backlogak / consulting-handbook

A guide for technical professionals looking to start consulting

The Consulting Handbook

This guide is meant to help data engineers, software engineers, analysts, data scientists and other technical specialists break into consulting.

Also, I added in a (Free) or (Paid) tag to denote whether a resource requires a purchase or not.

Table Of Contents

• Consulting Templates
• Youtube Channels
• Starting Your Consulting Company Path
• Books
• Podcasts
• Newsletters

Resources

Consulting Templates

• Discovery Call Template(Free)
• Proposal Email(Free)
• Proposal Template(Free)
• Basic Deck(Free)
• Project Kick-Off Email(Free)
• Onboarding Checklist(Free)
• Data Infra Audit Template(Paid)
• Project Update Email(Free)
• Original Source For Templates Above(Free)

Youtube Channels

Sales

• Sales Insights Lab(Free)
• Patrick Dang(Free)

Communication

• Firm Learning(Free)

Starting Your Consulting Company Path

• Make the jump!
• Pick Your Niche(Free)
• Legal Setup(Free)
• Get Insurance(Free)

Insurance type	Who it's for	What it does
General liability insurance	Any business	This coverage protects against financial loss as the result of bodily injury, property damage, medical expenses, libel, slander, defending lawsuits, and settlement bonds or judgments.
Product liability insurance	Businesses that manufacture, wholesale, distribute, and retail a product	This coverage protects against financial loss as a result of a defective product that causes injury or bodily harm.
Professional liability insurance	Businesses that provide services to customers	This coverage protects against financial loss as a result of malpractice, errors, and negligence.
Commercial property insurance	Businesses with a significant amount of property and physical assets	This coverage protects your business against loss and damage of company property due to a wide variety of events such as fire, smoke, wind and hail storms, civil disobedience and vandalism.
Home-based business insurance	Businesses that are run out of the owner’s personal home	Coverage that’s added to homeowner’s insurance as a rider can offer protection for a small amount of business equipment and liability coverage for third-party injuries.
Business owner’s policy	Most small business owners, but especially home-based business owners	A business owner’s policy is an insurance package that combines all of the typical coverage options into one bundle. They simplify the insurance buying process and can save you money.

• Buidling A Website and Online Presence(Free)
• How To Get Clients(Free)
• Client Acquisition - Networking #TODO Write this article
• Client Acquisition - Marketing(Free)
• Client Acquisition - Sale(Free)s
• Client Acquisition - Vendor Partnerships(Paid)
• Client Acquisition - Referrals(Paid)
• Develop a Sales Pitch(Free)
• Pricing Strategy(Paid)
• Consulting Vs Contracting(Paid)
• How To Kill Your Profits As A Consultant(Free)
• Are You Ready To Start Consulting?(Paid)

Marketing Deeper Dive - Content That's Landed Me Clients Example

• Why Data Engineers LOVE/HATE Airflow(Free)
• 4 Alternatives to Fivetran: The Evolving Dynamics of the ETL & ELT Tool Market(Free)
• Do You REALLY Need A Data Warehouse - What Are The Benefits Of A Data Warehouse?(Free)
• Linkedin - How To Create Viral Posts(Paid)

Books

Business And Consulting

• Million Dollar Consulting: The Professional's Guide to Growing a Practice(Paid)
• Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant(Paid)
• $100M Offers: How to Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No(Paid)
• Oversubscribed: How to Get People Lined Up to Do Business with You(Paid)
• The Trusted Advisor(Paid)

Leadership

• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable(Paid)
• The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever(Paid)
• The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You(Paid)

Communication

• Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling(Paid)
• HBR's 10 Must Reads on Communication(Paid)

Marketing

• ‘The Art and Business of Online Writing: How to Beat the Game of Capturing and Keeping Attention’ by Nicolas Cole.(Paid)

Project Examples

• Consulting Project Example - Embedded Analytics Discovery Project(Free)
• Consulting Project Example - The Basic Data Stack(Paid)
• My First 6-Figure Consulting Project(Free)

Some Consultants Stories

• How To Deliver Value To Clients - Talking To Matt Chung About Quitting Amazon To Consult(Free)
• How To Lead Technology Transformations In Non-Profits - With Justin Birdsong(Free)
• Starting A Data Consulting Company - A Live Chat With Alex The Analyst(Free)
• Dealing With Messy Data Infrastructure And Migrations(Free)

Podcasts

• How I Built This(Free)
• The Business of Authority(Free)
• Soft skills Podcast(Free)
• The McKinsey Podcast(Free)

Newsletters

• Technical Freelancer Academy(Free)
• The Hustle(Free)
• CB Insights(Free)

Courses

• Technical Freelancer Academy(Paid)
• Hands On 90-day accelerator - Starting an Independent Consulting(Paid)