Setting SMART goals can help you grow your business. Although I've been setting goals for years, I only recently learned about SMART goals. (Granted, the system I was using before was pretty similar.) My friend Melanie recently helped me outline some SMART goals for my business.

SMART goals are:

• Specific - who, what, when, where, why?
  
• Measurable - what gets measured gets done, right?
  
• Attainable - pick goals that are achievable, given your abilities and constraints
  
• Realistic - you must truly believe it can be accomplished
  
• Timely - set a date for meeting the goal
  

In an upcoming post, I'll discuss some ideas for setting SMART goals for your consulting business.

(Want to make sure you see that post? Subscribe to my RSSfeed.)

From time to time, some of you ask how you can best support this site. I appreciate your interest. Of course, this site is chiefly a labor of love and I've made both the Consultant Journal newsletter and hundreds of articles available for free.

I do earn money from the ads on Consultant Journal. That has allowed me to invest in building the site, upgrading web servers, pay for hosting and build new online tools.

Really, to support this site, all you need to do is just keep visiting, taking part and telling your friends. But, because some of you want to know what else you can do, I've put together some ideas. The key thing is to get the word out about this site. More people means a richer and more diverse community, with more comments and more participation. It also means more advertising, which means I'll be able to invest more in this site.

1. Read articles on the site. After all, that's why Consultant Journal is here.
   
2. Forward your favorite posts to your friends. Invite other people to visit.
3. Make comments. Comments help build community.
4. Subscribe to the newsletter. (See top right of page.) The more the merrier!
   
5. Write a guest post. If your post is accepted, you'll receive a link back to your site and my gratitude. It's a great way to generate new traffic for your own site, build up your credibility or simply contribute to the Consultant Journal community.
6. Link to my site, if you have a website or a blog. It's a great way to bring new people to this site.
   
7. Ask your friends to link to my site. If you don't have your own site or blog or you're just really enthusiastic, ask your friends to consider linking to my articles. It will help bring more people to Consultant Journal.
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12. Advertise on this site. If you've got a product or service that would interest Consultant Journal readers, advertise on this site.
13. Buy one of my guides:

• Discover Your Inner Consultant
• Consulting Fees: A Guide for Independent Consultants
• Discover Your Inner Entrepreneur for Moms

Thank you all for your support so far. Whether it's a kind word, a link, a comment, a successful advertising campaign or a purchase, your support is truly appreciated.

I'm no longer giving away The Bootstrapper's Bible with newsletter subscriptions. As of right now, you'll receive Six Tips for Jumpstarting Your Expert Status when you sign up for the Consultant Journal newsletter. (See top right.)

Why the change? I really believe that most of you will see more value from help with growing your reputation as an expert. After all, consultants are "experts".

If you already subscribe to the newsletter, you'll be receiving these tips in this month's newsletter. You don't need to sign up again.

Related:

• Bootstrapper's Bible giveaway ends soon

The guest post on comfort zones by Laura-Jane Koers stirred up a lot of interest. I've been talking about comfort zones in my newsletter and many of you have emailed to share your own stories.

I know that there are more out you out there challenging your comfort zones. So, tell me -- here, where you can remain mostly anonymous -- what things scare you? Are you doing anything different? What are you doing to change your comfort zone?

For many people, surviving and thriving as an independent consultant means making changes. Sometimes, as part of those changes, you need to push your comfort zone. Doing so may mean giving up your regular job for life as a full-time consultant, addressing fear of the phone, speaking in public, making cold calls or asking for consulting fees that reflect your true worth.

In my newsletter, I've been talking about my recent successes with changing my own comfort zone. (Subscribe via form above, right.) But now I'd like to share the story of a young woman who has taken a true leap.

Laura-Jane Koers is a young woman who has given up her city job for life on a farm on the East Coast. She's given up the security of everything from steady pay to a warm place to sleep. She and her partner (my cousin, Cam) are renovating an old farm house, growing their own food, chopping their own wood -- and taking a stab at making money from home.

Here's part one of Laura-Jane's story:

Taking the Leap

by Laura-Jane Koers

I'm not much of a dreamer. I plod along, living my small life in this wide world. Nonetheless, last year I found myself hurtling head-first into the wind and giving up everything I've ever known to live my dream. The mischievous thing about dreams is that we can spend decades wishing that they would come to pass. But the best kept secret is that, once we honestly commit to making our dreams happen, they can't help but come true, because we've set them in motion ourselves. The most difficult part of achieving a dream is deciding to make it come true; once this decision has been made, the rest is peanuts.

