The Consultant's Quick Start Guide: An Action Plan for Your First Year in Business [Paperback]

Elaine Biech (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787956678 | ISBN-13: 978-0787956677 | Publication Date: May 9, 2001 | Edition: 1

Your complete blueprint for starting out in the consulting world!

Consulting can be a most rewarding career--but being good at consulting is not always enough to keep your business profitable. 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.

The book includes information on how to:
* Develop a dynamic business plan
* Market consulting services
* Establish a professional office
* Meet critical legal requirements
* Change for services
* Build client relationships
* Grow the business
* Ensure continued professional growth
* Make money in the business

Learn the skills you need to be a successful consultant with this indispensable guide!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"You've probably heard that a consultant is someone between jobs. Elaine's book ensures that will never describe you. The Consultant's Quick Start Guide is a sure bet for an effective consulting business." --Ken Blanchard, coauthor, Gung Ho! and The One Minute Manager tm

"Elaine Biech is truly the consultant's consultant. Anyone considering a move to an independent consulting career should devour this book." --Diane Hessan, CEO, Communispace Corporation

"The Consultant's Quick Start Guide is an invaluable resource for all new and seasoned consultants. Elaine Biech has packed into one book tools and references that would take most consultants years to learn and develop." --Richard Chang, CEO, Richard Chang Associates, Inc., and author of The Passion Plan and Performance Scorecards

"What a treat for the new or wannabe consultant-you can think through the initial career decision, plan for the launch of the business, and hang the proverbial shingle with this book as your guide. The author has produced another practical, hands-on approach!" --Ronald E. Gailbraith, CEO, Management 21, Inc

"There's a reason Elaine Biech has the Midas Touch. She's the best at what she does, and she's generous with all her inside information. Even old pros are sure to pick up a few golden nuggets." --Elizabeth Engstrom, director, Maui Writers Retreat

"Elaine Biech does it yet again! She provides what most say can only be learned in the school of hard knocks! Take her wonderful advice to heart!" --Beverly Kaye, president, Career Systems International, Inc., and co-author of The Wall Street Journal best-seller, Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay

Review

"Elaine biech is truly the consultant's consultant. Anyone considering a move to an independent consulting career should devour this book." —Diane Hessan, CEO, Communispace Corporation

"The Consultant's Quick Start Guide is an invaluable resource for all new and seasoned consultants. Elaine Biech has packed into one book, tools and references that would take most consultants years to learn and develop." —Richard Chang, CEO, Richard Chang Associates, Inc.,Author of, The Passion Plan and Performance Scorecards

"Elaine Biech builds your confidence to take your first steps into consulting. She asks important, tough questions, and them helps you answer them. Read the book, answer its questions, and you will be well-prepared for your first year." —Geoff Belman, consultant and author of The Consultant's Calling

"There's a reason Elaine Biech has the Midas Touch. She's the best at what she does, and she's generous with all her inside information. Even old pros are sure to pick up a few golden nuggets." —Elizabeth Engstrom, Director, Maui Writers Retreat

"Elaine Biech does it yet again! She provides what most say can only be learned in the school of hard knocks! Take her wonderful advice to heart!" —Beverly Kaye, President, Career Systems International, Inc., Co-author of WSJ Best Seller, "Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay"

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Pfeiffer; 1 edition (May 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787956678
• ISBN-13: 978-0787956677
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #84 in Books > Business & Investing > Industries & Professions > Consulting

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

124 of 126 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Starting Guide but a little on the Light Side, March 4, 2002

By 

BookGirl (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Consultant's Quick Start Guide: An Action Plan for Your First Year in Business (Paperback)

If you already know your own skill set, what you have to offer, and what type of business you want to run then don't bother with this book. The first few chapters of this book deal with analyzing your skills and determining what type of consulting you want to pursue and the general tone of the book assumes that you have no idea what type of consulting company you are opening. This book is good if you don't know what type of business you would like to start. This to me is unfathomable but I guess there are people out there that want to work for themselves but don't know what skills they have and how to utilize them. There are a lot of workbook pages in this book that ask you to analyze your attitude, aptitude and personality as it relates to the consulting business. The book asks you to describe your idea of an ideal future and gives you an idea of the financing involved in starting up a small consulting business. There are some really good things in this book. For example, advice on writing a business plan, form examples for budgeting your business, and some useful advice on pitching to new clients. HOWEVER, the book is extremely light in content. It does not go into detail on anything. It is, as the title suggests, A QUICK START Guide. I personally found the book a bit fluffy in the sense that it concentrated too much on your attitude by asking lots of questions like, "Are you happy?" The book also has an entire chapter dedicated to family planning around your business, which in my opinion is ridiculously trivial and providing a list of supplies that you will need for your home office (i.e. Stamps etc...). I think I can figure out that I need post-it notes, thank you! I found the one paragraph dedicated to building a Web site for your company particular disturbing. I am a professional Web programmer and no PROFESSIONAL web site should include, "a quiz, a self-assessment or puzzle." I'm sorry but that stuff is child's play and will turn all of your prospective clients off, if they are at all serious business people!!! If you don't sell puzzles then you shouldn't have one on your Web site! In fact disregard that entire paragraph on having your own Web site. Better not to have one at all then to have it done wrong!! Well, for those of you who are thinking about starting a business, this might be a good, BASIC guide but for those of us who already know what business we are in, know what we want to do for a living and have a basic knowledge of starting up a business, this book is simply too basic. I recommend, "Working For Yourself" by Stephen Fishman, which goes into much more detail about taxes, laws and other detailed aspects of independent consulting.

60 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You could find better..., July 1, 2003

By 

"tyrionl" (Trondheim Norway) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Consultant's Quick Start Guide: An Action Plan for Your First Year in Business (Paperback)

Ok, so I wasn't impressed...

This book is definately good at one thing: it makes you think about some important issues of starting your own practice, and it has lots of assignments that I think may be useful. That earns it two stars.

However, what makes this book less useful than, say, "getting started in consulting" (A. Weiss), is the fact that there is no emphasis on creating value for your customer(and setting your fees based upon that value). What Biech is saying is actually that you should divide what you think you should earn in a year by the days you expect to work etc. So whether you help a client gain $50000 or $500000 added value should make no difference on your paycheck... Being value- oriented would help you wether we're talking about gaining clients, getting your fair pay or establishing business relationships. This book hardly touches the issue, even though it's important in so many areas of the business.

What I'm saying boils down to this: There being so many better books on the subject, I see no reason to buy this one. I did, and I'd rather have spent my money on something else.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Relatively worthless, June 24, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Consultant's Quick Start Guide: An Action Plan for Your First Year in Business (Paperback)

Although Biech makes a number of good points in her text here, the vast majority of it can be chocked up to common sense. The workbook fill-in forms are nice if you're the sort of person that is so unorganized that you need your hand held at every step, but in all honesty if you fall into that category you probably shouldn't be thinking about a consulting career in the first place. Unfortunately I feel like their primary purpose is just to take up space, and make the book feel longer and more useful than it really is. If you boil this "quick start guide" down to the few pages that are actually worthwhile, you wouldn't even have enough pages to fill a pamphlet. Look elsewhere.