Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This Quickstart Guide takes a workbook approach to helping anyone considering starting off on their own in a consulting practice. It doesn't matter what the consulting field is, this guide points out that the business basics are the same for everyone. This Guide is filled with questions to help would-be consultants explore their thoughts and articulate them with fill-in-the-blank space. Even though I have already started my consulting practice (and I have met Elaine Biech, a wonderful, friendly down-to-earth person who writes from experience), these introspective pieces force one to really think about the enterprise being embarked upon.

But not only are your business and personal goals addressed, all the practical issues are explored also. How much should you charge for your services? How much does it cost to set yourself up in business? How do you calculate that? How does your entreprenuership affect your family? Friends? Personal life? Insurance costs? Phone bill? All this and more is laid out in helpful charts and worksheets.

I have attended a seminar put on by the lady herself, and was so impressed I bought this book, even though she was nice enough to send me her more comprehensive book, 'The Business of Consulting'. The Quickstart will get you going, quickly. It has all the worksheets and job aids. A must-have for the novice consultant!

The book was good and well written. But if you have been in business more then a year or two or you have some business skill this information is nothing new to you. I found it to mainly dealing with the basics. Anyone who wants to go into business or marketing or managment consulting will find this book not as useful. For computer consultinants who have no business experince, this is a great start.

Too simple, bordering simplistic. I would have hoped for some deeper advice addressed to people who are assumed to be more sophisticated and lettered than the average person.

This book is a "hands-on guide" (workbook) designed for those of us who are still trying to decide if we should stay in our current job or venture out in the consulting world. I love the worksheets, checklists, and endless questions, (i.e., "Are you a match for the profession?" and "Entrepreneur attitude: do you have what it takes?" There are other books out there that cover this topic but most of them make consulting seem "glamorous". And let's face it, most of us think working for ourselves and getting out of the 9 to 5 rat race is a piece of cake. Elaine spells out the pitfalls along with the rewards. (She's been doing it for over 20 years so she obviously finds it rewarding!) She shows you that being a consultant is not just consulting--it's running a business. Elaine makes you work--yes, it takes time to do the exercises! She makes you think--do I really want to work 18 hour days or be away from my family for days at a time? She makes you face reality--can I do this?--do I want to do this? Then she tells you how to do it--one step at a time. Thanks, Elaine, for another great book in the "Business of Consulting" series!

Once again Elaine Biech has developed a step-by-step process that enables the reader to gain insight into their own "wants and desires". But it doesn't stop there. The book provides sound steps one can take to make their dreams a reality. I read this book not as a future consultant, but as a consultant that moved out of the field and started a totally different kind of business. The book read the same! The thought provoking questions guided me in finding out more about my wants and abilities and reaffirmed the choices I have made. The practical steps for starting a business are steps I have taken and they work. I wish I had read this book before I started my business.

Elaine Biech has a way of taking complex subjects and making them easy to understand, and a way or organizing thinking processes that help readers work their way through them. I personally made the transition from corporate to consulting a few years ago, starting my own firm from scratch, and I stuggled with many of the concepts that this book would have made clear to me. I wish I had had it when I started out,it would have made my entry into the field much easier.

The Consultant's Quick Start Guide is a smart start for consultants. It is a practical, easy to use guide to running the business side of an enterprise. It delivers on the promise of the title. It really is a helpful guide to taking care of business without overlooking, overdoing, or short changing anything important. The explanations, examples, lists, forms cover all the basics. Best of all, using the guide gives you more time to concentrate on the consulting part of your work with confidence and comfort that the business part is well taken care of. Novice or veteran, it's a great tool to give you a fresh start on growing strong and fast.