Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you will prove yourself correct.
Henry Ford
Shawn had been toying with the idea of retirement for a couple of years. Well, retirement. How did you define it these days? At least half the people he knew who had retired had gone back to work—part-time or freelancing. What were people calling it now? Hucksters? Hasslers? Side hustles! That was it. He’d always thought about being a consultant. But thinking about it was as far as it had gone. Yesterday he had learned that the company he worked for was offering early retirement. It was tempting to consider taking it. He’d been with the company long enough to qualify, and the daily grind of the same-ole, same-ole was getting tedious.
He rolled out of bed and staggered to the kitchen to start the coffee. One of these days he was going to figure out how to set the autobrew on this contraption his sister called a DeLonghi Nespresso. DeLonghi? Wasn’t that the name of an expensive car? No, that was DeLorean. He just needed coffee to lift the fog. He glanced outside and saw there was fog outside his condo, too. And the leaves were turning colors. Autumn was here. Coffee. Finally.
Sipping his coffee, he sat at the window watching the leaves fall and realized that autumn represented where he was in life. He was nearing the end of his career. He gazed across the street, where the bright yellow chrysanthemums were blooming. He didn’t feel like those falling leaves. He felt more like the sunny yellow chrysanthemums.
Resuming his earlier musings about retirement and consulting, he wondered whether he was too old to start consulting. He’d just read an article about second careers. What did it say? “It’s not about how old you are but how much you believe in your dreams,” or something like that. He had always believed in his ability to achieve. That’s why he had done so well at the company. Too old? Maybe older was better. He had a healthy savings account. His kids had successful jobs. He had plenty of experience. He had the stamina. And his expertise in IT was in high demand.
He grabbed a pen and started to write on the back of his Golf Digest:
He paused with his list and realized he was creating his dream, reimagining the next season in his life. There wasn’t a single question on the list that he couldn’t find the answer to right now. This is exciting, he thought. Jumping up from his chair he started yelling, “Gail! Gail! Wake up! I want to talk to you about something!”
■ ■ ■
The most important reason to become a consultant is because you want to. Whether you are new to the workforce or retiring, consulting is a good option. Whereas Chapter One focused on what it takes to become a consultant, this chapter focuses on the skills and the personal stamina you need to remain a consultant. It forces you to explore both sides of working out of your home and potential barriers to your success.
The most important reason to become a consultant is because you want to.
You may be surprised to think of yourself as an entrepreneur, but you must examine this aspect of becoming a consultant. Your professional skills, abilities, knowledge, and experience provide the content. Your entrepreneurial abilities will determine how well you run your business. Both are required to be a successful consultant.
As a consultant, you will possess skills that are valued and needed by clients who are willing to pay you for them. Naturally, many of the skills required will be dependent on the niche you carve out for yourself. Whether you work in the manufacturing or insurance sector, whether you focus on training or organization development, you will want to acquire the skills necessary to put you at the high end of the knowledge curve.
As a training consultant, for example, you may become certified by one of the larger training supplier companies, such as The Ken Blanchard Companies or DDI. In this case, you will need strong delivery skills. A training consultant who also designs training must have design skills. If you expect to broaden your consulting to working with clients on performance issues, you will need to add analytical, measurement, and process improvement skills to your list.
If you decide to be a consultant who coaches, you will need to be familiar with and certified to use a variety of assessment tools, be an excellent communicator, and know how to help another individual establish goals, among other skills and competencies.
In addition to these specific skills, there are general consulting skills that show that you are a professional. Exhibit 2.1 provides a self-evaluation to determine whether your general skills and characteristics are a match for the profession. Complete it by jotting comments in either the Strength or the Needs Improvement/Needs Attention column. Then read the following sections to determine which of the listed skills are important for you and your consulting plans.
