by Peter on August 28, 2010
I have found that one of my biggest challenges as a consultant is time management. I have To Do lists. I have plenty of opportunities and prospects. But I get distracted easily. I haven’t gotten to the point where I can turn off my e-mail notifications while I’m working.
Can you stay focused for 25 minutes at a time?
But I’ve been trying a time-management technique named for a tomato as a way to work through my own personal game of Whack-A-Mole with an increasing number of projects.
Simply put, the Pomodoro technique asks you to work on a specific task — and that task alone — for 25 straight minutes. Then you get a five-minute break before you move on to your next Pomodoro. Shut everything else off. Turn off your e-mail, unless you’re expecting something that’s absolutely critical.
The “system” includes a To Do Sheet, an Activity Inventory Sheet, and a Record Sheet that you can get from the Pomodoro website. You put all the things you need to accomplish on the Activity Inventory Sheet. At the beginning of each day, you put the specific tasks you need to complete on the To Do Sheet, prioritizing them where possible. Then you just work through the sheet. If you’re interrupted, you capture the reasons why.
I could see someone deciding not to do the paperwork and just focusing on the 25-minute segments. But the important thing is the effort to focus, to “get the checkmarks” if you will. How often do we try to juggle a number of different projects, jumping back and forth as input arrives via e-mail or a visit to your office or cube? This technique offers a different way to compartmentalize your day-to-day tasks. There’s even an application to let you put a Pomodoro clock on your desktop.
What do you do to fight all the distractions that rear their heads during the day?
by Peter on August 27, 2010
A bit of motivation for a Friday afternoon, going into the weekend: In recent months, I’ve met a lot of executives — virtually and in person — who have been out of work for a year or more. Many have turned to consulting and project work out of necessity but continue to worry that they’re being ignored for job opportunities because of their age.
So I’m at the Philadelphia Museum of Art with my family this morning and am greeted with the following quote as we entered the Late Renoir exhibit from the then-72-year-old painter.
“I am beginning to know how to paint. It has taken me over fifty years of work to achieve this result, which is still far from complete.”
Later in the exhibit you see the statement that “each generation of art is the foundation for the next generation.” As you head into the weekend, think about hammering home the message that your experience is your strength. Those who don’t buy it probably would have been terrible people to work for in the first place.
by Peter on August 20, 2010
“The process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business development. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.”
That’s marketing, according to Wikipedia. Sounds complicated. And expensive. And something that small businesses and consultants/contractors might not be inclined to try.
Or you could go with this definition: “Getting someone with a need, to know, like, trust, contact, and refer you.” That’s the definition of marketing from John Jantsch, author of both Duct Tape Marketing and newly-published The Referral Engine. I’d probably substitute the phrase “buy from” for contact but that’s quibbling. This is a definition that you can get behind. It’s simple. And it doesn’t feel all that expensive.
My advice for today is pretty simple: If you think about how your decisions are going to impact people’s ability and/or willingness to know, like, trust, buy from and refer you and then act accordingly, you’ll find you have suddenly changed your approach to marketing and put yourself on the path to success.
Spend some time this weekend thinking about ways to achieve this in your business. How can you add value to simple transactions? How can you add value without a transaction? Can you explain what you do in a clearer way? Can you eliminate barriers to marketing success and make it easier to buy from you? Can you do something special for a customer that leads them to tell others about you?
by Peter on August 10, 2010
A few weeks ago, I found myself in Washington, D.C. and drove by an In-N-Out Burger, where the memories came flooding back. We don’t have any In-N-Outs here in the Philly area so I had to explain to my son that this was one of the few fast-food places where you could order a burger Animal-Style, get a 4×4, or even got your burger wrapped in lettuce.
That is, if you know about the “Secret Menu.” You can’t go into an In-N-Out and get a salad, dessert, or anything resembling a Value Meal. But if you know to ask, you can get your choice of four beef patties, with hand-leafed lettuce, tomato, spread, four slices of American cheese, with or without onions (the 4×4) or a mustard-cooked beef patty with pickle, extra spread and grilled onions (Animal Style).
