Successful Independent Consulting

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. IPart 1: Build Your Consulting Engine

1.Define Your Unique Value

1. 1.1How Consultants Add Value to Clients
2. 1.2Understand Your Skills
3. 1.3Inventory Your Skills
4. 1.4Articulate Your Value
5. 1.5Assess Previous Work
6. 1.6Choose Which Skills To Reinforce
7. 1.7Maintain Your Self-Esteem
8. 1.8Clarify the Value You Bring to Clients
9. 1.9Now Try This to Recognize Your Unique Value

2.Identify Your Ideal Clients

1. 2.1Describe the Signals Your Clients See
2. 2.2Clarify the Signals You Choose to Address
3. Build Empathy with Clients’ Problems
4. 2.3Define the Problems You Solve
5. We Have No Problems
6. 2.4See the System that Creates These Pains
7. “I Had to Remove Blinders to Serve the Client”
8. 2.5Choose Your Ideal Clients
9. 2.6Update Your Skills and Preferences
10. 2.7Now Try This to Identify Your Ideal Clients

3.Attract Clients With Content Marketing

1. 3.1Why Content Marketing?
2. 3.2Frame Your Successful Content Marketing Strategy
3. 3.3Drip Your Content Marketing
4. Why Email Newsletters Work
5. 3.4Content Marketing Defines Your Brand
6. 3.5Create a Positive Content Marketing Feedback Loop
7. 3.6Define Your Content Marketing Tactics
8. Consider “Publishers” or Aggregators for Short Pieces
9. 3.7Network with Your Professional Community
10. 3.8Create Consistent Content
11. 3.9Create Your Marketing Plan
12. 3.10Consider This Marketing Plan Template
13. 3.11Consider These Content Marketing Tips
14. 3.12Now Try This to Help Clients Discover You With Content Marketing

4.Build Presence with Active Marketing

1. 4.1Network with People
2. 4.2Create a Robust Online Profile
3. Do I Need to “Be Out There?”
4. How Many Years of Experience Should You List?
5. 4.3Finish Preparation for Your Active Marketing Conversation
6. 4.4Create Your Active Marketing Discussion Script
7. 4.5Call—Not Email or Social Media
8. 4.6Call Everyone You Know
9. 4.7Plan for Three Months of Active Marketing
10. 4.8Maintain Active Marketing Until Clients Contact You
11. 4.9Now Try This to Attract Clients with Active Marketing

5.Build the Client Relationship

1. 5.1Recognize Your Buyer
2. 5.2Beware of Fake Economic Buyers
3. I Learned the Hard Way Who the Buyer Really Was
4. 5.3Decide How You Will Respond to RFPs
5. 5.4Set the Context for Trust with a Discovery Call
6. 5.5Learn with a Discovery Call
7. Email is the Wrong Tool for Discovery
8. Why Offer Three Alternatives?
9. 5.6Gain Agreement Before You Write a Proposal
10. 5.7Decline the Work
11. 5.8Respect the Client
12. 5.9Now Do This to Build Your Client Relationships

6.Create Successful Proposals

1. 6.1Start with This Proposal Template
2. 6.2Summarize the Client’s Situation and Outcomes
3. 6.3Clarify the Value in the Proposal
4. 6.4Clarify the Client’s Options
5. 6.5Use Time as Your Advantage
6. 6.6Fix Common Proposal Problems
7. 6.7Decline the Work When It Doesn’t Fit
8. 6.8Check That the Proposal Offers Benefits to Both Parties
9. 6.9Create a Trusted Advisor Retainer Agreement
10. 6.10Track the Proposal
11. 6.11When the Client Rejects Your Proposal
12. 6.12Now Try This for Proposals

7.Set Reasonable Fees

1. 7.1Money Creates Freedom
2. 7.2What’s Your Time Worth to You?
3. 7.3Set Your Fee
4. 7.4Make Sure You’re Happy With Your Fee
5. 7.5Set Fees for Writing and Speaking
6. 7.6Negotiate With Companies for Speaking Fees
7. 7.7Set a Fee That Reflects Mutual Value and Benefit
8. 7.8Use Higher Fees to Get Better Clients
9. 7.9Now Try This to Set Your Reasonable Fees

8.Manage Your Intellectual Property

1. 8.1Assess Your Intellectual Property
2. 8.2Read All Legal Agreements
3. Know Your Status: Contractor or Consultant
4. 8.3Understand Your IP Rights
5. 8.4License Your IP
6. 8.5Review to Repurpose Your Content
7. 8.6Now Try This to Manage Your IP

