Ebook: The MBA's Guide to Independent Consulting

THE MBA’S GUIDE
TO INDEPENDENT
CONSULTING

WEBSITE • BLOG • FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER 2
IS THIS E-BOOK RIGHT FOR ME?
This e-book is for anyone with an MBA who is
building a professional services practice, or
who is considering establishing one.
If you are a consultant, coach, or advisor and have earned your MBA at a top program, this
book is for you. You might be an experienced professional services provider, running your
own firm, or you might just be considering taking on a single consulting engagement as
part of a transition. This e-book provides helpful tips across the spectrum from neophyte to
experienced solopreneuer.
As an MBA myself, I never expected my career to take this turn. Many of us are a little surprised
to find ourselves in uncharted territory, especially after years of management training programs,
formal mentoring relationships and regular performance reviews.
We recognize that independent consulting is truly the road less traveled by MBAs, who are
often, by nature, team players and striving to be part of, and eventually run, large organizations.
We want to help you avoid the bumps along the way as you accelerate into a profession that
provides more flexibility, intellectual challenge, room for growth and financial upside than
nearly any other option out there.
Best of luck, and let me know how your journey goes!
Sincerely,
Robbie Kellman Baxter

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robbie Kellman Baxter is passionate about helping
independent consultants dramatically increase their revenues
while staying true to their personal objectives. She has been
running her marketing strategy consultancy, Peninsula
Strategies, for over 10 years, working with companies like
Netflix, Yahoo!, and eBay, as well as dozens of private tech
companies backed by a who’s who of the Silicon Valley VC
community. After 10 years running her boutique consulting
firm, Robbie was so inundated with requests for advice from
classmates and acquaintances interested in following in her
path that she committed a percentage of her time to helping
people like her thrive as consultants.
A lifelong resident of Silicon Valley, Robbie has helped dozens of professional
services providers, including MBAs, lawyers and physicians, establish thriving
consultancies that enjoy consistent growth and profitability. Robbie’s clients say she
has a unique and powerful ability to reframe complex, ambiguous situations and to
simplify the decision-making process. Like Robbie, many of her mentoring clients
have advanced degrees from top schools and are used to professional success. They
find themselves for the first time off the beaten career path, and come to Robbie for
mentoring because of Robbie’s own success in building a prominent and successful
consulting practice (www.peninsulastrategies.com). Robbie has been certified as a
Master Mentor™ by Million Dollar Consultant™ Alan Weiss, whom she credits with
being a key contributor to her professional success.
Robbie’s expertise in strategic marketing helps consultants to quickly build a robust
client pipeline and strengthen loyalty among existing clients. You can reach Robbie
at rbaxter@peninsulastrategies.com.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
MBAs Can Take the Road Less Traveled 5
Leveraging the Business School Network 6
Independent Consultant ≠ Big Firm Consultant 8
Getting Started 9
Best Practices: Structuring and Pricing Projects 10
Potential Pitfalls: Lessons Learned 11
Things to Remember 12
Peninsula Strategies’ Getting Started Checklist 13

