The Independent Consulting Manual

by tnorthcutt • 11 years ago

17 2 11 years ago

kaisdavis• 11 years ago

Heya HNers,

Jumping in here to offer a bit of context to this post!

We — a collection of 13 consultants — wrote the Independent Consulting Manual (ICM) to offer advice, guidance, and direction to consultants who want to grow their business.

The ICM is based on our shared experience growing our consulting practices over the last few years. While it would be impossible to offer a 'Comprehensive Guide To Everything Consulting,' we've done our best to share strategic (ex: building a productized consulting offering, positioning your business, qualifying your prospects and clients, writing better proposals, etc.) and tactical lessons (ex: using cold email outreach, using facebook ads, avoiding late payment, etc.) to help give consultants, like you, a strong direction of the strategies and tactics available — and how to implement them in your business.

Wherever possible, we worked to go 'above and beyond' in the advice we share to make sure that it's actionable, relevant, and specific to an independent consultant who is looking to grow their business.

As Bryce Bladon was kind enough to write in the introduction:

It would take years of experience and dozens of new and interesting mistakes to learn as much as I have from Kai and his colleagues over the first few months of knowing them. That’s what this book is: a shortcut for time, effort, and mistakes.
If you’re someone who considers themselves an independent _anything_, then you’re probably someone who understands accountability. You understand that this book is not going to catapult you to ridiculous new heights of success as soon as you finish the last chapter.
What it is going to do is provide proven and actionable advice. It’s going to make you reflect on how you do business and it’s going to make you better for it.

We wrote the ICM to provide actionable advice specific to independent consultants. But, much like any skill, it takes action on the part of the reader to implement the advice and, slowly, consistently, over time, improve their business to get to that next level.

I know that from when I started my independent consulting practice to when I had my first 6-figure year, it took 5 years of consistent, steady progress. With the ICM, we're offering lessons, advice, and direction to help the reader understand the steps to take to reach that point. Much like a cookbook, we're offering lessons and recipes to follow. The job for the reader is to implement, test, refine, and repeat.

Our Guarantee — We collectively stand behind our product and the quality of the information we're sharing. If you buy the ICM, read it, and find it lacking in any way, not up to your standards, or not meeting your expectations, all you need to do is hit reply to your order email and let me know you want a refund. Then I'll send you an immediate refund. (We list a 14-day money back guarantee on the website and the truth is after 14, 28, or 365+ days, if you said "Hey, you know what, I made this investment and I'm just not happy with it, I'd like a refund," I'll instantly refund you your purchase).

Am I explaining all of that well? I deeply appreciate any questions you have for me / us. I'll be checking this thread throughout the day. You can also always message me on Twitter as @kaisdavis.

Thank you!

— Kai, Editor, Independent Consulting Manual

lwhalen• 11 years ago

We're allowing straight-up ads on HN now?

The Independent Consulting Manual

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