Weiss - Getting Started in Consulting

1. Alan Weiss on Consulting (interviewed by Linda Henman and Aviv Shahar)
2. Best-Laid Plans (originally Making It Work)
3. Getting Started in Consulting (also in Chinese)
4. Good Enough Isn't Enough (also in Spanish)
5. Great Consulting Challenges
6. How to Acquire Clients
7. How to Establish a Unique Brand in the Consulting Profession
8. How to Market, Establish a Brand, and Sell Professional Services
9. How to Sell New Business and Expand Existing Business
10. How to Write A Proposal That's Accepted Every Time
11. Life Balance
12. Lifestorming (with Marshall Goldsmith; also in Korean, Indonesian, and Turkish)
13. Managing for Peak Performance (also in German)
14. Million Dollar Coaching (also in Portuguese)
15. Million Dollar Consulting (also in Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Chinese, Korean, and Arabic)
16. Million Dollar Consulting Proposals
17. Million Dollar Launch
18. Million Dollar Maverick
19. Million Dollar Referrals
20. Million Dollar Speaking (also in Chinese and Portuguese)
21. Million Dollar Web Presence
22. Money Talks (also in Chinese)
23. Organizational Consulting
24. Our Emperors Have No Clothes
25. Process Consulting
26. The Business Wealth Builders (with Phil Symchych)
27. The Consulting Bible
28. The Global Consultant (with Omar Kahn)
29. The Great Big Book of Process Visuals
30. The Innovation Formula (with Mike Robert; also in German and Italian)
31. The Language of Success (with Kim Wilkerson)
32. The Million Dollar ConsultingToolkit
33. The Resilience Advantage (with Richard Citrin)
34. The SECOND Great Big Book of Process Visuals
35. The Talent Advantage (with Nancy MacKay)
36. The Ultimate Consultant
37. The Unofficial Guide to Power Managing
38. The Power of Strategic Commitment (with Josh Leibner and Gershon Mader)
39. Threescore and More
40. Thrive!
41. Value-Based Fees
42. Whos Got Your Back? (with Omar Kahn)

ALAN WEISS

Cover image: jondpatton/Getty Images
Cover design: Wiley

Copyright 2019 by Alan Weiss, Ph.D. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Names: Weiss, Alan, 1946- author.
Title: Getting started in consulting / Alan Weiss.
Description: Fourth edition. | Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, [2019] | Includes
index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018051259 (print) | LCCN 2018053848 (ebook) | ISBN
9781119542131 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119542148 (ePub) | ISBN 9781119542155
(hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Business consultantsHandbooks, manuals, etc. |
ConsultantsMarketingHandbooks, manuals, etc.
Classification: LCC HD69.C6 (ebook) | LCC HD69.C6 W459 2019 (print) | DDC
001dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018051259

Our 50th wedding anniversary occurred during the writing of this book. This book, all my others, my career, my family, and my happiness would not be remotely possible without Maria. Merely thanking her here for my wondrous life is woefully insufficient, but I am informing all of you that it is almost impossible to get started in any pursuit without unwavering support.

And so: To Maria, with all my love.

I wrote the original version of this book in 2000; the prior edition (the third) was written almost 10 years ago. In these ensuing years weve seen 3-D printing, the retirement of the 747 jumbo jet, Donald Trump elected president against all predictions, Global Entry speeding the immigration process, strategies formerly taking six months to formulate and covering five years obsolete, the iPhone X, Tesla, kale as a routine food offering, the admonition that health-care workers must wash their hands to prevent the spread of illness, a huge recession and an unprecedented economic recovery, and the New England Patriots playing in three more Super Bowls and winning two of them.

Consulting remains a very hot profession because huge organizations continue to reduce residual talent in favor of mission-critical specialists and automation, and small businesses are seeking more help than ever (and they are the largest producers of net new jobs in most of the world, since large companies tend only to reduce or replace the workforce). There is little barrier to entry in solo consulting, which is both a blessing and a curse.

The intent herein is to enable you to hit the ground running under contemporary conditions. Ill assume youre either brand new to the profession or in the early stages of your launch, though the lessons included constitute a strong review for even veteran consultants. You can look up certain aspects of the business (for example, office logistics or finding buyers), or you can read it sequentially. See Appendix F for free resources located on my site and my blog.