I will always remember Johnny Smith. Johnny was my very first supervisor in my very first full-time, salary-paying job.

I had returned from two years in the Peace Corps and was fortunate to find work in a consulting firm that had landed a contract from the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity. I was part of a team that traveled from city to city in the southwestern United States to conduct training programs, facilitate team-building sessions, and consult on organizational issues to newly formed Community Action Agencies. Our group was made up of mostly young, inexperienced, but highly motivated behavioral scientists who wanted to change the world. It was a perfect kind of job for us, but without Johnny we most likely would have gone broke.

Johnny was a Texas Instruments manager who had decided to take on the temporary assignment of leading this small band of do-gooders. He, too, wanted to do good, but from his years at Texas Instruments, he also knew that to be of service we had to stay in business. Johnny brought a discipline that was absolutely essential to our survival.

I vividly remember one consulting gig in Dallas, Texas. We had a meeting with the director of an agency to talk about the goals and roles for the assignment, and the director was called out for a few minutes. Johnny said to us, “This guy is very organized.” I asked, “How do you know that?” He said, “See all those file folders lined up neatly on the credenza behind his desk? That’s how.” And, he was right about that. The guy and the agency were very organized. Johnny paid attention to detail. He was all about the little things that, when you added them up, either made something work or caused it to fail. I also remember what a stickler he was for filling out expense reports and submitting invoices. He used to say things like, “You’ll get my thanks when you fill in the blanks.” Corny, but it worked.

Johnny Smith would have adored Elaine Biech. He’d have wanted her on our team. And, had it been available back in 1969, I am confident that Johnny would have handed every one of my colleagues and me a copy of The New Business of Consulting. It’s the kind of straightforward, no-nonsense book that he would have wholeheartedly embraced.

But since Johnny isn’t around to give you that advice, permit me to offer it instead. If you are just starting out in consulting, or if you are at a place where you’re growing but not making enough money, you must study this book. The New Business of Consulting is vital to your success. You can be extraordinary at what you do, but if you do not know how to run your business, you will be out of business quickly.

Just take a look at what you’ll find in The New Business of Consulting. In Chapter One Elaine asks, and helps you answer, the question, “What are you getting yourself into?” The chapter enables you to come to grips with the myths and realities of the business and asks you to seriously consider whether or not consulting is right for you. Chapter Two is about the talents and tolerances you’ll need to succeed in the profession. Chapter Three discusses money—what you think you’ll need to earn, how much you should charge, and how to make ethical pricing decisions.

Chapters Four, Five, and Six focus on starting—and staying—in business and the cost of doing business. These are the meat and potatoes chapters about running the operational, marketing, and financial sides of your practice. Need to write a business plan? It’s here. Need a marketing plan? This book has guidelines for developing one. Need to calculate your cash flow or deal with bad debts? Elaine offers wise counsel on these and more.

Chapter Seven addresses clients. From the first meeting to maintaining the relationship after the project has been completed, Elaine coaches you on how to create value for your customer. Chapter Eight describes the pains—sometimes welcome, sometimes not—of growth. One of the most vexing issues you will have to deal with during the life of your firm is how to manage it as it matures, adds people (and costs), and becomes more than just a hobby for one person. Elaine talks to you about the advantages and disadvantages of key aspects of growth.

Elaine and I share a passion for ethics. Elaine is adamant about how we conduct ourselves in business, and Chapters Nine and Ten are calls to action. As Elaine puts it, “Your reputation as a consultant will be created by thousands of actions, but may be lost by only one.” She reminds us that it is imperative that we act as role models for how business should be conducted. We always have to practice what we preach. All this takes continuous professional learning and personal growth.

In the closing Chapter Eleven, Elaine poses the question, “Do you still want to be a consultant?” She helps you answer it by giving you a peek into her own daily life as a consultant, a dose of reality for anyone daring to answer “yes” to the question. Of course, we all know what Elaine’s answer is, because it’s the profession she chose for herself. She’s not a journalist who just writes about it; she lives it every day. She’s a role model for the advice she gives others, and she’s personally helped hundreds of people start consulting practices with the information in this book.

