Patricia Debski
Patricia Debski is a principal at Roadmap Marketing LLC, where she brings more than 20 years of business, product, and marketing experience to helping companies get more out of their marketing dollars and drive results from their marketing strategy. She was most recently at the DuPont Company where she held leadership positions in the Building Innovations and the Printing and Publishing businesses. For more information on Patricia, you can go to Roadmap Marketing’s website or her LinkedIn profile.
What do you know today that you wish you knew when you were starting out? That you need a supportive but self-imposed infrastructure (think an office, a schedule, meetings, formal objectives, etc.) and defined energy sources (besides caffeine – think networking, taking a class, attending a seminar, learning about an industry, etc. ) to keep you moving towards your defined goals – making sure you have defined goals!
What was your most important decision starting out (e.g., financial, organizational, marketing)? Rather than go it alone, I contracted with an existing consulting firm (3-4 yr old) for work and committed to supporting another small firm that needed my talents and was an outlet for my interests in working with smaller businesses (vs. corporate). Also, I had already been volunteering my time and experience with other small businesses, either on an advisory committee or in a business and marketing coaching capacity, which not only kept up my network, but gave me credible experience in the small business segment.
Can you offer one piece of advice to help a new consultant get through the first six months? Be clear on your revenue and personal goals – do the upfront planning work and create quarterly (and monthly) goals with tasks and keep it in front of you. Always refer back to it. I kept a funnel picture to track prospective clients and noted where they dropped off, where they advanced to a proposal, and which ones committed. The picture keeps you grounded on what’s really happening.
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