Good Books on Running a True Consulting Business

I got a great question from one of my newsletter readers, Marlon. I'd written an article that mentioned how true consulting - selling advice rather than pushing licenses - has faded from our industry and needs to make a comeback. So he asked the question: "Do you have any recommendations for books that talk about good old consulting?"

What is "Consulting?" Consulting consists of 1) being an expert in something, 2) giving excellent advice, and 3) creating solutions that help the client be more productive, more profitable, or more efficient. It includes "solving problems," but it goes way beyond that. Solving problems is reactive. Creating new solutions to improve a business is an active, forward-thinking process.

As with so many things in small business, there are a few resources, but not enough. I know of two older books that are still excellent. Plus I have some advice on a few others to assist you along your path.

Three Kinds of Books

There are three categories of books you need as a consultant. You need 1) Books about running the business, 2) Books specifically about running an IT business, and 3) Book on the art of consulting - giving actual good advice to your clients. (A fourth category, of course, would be technical training. That's a separate discussion.)

I literally only know two books that I would recommend that give you a good, solid introduction to all three categories - running a business, running an IT business, and the delivery of true consulting. Those books are:

SMB Consulting Best Practices by Harry Brelsford - https://amzn.to/4eLptr7 - This book is old and could use a tune-up, but it's rock solid advice advice on running a true consulting business, as opposed to a technology-focused fix-it business in which you end up providing advice at some point in the client relationship. If you want to run a true consulting business in IT services, this is the place to start.

The Computer Consultant's Guide: Real-Life Strategies for Building a Successful Consulting Career by Janet Ruhl - https://amzn.to/3BJURYF - A solid second place. This one is more obviously outdated, but it's still excellent and at least touches all the bases. A quick read compared to Brelsford's tome, but it also contains a lot less detail.

As for books on running a business, there are many. Perhaps millions. The best advice I can give you here is to start reading something that sounds interesting and keep reading for the rest of your life. General good advice never goes out of date. One of my favorite collections of information is Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy - https://amzn.to/3XAkm6Y - This is an Audible program and is good to listen to more than once.

When it comes to running an IT consulting business, I recommend all the books we sell at our store - store.smallbizthoughts.com. I also sell Erick Simpson's books, which are available on Amazon. Those four books are outdated, but hold up very well if you're getting started. And, like mine, they are full of great forms, tools, calculators, etc.

As for the general world of running a consulting business, we get back to the fact that almost everything along these lines is written for people selling multi-million dollar projects. So you have to do a lot of thinking on the fly as your read to figure out how advice might apply in the world of small business consulting. Perhaps the best book here is Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss - https://amzn.to/3BMkfwR - I like this book because it has a strong focus on growing your business as a consulting practice. Keywords are growing and consulting.

Thanks to Marlon for the question. I would love to hear other recommendation on the topic of true advice-focused consulting books and resources. Drop those recommendations in the comments. 

:-)