And you can understand why so many people benefit from her wise counsel. The New Business of Consulting is complete and easy to use. The advice can be put into practice immediately. No theory here. Just real-world examples and proven tactics to build and grow a successful consulting practice. Elaine does not hold back; you don’t need to read between the lines. She is straightforward and candid, and she shares openly all that she knows. This is a compilation of all the lessons she’s learned about running a consulting practice during her 35 years of being in the trade. There are over 50 checklists, tables, forms, and other useful tools. It’s all between these pages, but as an added bonus there are forms available in a downloadable format that can be easily personalized.

Elaine also offers tips that are meant to help you tap into all the resources beyond the book. Many of these tips are based on the technology that is currently available. They are designed to help you save time and money, tap into ever-changing information, identify resources to build the business, and find tools to keep you on the cutting edge of what you do. Given the extraordinary developments in technology in the past decade, these ideas make this book exceptionally valuable in the virtual ways in which you now work.

But there’s something else that you need to know about Elaine, something that comes alive when you read the book and is even more evident when you talk with her in person. Elaine loves consulting, loves a challenge, and loves her clients. As you will understand when you read this book, these are perhaps the only three reasons why you should get into consulting in the first place.

The spirit of this book is best captured in a comment that Elaine sent to me when we first corresponded about The New Business of Consulting. I asked her to tell me what she most wanted others to know about her book, and one of the things she said to me was, “I feel I owe so much to the industry and to people who have helped me along the way. This book is one way for me to give back to the world that has given me so much.” That is quintessential Elaine and is at the heart of who she is. It’s why those of us who are privileged to know her and work with her so highly respect her and the work she does. This book is Elaine’s gift of experience to our field, and I invite you to open it with great glee, read it with delight, and use it to help grow and sustain your business.

Jim Kouzes
Coauthor of The Leadership Challenge

April 2019

Are you thinking about starting your own business of consulting? Your timing couldn’t be better. The world of work is changing rapidly. Gone are the days of lifetime employment with traditional, stable organizations. In its place is the gig economy. You have most likely heard predictions that more than 50 percent of the U.S. workforce will not have traditional jobs in this decade. Whether you’ve heard these new roles called freelancers, crowd workers, contractors, solopreneurs, free agents, agile employees, on-demand labor, giggers, side hustlers, portfolio careers, or some other endearing name, consulting fits the definition.

The term gig originally comes from the jazz players of the 1930s, who called each separate performance a gig. Today, all types of freelancers and consultants use it to describe work that they’ve been hired to do that has either a time or scope parameter.

Consulting is a profitable $250 billion industry and growing. Millions have taken the initiative to create their own livelihood and do what they want. As the gig economy infographic designed by Robert McGuire of Nation1099 (Exhibit I.1, at www.wiley.com/go/newconsultingbiech) displays, 86 percent of professional freelancers choose freelancing. That means that they are not in traditional jobs by choice; they didn’t lose their jobs involuntarily.

The Timing Is Right

Consulting is more respected now than ever. Freelance consulting is viewed as a win for companies and consultants alike. Companies can hire expertise for the time or project duration that is needed. Consultants can provide the expertise on demand and can be reimbursed for the amount of effort they contribute. Several changes have influenced how business is conducted. This has led to the increased approval rating of those in a 1099 tax arrangement.

• Organizations need an agile workforce to keep up with the ever-changing demands of their missions and the intense competition.
• Technology has empowered consultants to work from anywhere, to connect with clients, close a million-dollar deal, or build a brand from their mobile phones.
• An increasing number of consultants are not just surviving, but thriving, earning a six-figure (or more) income. A 2016 McKinsey report found that 75 percent of consultants were making more or the same amount of money than they did in their traditional roles.
• Professional apps, online marketplaces, marketing opportunities, and other business operating options are readily available and easily connect consultants to clients.
• Large consulting firms are getting in on the gig economy, recognizing that they cannot support the large cadre of consultants they’ve had on staff in the past. In fact, in 2016 PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) launched its Talent Exchange, an online platform that matches independent consultants with relevant skill sets to work on PwC projects.