MBAs CAN TAKE THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
If you have an MBA from a good program, you
likely have the right set of skills to be a successful
independent consultant. The value of a consultant
is to provide advice and expertise that an organization
lacks. Often the consultant provides a useful way
of framing a challenge or opportunity so that new
solutions become apparent and even obvious. MBAs
are trained to think in this strategic way, so this role
can be very natural. However, consulting is not for
everyone.
Most MBAs are used to being part of a team, and
choosing the safe and expected course. While some
MBAs go on to become iconoclastic entrepreneurs
with groundbreaking new ideas, the vast majority end up in general management roles, or
as partners in large professional services and financial firms. So being an independent
consultant can be scary—how will you impress people at cocktail parties?
But for the brave ones who take
this road less traveled, there is
tremendous opportunity to engage
with organizations at key moments,
and dramatically improve their
position in the market, while making
a good living and enjoying the kind
of flexibility and self-determination
that is virtually impossible at
even the very top levels of other
professions. Are you comfortable
tooting your own horn? Dealing
with peaks and valleys of income
and stress? Diving into new
industries and challenges and
being expected to come up to
speed rapidly? Consulting can be a
great transitional role, or a 30-year
career, but to be successful, you
need to have high self-esteem in
addition to great professional skills.
DEFINITIONS
• Coach: works proactively with an individual or team to help
them achieve a defined goal, making recommendations and
assigning tasks to achieve that goal.
• Consultant: an outsider who intervenes in an organization’s
“business as usual” to assess, recommend and implement.
• Contractor: a non-employee who behaves like an employee
for a finite period. A contractor is managed by an employee
of the organization, and generally looks like an employee.
• Mentor: has succeeded where the individual wants to succeed,
and who agrees to be available on a reactive basis to provide
guidance and feedback relating to defined areas.
• Solopreneur: an entrepreneur who does not aspire to have
employees, often someone who provides professional services.
• Economic Buyer: a person who can sign the check for
consulting services, without getting additional input or
approvals.
• Peer-to-Peer Relationship: a relationship where two
professionals see one another as equals, in contrast to a
relationship where the client sees the consultant as a
commodity or a vendor.

LEVERAGING THE BUSINESS
SCHOOL NETWORK
The coursework at a strong business school can provide a great framework for consulting. You
know enough to be dangerous across all of the major functional areas—finance, operations,
technology, marketing, sales and HR. Or at least you should, if you were paying attention!
But more importantly than the academic knowledge you picked up at business school, your
two years provide you with membership in an exclusive, merit-based club. People talk about
the “old-boys” club, which usually implies powerful people whose families are social friend,
but your fellow alumni are more of a “new kids” club, of people united by admission into
a highly gated program, as well as a shared rigorous academic experience. In addition,
unlike college alumni associations, nearly everyone who attended business school works in
busineses—and is likely to be, at some point, either an economic buyer (someone who can
sign a check for a consultant) or a source of well-placed referrals.
Classmates are the most natural of connections because you probably have shared history
and experiences with them. Over time, these people grow in professional stature and
influence, but they are likely to remember the study group (and beers) you shared while
students. There is a level of trust and understanding in these relationships, which allows you
to skip what is often the most difficult task of the independent consultant—establishing a
peer-to-peer relationship with potential clients.
Even people who are not from the same class can develop a peer-to-peer relationship more
quickly than strangers, because of the experience and group membership. Membership in
the same b-school club can be tremendously powerful.
Once you have reached out to all the classmates you know, and let them know about your
consulting business, you need to actively nurture your relationships at your school. You can
take a passive role, attending events and reading school news, but you can also take a more
active role with your school. There are standard known roles, like class secretary, organizer
of reunions, or leader of local alumni association, each of which gives you a reason to contact
others in your class. Many schools have a formal alumni consulting program to connect alums
to work on pro-bono strategy projects. In addition, you can reach out to your school’s staff
and sometimes even faculty to offer your services, perhaps offering to run a workshop or
teleconference, or getting involved in a new university initiative that might use your skill set.
The more you give, the more you’re likely to get. I would caution you to only participate if you
believe in what you’re doing, and are prepared to work hard and do a great job. Half-hearted
efforts will not help your school, nor will they help your reputation.
Please note that I am assuming that you care about your school, want to help, and that part
of what motivates you is a genuine desire to strengthen the school’s reputation and the ties
among all alums.

