LNB #039: Ready! Set! Go! (starting off on your own)

Starting your own consulting firm is not for the timid. One must think like an entrepreneur. Here are a few key areas of your business you should concern yourself with:

• Administration: As I said, the tedious bits of your business that include your phone system, your location, your clerical support, your relationships with bankers, insurance firms, attorneys and accountants
• Research & Development: How you develop your new offerings
• Marketing: Key demographic information about your customers (or proposed customers). What they want, who they are, where they are, how they want to get it and how much they want to pay for it. Includes web, referral and other marketing systems.
• $ (sales, sales support and product/service delivery): What you'll do to close the sale and delivery of the product or service is needed

Some very helpful books:

• Consulting for Dummies by Bob Nelson and Peter Economy: Helps with a general picture of your business endeavor.
• Consulting on the Side: How to Start a Part-Time Consulting Business While Still Working at Your Full-Time Job by Mary F. Cook: How to transition from a full-time job to part-time consulting. Good for people who need a stop along the way to full self-employment.
• The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber: A great take on the mindsets necessary for successful entrepreneurship

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