Exhibit 2.1 Consultant Skills and Characteristics
| Rate your strengths | ||
| Skills | Strength | Needs Improvement |
| Prospecting and marketing | ||
| Promoting and selling results | ||
| Diagnosing client needs | ||
| Identifying mutual expectations | ||
| Pricing projects | ||
| Staying organized | ||
| Understanding business data | ||
| Designing solutions | ||
| Developing talent | ||
| Facilitating meetings | ||
| Having a depth of experience | ||
| Having a breadth of experience | ||
| Characteristics | Natural | Needs Attention |
| Leader in many situations | ||
| Team player | ||
| People turn to me for decisions | ||
| Enjoy competition | ||
| Self-confident | ||
| Enjoy working long, hard hours | ||
| Always plan ahead | ||
| Self-disciplined | ||
| Sell myself with confidence | ||
| Financial acumen | ||
| Reasonable risk taking | ||
| Family support | ||
| Which skills and characteristics need the most improvement and attention? | ||
| How will you gain necessary skills or experience? | ||
| How will you adapt to necessary characteristics that are not naturally “you”? | ||
Prospecting, or looking for clients, will require much of your time when you first start. Having clients is the only thing that will keep you in business. You will find that you need to prove yourself over and over, and that is why referrals and repeat business are so valuable to a consultant. Your marketing efforts should clearly state what you have been able to achieve in the past and the kind of problems you want to solve for organizations. Your website is a start, but heed the advice from Donald Miller, CEO of StoryBrand, a company that helps businesses clarify their messages. He finds that most websites display five major mistakes. They don’t present the customer’s problems; they use too much copy; they don’t have a clear offer; they don’t provide a path to the solution; and they are focused too much on you the consultant (Miller 2017). Prospecting and marketing will ensure that the phone keeps ringing.
Having clients is the only thing that will keep you in business.
Connect with StoryBrand on their website at www.StoryBrand.com.
You can market your services, but people will be hiring you. You must feel comfortable discussing your successes. Few businesses will pay you for consulting if you don’t have a track record that shows that you know what you are doing. Consulting gives you an opportunity to work with people at all levels of the organization. Promote yourself and your services to those at the top. They have the budget, the vision, and the ability to approve your proposals. Get others on your bandwagon. Obtain testimonials from CEOs or others you’ve worked with and post them on your website or add them to your proposals. It’s important that you show confidence without cockiness.
You will be hired to provide solutions to the challenges that organizations face. In some cases you will meet with your clients and they will tell you exactly what they want you to do. Sometimes they will ask you what needs to be done. And sometimes what they say they want is not what they need! Your diagnostic skills will tell you what to do in all cases. If you are good at coaching, strategy development, operational improvement, technology implementation, identifying root causes, or general problem solving, you will likely have no trouble obtaining consulting gigs.
The ability to lead a candid discussion with your client to reach agreement on what each of you needs, wants, and expects as a result of working together will ensure that your projects start on the right foot. Keeping these mutual expectations alive and healthy is valuable to you. To increase client retention and even to attract new clients, it is critical to satisfy your customers—always. It seems that there are two reasons why your client may not do business with you: a drop in quality and poor customer service. You might say, well, I would never let that happen. But imagine that you are really good and you take on more business than you can handle. Is there a possibility that the quality and client service might slip? Of course they might. Track your progress and results to always be ready to improve them. Finally, stay in touch with the client who hired you.
Both art and science are involved in pricing your projects. How long a project will take, how many on-site days are needed, how long it will take to design, develop, gather data, compile data, analyze what you learn, and how many trips you will make to the client’s location will all affect the price tag you place on a project. Articulating the value to the client is not something many of us do naturally. A value proposition is not what you think you bring to the project. It is what your client needs to solve the problem. It is not about why you think you are special; it’s about why your client thinks you’re special! How much value will your client gain from your solution in increased profits, fewer accidents, or less turnover? What does that equate to in dollars and what percent do you earn, perhaps 5 percent? Ten percent? Be sure that you can succinctly and convincingly define the value proposition to your client.
Organizing your office so that you will be able to locate everything that you file and developing processes to track clients, money, and work will be critical to your success. Keeping records is essential, and so is hiring a good accountant to ensure that you are always on time and in the good graces of the IRS or whatever the name of your tax agency might be. Developing standard documents, such as proposals or invoices, will help you stay organized and save time. In reality, however, you need to like being organized.
You’ll need a clear understanding of business data to take care of your business and to understand your client’s business. This book offers numerous methods for tracking your data, such as expense records, profit-and-loss statements, and revenue-projection forms. Your ability to read them, analyze them, and know what they are telling you is important for your financial health. You also need to be able to read and understand numerous financial documents from your clients’ perspective. They will share the financial health of their businesses with you, and you will need to comprehend the financial status and trends so that you can uncover the issues you’ve been hired to address.
