Con­sul­tant Steve Friedl offers some fan­tas­tic advice on being a con­sul­tant. I found this com­ment interesting:

I pur­posely put the tech­ni­cal part of this Tech Tip last, to rein­force the notion that “cus­tomer ser­vice”, not “com­puter sci­ence” skills are the biggest fac­tors in a suc­cess­ful con­sult­ing prac­tice. But it’s fool­ish to think that tech­ni­cal skills don’t mat­ter: you don’t have a busi­ness unless you can offer a ser­vice that a cus­tomer is will­ing to buy.

What counts here is truly learn­ing the sub­ject mat­ter.