The technical work came naturally. The business side nearly destroyed me.

Most talented consultants fail not because they lack technical skills — they fail because nobody ever taught them how to price projects, manage scope creep, handle clients who don't respect professional boundaries, or build referral pipelines that create sustainable income. The technical credential gets you in the door. The business fundamentals determine whether you stay profitable.

Richard Lowe managed consultants for forty-plus years: as VP of Consulting at two technology firms, and later while running IT operations for a sixteen-billion-dollar retail chain. He watched consultants with brilliant technical skills destroy their own practices through pricing that bled into resentment, boundary failures that let clients consume unlimited time, and business development avoidance that left them perpetually dependent on one or two unstable client relationships.

This audiobook covers everything the consulting industry doesn't teach: pricing methodology, client selection, engagement structure, the psychology of scope management, building referral systems that generate consistent leads, and the financial fundamentals that keep a practice healthy when client timing is unpredictable.

Most consulting failures are preventable. This is the business education most technical consultants never get.