Getting Started in Consulting

Getting Started in Consulting is Alan Weiss's practical, step-by-step guide for anyone leaving employment to build an independent consulting practice, built around a central promise: that low overhead combined with genuine organizational discipline can produce a six- or even seven-figure income working from a home office. Weiss writes from decades of direct experience running his own successful solo consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, and consulting for major organizations, positioning the book less as motivational encouragement and more as an operational manual for the concrete decisions a new consultant has to make.

The book opens by addressing mindset and readiness — Weiss is direct that consulting rewards confidence and value-focused thinking, and that undercharging out of fear is one of the most common and damaging mistakes new consultants make. From there it moves into the practical infrastructure of starting a solo practice: legal structure, insurance, setting up a home office, and building enough of a financial cushion to survive the inevitable slow early period before referrals and reputation take hold.

A substantial part of the book is devoted to the two skills Weiss considers most decisive for a consulting practice's survival: marketing and proposal writing. He argues that most failed consultants fail not from lack of expertise but from failure to consistently market themselves and from writing proposals that describe activities rather than value and outcomes. This connects directly to his well-known advocacy for value-based pricing over hourly billing, which he presents as both more profitable and more aligned with what clients actually want to buy.

The book closes with the operational mechanics of running the business day to day — billing, bookkeeping, technology, and networking — and, in later editions, an added chapter specifically for readers who need to generate cash flow quickly rather than build gradually. Across editions (the book has been revised multiple times to stay current with technology and market conditions), Weiss's consistent throughline is that a successful consulting practice is not primarily a matter of subject-matter expertise but of running a well-organized small business with disciplined marketing, confident value-based pricing, and enough financial preparation to weather its inevitable slow start.