Another way to leverage the network is to reach out to faculty for advice. Often faculty
members are interested in the consulting challenges you are facing and are willing to offer
feedback, sometimes for a fee and other times for free. In addition, you may want to explore
executive-level courses and workshops provided by your institution—the best consultants
continue with their professional development and are always trying to learn more.
CHECK LIST OF “HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM YOUR BUSINESS SCHOOL NETWORK”
J Update the alumni directory to reflect your status as consultant.
J Make sure your class secretary knows what you’re up to.
J Include the people you know from business school in your LinkedIn network.
This includes faculty, staff and students – but only the ones you actually knew.
Don’t ruin your credibility with mass outreach to strangers.
J Get involved in hosting and organizing alumni events—this gives you a
chance to reach out to speakers of interest and also to get to know a lot of
fellow alums. Start with an open heart and a willingness to help, and see
what happens.
J Make a commitment to your organization by stepping into a formal role,
as part of your local alumni association, or on a board or committee.
J Explore workshops and courses available to alums. Most top schools
provide a robust set of opportunities, ranging from teleconferences to
term-length courses designed for the MBA.
J Explore corporate networks: Most big employers of MBAs—investment
banks, consulting firms, consumer packaged goods companies, large tech
companies—have formal networking associations for alums. These can be
great sources of business and of colleagues and subcontractors.
J Remember karma. Any volunteer work you do needs to come from a place
of generosity, and a true desire to help your school. If your objectives are
selfish, that attitude will come through.

INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT ≠ BIG FIRM
CONSULTANT
Many MBAs spend a few years (or at least a summer) as consultants with
a big firm. There is a range of functional areas these consulting firms
serve, such as business strategy, marketing strategy, or technology
strategy and implementation.
This kind of experience can be tremendously valuable for anyone
thinking about independent consulting. In a big consulting firm, you get exposed to relationship
development, prospecting for new business, scoping and writing proposals, structuring the
work, running a project kickoff, executing on the project, successfully completing a project,
and upselling new work. These experiences position you well for starting your own consulting
business, and also give you a sense of whether you are cut out for the life of an outside
advisor—a lone wolf. Even in big firms, the partners are responsible for building their own
businesses.
In solo practice, everything is magnified. You lose the big brand behind you, the ability to
open doors just by invoking your firm’s name. You don’t have a clear path ahead of you,
which can be a blessing or a curse. You need to sell yourself and you need to deliver, and
there’s no one else to blame if things don’t work out. Many people who are successful in big
firm consulting never successfully make the transition into being solopreneuers.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BIG AND SOLO FIRM
CONSULTING
Big firms can be more appealing
because of…
1. Brand: It can help your self-esteem to be part of
something big.
2. Income: In a big firm, consultants general have a base
salary on which to rely, in addition to any commissions
or bonuses. When you’re on your own, you’re on your
own.
3. Selling: In big firms, inbound inquiries are frequent,
and doors open easily.
4. Support: Big firms provide terrific support, includ-
ing technology, admin and design. On your own, you
need to build your own support team.
5. Security: In big firms you get insurance, retirement
plans and a steady stream of work, in addition to a
well-defined career path.
But being a solopreneur can be a
tremendously satisfying path…
6. Flexibility: A solopreneur can choose the hours and
location of his or her work, and also choose to take on
more or less work over time.
7. Control: An independent consultant decides how
the work gets done, and doesn’t have to adhere to a
firmwide approach.
8. Ownership: Whatever you build as an independent
consultant is yours. You are not an employee but an
entrepreneur—and that feels different!
9. Possibility: As your interests change, you can explore
writing, speaking, product creation, teaching…all
under the consulting umbrella. The possibilities are
endless.
10. Impact: When you work on your own, you can see
the impact you make on the organizations of your
client. Your fingerprints are all over the project, and
you can measure the impact you have made.

