Consulting on the Side: How to Start a Part-Time Consulting Business While Still Working at Your Full-Time Job [Hardcover]

Mary F. Cook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0471120286 | ISBN-13: 978-0471120285 | Edition: 1

Build a thriving business while holding down a full-time job.

Do you yearn to strike out on your own, take charge of your destiny, and create a better, more independent lifestyle for yourself? Read this book and learn how to start your consulting business while you still have the security of a regular job.

Consulting on the Side is for the professional who longs for independence but can't simply walk away from a steady paycheck and company health benefits. Successful consultant and business author Mary F. Cook shows you how to build a thriving consulting practice gradually, without leaving your full-time job. Drawing upon her own experiences and those of others who established successful consulting practices on the side, she covers all the bases and offers sound, practical advice on everything from logistics to finances, ethics to personal issues. You'll learn how to:
* Build a healthy client base while working a 9-to-5 job
* Market your services effectively without spending a fortune
* Respond to outside clients while staying productive at your current job
* Set fees and negotiate contracts
* Handle non-compete agreements and conflict-of-interest issues
* Develop an accounting/financial system that keeps your personal and business finances separate
* Set up and run a home office
* Learn to handle the stress of working two jobs
* Know when the time is right to quit your job and become a full-time consultant


Consulting on the Side helps you realize your dreams of financial independence without gambling with the job security you've worked so hard for.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This book is for the professional who longs for independence but can't simply walk away from a regular paycheck and health benefits. Successful consultant Mary F. Cook describes how to build a thriving consulting practice gradually, without leaving your 9-5 job. You'll find out how to:

• Build a healthy client base while working a regular job
• Market your services effectively without spending a fortune
• Set fees and negotiate contracts
• Handle non-compete agreements and conflict-of-interest issues
• Set up and run a home office
• Know when the time is right to quit your job and become a full-time consultant.

The sound, practical advice you need on everything from logistics to ethics is right here. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Build a thriving business while holding down a full-time job.

Do you yearn to strike out on your own, take charge of your destiny, and create a better, more independent lifestyle for yourself? Read this book and learn how to start your consulting business while you still have the security of a regular job.

Consulting on the Side is for the professional who longs for independence but can't simply walk away from a steady paycheck and company health benefits. Successful consultant and business author Mary F. Cook shows you how to build a thriving consulting practice gradually, without leaving your full-time job. Drawing upon her own experiences and those of others who established successful consulting practices on the side, she covers all the bases and offers sound, practical advice on everything from logistics to finances, ethics to personal issues. You'll learn how to:

• Build a healthy client base while working a 9-to-5 job
• Market your services effectively without spending a fortune
• Respond to outside clients while staying productive at your current job
• Set fees and negotiate contracts
• Handle non-compete agreements and conflict-of-interest issues
• Develop an accounting/financial system that keeps your personal and business finances separate
• Set up and run a home office
• Learn to handle the stress of working two jobs
• Know when the time is right to quit your job and become a full-time consultant

Consulting on the Side helps you realize your dreams of financial independence without gambling with the job security you've worked so hard for. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471120286
• ISBN-13: 978-0471120285
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #548,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very dated material - but some still useful, January 22, 2001

By 

Mark M Prussian (Louisville, KY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Consulting on the Side: How to Start a Part-Time Consulting Business While Still Working at Your Full-Time Job (Paperback)

This book was probably cutting edge when writing began in the early to mid 1990's. But now, the book is seriously out of date. For example, there is no mention of using the Internet to market your consulting business. However, the author does explain how to do some basic business research online. This is before the days of web browsers. Therefore, the author explains how to set your modem for 2400 and 9600 bps connections. Additionnaly she gives resources for firms that provide products or services to small businesses, however, many of these resources are now out of business.

An additional example of dated material would be the information she writes about the Small Business Administration. At the time the book was written, the data was very useful. Recent changes to SBA programs render the author's information historical, rather than helpful.

Basic small business concepts, such as time management and business plan development are still relevant.

Overall, the book needs a revised edition, or it should not be sold by Amazon.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource, March 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Consulting on the Side: How to Start a Part-Time Consulting Business While Still Working at Your Full-Time Job (Paperback)

This book is a great resource. She covers everyhing from small details such as arranging your home office to larger issues such as ethical questions about consulting in the same area as your employer and practical questions such as how to register your business name and inexpensive ideas for marketing. This book is also a good resource for people wanting to start ANY home-based consulting business, not just a part-time one. Since the book was published in 1996, there are not as many references to the web as their might be if it were published today, but the author was obviously in-tuned to various technicological benefits that existed in 1996, and she still gives solid advice that is still valid today (the Internet doesn't solve everything and changes all the time anyway!).

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Only downside: some material is dated, February 17, 2004

By 

Manny Hernandez "@askmanny" (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Consulting on the Side: How to Start a Part-Time Consulting Business While Still Working at Your Full-Time Job (Paperback)

Considering this book was published in 1996, back when the Web was barely a buzzword, it could be worse, but the reality is that this book's most important flaw has to do with its sheer age. Due to that, it misses on some very useful pieces of information and resources the writer could have offered, if a more recent edition were available.

Now that I wrote about the negative (I normally don't do things in this order, but it just came to me), on to the good things:
-The book addresses to a sufficient extent many of the issues (time and stress-wise, in terms of ethical conflicts, etc.) that stem out of starting a consulting practice beside your full-time job. This is where the CORE STRENGTH of the book lies. I've not been able to find any other titles that go into this topic so effectively... in fact, I've not found any other books on the topic at all. Most of the other consulting books I've checked out simply deal with consulting, considering it full-time dedication deal.
-The author -the President of her own HR Consultancy- also volunteers some good (though far from unique or comprehensive) advice on putting together a pricing scheme for your services, finding sources of financing for your outlet, starting your office at home, marketing your services, and even heads up into critical tax/legal considerations to take into account.

Other than the outdated material in a few parts where references are cited, and the lack of online information to support the book, I liked her book. All in all, it is not a recipe book, but a reference and a rather good one, most specifically useful to those in the process of considering a consulting business on the side, and even for those who are already doing it, in order to assist with setting things up that you might not have thought of up to this point.

Note: unless she went out of business or did a poor job at marketing her services online, it's impossible to find any other reference to her in Google besides this book, whatever that implies... :\