Customer Reviews

Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional's Guide to Growing a Practice

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I enjoyed this book. As other reviewers have pointed out, a lot of
the advice given is just good ol' common sense for the professional
service provider in general (I can easily see some of the tips given
here being used by lawyers, accountants, etc to sell their services to
business). Plus, the idea of moving from hour-based billing to
value-based billing is invaluable. As a sole practioner, you can only
bill so many hours a day... but if you can add value and charge for
the value added... "ah, there's the rub." Alan Weiss here
provides a clear sense of the mechanics and operation of your typical
small professional services firm, with a well-written emphasis on
customer retention and relationship marketing.

Weiss gives no advice on growing a
practice into an organization that will outlive its founders. There
is only advice on improving your personal bottom line. In fact, after
reading it, I realize Weiss's formula for making a million is simple:
generate business revenues in excess of a million and keep expenses as
low as possible so that you can pocket the rest as dividends and/or
salary. That works fine for the individual practioner S corp / sole
proprietor, but what if you are already in the consulting business and
you are looking for ways to grow, add new services, increase firm
reputation, or otherwise move away from the lone wolf image? Taking a
million in dividends out of your practice each year doesn't leave much
for growth or future investment. What Weiss doesn't tell you is that
consulting (as opposed to public speaking, a distinction Weiss
sometimes forgets) is subject to economies of scale. That is why
formerly one-person shops like McKinsey are now huge global firms. Is
it better to run your own shop for 20 years, withdrawing all excess
earnings as dividends to support your lavish lifestyle or is it better
to reinvest most of those earnings by adding new services, increasing
clients, hiring more top-notch staff so that by the time you are ready
to retire, your firm is worth $30 million based on expected future
cash flows? Weiss wrote this book for the former, and gives little
advice on how to achieve the latter.

I have been consuling for 10 years. About 4 years ago I stumbled across this book. I bought it principally because I was going on a trip and needed something to read, I had no expectations. I was surprised to find a wealth of advise that I really needed to bring my consulting to the next level. Issues such as: Setting value based fees, building relationships, dropping the lower end of the business to make room for bigger opportunities and importance of self promotion through publishing & speaking.

The other thing I enjoyed is that Alan presents consulting as an honorable trade that can really help effect change and growth for our customers. If your a consultant, you should read this book! At a minimum your guaranteed to find a few useful points.

I guess the book can be summarised as having one underlying strategy of becoming a million dollar consultant, with many tactics in order to get there. Relationship selling is one tactic that is explained in depth because it is so different to the way most people sell. Value pricing is the other main tactic in obtaining this status. This books touches on so many aspects of consulting it is difficult to summarise everything. If you want to know how to start a new consulting business, how to set up an office, what equipment you should buy, how to market yourself, which groups you should join, how to work with and recruit sub-contractors, how to allocated project revenue between sub-contractors, planning, down to some ethical decisions, the book covers them all. If you want to become a well known speaker, writer or well know industry expert, this book discusses the tactics to get there. The one thing this book does not do, is tell you it is easy. To achieve these goals, takes dedication and persistence even during the tough times. What do you do when you are down to your last few dollars? Sell the furniture? No, there are even tactics to deal with this situation. I would recommend this book to all consultants and sales people. The consultants will get the most out of the book, and the sales people will learn a lot about relationship selling that is sadly lacking in most of the sales people I know.

I am new to the consulting business and have read several "how to do it" guides to get me started. This is the best by far. Full of practical and tactical techniques, but more importantly focuses on fundamentals and concepts -- who are you? What is a consultant? What is your value to a customer? If you don't know the answers to these questions, tactics are just activities. Strongly recommended; how can you go wrong for the price? Dr. Weiss has a very helpful website too.

To begin with you have to start with the title of the book so you understand where in the business cycle it applies. This is about growing a consulting practice and not about starting one. It assumes that you already have an established practice that you now want to expand. There is almost nothing in here related to the initial marketing and starting a new business.
The book also concentrates on the needs of small firms in terms of the number of employees and owners. This is not the book for a large consulting company although many of the principles can be applied to such companies.
Okay, now that that is out of the way, if you are wanting to grow a consulting business then this is a great book. It carefully goes through the most common mistakes that consultants make and how those mistakes keep their business from growing. The suggestions are strong, time tested and very valuable. I completed a Master's Degree in business and the items in this book were more valuable then the entire five years of college.
Does it work? My company grew until it became a target for merger with a competitor. Then we started a new division and are using the same techniques for it to grow and it is growing faster than anyone expected.
When it comes to proposals I prefer the much more in depth book by Tom Sant on Proposal Writing but this one still does a good job in that area. This is a great book for the already established consultant who just can't seem to get to that next step.