GETTING STARTED
Getting started can feel daunting. Even if you have been consulting for a while, you may not
feel like you’ve really committed to being an independent consultant. Many MBAs naturally
fall into independent consulting when they are between jobs, as a means of testing a new
role, or helping a former employer with a specific project.
But if you really want a big pay off, you have to invest up front. Acting “as if” your consulting
practice will be a big success is often an actual driver of business success.
You need at the bare minimum, a website that shows credibility and relevance (See Call Out Box).
You need a high quality business card with room and appropriate surface area for making
notes. You need an office space where you can be productive—at a minimum, a high quality
computer, printer and phone line. You need professional advisors—an attorney and accountant,
and maybe a bookkeeper and an admin. If you have kids, you need childcare—maybe even
before the revenue starts coming in. Remember, you are a highly trained professional, and
you are likely to succeed, if you set yourself up for success.
You need business attire. Even if your clients conform to business casual attire, you need to
dress professionally, and as a rule, you should be one step dressier than your clients. Invest in
high quality, well-tailored clothes, a good haircut and a statement briefcase or bag.
You need professional development.
At a minimum you need subscriptions
to general business news, and
industry specific news. You also may
want to take workshops, hire a mentor
or coach, buy books on consulting…
there are lots of resources out there.
The important thing is to consider
what you would do if you knew the
business were going to take off—and
do it.
CREDIBILITY AND RELEVANCE
All of your marketing materials are really
about establishing credibility and relevance.
Credibility means that potential buyers believe that you
are a substantial high-quality person and that your firm is a
substantial, high-quality institution. You indicate that you are
credible by showing that you’ve been in business a while,
that you have a lot of clients, that you personally have an
impressive pedigree, or that you and your firm have won
prestigious accolades. If you are just starting out, your
credibility will come from your work experience, quotes
from managers and colleagues, and maybe your roles in
professional associations.
You show your relevance by describing situations where
people should call you in, by describing your typical buyer,
by providing case studies and through your thought
leadership on timely topics. Anyone who looks at your home
page should be able to tell at a glance that you are credible,
and recognize situations where you would be relevant.

BEST PRACTICES: STRUCTURING AND
PRICING PROJECTS
Best Practice #1: Know why you’re consulting. A wise colleague told me about the 3Cs
of consulting: Compensation, Control and Content. Flexibility is a key benefit of being a
solopreneur, and you want to make sure that you structure your practice to best suit your
needs. If you are motivated by earning money, you may want to focus on productizing some
of your offerings or taking on subcontractors. But if control is your primary priority, you may
structure your work around local clients, or projects that are low stress. And if you are in
consulting because you are passionate about certain intellectual ideas, you may be highly-
disciplined about the nature of the work you take on. Any of these is fine, but it’s important to
be deliberate about how you build your business.
Best Practice #2: Set your fees using value-based pricing. My mentor, Million Dollar
Consultant™ Alan Weiss, taught me early that consultants should price work based on value
delivered, rather than hours invested. MBAs are not commodities, and you shouldn’t price your
time as a commodity, even a high priced one. You want your clients to look to you for results
and achieved objectives, and to pay you for the impact you have on their business. Always
focus on the value you provide, and set your price based on that value. Early in your consulting
career, you may wish to take on contractor roles, which are often hourly. That’s fine, and can
feel less risky, if also less rewarding, but just make sure you know the difference between a
true consulting relationship and a gun-for-hire hourly relationship.
Best Practice #3: Offer options. One key difference between a consultant and a contractor
is that a contractor takes direction from the client, while a consultant assesses the objectives
and then determines how best to achieve those objectives. As a consultant, you might have
dozens of ways you could successfully achieve the client’s objectives. For example, if my
client wants me to get them from San Francisco to LA for a meeting, I could book them the first
Southwest flight to LA, or hire a chauffeured limo, or give them a map and a good pair of
walking shoes. Any of these approaches enables the client to achieve the objective, but with
different amounts of effort, cost, and fringe benefits. You might want to give your clients a few
options, at different price points and with different trade-offs.
Best Practice #4: Set a minimum for true consulting projects, but also provide lower-effort
resources for people who are not quite ready to commit to the engagement. The cost to
you of selling, scoping and managing a project does not correlate to the size of the project
itself. Smaller projects are almost always less profitable than big ones, and often end up
disappointing the client who pushed for a bargain and ended up with what they paid for.
Structure the project for success and price it fairly. Everyone will be happier. One way to avoid
getting into the situation of negotiating on a very small project is to throw out your minimum
early in the discussion—“I’m not sure what this will cost, but certainly $25-50K at a minimum.”
Some people might balk, but those are likely the ones who don’t have budget or aren’t
looking at the potential impact of the work. On the other hand, it can be helpful to have
lower-priced offerings, which do not require a proposal, such as a half-day brainstorm session,
a retainer relationship, a workshop, or even a book.