For years, my partner and I often fantasized about leaving the West Coast and heading 6,000 kilometres east to live on Prince Edward Island. As busy working professionals in metropolitan British Columbia, we spent the occasional weekend yearning to give up our tiny condo and Starbucks lifestyle in favour of rural farm-life. We wanted orchards, chickens, and acres of rolling splendor. But our farm-dream was just an idle topic that was a welcome distraction from the everyday--it wasn't our focus.

One Friday evening, we were enjoying the last of the day's sun in a triangle of green-space near our condo. Discussing the too-short weekend ahead of us and how it would invariably be followed by yet another long and draining work-week, we saw our faces darken. We would later come to refer to this evening as the Night That Changed Everything.

"I think I need to quit my job," my partner of ten years said.

(Almost) always supportive, I answered, "Are you being serious? Because if you are, I'm with you."

He was serious, and, by the end of our turn around the neighbourhood park, we had made a variety of life-changing decisions. He should quit, I should quit, we should sell everything we own, and we should move across the country to an island that we had never seen. It had taken years for us to muster the courage to make such a decision, but, that night, we agreed to make it happen. In fact, we even pinky-swore on it.

Once we'd finally committed to our oft-discussed dream, we started to plan. Planning was easy; because we were committed, we knew what had to be done. We compiled a dauntingly gargantuan to-do list and slowly chipped away at each item.

Eventually we found ourselves in a chic cafe with my beloved parents. Across from my untouched panini (havarti and garden vegetables -- my favourite), my father searched my face with sad, loving eyes.

"You're moving across the country?" he asked. "But what kind of job will you get? You'll be thousands of kilometres away! And it's the middle of winter, for Blimey's sake!"

My throat was trying to close up, but I commanded my anatomy to stay strong or face the consequences. "I'll miss you too, Dad," I heard myself saying, "But this is our dream, and we're going to make it happen."

After the decision had been made, our life change took over a year to materialize. But we eventually found ourselves waving off our families and home town, as we honked goodbye and drove east on the Trans-Canada Highway. As our parents' waving hands disappeared around a bend in the road, my partner and I looked at one another. "Is this really happening?" I asked.

Glancing back at the rickety U-Haul trailer that housed all of our worldly possessions, he answered, "It would appear so!"

And we both gave way to the greatest laughing episode I can remember.

It is easy to get discouraged and frightened about committing to a dream. What will my family and friends think? What if I realize that this dream isn't right for me after all? What if I fail? I bypassed my fears by allowing myself freedom. I committed to making our dream happen, but I certainly didn't commit to living this dream forever once we'd achieved it. (I have other dreams too, you know!)

How did we do it? We looked our dream head on and said, "We're going to make you happen." Our dream was, well, just a dream--until we decided to make it a plan. For us, all it took was a shift in perspective; we had to make our dream become our reality ourselves. And we did.

So here we are, a couple of years later, living on a 60-acre farm on Prince Edward Island. No, it isn't always roses. I've chased bats out of our farm-house bedroom. And, when the wind is howling and all we have is a wood-stove to keep the weather out, I'll admit that I have sometimes taken to wondering why we wanted to move to a farm in the first place. However, when I think back to how we dared to follow that little voice that wouldn't go away, I can't help but grin through the hard work, wasp stings, and cold winter toes. It was our dream, after all.

Laura-Jane Koers is a freelance writer currently living at Whimfield Farm on Prince Edward Island, Canada. She blogs about farm life at  www.whimfield.com. To find out more about Laura-Jane's current writing endeavours, visit  www.laura-jane.com.

I just heard this Robin Williams line:

Carpe per diem - seize the check.

Once you've set your consulting fees, make sure you have a good contract to help you collect them. Establish some basic business policies, so that you don't turn into a line of credit for your clients. Follow steps to collect on late payments.

Via Yahoo, I stumbled across a list of the top 5 careers for extroverts. Yikes, the highest paying career cited is still only $80k! That's not exactly what I'd call a hot career. Granted, I suppose you can move up the ladder from there -- into management and senior management -- but it's still not what I'd consider hot. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that, by HR specialist, they meant someone who is still not in middle management.

