The Consultant′s Quick Start Guide: An Action Plan for Your First Year in Business - Softcover

Biech, Elaine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0470372311 ISBN 13: 9780470372319

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2009

Synopsis

The Consultant's Quick Start Guide offers a practical approach to setting up a consulting business. Throughout the guide, Elaine Biech--author of the best-selling The Business of Consulting--shares both her own secrets as well as those of numerous other successful consultants. With a focus on the business side of consulting, Biech takes you through a painless, fill-in-the-blanks, step-by-step process for setting up your consulting firm. New sections include: Why A Consulting Career-Five Reasons Why You May Be a Good Investment How Much Will Clients Pay? Your first "To Do" List What to call your business Creating and writing Business Plans Office Location Options Setting up your office, including Furnishing Your Office and planning your Technical Needs Electronic Records, including Monthly Expense Records, Revenue Projections, and Invoicing Staying Organized, including a Session Planner Determining your market niche Creating your marketing plan Developing your website Reviewing your first year with your family Electronic resource list, available online Skills And Knowledge Required of Consultants

About this title

From the Back Cover

The Consultant's Quick Start Guide

Consulting can be a most rewarding career--but being good at consulting is not always enough to keep your business profitable. It is essential that you also learn the skills you need to manage your business.

The second edition of The Consultant's Quick Start Guide is an updated revision of the book that has become the "go-to" book for all new and aspiring consultants. Written by renowned consultant and best-selling author, Elaine Biech, the book includes practical guidelines, addresses how to deliver better service through better planning, and clearly shows how to run a business more profitably and more predictably. ?

In this second edition, Elaine Biech walks readers through an easy-to-apply, step-by-step process for setting up a consulting firm. Addressing the most recent changes to the consulting field, this new edition includes information on:

• Discerning how much will clients pay

• Making a first-things-first "To Do" list

• Deciding how to name your business

• Creating and writing successful business plans

• Choosing an office location and deciding how to set it up

• Keeping electronic records--monthly expense records, revenue projections, and invoicing

• Staying organized with the book's session planner

• Determining your market niche

• Creating a dynamic marketing plan and website

In addition, The Consultant's Quick Start Guide is filled with new e-ideas--ways to use the suite of electronic tools at our fingertips to manage an efficient consulting practice. Rounding out the book are useful marketing tools, templates, illustrative examples, sample contracts and proposals--everything a new consultant needs to create a thriving business.

About the Author

Elaine Biech is president and managing principal of ebb associates inc, an organizational development firm that helps organizations work through large-scale change. Biech has been in the training and consulting field for thirty years and is the author and editor of four dozen books and articles, including Pfeiffer Annuals of Training and Consulting, 90 World-Class Activities by 90 World-Class Trainers, Training for Dummies, The Business of Consulting, Second Edition, and Marketing and Selling Your Consulting Services, all published by Wiley. Biech is the recipient of ASTD's highest honor, the Gordon M. Bliss award.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0470372311
• ISBN 13: 9780470372319
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 280