In-N-Out Burger is one of the many examples that Harvard Professor Youngme Moon uses in her book, Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd. At first glance, some might say that the chain competes with freshness and burgers that aren’t frozen. And does it well, by the way. But those in the know would probably argue that it’s the secret menu that drives the loyalty of its customers.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how people and companies differentiate themselves from their competitors. I’m working with a client that differentiates itself in part by helping its customers identify their “purple cow,” what Seth Godin describes as a product or service that is worth making a remark about.
Being remarkable. That’s what Youngme Moon wants you to be. In her view, “the more diligently firms compete with each other, the less differentiated they can become, at least in the eyes of consumers.” She sees a lot of what she calls “artful packaging of meaningless distinctions as true differentiations,” making mountains out of molehills if you will.
True differentiation comes at the intersection of passion and comparative expertise, where you achieve your goal of selling to people who love your brand AND feel it’s the ONLY brand able to deliver what they want (or are looking for).
She sees a number of different ways to accomplish this goal. There are ”idea brands” where you rethink the entire value proposition in your category (think back to the great Dove commercial that showed what a model looked like pre-glamour shoot and, at the same time, got people thinking about beauty in a completely different way). Consider ”reverse-positioned” brands that go in completely different directions than you’d expect (think the stripped-down Google search page competing against its bigger, better, busier, noisier, flashier competitors). Think about brands like Cirque de Soleil (a circus but without the elephants) or the Simpsons (a cartoon, but for adults); and the hostile brands that focus on their passionate followers and could care less about the rest of you (think Apple and Ikea, which Professor Moon describes as a brand that has “discovered the cool of unapologetic contradition).
As someone who also writes a blog about simplicity, I particularly like the idea of the reverse-positioned brand where you take away what we expect but then give us what we don’t expect (or what we really care about). Eliminate but elevate.
Whether you’re a new consultant, a small business that’s starting out, trying to grow, or struggling to survive, and a frustrated job-seeker, I suggest you look at yourself the way consumers do. Do they see a competitive blur? How can you stand out? I urge you to read the book — it’s a fast read — but offer one of Professor Moon’s parting thoughts: Differentiation is not a tactic; it’s a way of thinking.
And that’s something you can sink your teeth into over at In-N-Out Burger as you think about what makes you different. Or as you read Different by Youngme Moon.
If you’re interested in purchasing either book, here are affiliate links:
by Peter on August 3, 2010
Michael D. Brown is co-founder of Consultant Launch Pad. He has worked in the chemicals industry for more than 30 years, 12 of that as a consultant.
Consulting on the side can be a juggling act
I have previously discussed ideas for entering the consulting profession, including tactics for minimizing the risk and cost and ways to give consulting a test drive without fully committing. In a continuation of that theme, one must consider the possibility of consulting on the side while you still have a day job. In many ways it is the perfect strategy for becoming a consultant because you are protected on the “revenue” side by the steady salary of employment and probably a nice set of benefits.
On the other hand, any side job poses potential risks to your employment and your personal life and one has to consider carefully how you can legally, ethically and happily marry a job and consulting practice. My advice is, BE CAREFUL ; unlike other side jobs, consulting on the side brings a special set of potential conflicts problems with your day job:
Make sure your consulting practice does not interfere directly or indirectly with your employment. Read your employee handbook carefully to assure that company policy allows side jobs and made very certain you are not in violation of employment contracts, secrecy agreements, etc.
- Never interact with your consulting clients during normal business hours and never use company resources (e-mail, phone, files, computer, etc) for consulting. These should be separated to prevent any appearance of impropriety – to your employer and your clients.
- Depending on your position in the company, and your relationship with your supervisor, it may make sense to be open about your consulting practice. Openness can relieve the burden of secrecy, but I do not necessarily feel this is essential and certainly do not feel your employer has to know how you spend your off-hours unless it is expressively stated in company policy.
- Carefully consider how you manage your personal brand and the multiple personalities you are presenting to your consulting clients. The more you can keep your worlds separate (consult in different industries, geographies, etc.) the better off you will be. Think two steps ahead – for example, if you lose your day job how will you explain past moonlighting while interviewing with new employers?
So is there wiggle room for consulting on the side? Of course there is depending on the type of consulting. In ubiquitous consulting where the potential for conflict is minimal (e.g. information technology), there is plenty of opportunity to have a separate consulting practice with little if any entanglements with full employment. On the other hand, business and management consultants may find a very narrow window to operate because of the potential for knowledge transfer and that will limit them so severely that they can’t have a meaningful consulting practice.