In contract, I know a human resources consultant who charges $225 an hour. She offers career coaching, retreats, courses and so on. To make $80k a year, she only needs to bill an average of seven hours per week.

Related

• Discover Your Inner Consultant
• Consulting Fees Guide
• Discover Your Inner Entepreneur for Moms

Working from home….imagine baby tucked into a sling or crib, while mom types away at a keyboard, leads a teleconference or assembles products. You might wonder if working from home really turns out to be so ideal or if it’s just a pipedream.

I’ve been working from home since before I had kids. But working from home with a baby is not the same as when it was me, my latte and I. Still, I’ve managed whiplash, renovations, a move, more renovations, a second pregnancy and a second baby. And I’m still happily working from home. Here’s how:

• Look for tradeoffs. I chose not to use a nanny or daycare, but I hired a weekly housecleaning service, signed on for grocery delivery and bought a robotic vacuum. Some work from home parents swear by meal preparation services, such as Meals for Mums.

• Be patient. Once your baby settles into a nap schedule, you will have more time for yourself. You may have two to three hours during the day and another two to four in the evening, depending on bedtime for you and baby. My first baby didn’t nap much at all, mind you, so it just depends on your baby.

• Let baby sleep beside your office. When my babies were tiny, they napped in a bassinet near my workspace. I kept all diaper supplies, a few changes of clothes and other things handy.
  

• Be realistic. If you have a tiny baby who has not yet settled into a regular nap schedule, it can be hard to find time to work. You may want to spend any “spare” time resting. If it’s critical for you to work, consider getting help – whether that’s a nanny, housecleaner, grocery delivery, meal preparation or a local high school student who plays with the baby while you take a nap.

• Take a look at childcare options. Some parents work from home without ever turning to childcare providers, whereas others have dedicated in-home care. Work from home parents can choose from a variety of options. This might mean that a grandparent or friend looks after the baby for an hour or two. For others, a nanny or babysitter provides in-home care. Some parents rely on full- or part-time daycare. In my case, I’ve worked out an arrangement where my husband uses his flex time to cover me during occasional business meetings and critical phone calls – he makes up the time at night. I also make use of a preschool-aged program where I can drop off my older son for a couple of hours twice a week. 
  

• Allow someone else to reinvent the wheel. Rather than investing hours in building your own business, consider telecommuting for an employer, accepting subcontracted work from an established business or purchasing a franchise.

Above all else, do what works for you and your family. There are as many ways to work from home as there are people working from home. Trust yourself to know what makes sense for you.

For help in working out what kind of business would suit you as a parent, take a look at my Discover Your Inner Entrepreneur for Moms workbook.

 Related:

• Big list of reasons to become a consultant
• Consulting brings work-life balance

Following my post on what Steve Nash can teach you about business, I followed up on Justin's comment about the wisdom of Michael Jordan and Winston Churchill. Today, I found a great quote from Churchill:

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. -- Winston Churchill.

Noticing a theme here?

Have you ever run into a client who wants a million changes to every project you deliver? You know the type...nothing is ever quite good enough. You could go through rounds and rounds of revisions and still never be quite good enough.

If you're working on a quoted project or flat rate basis, revisions may eat up your time...and your profits. So how do you keep a lid on changes?
•    Define your project scope in your legal contracts.
•    Outline rates for work outside the project scope.
•    Let your clients know when they've asked for something outside the client scope.
•    Within reason, point clients to the project scope and offer to quote on changes.

What do you do to manage picky clients?

Related

• Managing client behavior

It's the weekend...are you working? Do you want to be working?

When you're an independent consultant, time should be your own. You can determine when you want to work -- and if.

But I know many consultants who work weekends because their clients call them with rush jobs. When the phone rings at 4 pm on a Friday, it can be tempting to say "Yes", if the money is good enough.

I'm not immune to this. I've taken on my share of weekend jobs. But, when I do, I charge rush fees, rather than my usual consulting rate. Sometimes that means triple my normal rate or more.

And I don't accept every weekend job that comes along. I want it to be clear to people that I have boundaries. I do not want to be the person they call every Friday with a weekend job.

