fiodar SazanavetsLearn design patterns in the easiest way possible. You will no longer have to brute-force your way through each one of them while trying to figure out how it works. The book provides a unique methodology that will make your understanding of design patterns stick. It can also be used as a reference book where you can find design patterns in seconds.
Agile Testing Condensed Japanese Edition
Yuya Kazama, Janet Gregory, and Lisa CrispinJanet GregoryとLisa Crispinによる2019年9月発行の書籍『Agile Testing Condensed』の日本語翻訳版です。アジャイルにおいてどのような考えでテストを行うべきなのか簡潔に書かれています!
OpenIntro Statistics
David Diez, Christopher Barr, Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, and OpenIntroA complete foundation for Statistics, also serving as a foundation for Data Science.
Leanpub revenue supports OpenIntro (US-based nonprofit) so we can provide free desk copies to teachers interested in using OpenIntro Statistics in the classroom and expand the project to support free textbooks in other subjects.
More resources: openintro.org.
Tech Giants in Healthcare
Dr. Bertalan MeskoThis comprehensive guide, Tech Giants in Healthcare, clarifies how and why big tech companies step into healthcare, and breaks it down from one market player to the other in what direction they are going, what tools they are using and what horizons they have in front of them.
Functional event-driven architecture: Powered by Scala 3
Gabriel VolpeExplore the event-driven architecture (EDA) in a purely functional way, mainly powered by Fs2 streams in Scala 3!
Leverage your functional programming skills by designing and writing stateless microservices that scale, powered by stateful message brokers.
CCIE Service Provider Version 4 Written and Lab Exam Comprehensive Guide
Nicholas RussoThe service provider landscape has changed rapidly over the past several years. Networking vendors are continuing to propose new standards, techniques, and procedures for overcoming new challenges while concurrently reducing costs and delivering new services. Cisco has recently updated the CCIE Service Provider track to reflect these changes; this book represents the author's personal journey in achieving that certification.
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.
Top Bundles
- #1
All the Books of The Medical Futurist
6 Books
We put together the most popular books from The Medical Futurist to provide a clear picture about the major trends shaping the future of medicine and healthcare. Digital health technologies, artificial intelligence, the future of 20 medical specialties, big pharma, data privacy, digital health investments and how technology giants such as Amazon... - #2
Practical FP in Scala + Functional event-driven architecture
2 Books
Practical FP in Scala (A hands-on approach) & Functional event-driven architecture, aka FEDA, (Powered by Scala 3), together as a bundle! The content of PFP in Scala is a requirement to understand FEDA so why not take advantage of this bundle!? - #3
Software Architecture for Developers: Volumes 1 & 2 - Technical leadership and communication
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... - #4
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... - #6
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... - #8
Modern C++ Collection
3 Books
Get All about Modern C++C++ Standard Library, including C++20Concurrency with Modern C++, including C++20C++20Each book has about 200 complete code examples. Updates are included. When I update one of the books, you immediately get the updated bundle. You can expect significant updates to each new C++ standard (C++23, C++26, .. ) and also...