Working For Yourself

April 1, 2010

Interview with Bruce Katcher, author of the book An Insider's Guide to Building a Successful Consulting Practice

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Mike Carruthers:
High unemployment and an iffy job market cause a lot of people to think about starting their own business as a consultant.

Bruce Katcher:
And the key is to really want it. If you really want to do it, you can do it. You need to focus on a particular niche and you need to learn how to do it. It’s not that hard.

Bruce Katcher, author of An Insider's Guide to Building a Successful Consulting Practice …

I can tell you how I got started in consulting. It was 17 years and 2 months ago and my boss called me into his office and said, “Bruce, you know people aren’t buying what you’re selling right now, we’re going to have to lay you off.” And for me it was devastating and I said to myself, “That’s never going to happen to me again, I’m going to become my own consultant and I’m going to do a good job at it." And I haven’t looked back.

You have to do some research to see if your skills are marketable.

So you go out and you talk to your network, you talk to people you know and say, “Is this something that you have a need for?” It’s got to be something where they experience some pain, that’s the reason people buy things. There needs to be something that’s broken, or things that are costing too much (they need somebody to reduce the cost), or things aren’t working (so they need somebody to fix it) there’s got to be a need.

Being a consultant may sound intimidating to some but Bruce says…

You don’t have to be a gregarious person to be a consultant, you don’t have to be somebody who is the world's best at what you do – you just have to be able to solve problems. 

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here