If you're getting a lot of requests for weekend work, start pushing back. Once people think you work weekends, they'll expect you to work weekends. And they may even want you to work for a regular rate.

It's one thing to work a weekend because you've weighed up the costs and benefits. It's another thing to be stuck working weekends because people see you as the "go to guy" for last minute weekend jobs.

Do you work weekends?

What Steve Nash can teach you about business

Basketball MVP Steve Nash has had some phenomenal successes in his career. I recently read this quote from Nash, who grew up just a few hours away from me:

People have always doubted whether I was good enough to play this game at this level. I thought I was, and I thought I could be. What other people thought was really always irrelevant to me.

So, if you’re suffering from concerns that you’re not good enough, not successful enough, not talented enough or anything else, stop worrying about the rest of the world for now. Focus on yourself. Believe in yourself. You’re the only one who matters. And, if you’ve dared to think you can do it, you can redirect your energy to a plan for succeeding.
 

You quote on a project, but the prospective clients says you're too high. You were really hoping to land this client and now the money seems less important than the prestige. You're just starting out and your client list is pretty slim. Should you drop your rate?

No way. If you discount your rate to get the job, it tells the client that your first quote was inflated. It also means that you'll never be able to charge them your full consulting fee rate -- they'll always expect you to cut your fees.

If you really want to build your client list, do volunteer work for a charity. There are tons of deserving charities out there -- find one that's aligned with your values and do some pro bono work for them. Over time, you can use that work to win slightly more well known clients...and then work up to doing a deal with the clients who offer prestige.

This week's Friday 5 comes from John Wesley -- the top 5 ways to build a wonderful life.

#5 was especially meaningful for me:

Work Towards a Dream You’re Passionate About

Even if your life isn’t perfect, you can always build towards a goal you’re passionate about. If you aren’t building towards something, you’re probably stagnating.

I've achieved so many of my dreams that I'm currently busy with making up new ones. I think it's important to revisit your life goals from time to time and to set new ones. Otherwise, you're sort of rudderless in the Sea of Life.

Those of you who subscribe to my newsletter also know that #6 from the above list is also important to me right now. Breaking out of your comfort zone now can help you live a more comfortable life later!

Happy Fourth of July to my US readers! While you're celebrating Independence Day, I'm thinking about my time as an independent consultant. I've talked about Independence Day before, but let me emphasize this year's reasons that I love consulting.

5 Reasons I'm Happy to be an Independent Consultant

1. Consulting brings work-life balance
2. It allows me to work from home, eliminating my commute
3. I set my own price. Well, okay, the market sets my price too, but I'm more in control than if I worked for someone.
4. I choose my own projects, clients and work hours.
   
5. I'm writing this post from the sandbox at my parents' house, several hours from where I live. Try justifying that to a boss.

See my Big List of Reasons to Become a Consultant.

You open an email and it's a forwarded message from a trusted colleague:

Bob's a long time friend of mine and his business is looking for someone who can do "windows". I know you usually do consulting, but they're desperate to get going and they can pay handsomely, if you can start right away. They value a referral and they don't have the time to look much further. Can you do windows?

So, do you do windows? It's funny how many of us say, "Yes, I can do 'windows'" even if it's not part of our core skillset. The threat that business could dry up tomorrow seems to loom in the minds of many business owners. But, by saying you can do "windows", you may actually be doing yourself more harm than good.

It pays to specialize. If you venture too far from what you're good at, you'll waste time and energy in delivering something that's up to par. And that can hurt your overall business.

Granted, sometimes we all like to have a little extra in the bank. So, if you do "windows", make sure you think about it first. If it makes sense and it won't take you away from your overall business goals, don't beat yourself up for doing "windows".

(Thanks to Ed for suggesting this post.)

Related

• Why one consultant chose to specialize

The next issue of the Consultant Journal newsletter goes out this week. I'll be talking about breaking free from your comfort zone and sharing some of my own recent attempts to shake things up. If you'd like to get on the list, sign up today with the subscribe form at the top right of this page.

If you miss the cut off for this issue, just contact me and ask me to send you a copy.

I'm pleased to announce that I've partnered with Fit 4 Two to offer Discover Your Inner Mompreneur to thousands of new parents. Headed by Melanie Osmack, Fit 4 Two is a leading chain of stroller fitness, prenatal fitness and postnatal fitness providers.

