What it Takes To Succeed in Consulting: Part One

Up to this point, I’ve talked mainly about the opportunities in consulting. What I’d like to discuss next is what you have to actually do to SUCCEED in consulting. You should know that hanging up your own shingle is hard work. None of the requirements to succeed are easy. You have to start and run a business, and you have to sell your services. Just because you have the talent to help organizations doesn’t mean they will hire you!

Before you can even get started, you will need to figure out how to package your career experience in such a way that organizations will be interested. You have to establish your credibility and come across as competent and helpful. You do not need to have an exhaustive marketing plan. You simply have to know how your resume and experience can open doors.

You need to do three major things to have a successful consulting business:

1)    You need to find clients. You have to market and sell yourself. (This is the difficult part of consulting for most people.)

2)    You need to create solutions

3)    You need to deliver your solutions that drive results

Why would anyone in their right mind want to take on all this? Because it can be one of the most rewarding careers in the world. Even if the current trends did not point to consulting as a good career choice, being a consultant could very well be the biggest reward in itself. Consulting provides interesting challenges. You work with a variety of companies. And you have status and financial success. As an added bonus, what a consultant can do for the “greater good” is unbelievable.

A consultant has the opportunity to change lives for the better. When we have been successful, we have created jobs and increased job satisfaction. People are more productive, happier, and more engaged. Study after study shows that workers who are more engaged take a sense of pride home, and also have more productive out-of-work lives. In short, people can become better employees, husbands, wives, neighbors and community leaders as a direct result of your efforts. You may think I am exaggerating, but I am not. I really believe that this is a noble profession and that independent consultants do noble work.

So, are you Hem or Haw? Do you have the kind of “can-do” attitude that will take you to success? What do you need to challenge in your own belief system to make consulting work for you?

This article is an excerpt from Buddy’s latest book, "Experience Matters: How to Succeed as a Consultant in Today’s World." To download your free copy of the full version CLICK HERE.