Standard Handbook of Consulting Engineering Practice: Starting, Staffing, Expanding, and Prospering in Your Own Consulting Business

Profit-Building Secrets for Consulting Engineers. No matter what field of engineering you work in, this career-building guide will give you the business savvy to start and operate your own money-making consulting practice--or greatly improve the efficiency and profitability of the one you already have. The Second Edition of Standard Handbook of Consulting Engineering Practice, by Tyler G. Hicks and Jerome F. Mueller, gives you real-life advice on every aspect of running a successful practice--from starting up your own business and hiring a competent staff to managing an engineering office, winning clients and generating maximum profits!

Everything you need to know to become a successful engineering consultant! Standard Handbook of Consulting Engineering Practice In an era of layoffs and downsizing, the life of a consultant is made to order for engineers who want to be their own boss and control their professional future. This classic handbook, which has been revised and updated to meet the needs of today's professionals, offers engineers in all fields the know-how required to start and operate their own consulting practice--or to greatly improve the efficiency and profitability of the one they already have. Whether you're interested in full-time or part-time consulting, you'll find all the information you need in such basic areas as choosing a specialty, obtaining financing, meeting licensing requirements, estimating income and expenses, promoting yourself and your business, lining up clients, and staffing your office. And the book gives you timely guidance on such current issues as how to: Bounce back from being laid off, downsized, "surplussed," or involuntarily retired; Incorporate today's strict environmental laws and regulations into your designs of machines, structures, buildings and systems; Cope with the new liability-regulatory environment and skyrocketing liability insurance costs; Use personal computers and work stations in your consulting practice--with new information on packaged software available for consultants, notebook computers for use in the field and on job sites, programming your computer for design tasks unique to your speciality, computer-aided design, and computer-aided engineering.