I first learned the word "mompreneur" from Fit 4 Two owner Melanie Osmack. Melanie turned her personal training consulting business into a franchise, so that others could benefit from her investment in marketing and business development. When you look at what she's accomplished in five years -- while raising two little ones -- it's inspiring. I've been in business for more than 10 years and I also have two little ones, but I regularly look to Melanie for her thoughtful insights.

Related:

• Discover Your Inner Mompreneur

Magazines West readers -- thanks for stopping by. Consultant Journal was mentioned during Magazines West yesterday -- in the Best Business Practices for Freelancers session.

If this is your first time here, welcome!  Here are some of the most popular articles on the site:

• How to become a consultant
• Why become a consultant?
• Setting consulting fees
• Finding new clients
• Side jobs and second jobs

This site is packed with tons of free information. However, you can also purchase a Consulting Fees: A Guide for Independent Consultants,  Discover Your Inner Consultant, and, as of this week, Discover Your Inner Mompreneur.

Whether you're new to freelancing or already running a successful consulting business, this site can help you survive and thrive as an independent consultant. Thanks for visiting. If you'd like to add this site to your RSSfeeds, click here.

Consultant Journal focuses on the wonderful world of independent consulting, freelancing and contract work. Given the success of Discover Your Inner Consultant, I'm pleased to announce the soft launch of...

Discover Your Inner Mompreneur

Designed for moms who want to run businesses -- for a few hours a week or for a full-time, full-scale endeavor -- the Discover Your Inner Mompreneur workbook features information, resources and worksheets to help you choose a business. And let me emphasize that this guide will work for any kind of business, not jut consulting and freelancing.

I'll be partnering with Fit 4 Two, the acclaimed national pre- and post-natal fitness company, to bring this new guide to thousands of mothers. Melanie Osmack, founder of Fit 4 Two and its chain of franchises, encouraged me to put together a guide for mothers who want to run businesses. Incidentally, Melanie was a top 10 finalist in the 2007 Mom Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

If you know a mother who's interested in starting a business, check out Discover Your Inner Mompreneur. Thanks!

As I noted last time, lazy consultants can make more, simply by changing the words they use to describe their work. You might be thinking that some clients are sure to walk away if you raise your fees. Well, some clients may be put off by your higher fees. But even if some of your clients leave, you can still make more money.

How you can make more even if you lose work

Let's say you've been happily billing 20 hours a week, for a total of 80 billable hours per month. You've been charging yourself out at $35 an hour. So you make about $2,800 a month.

You decide to raise your consulting fees to $50 an hour. As a result of your decision, some of your clients leave and you're now working 80% as many hours as you were before.

Guess what? You'd still be earning $3,200 a month! That's 14% more than you were before. And, if you go out and find a few new clients, so that you're billing as much as you were before, you could make $4,000 a month.

A big jump in fees can deliver big results

But what if you already make $75 an hour and you bill 20 hours a week, for $6,000 a month? How much could you make per month if you raised your fee to $125 an hour and worked 2/3 as much?

You'd be making $6,600 a month, from working a little more than 13 hours a week. If you found a couple new clients and brought your workload up to 15 hours a week -- that's still down from working 20 hours a week -- you'd make $7,500 a month.

So, if you've been avoiding raising your fees because you're scared of losing a few clients, you may want to rethink your strategy. In an upcoming post, I'll discuss ways to manage your client base, so that you're protected from finicky clients.

Need help with setting your consulting fees? Order my Consulting Fees Guide.

Making money -- that's a key reason you're a consultant, right? You're not doing this for free, are you? So what if there was a way for you to make more money for doing the same work, without any added effort? Well, there's a simple way to do that.

Here's how to make more money

Change the words you use to describe your work.
Several years ago, I attended a professional association meeting. The topic was setting fees for freelance writing. The speaker asked the group to do a show of hands to represent the fees they charged.

• 2 people said they charged $125+ an hour
• 2 people said they charged $65+ per hour
• 25 people (or so) said they charged $15 to $25 per hour

These people were pretty much doing the same work. So how come some people in the room were making almost 10 times as much for doing the same work?

Positioning. The people who charged more used different words to describe their work. Whereas most of the people thought of themselves as freelance writers and editors, the people charging $65+ an hour called themselves "marketing communications consultants". And the two guys charging $125 an hour (the only men in the room, by the way) billed themselves as "content engineers".