So, while certainly possible, consulting as a second job should be considered carefully. I do not believe it is possible to have a robust and thriving practice on the side. Rather, I see moonlighting as way to test your abilities to consult and see if it is a good alternative to a day job. Frankly, I think it makes most sense when you are serious about weaning yourself from a day job to a new lifestyle or retirement where you intend to make consulting your primary income.
Michael Brown is president of StrategyMark Inc., which provides consulting services to the specialty chemicals industry.
by Peter on July 30, 2010
Letting people know you're out there is the first step to establishing your credibiity as a subject-matter expert.
So you’re a new consultant — or you’ve been in business for awhile — and you just can’t seem to get traction against more established competitors. And you don’t have a lot of money to advertise or to hire a PR person to promote your brand. And you worry that part of the problem — to steal from the theme song from Cheers — is that nobody knows your name.
Well, one alternative is subscribing to the Help a Reporter Out (HARO) service. HARO says that every day it ”brings nearly 30,000 reporters and bloggers, over 100,000 news sources and thousands of small businesses together to tell their stories, promote their brands and sell their products and services.” It says it has published “more than 75,000 journalist queries, has facilitated nearly 7,500,000 media pitches, and has marketed and promoted close to 1,500 brands to the media, small businesses and consumers.”
HARO is completely free. The process is simple: You go to their site and sign up. What you’re signing up to receive are three e-mails per day with a list of stories that reporters and bloggers are working on, complete with a description of the story and a contact link. If the story seems to be in your area of expertise, you click on the link and respond to the inquiry. Very easy.
Now keep in mind that a lot of people subscribe so you may have some competition. You can limit the e-mails to only topics that are in your wheelhouse. And you can normally set your watch by the arrival of the HARO e-mails and it’ll take all of a minute to quickly check the topics. And speed of response often matters; a lot of these people are on deadline.
Take a look and give it a try. But keep in mind that the reporters and bloggers are not necessarily your friends. If you’re not prepared — and that includes thinking through how what you’re saying will look in print, searchable and on the Internet for eternity. A few tips:
- Anticipate the questions you might get and prepare talking points.
- Keep those talking points short, but be quotable (i.e., don’t be boring).
- Avoid abusing your competitors.
Please feel free to add additional tips or ways to improve your chances of helping a reporter out.
HARO is entirely free to sources and reporters, and unlike a majority of social media services, is independently owned and funded and has been profitable since day one. In addition, HARO serves as a vital social networking resource for sources, reporters and advertisers who use the service at www.helpareporter.com .
by Peter on July 20, 2010
This is the second of a multi-part series on making changes to your job-seeker (or full-time job) LinkedIn profile to reflect your decision to consult or seek project work. The introduction to this series can be found here.
Spread the word about other people's great strengths and they'll do the same for you!
It’s one thing for you to say you’re great at something on LinkedIn, but Recommendations act as confirmation and give prospective clients a better sense of what you’re like to work with. LinkedIn is a lot more than an online version of your resume. It’s a place to tell everyone what you’re good at, to find potential opportunities, to share knowledge, and to build your reputation (and help others build theirs).
Review your LinkedIn Recommendations — if you have any — and decide whether they are Job Seeker-focused or if they also work well for the project work you want. Your recommendations should reinforce your value proposition (your competitive points of differentiation). If you’ve thought through the keywords that you want prospective clients using to find you, get them included in your Recommendations. If you haven’t really crystallized your value proposition or identified keywords, you really need to do that first.
HOW TO GET A VALUABLE RECOMMENDATION
Effective Recommendations offer a combination of value-proposition reinforcement, measurable results, and your primary search keywords. The key to getting a great Recommendation? Not leaving it to chance. Just ask. Here are a few tips, some taken from Ferrazzi Greenlight’s Relationship Masters Academy, from other experts on the subject, and from my own personal experience:
- Use the LinkedIn recommendations-request system. Some people suggest you call or e-mail the person…and that may be best if you deal with them a lot. But that approach could result in your request slipping through the cracks. The LinkedIn system queues up your request and serves as a reminder for someone to deal with when they have a few minutes. You can also ask a client for a recommendation at the end of your project. I’ve found mixed success with this approach.