Your clients will come to you to identify or solve their problems. You must be able to gather data to compare the pros and cons of different models. You may also be hired to be a catalyst for change. The client will count on you for your objectivity. No one inside an organization can tell the emperor that he has no clothes. Your fresh viewpoint can help an organization see that there is more underlying the issues they are facing.
You may not bill yourself as a talent developer or a trainer, but you will train in many ways. You may coach a CEO, mentor a manager, or do some one-on-one training with superintendents on the floor. Often when employees know that you are competent and trustworthy, they will ask to talk to you. This happens to me a great deal. Employees meet me in the hall or pop their heads into my temporary space and ask, “Can I run something by you?” They might be asking for advice, a way to deal with a sticky problem, a recommendation for a resource, or 100 other things. Internalizing adult learning theory ensures that you are always ready for those teaching moments.
You very likely will be called on to facilitate meetings for your client. Brush up on meeting-management skills as well as facilitation skills. You know that all meeting leaders should:
Be sure you practice all of these. You will be seen as a model in many situations. These skills will help you hold your own.
How deep is your experience? If you are specializing in an area, you should know all you can about it. Read your professional journals and keep up with the latest books in your area. As a specialist, you have expertise in a particular field, industry, or focus area. See the sidebar to comprehend the wide variety of consulting opportunity. Whatever your specialty is, know all you can about it before calling yourself a consultant. Generally it is best to pick a narrow niche and stick with it.
Consulting covers a wide spectrum of specialties. How many of these have you heard of?
How wide is your experience? You must be enough of a generalist to know what else applies in the situation you are dealing with. You should know where you can go for help when you need it. As a generalist, you will be expected to have a heavy dose of common sense to provide an outside perspective and to cut through internal politics. You will have a wide range of experience. If you need more experience in one area, you can always hire a subcontractor to work with you.
A balance of breadth and depth is a critical advantage your client will look for. It is also important to decide whether to present yourself as a specialist or a generalist. The more specialized you are, the more difficult it will be to obtain a wide variety of business; the more generalized you are, the less credible you may be in a potential client’s eyes.
The more specialized you are, the more difficult it will be to obtain a wide variety of business; the more generalized you are, the less credible you may be in a potential client’s eyes.
Consider the skills in the next section to be a starting point for your consulting talent.
Consulting is a profession of contrasts and high expectations. Not only will you need to be multiskilled, sensibly focused, knowledgeable, and widely experienced, but you will need to maintain a delicate balance of personal characteristics. Your clients expect you to be confident, but not arrogant; assertive, but not pushy; intelligent, but not a nerd; personable, but not overly friendly; candid, but not critical; understanding, but not too sensitive. In addition, they will want you to be creative and visionary, but at the same time logical and practical. You will need to see the big picture, but also watch out for the details that might trip you up.
This affords you quite a challenge! A client will be just as interested in your personal characteristics as in your skills. Although clients will ask you to discuss your skills, they will evaluate your characteristics. As unfair as it may seem, many contracts are awarded on personality. Clients may consciously (or unconsciously) realize that they will need to work with the consultant they are considering. I recently had a discussion with a vice president of a large Fortune 300 company who was emphatically telling me that he simply did not trust the last consultant he interviewed, but could not say specifically why. (I got the job.)
Although clients will ask you to discuss your skills, they will evaluate your characteristics.
Although there are hundreds of roles you may play as a consultant, the following examples will give you an idea of what a client may expect of you. As a consultant, you may come in at any point in a situation facing a client. Although the examples here are somewhat oversimplified, they may help you decide the role that you can fill the best.
You may enter when a client knows something is wrong in general, but just cannot identify what: morale is down, communication is poor, turnover is high, and profits are questionable. In this case, you may be asked to identify the problem. You will probably be required to gather data, interview people, study the bigger picture, recognize interfaces, and benchmark other organizations. The roles you will play include interviewer, analyzer, synthesizer, categorizer, and researcher.