POTENTIAL PITFALLS: LESSONS LEARNED
Too much time wasted, talking to people who can’t sign the check. Just because it can
be easier and more comfortable to talk with gatekeepers, fellow consultants or lower-level
team members, don’t pretend that you will get business by building such relationships. The
only way to grow your business is to quickly identify people who can actually make the
decision to hire you, and build peer-to-peer relationships with them. You have the background
to make the peer-to-peer relationship happen—you just need to commit.
Not investing in yourself and your business, even after you’ve committed to consulting.
If you are committed to being a consultant, you need to invest. No one wants to work with
an unsuccessful MBA consultant. The investment is actually pretty small, relative to the kind
of investment required to establish other types of business. Most of the expenses have to do
with marketing yourself, staying current on your industry, and having some basic tools with
which to do business. If you are cheap on these areas, it will show. Get a decent computer.
Hire advisors to help you grow your business. If you can’t justify even that minimal investment,
you probably shouldn’t be a consultant.
Refusing to focus on a key area of expertise, and going to market as a generalist. One
of the things new consultants struggle with most is coming up with a succinct, focused value
proposition. There is no sentence that can capture your full range of experiences and skills,
so it is tempting to just say that you can do everything. But the main reason that you should
choose a focused area of expertise is that you want to own a position, be a thought leader
and have people immediately think of you when that topic arises. If you are “a marketing
expert,” only people who know you well will reach out, but if you are an expert on marketing
luxury goods to baby boomers, your name will quickly become associated with that niche.
The bigger the position, the more expensive it is to “own” it.
Putting all your eggs into a single client’s basket. Often a single client will take up all of
your bandwidth. It can feel flattering to be in such demand, and the revenue can be attractive.
But this kind of relationship does not help you build a business. You are not growing the
range of experiences from which to draw, and you are probably doing more implementing
and less advising than you think you are. There’s no shame to being a contractor, but if you
want to be a consultant, don’t try to fool yourself. A true consultant should have at least a
handful of different clients every calendar year. A corollary to this pitfall is neglecting business
development because you’re too busy delivering on projects.
Ready, aim, aim, aim aim, aim…. It’s important to be prepared, and to invest in a website, an
office where you can get your work done, and maybe even to create some intellectual capital
to serve as catnip for potential clients. But it’s equally important to get out into the market
and start talking to buyers, just as soon as you can. You can always improve your materials, or
refine your positioning, but the best way to build your business is by…having some business.
Make sure you talk to people who can buy your services directly and on a regular basis.

THINGS TO REMEMBER
TO SUMMARIZE, HERE ARE THE KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• MBAs enjoy several unique advantages compared to other independent consultants,
including a strong network, relevant training, and great resources for continuing education
and professional development.
• Often the most challenging thing for an MBA about being an independent consultant is
getting comfortable with taking the road less traveled.
• You need to balance the competing needs of running the business of consulting and
delivering consulting services. Your training provides you with the skills for both, but make
sure you make time to do both properly.
• One of the key beneﬁts of being a solopreneur is the ﬂexibility it provides. Consider the “3 Cs”
of Compensation, Control and Content, and make sure your business is growing to serve
your requirements.