- Set the tone from the outset. No matter what you do — AND YES, I’M CAPITALIZING THIS FOR EMPHASIS — do not use the LinkedIn template for your request. Here’s a starting point for your request (but adapt it as appropriate): As you may know, I’ve decided to switch my focus from a full-time job search to consulting (or project work). I’d like to add some Recommendations to my LinkedIn profile that reflect the kind of work I do and the projects I’m hoping to take on. Would you be willing to write one for me about our work together on [specific project]? It would mean a lot to me to have your thoughts about my performance.
- Maximize your chances to get what you need. Sometimes people are willing to put their name on a testimonial, but don’t have the time or expertise to write a good one. If you suspect that’s the case — and one way to figure it out is by taking a look at other Recommendations they’ve written (typos and broad generalities are two great indicators of how seriously someone takes these) — consider offering to write it for them. You might add something along these lines to your note: I know you’re very busy. If it would help, I’d be glad to write a couple of sample recommendations that would address some of the key points I’m hoping you might include. You can certainly rewrite or adapt them however you’d like — and tell me honestly if you think I’ve gone overboard. Thanks so much, and either way, let me know.
- Write an unsolicited one for them. This is a great way to get a great Recommendation, and it says something about you in the process. I’m a big believer in karma and think a few non-reciprocal Recommendations send your network a great message (i.e., how often do you trust Recommendations where two people wrote them for each other at the same time?). They also help you think through the best way to ask for one from someone else. If you write a great recommendation, when they inevitably send you a thank you and offer to reciprocate, let them know how much you appreciate that and let them know what you’d like them to focus on. Have a discussion. But it will be important that you obviously spent time on theirs.
Please keep in mind that the failure to get an immediate recommendation from someone doesn’t mean they don’t value your work. Follow up after a few weeks and if they still don’t respond, don’t stress out. Just ask someone else.
COMPONENTS OF A GREAT RECOMMENDATION
- Avoid broad generalities. Offer specific recognition of what makes someone great, preferably with results. Check out the person’s summary and be conscious of the positioning and try to reinforce that brand. If you’re still confused, drop him a note and let him know you’re planning to write him a Recommendation and see if your view of his key skills are what he’d like highlighted. When you’re done, check the Recommendation very carefully for spelling and punctuation. I’m constantly stunned by how many people wrote great things but never took the time to make sure it reflects their best work.
- Be very clear about what you’re recommending. Focus on those specific attributes that others might be looking for (e.g., specific types of communication skills, ability to get up to speed quickly, ability to work effectively on their own after receiving initial direction, how others in the organization interacted with the person). Go beyond saying someone helped you expand your online presence and offer specific examples (redesigned your webpage, defined online brand-engagement strategies.
- Feel strongly about the person. I don’t write recommendations for people I don’t know very well. If asked, I’ll be honest about that and tell them I don’t feel we worked closely enough or that it was long enough ago that I no longer feel comfortable about writing it. I think most people would agree that no recommendation is better than a lukewarm one.
The best recommendations explain why the person is a superstar but also explains the best ways to engage with them (and who else with credibility engages with them).
And one more thing. There’s a reason I’m writing about Recommendations before suggesting ways to improve your Summary and Headline. I think you’ll find that others often have a clearer view of your strengths than you do. I made some important changes to my Profile after seeing what people I really respect wrote about me in my Recommendations.
Good luck. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about your Summary.
P.S. The advice I’m providing will help you beef up your LinkedIn profile without outside help. But if you don’t want to spend the time or realize that this is not something you’re particularly good at, I will be happy to take you on as a client. Just drop me a note at peter at consultantlaunchpad dot com.
by Peter on July 19, 2010
Summer is a great time to "beef" up your LinkedIn profile and make sure your personal brand reflects your marketing strategy
Full-time job seekers who see consulting or project work as a new career path, as an audition strategy, or as a way to generate some short-term income should consider the impact on their key marketing materials. Your personal brand and your business brand are essentially one and the same in this scenario, and you need to think about the messages you’re sending in places such as LinkedIn.