You may enter when a client knows there is a problem: sales are down, time from concept to market is too long, or defects are high. The client knows there is a problem but does not know the cause of it. You may be asked to identify the root cause of the problem. You will need to understand the basics of problem solving, how to uncover the root cause, how to communicate with process owners, and how to challenge the status quo. You may need to have a heavy dose of expertise in the area. The roles you will play include expert resource, auditor, devil’s advocate, mediator, and problem solver.
You may enter when a client knows there is a problem and has identified the cause: sales are down because the competition has introduced a new product, time from concept to market is too long because the staff doesn’t work well together, or defects are high because the supplier is unreliable. In this case, you may be asked to identify a solution or solutions. You will probably need to research outside initiatives in the same or other industries. You may need to locate other resources or to coordinate and facilitate open discussion. You will need to help others identify potential ideas. The roles you will play include processor, idea generator, facilitator, and adaptor.
You may enter when a client knows there is a problem, has identified the root cause, and has determined the solution: need to attract a new customer base, need to work better as a team, or need to improve supplier communication. In this case, you may be asked to create and implement the solution or change. You will be expected to make things happen. If you must install the new, you may also be required to dismantle the old. You will need to deliver information and assist others to communicate effectively. You may need to supervise installations and reconfigure the work force. The roles you will play include catalyst, implementer, change agent, mentor, communicator, and coordinator.
Each of these examples requires you to play different roles. Obviously, there is a lot of crossover, but think about your talents and which roles you could fill best. What are your strengths? What do you most enjoy doing?
What do other consultants think are critical consulting skills? Here’s a list. Which ones do you think are most important?
Check the consulting section of the Careers in Business website. It provides a variety of information, including skills and talent required, recommended books on jobs in consulting, facts and trends in consulting, and information about practice areas in consulting. Check it out at http://www.careers-in-business.com.
When support is needed or an organization senses that it doesn’t have the expertise to complete a particular job, the company may hire an outside professional who comes in to bolster the marketing department or the sales department, especially to support a specific area or campaign. The outside objective analysis is valued by the hiring organization. In addition to consultants, the people taking on these projects might be called gig workers, contractors, or just part-time employees. Why “hired gun”? Although you won’t be hired with that description, you will know once you get into the project. You might learn that projects are over budget or management has been lax in meeting goals. Often the root cause is a lack of accountability—but then, I won’t spoil your fun as you try to figure these out. I try to avoid these kinds of gigs, but you can’t always tell at the beginning that that’s what they are.
Now that we’ve examined the skills and roles that may be required, let’s look for signs that you may not be cut out to be a consultant.
In more than 30 years of consulting, I’ve observed hundreds of consultants. Many were very good and some were mediocre. You aren’t starting your business to be mediocre, so here are some of the practices and characteristics that lead to mediocrity:
Average is just average. Is that what you want to be?
Before you quit your job and buy your business license, take time to identify any personal situations that may make the profession difficult for you. I’ve listed five that are frequently identified. You may have others. The best way to discover these may be to discuss your own situation with a friend, your spouse, or a significant other.
Even if you leave your present job with the promise of six months of consulting work, there is no guarantee that you will have your next projects lined up when that income stream ends.
You may become so tied up in the project that you don’t take the time to prospect for new projects. Or you may decide that you deserve some time off before you plunge into your business. In either case, you may not have a steady income following your initial project.
What can you do? Do you have savings or other cash that you can draw from during your initial start-up or later if you have no income? Can you cut back on personal or business spending? Can you obtain a line of credit from your bank? Consulting has its ups and downs. Be sure to set some money aside in a liquid investment for times when things are not going as well as you would like. It may be difficult to adjust to the fact that consulting does not produce a regular paycheck.
Consulting does not produce a regular paycheck.
Leaving the hustle and bustle of an office sounds great initially, but once you spend several days in the same room without seeing anyone except the mail carrier, you may begin to go stir crazy. You may miss the opportunity to work as a team. You may miss the synergy that groups can create, and you may miss the social interactions.
What can you do? You can at least arrange to have lunch with someone once each week. You can plan to meet other consultants regularly. Even though discussion is likely to turn to work, you will still appreciate the camaraderie.