Is the timing right for you, too? The dream of being self-employed, being your own boss, and striking out on your own is not new. For many employees, an entrepreneurial spirit strikes no matter the societal or economic trends. Unfulfilling work, temperamental bosses, and unhealthy organizational cultures have spurred entrepreneurial dreamers to quit their jobs to pursue their passion, to do the work they love. Your reasons for becoming a consultant might include some of these.

• You desire an increased sense of meaning and fulfillment from your work, to make a difference where you think it counts.
• You want to trade the hassles of a corporate career, a desk job, and a commute for more control over your time, doing what you love on your terms.
• You want to work with the organizations and people you choose.
• You know this is the direction the workplace is heading and you want to prepare for the ongoing gig economy.
• You see that stability is being redefined and you want to be in charge of your own future.
• You want to learn and develop your skills and expertise more broadly than you are now.
• If you have expertise that is in demand, consulting is a relatively inexpensive and easy business to break into.

Or perhaps you are like me and you just want to prove that you can be successful on your own. Of course, there are drawbacks and we will point them out throughout the book. But the bottom line is that consulting in the gig economy is healthy and growing. It is a satisfying arrangement for both consultants and the clients who need them. This book will help you prepare for your half of the equation.

Logical Content Flow

The chapters are presented in the same order that you will likely require the information as you move into a consulting role. Each chapter begins with a short story. Whether you are a millennial who is looking for purpose and meaning in the work you do or a baby boomer on the verge of retirement, you will relate to these stories. Don’t think that they are just made-up fiction. Every story happened in real life to me or my consulting colleagues.

Tips are sprinkled throughout the chapters to give you ideas that meet your specific needs or resources where you can search for the ideas you still need.

Each chapter ends with a section I’ve called “For the Consummate Consultant.” It presents three actions you can take that go beyond the content in the chapter—beyond the basics. Think of these ideas like “extra credit” that you may have had in school: optional additional activities that will boost your rate of success.

We are all consultants—all experts in something. Oh, I am not trying to come up with an impressive ad campaign or a slogan to sell this book. I mean it. But being an expert at what you do isn’t enough. You need to be an entrepreneur to stay in business. I grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm and believe that farmers may be some of the original entrepreneurs. Farmers need to be good at animal husbandry and raising crops, but if they do not focus on their businesses with wise capital investments and maintain healthy cash flow, they will not be farming for long.

You are no doubt a very fine consultant, but like farmers, being good at consulting is not enough to keep you profitable. You also must manage your business. This book focuses on the business side of consulting: how to develop a business plan, how to market your business, how to charge for your services, how to build a client relationship, how to grow the business, how to ensure your continued professional growth, and, of course, how to make money in the profession.

The New Business of Consulting is written in the first person—singular and plural. Although I’ve authored the book, the employees of ebb associates and all my colleagues have played a big part in shaping the content, so I’ll use “we” on occasion.

Helpful and Practical Content

My goal in writing this book is to provide as many practical tools and sound ideas as possible. Most were learned through trial and error, and I hope this book will prevent you from making some of the same mistakes.

• The book has been written for several kinds of readers: the individual who is considering a consulting profession and wonders whether it’s a good decision and how to start, the new consultant who may have mastered the client-consulting role and now realizes that there is also a business to run, and the experienced consultant continuing a lifelong learning journey who is looking for a few practical tips.
• Being a successful consultant means that you not only provide excellent advice for your clients’ businesses, but you also implement excellent advice for your own business.
• To be most helpful, dozens of checklists, assessments, templates, financial forms, and other tools are included. To make it even easier, all of the tools are available at www.wiley.com/go/newconsultingbiech. You can personalize them with your company name and print them out to project cash flow, plan marketing campaigns, track your time, identify your aptitude for starting a business, or a dozen other things.

Beyond the Content

This book delivers everything you need to manage a successful consulting business. However, just reading it will not make you a successful consultant. Three things are required for your success.