Dan Ramsey - The Everything Start Your Own Consulting Business Book: Expert, step-by-step advice for a successful and profitable career

THE
EVERYTHING
START YOUR OWN
CONSULTING BUSINESS BOOK

Love to give advice? Want to get paid to give advice? Consider starting a consulting business!

Consultants use their own knowledge and experience to help others solve problems. Consultants answer questions about adventure travel, advertising, aviation, biotechnology, business writing, college entrance, dog training, estate planning, event planning, fashion, fundraising, honeymoon planning, and hundreds of other personal and business topics. Chances are that if you areor want to bean expert in anything, you can sell your services as a consultant!

But where do you start? How can you develop your credentials? How and where do you find clients? How do you establish profitable pricing for your services? Should you work at home or from an office? How do you pay taxes? How do you succeed as a consultant?

This book answers these and many other vital questions to guide you into the growing field of consulting. Its twenty chapters and extensive glossary of consulting business terms will help you mold your own skills into a viable business that serves others and brings you an honest income.

Who am I? A successful consultant! Ive helped many thousands of people start businesses of all types over the past four decades. And Ive operated many successful service businesses myself. I am your guide.

So get ready to take the first step toward starting and profiting from your own consulting business.

To your success,

Welcome to the EVERYTHING Series!

These handy, accessible books give you all you need to tackle a difficult project, gain a new hobby, comprehend a fascinating topic, prepare for an exam, or even brush up on something you learned back in school but have since forgotten.

You can choose to read an Everything book from cover to cover or just pick out the information you want from our four useful boxes: e-questions, e-facts, e-alerts, and e-ssentials.

We give you everything you need to know on the subject, but throw in a lot of fun stuff along the way, too.

We now have more than 400 Everything books in print, spanning such wide-ranging categories as weddings, pregnancy, cooking, music instruction, foreign language, crafts, pets, New Age, and so much more. When youre done reading them all, you can finally say you know Everything!

Answers to
common questions

Important snippets
of information

Urgent
warnings

Quick
handy tips

PUBLISHER Karen Cooper

DIRECTOR OF ACQUISITIONS AND INNOVATION Paula Munier

MANAGING EDITOR, EVERYTHING SERIES Lisa Laing

COPY CHIEF Casey Ebert

ACQUISITIONS EDITOR Lisa Laing

ASSOCIATE DEVELOPMENT EDITOR Elizabeth Kassab

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Hillary Thompson

EVERYTHINGSERIES COVER DESIGNER Erin Alexander

LAYOUT DESIGNERS Colleen Cunningham, Elisabeth Lariviere, Ashley Vierra, Denise Wallace

Visit the entire Everything series at www.everything.com

THE
EVERYTHING
START YOUR OWN
CONSULTING
BUSINESS BOOK

Expert, step-by-step advice for
a successful and profitable career

Dan Ramsey

Have two goals: wisdomthat is, knowing
and doing rightand common sense. Dont
let them slip away, for they fill you with living
energy, and bring you honor and respect.

Proverbs 3:2122

Copyright 2009 by F+W Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced
in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions
are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

An Everything Series Book.
Everything and everything.com are registered trademarks of F+W Media, Inc.

Published by Adams Media, a division of F+W Media, Inc.
57 Littlefield Street, Avon, MA 02322 U.S.A.
www.adamsmedia.com

ISBN 10: 1-60550-365-7
ISBN 13: 978-1-60550-365-3
eISBN: 978-1-60550-991-4

Printed in the United States of America.

J I H G F E D C B A

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available from the publisher.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

From a Declaration of Principles jointly adopted by a Committee of the
American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Adams Media was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters.

This book is available at quantity discounts for bulk purchases.
For information, please call 1-800-289-0963.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Any book is a compilation of the wisdom of many. This book was built upon the wisdom of Hal Wright of the Wright Track; Claire Rosenzweig and others of the Institute of Management Consultants; Bill Stinehart, Vito Tanzi, James Bickmann and others of the American Association of Professional Consultants; Donna-Jean Rainville of The Consulting Source, Inc.; and Herman Holtz, consulting guru. In addition, the Association of Management Consulting Firms, Business Marketing Association, and the American Management Association supplied information for this book. Thanks also to the staffs of Ramsey Business Strategies for past assistance. Thanks also go to my editor, Lisa Laing, and my agent, Bob Diforio, for their guidance and support.

Top Ten Things Every Successful
Consultant Must Know

What your unique expertise is.

Who needs your expertise.

How you can build your credentials.

4. How you can make your prospects contact you with their problems.

How you can efficiently solve your clients problems.

How you can expand the need for your services.

Who your competitors are.

What your competitors are doing right now.

Whether your business is profitable and, if not, what to do about it.