Category: Accelerate
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How to Communicate with Drawings (even if all you can draw is a stick figure)
We consultants are often challenged to communicate complicated, abstract, problem-solving ideas to our clients. Sometimes the best way to do that is through pictures. The problem is many of us feel artistically challenged, not confident in our drawing ability. That’s where Dan Roam’s book, The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures (AMAZON),…
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Setting Priorities and Staying Focused
Part of our Books that Build Business series For most consultants, we are our business. We live it, breathe it, eat it. Whether a soloist or leading a team, we are IT. And how we “show up” in our business has a HUGE impact on its success. The plans we make, whether we actually carry…
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‘Tis the Season…to Tackle Business Planning
In the lead-up to the holiday season each year, I keep the leftover Halloween candy close as fuel for my professional holiday tradition: planning. If there’s one thing I can attribute to the growth of my consulting practice over the years, it’s this regular practice of taking stock of where I’ve been and what’s to…
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REPLAY: Lessons Learned About Virtual Facilitation
This is a replay of a panel discussion held on May 6, 2020 on lessons learned about facilitating day-long and multi-day retreats and other online meetings where the outcome of the facilitation process is open-ended. Five veteran consultants share their experiences.
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REPLAY: Consulting Through the Pandemic and Beyond
This is a replay of a panel discussion held on April 14, 2020. Three veteran consultants share what they did to weather another time of disruption and uncertainty – the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and how those lessons shape their business practices during this crisis. Their stories are designed to help you think through your…
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Social Media: A Must or A Bust for Consultants?
Business was humming, yet I had heard a regular refrain that made me doubt my marketing efforts. In the era when Facebook and Twitter were taking off, people regularly asked whether I was promoting my business, books, and ideas on those platforms.
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Are you driving your consulting business (or is it driving you)?
I was reading Seth Godin’s post, “Profitable, Difficult, or Important?”, and it struck me: that’s a tension I’ve felt throughout my consulting career. Although the tension was inside my head, it showed up in my business model,[*] which means it eventually showed up somewhere else. You guessed it: In my bank account! For example, early…
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Why Hourly Rates?
Many veteran consultants aim to secure retainers with their clients—and that is a valid goal. Or they’ve heard that “project fees” (charging a flat rate for projects) are the way to go. Retainers provide consistent income over time, whereas hourly rates clearly depend upon the number of hours you work. Similarly, charging project fees is…
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What Does Your Prospect (Really) Think of Your Proposal?
As a consultant, how many times have you wished you could have been a fly on the wall as a prospect reviewed your proposal and those from your competitors? We might be gratified. We might be mortified. But oh, what we could learn!
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Are You Confident about Your Confidence?
Here are five ways you can boost your confidence as a consultant. As you start a business, it can be tempting to set up shop, secure a client or two, then expect that things will continue to pop. I was guilty of this myself at times. I thought that my busy first year would translate…