When you’re running a small business, you wear all the hats. You’re the CEO in charge of growth and organization, you’re running the marketing campaigns, and you’re delivering the services. It’s a lot of work to juggle client delivery with the critical work of running your consulting business. The good news is that there are many solutions to this challenge. And one of them is getting additional help for you …
In this episode, I share the 5-step process to overcome undercharging as a consultant. I walk you through the 5 steps to stop undercharging as an independent consultant. I share two examples of how to apply these 5 steps, including (1) when you’re initially creating your consulting proposal and (2) when you’re pricing follow-on work for an existing client. Today’s episode concludes a 3 part series about undercharging in your …
Last week (in episode 050) we discussed the five methods you can use to determine if you’re undercharging your solo consulting business. Assuming that you are undercharging, which almost every consultant is in some way, this week we’re going to talk about the four reasons why you might be doing that. We’ll discuss in detail what these root causes are and how to identify them for yourself. The time you spend …
Often when I coach independent consultant clients who aren’t seeing the results they want to in the areas of revenue, profit, and the time they’re spending working, the issue becomes clear. This is the result of them undercharging. No one plans to undercharge when they set up their consulting business. And, often it can be a gut-punch when you realize you’ve been undercharging and had no idea. It can be …
Today I want to share with you a mistake that I made in my business back in December. After working through the emotions of embarrassment and regret from making this mistake, I decided to look at the root cause. I discovered that I didn’t have all of my consulting business policies thoroughly defined. So, I revisited my set of operating policies, or guardrails, so that I have a much more …
As a business owner who is balancing running your business with delivering for clients, I know you’re walking a fine line when you choose what processes and systems to implement. You’ve got to decide which tools are worth the overhead (time-wise and financially) because they’ll make your life easier and help your business scale. And, at the same time, you want to avoid going overboard by over-engineering your processes when …
So you left corporate thinking that one of the outcomes will be more work-life balance. After all, you’re the boss, you will definitely have more work-life balance because we’re the one in charge now, right? Wrong! Most of the time, we don’t achieve the work-life balance we wanted to as independent consultants. Instead, we end up just recreating what we had been doing in corporate. The only difference is that …
When you look at the top reasons why independent consultants choose to leave traditional corporate jobs, their desire to achieve a work-life balance ranks high among the list. You left corporate because you want to drive your own schedule, to have more time freedom, and independence, to set your own priorities, to take more vacation. Despite this vision, what ends up happening is you get bogged down by the day-to-day …
What makes the difference between an independent consultant who has an endless flow of leads compared to the independent consultant who is struggling to create those leads, and to create that momentum in their consulting business? Naturally, most of us think the difference is a trait, that maybe this independent consultant with the endless flow of leads has exceptional selling skills, a great personality, or maybe they have a great …
Most consulting businesses track financial metrics around revenue growth and profitability. These metrics tell you what your cash flow looks like and how successful you are in terms of growing revenue but this is not the entire picture of your business health. Cash flow is a lagging indicator. As a business owner, you want to track a range of metrics, including leading indicators. You also want to take a deep …
Most independent consultants have hidden pricing opportunities just waiting to be discovered.
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