Solo professionals and consult need to be sure to have as many people as they can as friends who are associates in the industry. The solo professional consultant who bucks the system and the industry associations will find that some people will stay away from them and they will lose all the contacts of that particular person that they could have had to help them in their business.

This means fewer clientele and negative word-of-mouth advertising rather than positive referral reinforcement. Solo professionals should not buck the system too much and they should participate in industry associations. If they do not like the industry associations they should participate at lease to a small degree and not go negative against the industry.

Solo professionals who disagree with what the industry is doing should probably consider what our grandparents told us; If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say Don't Say Anything at All.

There is no sense in making waves in the industry if you do not have to and if you're going to participate in industry forums on the Internet or discussions at trade shows then you need to be cognizant of how you conduct yourself to benefit your objectives in your Solo professional consulting business. Please consider this in 2006.