I started my consulting business while living in Rochester, NY and quickly found a local association of consultants that provided me with a room full of mentors. The idea of procedurizing (if there is such a word) my consulting did not come from that group, but from a book.  This book, The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, has mentored many people who have small or micro "businesses".  (I’ve put the word business in quotations, because I think people who work within a business — an internal consultant for example — could benefit from the book.) 

The myth of the entrepreneur is that they  are great businesspeople Michael Gerber, the author, doesn’t believe that is true. Instead he believes that entrepreneurs need to be regimented.  mmm…consultants often work on a wide variety of projects, but there must be some commonalities.  Couldn’t those be regimented?  And wouldn’t we function more efficiently and effectively if we put processes in place that could be followed by others?  It could allow us to hire others or even take vacations, while others took over.

I suspect that you have been mentored by a book at some point.  What was it?  It is a book that you quickly recommend to others, as I recommend the E-Myth to others?  Let us know.