An Introduction to Professional Consulting: The Art of Finding Clients and Securing Engagements

There are many of us. Some of us belong to professional consulting organizations, some of us are independents, some of us run our own consulting businesses, some do it full time, some part-time, some of us provide advice, some analyze and write reports, some help find resources, some do financial and investment work, others write code, build web-sites, and others physically design and build things. But the bottom line is that we are brought in under contract to complete something for someone else, either as an individual or a business entity of some sort. We are brought into a situation because we have the expertise, ability or the time to do something for another individual or company that they don't have themselves or internally within their organization. Or, they have seen or heard about us and our reputation is such that they just want us involved in what they are trying to construct. This book is primarily pointed at the new practitioner involved in the world of business and IT consulting in general although there are aspects to what I am writing about that others might find to be useful knowledge as well. If you can think of anything you can do for any business entity under contract and get paid to do it, then that will fall within the scope of what I am writing about in this book. The five core parts that my "A Guide to Professional Consulting" series of books on this topic will cover include the following: Part One: What It Means to Be a Consultant Part Two: Finding and Securing the Engagement Part Three: Planning, Information Gathering, Current Analysis, Requirements and Gap Identification Part Four: Strategy Development, Architecture Definition and Project Identification Part Five: Migration Planning, Project Development and Dependencies, Resourcing, Durations and Timing This first book is intended to cover Parts One and Two: Part One: What It Means to Be a Consultant Part Two: Finding and Securing the Engagement In this first book in the series, I take the reader through the decision process of whether or not to even consider becoming a consultant in the first place through to discussing niches you can become proficient in and make a living at within the professional consulting profession. Then, I show you ways that you can find clients for your services, how to position yourself so that clients can find you, and ultimately how to secure an engagement for yourself or your team so you can start working on a project. Oh yes, I will also show you things you can do and verbiage you can use in your agreements to help protect yourself financially while undertaking these projects should anything go wrong or sideways during the work effort. Enjoy the book and this series and best of luck with your consulting career. - Dan Grijzenhout - Author