Does working from your home sounds like an ideal situation? Get up when you want to. No traffic to face. No time clock to punch. Work in your shorts and T-shirt. Listen to your favorite radio station. Brew fresh gourmet coffee in the morning. Eat a bagel while you’re proofing a proposal. Walk outdoors at any time during the day. Flick the television on to hear the latest news. Pick up the kids from school. Read at your desk after everyone has gone to bed. Perfect day—right?
How about the day things don’t go as well? The dog barks just as you are about to close an important sale. Your daughter spills milk on the proposal that’s on its way to the post office. Your home-based office has spread to the living room. You need to leave for an important meeting and your son hasn’t returned with the car. Your spouse is upset because you spend every waking hour in your office.
Both kinds of day are equally possible. You will need to face the reality of both. Think about how you can balance working at home and living at home.
Think about how you will feel when a client asks you how many people are in your company. Will you feel proud of being on your own or will you feel somehow inferior? How will you feel about doing your own typing, copying, errands, dusting, vacuuming?
An important factor to consider is backup support. What will you do when one of your clients is counting on you to facilitate a critical meeting and you are at home ill? Identify someone who could fill in for you. You could make a reciprocal agreement with several other consultants in your area.
Family support is critical. Starting your business will be difficult enough. You don’t need your family saying, “We told you so!” when something goes wrong. Obtain 100 percent support from all immediate family members before you hang out your shingle.
Set a date with your spouse, partner, or significant other to review the 100 percent support agreement on a specific date. This could be three to six months into the future. Put it in writing and hang it someplace where you will both see it every day. This will give you time to figure things out.
The five personal situations described earlier are mentioned most frequently as interfering with consultants’ ability to function. Each has its own solution. You must recognize the possibility of any of these problems coming up and plan your own solutions.
We have focused on what it takes to be a successful consultant, but it is bigger than that. You are headed for the entrepreneurial ranks. You are about to become a business owner.
Although there is no way I can prepare you psychologically for the long hours, the endless frustrations, the demands for patience and persistence, the multitude of ups and downs, and the desperate need for planning when there is no time for planning, I can provide some suggestions for success.
Estimates generally are that about 50 percent of all start-up businesses fail within five years. Responsibility for success or failure rests almost entirely with the person who started the business. What are some of these reasons?
You certainly do not want to be among the casualty statistics over the next year or two! The remaining chapters in this book provide you with the guidance to steer clear of each of these.
Although all the experts do not agree about what makes a successful start-up business owner, the following seem to be mentioned most often.
First, you have to want to do it! Let’s face it. You’re tired of working for someone else and the idea of doing your own thing appeals to you—really appeals to you. You have already taken the first step. You’ve decided that you want to start a business, and, yes, you want to ensure that it is still around five years from now. What’s next?
Self-confidence is on almost all lists. Be honest with yourself. If you don’t believe in you, who will? Most consultants have a good dose of self-assurance—believing that they can do whatever they set their minds to. Before starting my business, I can remember thinking, “This is such a sure bet; I can’t not succeed!”
Most entrepreneurs have a sense of urgency. They have places to go, things to do, people to see, and successes to pull off. They seem to have more energy than most people and a need to do things now. Interestingly enough, most require fewer than the usual eight hours of sleep each night.
Entrepreneur magazine has a great website with all sorts of informative downloadable articles, podcasts, advice for starting a business, and recommended books. Check it out at www.entrepreneur.com.
They have a willingness to work hard—to do what it takes to achieve success. Long hours don’t scare them. They also play hard—and competitively!
Entrepreneurs have a need to control and direct. They want the responsibility and authority that comes with owning a business. They like making decisions; they do not like being told what to do.
They have the flexibility to think differently as the need arises. They can be either creative or analytical; they can be big-picture thinkers or detail-oriented.
Maintaining a positive attitude gets entrepreneurs through the ups and downs. They truly do look at problems as challenges. They are certain a solution exists and welcome the learning that accompanies identifying the problem and solving it.
They are good decision makers. They may rate high to medium in risk taking and are good at weighing the potential outcomes. They are decisive and move forward. They don’t hesitate or procrastinate. They are also willing to change a course of action if the expectations for success are lower than they had hoped.
Entrepreneurs are creative problem solvers. They are conceptual thinkers and see relationships that others may not. They excel at creating order out of chaos.
They may be obsessed with quality—quality of service, quality of product, quality of a project. They are naturally committed to excellence and do not need the quality gurus to inspire them!
