1st Edition

You're the Boss Growing and Selling a Successful Consulting Firm

By Raj Aseervatham Copyright 2016
    202 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Productivity Press

    There is no magic formula for growing a successful consulting firm, but the few most important factors you must know are critical regardless of the type of consulting firm you are trying to grow. With leadership, diligence, discipline, and sustained effort, these principles can help you achieve your most visionary business aspirations.

    If you entered consulting to make a quick dollar, or to supplement your income, this book won’t offer you much. If, instead, you are hoping to create a sustainable enterprise that accumulates value you can capitalize on, then this is the book for you.

    You're the Boss: Growing and Selling a Successful Consulting Firm is written in a warmly conversational manner, making it accessible to novice consultants as well as seasoned professionals. It is an ideal resource for business consulting entrepreneurs who want to:

    • Strategically steer their own rewarding business venture
    • Grow their business and employ others in rewarding careers
    • Profit from the sale of a highly successful independent business

    This book focuses on the creation of a capital asset and independent wealth, not just the mechanics of consulting. Bringing together the experiences and lessons learned from a dozen highly successful consulting entrepreneurs, the book provides stories that highlight the lessons in action in the USA, UK, Australia, Asia, and South Africa.

    The book is segmented into nine distinct lessons charting the journey of a successful consulting firm—from inception to sale. In addition, it presents the author’s proprietary growth model that he has applied successfully during his professional consulting experience, and which he credits for much of the commercial success he has experienced.

    Lucrative Wisdom
    The Core of Consulting
    The Three Forms of Consulting
    Your Shelf Life
    The Consultant’s World
    Three Tips

    The Exit Strategy
    Writing Your Story Backward
    Know Your Exit Value Perspectives
    The Challenge of an Exit Strategy
    Predicting the Unpredictable
    What Is Your Price?
    Creating Flexibility
    The Cell Model
    Systems and Processes
    Three Tips

    Finding and Keeping Consultants
    Typecasting Consultants
    A Taxonomy of Must-Have Consultants
    Sources of Consultants
    The Starting Conundrum
    The Characteristics of Good Consultants
    Finding Consultants
    Consultants Who Can Sell Work
    Creating an Engaging Workplace
    Three Tips

    Building Your Firm
    Your Firm’s Building Blocks
    Connecting Sectors and Services
    Projecting Resilience
    Three Tips

    Grow with Purpose
    The Mechanics of Growth
    Profit versus Growth
    Growing without Growing Pains
    Getting Your Managers to Grow
    Three Tips

    Debt-Free Growth
    Growth Funds and Growth Rates
    Growing in Fees-to-Salary Increments
    Cash Is King
    Shepherding Your Debtors
    Smoothing Revenues
    Creditor Management
    Debt-Free Growth Is Not Forever
    Three Tips

    Partnering
    To Partner or Not to Partner
    The Advantages and Risks of Partnering
    The Partnership Charter
    What Partners?
    Friends as Partners
    Three Tips

    Stumbling
    Mistake 1: It’s All about the Big Picture
    Mistake 2: Planning Is for Gumbies
    Mistake 3: Leave Managing the Cash to the Accountants
    Mistake 4: Compromise Your Quality
    Mistake 5: Let Your Principles Dilute with Time
    Mistake 6: Hire Quickly
    Mistake 7: When the Going Is Good, You Don’t Need Business Development
    Mistake 8: Build Your Overheads Up
    Three Tips

    Exit
    Initiating the Exit
    The Preparation
    Accessing Buyers
    Managing Your People During the Sale
    Responding to Your People’s Needs
    Dealing with Buyers
    Stewardship of Your Clients
    You

    Index

    Biography

    Dr. Raj Aseervatham has more than 30 years’ experience in government, private industry, and consulting. He has worked across a broad range of sectors in the United States, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. He earned four degrees, including a PhD in engineering, and an MBA majoring in international projects.

    In his consulting career, he has established multinational consulting sectors for one of the world’s largest consulting firms, started and grown three successful consulting enterprises, and provided strategic direction and governance on the boards of various organizations.