Consulting on the Side: How to Start a Part-Time Consulting Business While Still Working at Your Full-Time Job

by Mary F. Cook

Book Overview

Build a thriving business while holding down a full-time job.

Do you yearn to strike out on your own, take charge of yourdestiny, and create a better, more independent lifestyle foryourself? Read this book and learn how to start your consultingbusiness while you still have the security of a regular job.

Consulting on the Side is for the professional who longs forindependence but can't simply walk away from a steady paycheck andcompany...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471120294
• ISBN13: 9780471120292
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Only downside: some material is dated

Considering this book was published in 1996, back when the Web was barely a buzzword, it could be worse, but the reality is that this book's most important flaw has to do with its sheer age. Due to that, it misses on some very useful pieces of information and resources the writer could have offered, if a more recent edition were available.Now that I wrote about the negative (I normally don't do things in this order, but it just came to me), on to the good things:-The book addresses to a sufficient extent many of the issues (time and stress-wise, in terms of ethical conflicts, etc.) that stem out of starting a consulting practice beside your full-time job. This is where the CORE STRENGTH of the book lies. I've not been able to find any other titles that go into this topic so effectively... in fact, I've not found any other books on the topic at all. Most of the other consulting books I've checked out simply deal with consulting, considering it full-time dedication deal.-The author -the President of her own HR Consultancy- also volunteers some good (though far from unique or comprehensive) advice on putting together a pricing scheme for your services, finding sources of financing for your outlet, starting your office at home, marketing your services, and even heads up into critical tax/legal considerations to take into account.Other than the outdated material in a few parts where references are cited, and the lack of online information to support the book, I liked her book. All in all, it is not a recipe book, but a reference and a rather good one, most specifically useful to those in the process of considering a consulting business on the side, and even for those who are already doing it, in order to assist with setting things up that you might not have thought of up to this point.Note: unless she went out of business or did a poor job at marketing her services online, it's impossible to find any other reference to her in Google besides this book, whatever that implies... :\

Excellent resource

This book is a great resource. She covers everyhing from small details such as arranging your home office to larger issues such as ethical questions about consulting in the same area as your employer and practical questions such as how to register your business name and inexpensive ideas for marketing. This book is also a good resource for people wanting to start ANY home-based consulting business, not just a part-time one. Since the book was published in 1996, there are not as many references to the web as their might be if it were published today, but the author was obviously in-tuned to various technicological benefits that existed in 1996, and she still gives solid advice that is still valid today (the Internet doesn't solve everything and changes all the time anyway!).