Good health is almost imperative, given the preceding list! I believe that health has a lot to do with positive thinking and the fact that entrepreneurs just don’t have time to get sick.
Do you have what it takes to be a business owner? Can you cut it as an entrepreneur? Find out with the evaluation in Exhibit 2.2.
Exhibit 2.2 Entrepreneurs: Do You Have What It Takes?
| Instructions: Rate yourself on the following qualities. They represent the thinking of several authors about the requirements of a successful business owner. Spend ample time pondering these questions and answer honestly. Although this survey can only give a general picture of what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, only you can decide whether the move is right for you. | ||||||
| Rate yourself on the following scale from 1 to 4: | ||||||
| 1 = strongly disagree | 3 = agree | |||||
| 2 = disagree | 4 = strongly agree | |||||
| Circle your answer | ||||||
| 1. | I usually try to take charge when I’m with others. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 2. | I can do anything I set my mind to. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 3. | I have a high tolerance level. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 4. | I believe I can always influence results. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 5. | I am complimented on my ability to quickly analyze complex situations. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 6. | I prefer working with a difficult but highly competent person rather than a friendly, less competent one. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 7. | I can fire employees who are not producing. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 8. | I am willing to leave a high-paying secure job to start my own business. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 9. | I push myself to complete tasks. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 10. | I can work long, hard hours when necessary. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 11. | I need to be the best at whatever I do. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 12. | I do not become frustrated easily. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 13. | I thrive on challenges. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 14. | I become bored easily with routine tasks. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 15. | I dislike being told what to do. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 16. | I have a higher energy level than most people. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 17. | I have held numerous leadership positions. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 18. | I have the skills and enjoy accomplishing a complex task by myself. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 19. | I can change my course of action if something is not working. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 20. | I am seen as a creative problem solver. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 21. | I can balance the big picture and details of a business at the same time. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 22. | I can predict how my actions today will affect business tomorrow and in the future. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 23. | I need at least _____ hours of sleep to function effectively. | 1 = 8 hours 3 = 6 hours |
2 = 7 hours 4 = 5 or fewer hours |
|||
| 24. | I have at least _____ years’ of experience in the business I will start. | 1 = 1 year 3 = 4 years |
2 = 2 years 4 = 5 years |
|||
| 25. | Over the past three years I have missed a total of _____ days of work due to illness. | 1 = over 15 days 3 = 6–10 days |
2 = 11–15 days 4 = 0–5 days |
|||
| Scoring: Total the numbers you circled | ||||||
| 90–100 | Go for it! | |||||
| 82–89 | Good chance of success | |||||
| 74–81 | Pretty risky | |||||
| 73 and below | Better continue to collect a paycheck | |||||
Perhaps you completed the self-evaluation and you are still not sure. What descriptors identify someone who does not have the makings of an entrepreneur? Is there a way to identify specific characteristics of a nonentrepreneur? Check out the sidebar to compare.
Not everyone is cut out for the entrepreneurial lifestyle. It’s hard. These clues might suggest that it is not right for you:
This chapter focused on the required talents and characteristics of consultants. You can begin to appreciate the multitalented person a client will expect. You probably have a better picture of the drawbacks now, as well as the rewards of consulting. If you are excited by the opportunity and challenged by the adventure, you are ready to begin thinking about what you need to do to start.
Make certain that you are a fit for the profession. This requires you to examine your skills and passion. How do they match up to consulting? Consider who you are, your natural skills, and what you like to do when you have a choice. How well do you fit the requirements of consulting?
Where the Two Overlap. Make two lists. The first should be what you like to do—your passions, if you will. Be general, such as organize events or solve problems. Next make a list of what people would pay you to do. Is there a business potential where the two overlap?
Take a Test Drive. You may want to do your own trial run before taking the leap into consulting. Perhaps you could conduct a small project or team-building event for a local nonprofit or a community college. Be sure to tell your boss.
Pump Up Your Subconscious. Your brain isn’t really smart. It only knows what you put into it. Are you telling your brain you will succeed in your consulting business? Or are you telling your brain that you will fail in your consulting business? Either way, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can train your subconscious mind to think more positively. Those positive messages will make it to your conscious being to ensure you achieve the results you desire.