My income keeps increasing by the day... This is one of the most powerful books I have ever read in my life.I bought this book over 2 years ago, I read it and then reread it over and over using it like a text book and I still refer to it often. The first year after I bought it I spent changing my attitude about myself, my clients and the way I perceived my client relationships and the 2nd year I spent creating the systems, processes & marketing to mushroom my business. This book has literally changed my life. I am no longer a slave to my clients but a master and they love it!Turned my business into a full consulting business with turnover growth exceeding all expectations enabling business premises purchase and multidimensional growth, including the creation of several new related companies.
If you do decide you want to be a serious consultant then there are plenty of hard decisions to make and tough calls but it's definately worth it. I find it a pleasure to abandon the low end of my business (even though it is sometimes painful) because it frees up more time for me to develop deeper relationships with my top clients so I can help them to achieve more of their goals and in turn this helps to achieve more of my own goals. I'm not at a million /year yet but I will reach a million / year next year and I'm loving every day in my business! My business is attracting lots of potential additional consultants and of course Alan has this covered too as there is a chapter on the topic of acquiring people in this book too. Alan obviously practices what he preaches because he really has thought of everything that you will encounter on your way to consulting success. Every consultant should own this book! Read it, breathe it, live it, sleep it and give yourself a quantam growth in income! Life doesn't get much better than having the luxury of choosing the people you want to work for (and work with) loving what you do and earning more than you ever dreamed possible without working 70 hours / week so you can care comfortably for your loved ones! Alan I take my hat off to you!You filled in the gaps I needed filled to start realising my true potential.

Alan Weiss' book addresses all the 'need to know' issues in the start-up and growth phases of a consulting practice. He provides models to help the reader understand and assess the value of consulting skills. Practical topics are articulated with honest integrity and helps the consultant-to-be with business and marketing strategies, models and tactics to leverage -- or even to avoid. This is a "must" for your business library! Thanks, Alan, for an excellent resource guide!

Alan Weiss has done it again! He has debunked the myths about an ambiguous profession and given readers straight talk about how to be successful in this business. I read this book when I was already established as a speaker and just considering going into consulting. I was overwhelmed at first because Weiss crams so much value into this book. I have followed 90 percent of what Alan recommends about building relationships, writing proposals (100 percent acceptance rate!) and delivering value. Buy this book and a highlighter and save some space for it on your desk. You will refer to it often.

After 9 years of consulting, I found this book to be quite elementary.... ideas like "redesigning your logo and printing letterhead on quality stock" are strictly for the novice. This wasn't worth my time.

I was inspired by this book at a moment when I had a frustrating experience with a client and had concurrently gotten involved in a side business that took my focus off the "business that I am in."

The book refreshed my memory of what I have to offer, how valuable consultants are and brought me back into balance. I came away with a deeper commitment to building my business and attaining my dream. At the same time this is a very practical book. I learned some strategies and techniques for getting myself and my associates out there again and built an inventory of action steps I can follow. I had a Dark Night of the Soul and used this book as an "external meditation". Thank you Alan Weiss for writing it.

We consultants need each other. The book was recommended by a professional colleage in The Consultant's Association for the Capital District of New York. We will be discussing this subject at our next meeting and I will be able to help my colleagues with a deeper enthusiam.

The challenge that this book helped me with is one of taking on the negativity of dynamics within an organization and seeking to retain clients that sap our abilities without returning value. Of course teh book help me see my own negativity and blame my clients less.

After completing this book, as an executive coach, I was able to consult better with a colleague who owns his own consulting firm as he goes through a similar challenge of being drained by his client and help him see that he was "coerced" into continuing with a client he wanted to fire and that he is happier without that client..

The author speaks about dropping the lower percentage of your clients. I agree and see it as emptying the vessel to make room for better clients and those who pay better.

I am in the process of doing this. It is a risk and one that I welcome.

I also appreciate that he discusses ethics. We consultants need to review our personal lives objectively if we are going to help others review the! irs and their organzations.

Weiss reminds me that it is the state of mind of the consultant that shapes the interaction and therfore the quality of services provided in the consulting relationship.

I especially appreciated his comments about the satisfaction that comes from helping others achieve their personal and professional goals.