Introduction

Welcome to the greatest profession in the world. I'm talking about being an independent management consultant, an incredibly exciting and rewarding career that can also be an exceptionally lucrative one, if done correctly.

It's what I call a brain job. Peter Drucker would call it a knowledge worker's profession, in line with his description of a world changing from an economy of laborers to one of thinkers. Consider it becoming a free agent in an entire economy of free agents. In this career you get to take all that wonderful knowledge and experience you've developed in your professional management career and turn them into a dream job.

What other career allows you to incur almost zero overhead, work a majority of your time from home (yes, even in pajamas), spend all the time you want with your loved ones, and control exactly what work you do, and for whom?

It's no wonder that the occupation of management consultant is the single fastest-growing job in the entire country right now. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, this occupation is growing at 84 percent, nearly double that of the next closest job title. From those who have been laid off to those who no longer wish to allow someone else to control their entire lives, people around the world are taking this leap.

Don't let this statistic scare you, however. There is still plenty of room to grow. What statistics like these do mean, though, is that this isn't the same industry it was 20 years ago. Gone are the early prospector days where all one had to do was hang out a shingle, call himself or herself a consultant, and take an ad hoc approach to building their practice. Those who plan on succeeding today and staying for the long haul must differentiate themselves and step up their game.

My job in these pages is to help you do just that. I will help you reduce the number of mistakes you will make (I said reduce, mind you) and give you the wisdom and experience of thousands of other consultants who have gone before you and thrived. I know a little bit about doing that myself.

In 1998 I founded a consulting firm called Innermetrix Incorporated with my partner Damon Kohler. Originally it was just me doing consulting, with Damon handling all the technology. Today Innermetrix is an international firm with over 750 consultants in 23 countries helping tens of thousands of companies and hundreds of thousands of their employees.

The biggest benefit of working with all of these consultants and corporations has been the learning. Far more than thoughts from a single consultant, this book holds the wisdom of the very best in our profession. You will learn at the feet of many hypersuccessful consultant brothers and sisters who made their mistakes so you don't have to.

If you want to build a profitable business today, you can't just sit back and wait for business to come to you. And you can't just read this book and gain understanding of the practice of consulting. You must learn to apply these lessons. The effort you put into practicing the understanding I will give you in these pages is the key.

As the subtitle states, you have the expertise. That is not something I'm going to be able to help you with. If you're considering becoming a consultant, the presumption is that you've spent a good portion of your lifetime honing your business expertise in whatever industry or field you're in. While you bring that expertise, my job is to make you an expert in how to grow a profitable consulting practice.

These solutions have been field-tested and battle-proven. They work for all types of consultants and in all the different business cultures I've worked in as well. Through my training and certification programs I've conducted from New York to Johannesburg, Sydney to Hong Kong, and all over Europe and the United States, I've taught over 1,750 independent management consultants the same lessons contained in this book.

Even though, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 65 percent of all new start-ups fail to survive past the five-year mark, of those 1,750 consultants I've trained, 95 percent of them have survived past that same five-year mark and are profitable. Some of these consultants consistently achieve seven-figure revenue year after year, and the majority maintains healthy six-figure incomes steadily—even in the current economy! I know these lessons work, and I'm excited about helping you add your name to this list!

Welcome aboard—and now let's go build your profitable practice! For additional learning and resources on all of the lessons in this book, visit www.TheProfitableConsultant.com.