PENINSULA STRATEGIES’ GETTING
STARTED CHECKLIST
J Begin building your brand and network before going independent.
J Identify your personal objectives—be honest with yourself.
J Establish value proposition and positioning.
J Identify target buyers, organizations and situations.
J Deﬁne service offering and use cases.
J Develop professional website and business card (do not skimp).
J Find mentors and peers.
J Develop a support network; consider getting a dog.
J Update your network and contact database and begin regular outreach.
J Test value proposition with “friendly” potential buyers, and adjust accordingly.
J Begin a regular practice of reaching out to economic buyers.
J Invest each year in establishing 1-3 programs to build market awareness.
J Develop a thought leadership platform.
J Offer value wherever you go.
J Adjust, add and grow.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
“Robbie’s counsel has been instrumental to the continued success of my business. While my
practice was in its infancy, Robbie coached me on both laying a strategic foundation and
establishing sound nuts & bolts business mechanisms. Now, several years later, my practice is
thriving, and I continue to seek Robbie’s perspectives on how to grow while staying true to my
professional and personal core. Robbie is insightful, honest, practical and generous in sharing
her considerable arsenal of best practices. I recommend her without reservation.”
LINDSAY PEDERSEN, LCP BRAND CONSULTING www.lcpbrandconsulting.com
“Robbie is invaluable as a counselor and coach. In the four years we have worked together, she
has helped me to understand both how to make my law practice run better from a process
perspective and how to make myself happier in that practice from a substance perspective.”
LIZA HANKS, FINCH, MONTGOMERY, WRIGHT LLP www.familyworks-law.com
“Working with Robbie has been an integral part of my success. Her keen intellect and extensive
business experience have helped me demystify the process, identify opportunities and finally
begin to make great strides. And on a personal level, it has been tremendously gratifying to
work with Robbie. I highly recommend Robbie both as a mentor and as a professional.”
PHILIP GUARINO, ELEMENTI CONSULTING www.elementiconsulting.com
“I started working with Robbie at a time when I was struggling to find the right focus and future
direction for my consulting business. Robbie helped me quickly drill down to the root of issues
I was facing, providing clarity and objective, actionable advice. Robbie’s expert guidance was
critical to me as I made an important transition in my business. She encouraged me to sharpen
my focus on key priorities and showed me how to effectively articulate my value. Robbie was
highly accessible, generous with her time and a pleasure to work with.”
JOELLYN “JOEY” SARGENT, BRANDSPROUT ADVISORS www.brandsproutadvisors.com
“As a former CFO of a venture-backed tech company, I was looking for a mentor who could
help me quickly translate my success as an operating executive into a significant strategy
consulting practice...Robbie has delivered. She is helping me to structure, sell and deliver on
large projects for demanding clients, right out of the gate. Our conversations include how
to market and position my services for maximum appeal to the C-suite, how to build trust
with clients so that they turn to me for new ideas, and how to scope and deliver projects for
maximum value to the client (and ultimately, fees to me). For those looking to rapidly build a
rewarding and profitable consulting business for the long term, I highly recommend Robbie.”
TREY PRUITT, THE BANNER PEAK GROUP www.bannerpeakgroup.com

SIGN UP TODAY!
Visit us at www.peninsulastrategies.com
info@peninsulastrategies.com / 650-322-5655
PENINSULA STRATEGIES
MENTORING PROGRAM
If you want to take your professional service business to the next level
and want a guide to help get you there, our one-on-one mentoring
and small-group workshops are for you. We work with a range of
professionals including the following:
• Consultants
• Attorneys
• Mental health practitioners (physicians, psychologists, social
workers, etc.)
• Financial advisors
We can help you remove the blocks that keep your business from
growing the way you want it to. Our services include the following:
• Private Roster™ Mentor Program
• Group workshops, customized for your association
• Speeches and brown bag sessions
• Jumpstart remote program
Contact us today to see how we can help you launch your practice—
or take it to the next level!

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Ebook: The MBA's Guide to Independent Consulting