Special Consideration for the Sole Practitioner Operating as a Management Consultant

Framework for the Consulting Business

A prospective consultant can use the following comprehensive but exhaustive guideline
to develop a realistic framework for the consulting business.

Self-Assessment

1. Make an autobiography. Review and detail all facets of your past, including work
positions, free time activities including hobbies and sports, family and personal
relationship. Include all the work experiences performed during summer,
weekends or holidays. Start with the most current period and work backwards.
2. List all areas of your special interest, achievements, knowledge, and personal
satisfaction.
3. List all your skills, that is, things that you can do. Skills are developed or acquired
abilities such as instructing, administering, researching, and problem-solving.
4. List all your talents. Talents are a natural endowment, often a unique “gift” or
special, often creative, attribute. Frequently a talent is a combination of skills.
Think of any evaluations that may have been made about you or comments
made by your friends in which your talents were observed, for example.
5. List all your attributes. Attributes are inherent characteristics such an analytical
or inquiring mind, intuition or sensitivity. Various studies have found the
following attributes essential to successful consultants.

 Good physical and mental health

 Professional etiquette and courtesy
 Stability of behaviour
 Self-confidence
 Personal effectiveness and drive; that is, responsibility, vigor, initiative,
resourcefulness, and persistence.
 Integrity, that is, the quality that engenders trust
 Independence: the successful consultant must be self-reliant and not conform
to the opinions of others. The consultant must be able to form judgments in
the areas of his/her competence and experience
 Intellectual competence
 Good judgment; the faculty of sound appraisal with complete objectivity
 Strong analytical or problem-solving ability; the ability to analyze, assemble,
sort, balance, and evaluate the basic factors of problem situations of different
degrees of complexity
  Creative imagination; the ability to see the situation with a fresh perspective
 Ability to communicate and persuade, with above-average facility, in oral,
written and graphic formats
 Psychological maturity; the successful consultant is always ready to
experience people, things, and events as they really are with their unique
individual characteristics; to view them in perspective and to take the action
needed in a calm and objective manner without being diverted from a sound,
logical and ethical course by outside pressure
 Skill in interpersonal relationships, including an ability to gain the trust and
respect of client personnel, enlist participation in the solution of problems,
apply the principles and techniques of change, and transfer knowledge to
client personnel; a receptiveness to new information or points of view
expressed by others; and an orientation toward the people aspect of problem
 Technical knowledge, which means all-encompassing knowledge of the
business and also recognizing lack of skill where it exists and seeking or
employing people with that skill
6. List all the skills and attributes you lack that you believe are necessary for a
consulting business.
7. List the skills and attributes you lack related to being a consultant that you
believe you can improve; write down how that will happen and how long it will
take. Prioritize.
8. Of the skills and attributes that you believe you cannot improve, state how that
will affect your consulting business choices, if at all.
9. Speak to friends, relatives, or family members who know you well and whose
judgment, candor, and goodwill you respect. Ask them to think about your
strengths and weaknesses as they see them, and prepare a list. Also ask them to
outline the skills, talents, and attributes they believe you can possess and those
you lack.
10. Increase your awareness of additional opportunities by using the following
resources:
a) Consulting newsletters will stimulate your ideas on managing your ideas
on managing your practice, marketing skills, determining consulting
opportunities and keeping current on events related to the consulting
industry.
b) Magazines and newspapers; you should attempt to read everything you
can relating to your speciality and general awareness of current events.
Subscribe to trade journals related to your area of interest.
c) Consulting and professional associations; contact with the associations will
provide you with an opportunity to obtain information related specifically
 to your speciality from newsletters, publications, meetings, or other
consultant contacts.
d) Government agencies the publications; depending on the area of your
interest, you may want to get on the mailing list of government
organizations or departments that have regular publications distributed
free or at a nominal charge to public. The government, of course, is the
major purchaser of consulting services, and very large sums of money are
expended every year directly and indirectly for that purpose
e) Public and university libraries; there is a vast amount of information that
is current and accessible for you to research or general ideas in your local
library or university libraries.
f) Continuing education courses and seminars; universities have continuing
education courses pertaining to business and related services.
g) Competitors; attempt to identify the competitors in your specific field.
Determine what their style and method of operation is, how long they
have been in business, how they market themselves, what they charge,
and who their clientele is, if possible. Try to ascertain why they are
successful, if they are, and how you can best distinguish yourself and find
your own niche in the market. You want to have your own unique style is
compassions are made between you and your competitors by a
perspective client.
11. Define the consulting service areas that you would like to provide.
12. Identify who you believe could be possible clients and why.
13. Project how you would like to operate your consulting business. List the
important stages and time frames of your business over the next year, three
years, and five years.
14. List how you intend to market your services; that is, create a demand for your
service and make potential clients realizes that you exist. This question will be
answered in another chapter, but it is helpful to go through the reflective
exercise yourself.