The second half of the year is here.
Most independent consultants greet it without a plan. Either they’re not sure where they stand against their goals, or they think they know but haven’t done the math to confirm it.
Both create the same problem: reactive decisions, underearning, and a year that finishes on whatever happens rather than what you built.
In Episode 278 of the Grow Your Independent Consulting Business podcast, Melisa Liberman runs you through a mid-year planning process built specifically for independent consultants, covering the five scenarios you might find yourself in at the halfway point, with a specific action plan and mindset for each one.
This Is a Business Owner Task, Not a Nice-to-Have
Melisa opens the episode directly.
If you worked for a CEO who said, “We’ll just wing the second half of the year because I’ve been busy with client work,” you’d lose faith in that leader immediately. Don’t do that to yourself.
Planning for the second half of the year is part of your job as a business owner. Not something to get to when things slow down. Not optional.
First, Do the Math
Before anything else, do the actual math on where you stand.
Not your impression of where you stand. Not what you think based on what’s in your bank account. The real number, including:
Accounts receivable — revenue earned but not yet paid
Signed contracts that haven’t started yet
Revenue you may be mentally discounting because it’s not the type of work you want to be doing
Melisa shares two consultant stories that make this concrete.
The first: a consultant who said with complete confidence that they were behind. When Melisa asked them to pull up QuickBooks and actually run through the numbers, a different picture emerged. When accounts receivable and signed-but-not-started contracts were included, this consultant was actually ahead of their goal. The way they were making decisions, negotiating proposals, and prioritizing their time had all been shaped by a belief that wasn’t true.
The second: a consultant who had ignored more than half of their revenue because it was staff augmentation work they didn’t want to be doing. They weren’t counting it. When it got counted, they were ahead. The panic that had been driving their decisions was based on a number they had invented.
Don’t guess. Do the math. It’s almost always different from what you think.
The Five Scenarios
Once you’ve done the math, you know which scenario you’re in. Each one has a different plan.
Scenario 1: You Don’t Know
If you’ve done the math but still can’t compare it to a target because you don’t remember what your goal was, that’s the first thing to fix.
Your revenue goal should be a number you know without looking it up. Not because you’re supposed to have it memorized, but because you’ve built a relationship with it. You think about it. You track against it. It matters to you.
If you don’t know it, find it. And then figure out why you didn’t know it. Did you set it and never look at it again? That’s a pattern worth addressing now, not next January.
Scenario 2: You Never Set a Goal
Not having a goal feels like freedom. Melisa is direct: it isn’t.
When you don’t set a goal, you avoid the emotional discomfort of potentially falling short. But you don’t avoid the discomfort itself. You just make it shapeless and ongoing. Nothing ever feels like enough because there’s no definition of enough.
The reason most independent consultants avoid setting goals is emotional, not strategic. They don’t want to feel like they failed. They don’t want to feel disappointed or overwhelmed. Melisa names this as emotional immaturity in this specific area, not as a character flaw, but as a skill gap to fill.
The task: set a goal now. Write it down. Put it where you’ll see it. And start building the capacity to handle whatever feelings come with tracking toward it. That capacity is one of the most valuable things you can build as a business owner.
Scenario 3: You’re Behind
First, double-check that you’re actually behind. Count everything. Apply the same math from Step 1.
If you are behind after the full accounting, Melisa is clear: do not change the goal.
Changing the goal to something more “realistic” feels like a rational move. It’s not. What you lose when you change the goal is the opportunity to become the business owner who follows through, who learns what adjustment is required, who figures out what’s actually blocking the revenue from happening.
Keep the goal and ask a better question: what’s your biggest opportunity to close the gap?
If you’re behind on conversations, the answer is more outreach. If you’re having conversations but not converting them, the answer is what’s happening inside those calls. The diagnosis matters. The goal change doesn’t help you find it.
On the mindset side: this is what happens in businesses. It’s not a sign that something is fundamentally wrong. What matters is how you respond and adjust, not whether you hit the number perfectly.
Scenario 4: You’re Ahead
If you’re ahead, don’t coast.
Melisa offers three options. The first is to increase your goal. If you’re meaningfully ahead of where you expected to be at midyear, your original goal may have been sandbagged, set low enough to feel achievable rather than set at what’s actually possible. Doubling the goal and asking how to get there without working more is a different kind of problem to solve, and a more valuable one.
The second option is to keep your goal and add a layer. Land more of the work you actually want. Take more time off. Build more predictability into how demand comes in. You don’t have to grow the number to use the second half well.
The third option is to keep the goal as is and focus on making it more sustainable. If you’ve been achieving through intensity, use the second half to build the systems so the same results come from less effort.
Whatever you choose: give yourself credit for what you created. It’s not luck. And the question to sit with is how to create more without it feeling hard.
Scenario 5: You’re On Track
Being on track sounds like the comfortable scenario. Melisa flags it as the one where independent consultants most easily sabotage themselves.
Two failure modes: getting too comfortable and easing off, or starting to panic that it won’t hold and making reactive decisions that break what’s working.
The antidote is treating on-track as a new norm rather than a fragile coincidence. This is what your business looks like when you’re running it well. The question is what to layer on top.
Options: commit fully to hitting the year’s goal and let nothing distract from it. Shift to a compound goal that adds a fulfillment or flexibility dimension alongside the revenue. Or increase the goal and use the second half to stretch toward it.
Put This Into Action
The steps from the episode in order:
Do the math. Know your actual number, including everything you might be tempted to leave out.
Set or confirm your goal. If you don’t have one, set it now. If you forgot it, find it and ask yourself why.
Identify your scenario: behind, ahead, on track, or starting fresh.
Build your second-half plan based on where you actually are, not where you assumed you were.
Address the emotional component. Every scenario has a mindset that either helps or holds you back. Name yours and work it deliberately.
To build the plan out with a structure designed for independent consultants, download the Quarterly Plan for Consultants.
Resources Mentioned
Companion Resource: Quarterly Plan for Consultants — free download.
More Resources for Independent Consultants
- Coaching for Consultants: Click here to apply for your Coaching Fit Call.
- Book: Grow Your Consulting Business: The 14-Step Roadmap to Make Your Independent Consulting Goals a Reality
- YouTube Podcast Channel
- Melisa’s Free Resources, Books, Planners & Journals: https://linktr.ee/melisaliberman
- Website
