Being a consultant and business owner is different from being an employee.

As an employee, I sat in meetings most of the day and did work between meetings or late at night after my shift as mom, tutor, cook, and bedtime storyteller. There was a tremendous amount of busy work or activity that I now think of as non-essential.

As a consultant you need to find the quickest most accurate path to the outcome the client paid for.

· You are delivering something of value that the client wants, and successful consultants find ways to deliver faster, cheaper, and with high quality.

· As a business owner, you are also responsible for everything else: marketing, sales, finance, human resources, operations, and customer service. Knowing when to hire others to do this work is essential to your success as well.

There are tradeoffs no matter which path you choose. Pain and pleasure exist in both worlds.

Before I said “yes” to being a business owner, I interviewed every consultant I knew who has been in business for five plus years.

· What do you know today that you wish you would have known in your first year?

· What are you doing that brings in the most revenue?

· What mistakes did you make in the first 3 years of being in business?

· What would you tell your younger self when you started?

Now is a great time to reflect on your past accomplishments. It is also a time to think about and plan for the future.

If you are thinking about the consultant and business owner path, let’s talk for 15 minutes.

And yes, we can talk about how much you can earn if you step away from the employee path.

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