9.Strengthen the Client Relationship

1. 9.1Create Congruent Relationships
2. 9.2Review Your Congruent Behaviors
3. 9.3Recognize Our Incongruent Behaviors
4. 9.4Recognize Incongruent Client Behaviors
5. 9.5Trap: Triangulate Interpersonal Issues
6. 9.6Recognize When This Client No Longer Fits
7. 9.7Ask for a Referral
8. 9.8Follow Up to Check on Progress
9. 9.9Now Do This to Strengthen Your Client Relationships
10. IIPart 2: Create and Maintain a Business That Works for You

10.Decide How You Will Make Money

1. 10.1Organize Your Products and Services
2. 10.2Create Multiple Income Streams for Resilience
3. Certification Classes Tend to Wax and Wane
4. 10.3Create Passive Income Streams
5. What If You Have Too Much or Too Little Work?
6. 10.4Offer Consulting Based on Your Desired Consulting Role
7. 10.5Stop Some Work and Continue to Make Money
8. 10.6Assess Your Business Model Over Time
9. 10.7Now Do This to Examine How You Will Make Money

11.Manage Your Money

1. 11.1Start Your Business with Ease
2. 11.2Maintain Your Financial Health
3. 11.3Understand Your Cash Flow
4. Learn Your Money Leaks
5. 11.4Track Revenue, Not Units
6. 11.5Write the Checks Yourself
7. 11.6Decide How You Will Pay Yourself
8. 11.7Don’t Let Your Clients Manage Your Money
9. 11.8Evaluate Requests for Free Work
10. 11.9When Should You Hire People?
11. 11.10Now Try This to Manage Your Money

12.Manage Your Health

1. 12.1Enlist Your Family for Support
2. Ask Your Family to Reduce Expenses
3. 12.2Learn with Colleagues
4. 12.3Build Your Learning Support System
5. 12.4Plan Your Physical Health
6. Make Your Own Travel Arrangements
7. 12.5Assess Your Emotional Health
8. 12.6Tips to Manage Your Health
9. Set a “Greed Line” for Revenue
10. 12.7Now Try This to Manage Your Health

13.Manage Your Calendar

1. 13.1Manage Your Actions
2. 13.2Manage Unplanned Work
3. 13.3Plan with Your Board and Calendar
4. 13.4Reflect Daily on Your Work
5. 13.5Reflect Weekly on Your Work
6. Should You Do All Your Work?
7. 13.6Schedule Longer Reflections
8. 13.7Schedule Time to Learn and Market
9. 13.8Protect Your Work Time
10. 13.9Now Try This to Manage Your Calendar

14.Collaborate with Other Consultants

1. 14.1Refer Other Consultants
2. 14.2Write With Other Consultants
3. 14.3Present With Other Consultants
4. 14.4Deliver Client Work with Others
5. 14.5Create a Legal Partnership for Longer-Term Events
6. 14.6Agree on a Contract
7. 14.7Collaboration Traps
8. 14.8Now Try This for Collaboration

15.Start Your Business

1. 15.1What Does Success Look Like For You?
2. 15.2Structure Your Business for Success
3. 15.3Define Your Web Presence and Email
4. Manage Your Site Yourself
5. 15.4Obtain a Business Phone Number
6. 15.5Open a Business Checking Account
7. 15.6File Appropriate Business Paperwork
8. Choose Your Business Name
9. 15.7Organize Where You Will Work
10. 15.8Assess Your Insurance Needs
11. 15.9Print Business Cards
12. 15.10Limit Your Infrastructure Expenses
13. 15.11Recognize Consulting Business Traps
14. 15.12Now Do This to Start Your Business

16.Adapt and Evolve Your Successful Practice

1. 16.1Choose to Adapt Your Practice
2. 16.2Practice Changing Your Business Model
3. 16.3The Market Decides When You Change
4. 16.4Decide What Change Means for Your Business
5. 16.5Evolve Your Practice Purposefully
6. 16.6Consulting Is Not for You—Yet

Appendix A: Evaluate Your Technical Skills

1. Understand All Your Technical Skills

Appendix B: Consider These Consulting Tools

1. See the Client’s Reality
2. Reasoning Tools
3. Use Laws and Principles to Guide Your Thinking
4. Problem-Solving Tools
5. Data Gathering and Visualization Tools
6. Master Your Industry Frameworks

Annotated Bibliography and Recommended Reading

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