Becoming a consultant seems like a dream: high pay, freedom, fascinating work and more. These can all be true yet there is more to the reality: as a consultant you are running a business and you need clients!

What does a successful consultant need to know? How do you find clients? How do you get started? This course answers these questions and more.

It is based on Ted Demopoulos' nearly three decades of experience as an independent infosec consultant, extensive interviews with dozens of other successful consultants, and surveys of those interested in infosec consulting.

What you need to know to get started

• What is a consultant?
• Consulting versus contracting, they are NOT the same
• Advantages and disadvantages to consulting
• The bare essentials to start
• Business structures for consulting: Sole Proprietorships, Corporations, Partnerships and more
• Consulting models: full time, consulting on the side, and more
• Intro to acquiring clients

Getting Clients Deep Dive

• Why you do NOT need a lot of clients to be successful
• Currently hot areas in infosec consulting
• Background: marketing, market research, advertising, and sales
• Upsells in consulting
• The easiest and most common way to get clients
• 11 ways to get clients with extensive real life examples
• 3 tempting possibilities yet usually non-sources of clients

All About Money, including: Pricing, Getting Paid, and Negotiations

• Billing basics
• Pricing and pricing strategies
• A simple pricing formula
• Market based pricing
• Implications of low prices versus high prices
• Can you discount prices?
• Beyond market based pricing
• Time based versus project based pricing: a simple guideline
• Retainers
• Proposals, and how to avoid wasting time on them
• Negotiations for consultants with real world examples

Getting and Maintaining Expert Status

• The 20% Rule
• Consultants are experts
• The "Marketing Gravity" concept
• The "Home Online" concept
• LinkedIn
• Websites
• Speaking for expert status
• Writing for expert status
• Other techniques
• Making it Work Long Term: Living The Dream for Decades
• Certifications and more
• Getting better at writing
• Writing a book
• Staying current
• Evolving & growing your business if desired
• Types of consulting services you may not have considered
• Hiring employees
• The startup thing
• Exit strategies for consultants