What to focus on when starting a personal consulting business?
The best independent practitioners have a singular focus on helping their clients achieve their goals. They deliver value at every stage of their work, and they do so as quickly as possible and with ruthless efficiency. I know, because roughly half of my own 28-year consulting career has been spent working in a large global firm, and half of it running my own practice. I also have an ongoing window into both worlds today: many of my clients are large professional firms, and at the same time, I belong to several communities of practice composed of highly successful independent practitioners.
As I look at these two worlds, I see eight practices that larger firms can learn—or relearn—from the most successful professionals who have small or solo practices. In observing them, I have noticed that:


