Successful Business Analysis Consulting
Strategies and Tips for Going It Alone

Karl Wiegers
J. Ross Publishing, 2019
ProcessImpact.com
 
Successful Business Analysis Consulting

Senior business analysts and project managers who want to take their careers to the next level sometimes consider becoming consultants, offering their services—and wisdom—to many clients. Leaving the corporate world to become an independent consultant is exciting but also a bit scary. There is much to know about setting up the company, finding and working with clients, establishing business policies, and establishing yourself as a respected professional in your field.

Since becoming a consultant more than 20 years ago, Karl Wiegers has found how to make it work. Karl wrote Successful Business Analysis Consulting to share what he—and others—have learned. With countless tips for making your consulting more effective and your business more lucrative, it's the book he wanted to have when he got started.

Successful Business Analysis Consulting has 35 chapters in 6 parts: Setting Up Shop, On the Job, Practicalities, Building the Business, Media Matters, and Writing Your Way to Success. Written in a conversational and entertaining style, it covers countless practical issues for both new and seasoned consultants. Karl draws from his extensive experience as a consultant, speaker, trainer, and author. Guest chapters from other consultants bring additional perspectives. Dozens of personal anecdotes make it all real.

If you have questions about setting prices, negotiating agreements, dealing with difficult clients, partnering with other consultants, or generating revenue while you sleep, this book has answers. Whether you're just getting started or hoping to grow your business, Successful Business Analysis Consulting offers an abundance of practical advice for BA, PM, and other IT consultants.

 
What the Reviewers Say          Key Features          Videos          Contents & Sample Chapters          Supplemental Materials


 
  Buy the Book

From the publisher          From Amazon          From Barnes & Noble          Kindle Version          Nook Version


 
 
 
  What the Reviewers Say

"Read it. Learn from it. Apply it. Getting a peek inside successful consulting like this reveals a true gold mine! Karl Wiegers outlines exactly what you need to do, and what decisions you need to make, to create a thriving consulting practice."
Laura Brandenburg, CBAP, Founder and Creator, Bridging the Gap

"Successful Business Analysis Consulting is full of powerful advice. Even now, 20 years after first going independent, I learned a few things from this valuable resource. If you are a newly independent consultant or are contemplating it, this book has the advice you need to succeed."
Mike Cohn, Co-founder of the Scrum Alliance and the Agile Alliance

"I've looked to Karl Wiegers for business guidance for many years, and I'm thrilled to see him share these ideas in this interesting, practical, and to-the-point book. I'm not an independent consultant, but this book's breadth of topics reaches well beyond that audience. Whether you are a consultant, business owner, aspiring leader inside a professional services organization, or budding author, you will find value here."
Joy Beatty, CBAP, PMI-PBA,Vice President of R&D at Seilevel

"Covers the broadest landscape of issues that you may encounter as a BA consultant with practical, down-to-earth advice to help navigate them. The action-provoking Next Steps at the end of each chapter compel you to behave differently based on that sage advice. Even after consulting for 15 years, I picked up a handful of valuable tips, and I have already applied a few!"
Jim Brosseau, Principal at Clarrus Consulting Group

"Successful Business Analysis Consulting provides fantastic practical guidance and insights. You will find this book of high value, whether you are a seasoned consultant or just starting to think about taking the plunge into running your own consulting practice."
Laura Paton, CBAP, PMP, PMI-PBA, Founder of BA Academy, Inc.

"Simply put, this is the book I wish I'd had available to me when I started consulting. It provides valuable advice on pretty well everything that touches on the consultant's life. It almost seems unfair! Karl Wiegers lets the reader in on the secrets that took the rest of us a lot of pain to learn. If you're starting out on your own, you couldn't do yourself a better favor than reading this book."
Howard Podeswa, CEO Noble Inc., author of The Business Analyst's Handbook

"The mark of a successful self-help book is that it prompts readers to immediately help themselves. I have put a number of the author's suggestions into practice, some as soon as I read them in the book."
Steve Blais, CEO Noble Inc., author of Business Analysis: Best Practices for Success

"Oh, how I wish I had the resources in this book when I struck out to form my own company. This book is a treasure. But don't think you need to have your own consultancy to gain insights from this valuable work. Many chapters are beneficial even when one is working inside an organization, especially at the senior levels. Whether you are an independent business analyst, project manager, or other type of IT consultant, Karl's book is for you."
Kathleen B. (Kitty) Hass, Principal Consultant and Founder, Kathleen Hass and Associates

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  Videos

Episode #1: Getting Started

Episode #2: Making Yourself Visible

Episode #3: Out of One, Many

Episode #4: Dealing with Difficult Clients

Episode #5: Adopting Business Policies

Episode #6: Protecting Yourself with Insurance

Episode #7: Negotiating Agreements

Episode #8: Making Money While You Sleep

Episode #9: Modes of Consulting

Episode #10: Setting Prices

Episode #11: Getting Repeat Business

Episode #12: Partnering with Other Consultants

 
  Key Features
  • Addresses how to effectively lay the foundation and structure of your consulting business; how to deal with or avoid the many pitfalls of working outside the corporate world and working remotely from home; and how to balance life, family, and work

  • Presents a list of next steps at the end of each chapter with actions you can take immediately to begin applying the guidance and tips provided

  • Furnishes valuable strategies and tips for such essentials as setting rates for your services, invoicing, purchasing appropriate insurance, establishing important business rules or policies, managing your finances and taxes, and other administrative aspects of your consultancy

  • Articulates how to market your services, land both new and repeat business, negotiate deals, and craft written agreements with clients

  • Describes how to establish multiple revenue streams, ways to leverage your work to develop sources of passive income, and some important issues of copyright, fair use, and managing and protecting your valuable intellectual property

  • Provides sample checklists to help you keep all the activities you will be juggling as a consultant under control

  • Identifies effective techniques for engaging clients in various situations, as well as warning signs about clients who can cause you headaches and how to deal with them

  • Supplies solutions to a wide variety of problems and challenges of the consulting world, contributed by a group of noteworthy independent consultants with diverse experiences

  • Discusses other common consultant activities that can generate a steady flow of revenue such as training, presenting at conferences, and other public speaking, and provides guidance and tips for delivering effective presentations with confidence

  • Offers strategies and tips pertaining to partnering with other consultants on larger projects and how to make such arrangements work

  • Examines the value of participating in professional associations and pursuing relevant professional certifications as a way to market your services and attract new clients and opportunities

  • Explores the benefits of writing white papers and articles for magazines, journals, websites, and blogs as a means to simultaneously share your knowledge with the world and market your expertise to prospective clients

  • Elaborates on the process and value of writing a book in the area in which you consult, how to get it published and distributed by a reputable publishing company that can reach your market, how to co-author a book effectively, and how a good selling book can be a powerful tool for getting clients and building your business

  • WAV offers downloadable templates for consulting, writing, speaking, and licensing agreements, and checklists and forms to help you plan and manage your consulting business—available from the Web Added Value™ Download Resource Center at www.jrosspub.com

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