And for Trisha about the pitfalls of consulting…I feel another post coming on…stay tuned. Cheers!

Can you address some of the pitfalls consultants face once they have taken the leap?

Thanks Bartender

1) Brand: If your consulting company is your full name followed by LLC, prepare to be laughed at and permanently labeled in the small potato category. Of course, there are exceptions, but they are few and far between.
2) Staying Power: Don’t confuse consulting with contract work. The former requires all the hard work and dedication that my prestigious colleagues have described. The later can be another word for “temp”.
3) Don’t Go It Alone: Even if you’re a sole proprietor, take advantage of the ecosystems in which you naturally exist. Three small consulting firms can be much more powerful than a large competitor if they work together.

That’s all I can muster without an adult beverage. Thanks Sharlyn for prompting a great discussion.

The way most independent consultants get known is you use the web and social networking tools to “show off” by demonstrating expertise. But it also serves as a way to compare the expertise of different consultants. In other words, whether you look good or bad, the world will spread fast.

Beyond the branding, though are relationships that grow out of performance. They’re based in good performance but they take time to ripen. The same technology that accelerates branding simply doesn’t work for the relationships.

It’s true, as Penelope said that “you might not need any experience before you sell yourself as a consultant.” But you run the serious risk that you will crash and burn and those same tools that helped you get the job will now be used to show pictures of the wreckage.