Last week, Jason Alba of JibberJobber.com (a terrific career management site), challenged his readers to submit their LinkedIn headlines for critique (you can see the result here). I offered to help, which gave me a good opportunity to review some profiles and frankly found them lacking. Then last night, someone tweeted a link to a rant about people’s About pages that applies to this subject. That got me thinking. So I’m going to devote a series of posts over the next four or five days to beefing up your LinkedIn profile to reflect your new consulting/project focus.
First, though, I want you to set a baseline for who’s looking at your profile today (Who’s Viewed My Profile can be found in the right-hand column of your LinkedIn home page). LinkedIn comes up short in the metrics area, but checking this a few times before you make changes will help you assess the impact of your changes on your search results. It won’t tell you if more qualified people are finding you, but the data will be directionally correct.
Second, print out your profile. Highlight all the references to your job search and to the specific skills you’re highlighting, including the ones in your Recommendations and Experience sections. How will you need to change them to attract clients rather than employers? Which words are repeated throughout? Those are your current search keywords. Are they the ones you want?
Finally, think about your profile in terms of solutions. Write down how you can help people achieve their goals (e.g., I can raise your online visibility, I can help you build a killer low-cost computer). The list you made in the previous step should help you with this exercise. Over the next few days, this will evolve into your value proposition.
That’s all for today. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about Recommendations.
P.S. The advice I’m providing will help you beef up your LinkedIn profile without outside help. But if you don’t want to spend the time or realize that this is not something you’re particularly good at, I will be happy to take you on as a client. Just drop me a note at peter at consultantlaunchpad dot com.
by Peter on July 18, 2010
Today’s post was written by Consultant Launch Pad co-founder Michael Brown, the president of StrategyMark Inc, which provides consulting services to the specialty chemicals industry.
Subcontracting for another firm can provide a terrific foundation for an early-stage consultant.
Subcontracting for another consulting firm can be a great strategy for getting your own practice started. It not only gets the cash flowing quickly but comes with other benefits including:
- The other consulting firm has already sold the project, enabling you to get started more quickly because it eliminates the normal leadtime required for getting new business. You can still start prospecting directly with clients while you are subcontracting so you reap the benefits as the sub-contracting gig ends.
- Subcontracting is another “toe in the water” approach to testing the profession and making sure you have what it takes to be a consultant (see earlier blog on Microconsulting for another “toe in the water” approach)
- Subcontracting is a wonderful learning experience and a great way to see the inner workings of an established consulting firm, including the sales process, customer interactions, and financial structure
- For those who dislike selling, subcontracting can even extend beyond start-up and become the core of the practice.
- It can provide you with case studies and a list of “clients” that can build both your reputation and provide heft to your marketing materials.
Subcontracting does bring a couple of significant downsides:
- The rates/fees are usually much lower than those of your “real” direct clients simply because there is another consulting firm marking up your rates for its client and it needs room for a reasonable mark-up margin while still remaining competitive. If the rate you negotiate is substantially lower, make sure you get something in return (e.g., guaranteed work, office support, training/learning opportunity). B e sure to lay the groundwork for raising your rates over time, since, once someone starts paying you a certain rate, they may expect to pay that same rate forever.
- Many consulting firms require non-compete and non-disclosure agreements with their subcontractors. Depending on your practice and field of work, this may limit your abilities to work with certain clients and slow the growth of your practice. Try to limit non-competes to a short term and made sure the field is not open-ended; instead, list the excluded clients by name.
Subcontracting continues to be a small but important part of my established practice. It comes to me through my network and I do not actively pursue it. While the rates are lower, I find it refreshing to work with other consultants and learn their style and approach as well as swap client war stories! That said, here are a couple of tips for generating work like this:
- Add something to your LinkedIn profile and other marketing collateral that says you are open to this kind of work.
- Let other consultants know you’re interested in this kind of business.
- Identify consultants or consulting firms that serve similar types of clients but may not serve your particular niche. Offer them a chance to expand their services. For example, if you have extensive experience writing business plans or RFP responses, a branding agency that focuses on developing logos, taglines, and websites might be interested in that skill.
- Listen carefully when networking. If someone tells you how busy they are, ask questions instead of congratulating them. Offer them a chance to take less-profitable, time-consuming functions off their plates, particularly if they don’t enjoy them (e.g., technical types often dislike formatting reports or creating charts).
Consultant Launch Pad co-founder Peter Osborne contributed to this post.