I was in that room, too. I was one of the people charging $75 an hour. When I found out two people were charging $125 an hour for the same work, I decided it was time to change my fees.

In my next post, I'll explain why charging more can make you money, even if several people balk at your fees.

Need help with setting your consulting fees? Order my Consulting Fees Guide.

This week's Friday 5 comes from Escape from Cubicle Nation: the top 5 nitpicky mistakes that drive me crazy.

Well, they drive me crazy, too!

Sharing an email address with your spouse.

Ugh. Please. Get your own email, even if it's through Yahoo or Gmail. You should eventually have your own website and thus domain, but, please, don't send email from janeandbob or, worse yet, BobandHisGreatDogJake.

Not including enough information in the "About Us" page of a website.

No kidding. I don't even send email message to companies with limited "about us" pages. I want to know who you are before I send an email.

What bugs you ?  

1. Moonlight. You can test the waters without plunging in by starting your consulting business while you still have a regular job.
   
2. Build an emergency fund. Whether you decide to fly solo or not, you can benefit from having a few months of expenses set aside in an emergency fund.
3. Set up your home office.
4. Launch a website. Today’s clients like to get background information before they even meet you -- and they like you to have a website.
5. Print professional business cards. You won’t be able to network without them. And get professional cards. Don’t create your own.
6. Figure out a plan for working on your own. Rather than abandoning a successful consulting practice because of home office isolation, you should figure out how to get out and socialize as part of your home office routine.
7. Start networking. If you want to find new clients and work on big projects, you’ll need to know more people than you can count on both hands.
8. Pick the right time. You’ll be more successful if you’ve got all your ducks in a row. Do your homework, get organized, find some initial clients, get some work under your belt, save up a little money – then become a consultant.
9. Put together a budget. You can expect a feast or famine lifestyle with consulting. If you have an idea of your earnings and expenses, you can put together an average and dip into your emergency fund (or top it up) as needed.
10. Establish credit. A line of credit and a business credit card – used responsibly – can help you manage cash flow, book flights and hotels, defer payments and pay for lunch meetings with clients. Clean up any credit problems before you launch your business and you’ll have better access to credit once you’re self employed.
11. Learn how to write a good proposal. Good proposal writing is as important as setting your consulting fees right.
12. Charge what you’re worth. Set your consulting fees and treat yourself like a real business – you are a business.
13. Get a deposit.  If you take some money up front via a deposit, you’ll be better protected and less cash strapped.
14. Get it in writing. You may live somewhere that verbal contracts are legal, but it’s a lot easier to prove you had a deal if you get it in writing.
15. Come up with a customer relationship management strategy – and set of tools. Whether you want a Rolodex, contact management system or full CRM suite, you need some way to keep track of your leads, prospects and clients.
16. Set up your home office. You’ll be organized if you put together a home office in the beginning, rather than six months from now.

Related to becoming a consultant

• Top 10 consulting myths

It's time for the Friday 5 list. Via Softopedia, I found a top 5 list of mistakes that will ruin your efforts. The list is aimed at personal fitness, but it's extremely relevant to the health and fitness of your business, too!

The top 5 mistakes:

1. Fail to plan
2. Set unrealistic goals
3. Do too little
4. Do too much
5. Starve yourself

Okay, I know most of you aren't starving yourselves to become consultants. But you do need to make sure you're focused on pacing yourself. It's okay to become a consultant a little bit at a time.

Business opportunities from home can make a real difference in your life. Working from home offers the chance to make money, keep costs low and achieve work-life balance. But how do you separate business opportunities from home business and work from home scams? Take a look at my post on how to identify work from home scams for pointers.

Finding work you can do from home may seem like a real challenge. But millions of people work from home, at everything from making jewellery and providing childcare to running multi-million dollar pharmaceutical and food processing businesses. The key is that work from home can mean many things.

Examples of business opportunities you can have at home:

• A personal trainer may do all admin and marketing work at home, but travel to client sites to do workouts and classes.
• A home daycare owner may offer childcare in the home.
• A pharmaceutical sales rep may do lead generation and lead qualification at home, but travel around the world to close deals
• A company owner may hire freelancers and outsourcing firms to carry out key business roles, so that there's really only one person working directly for the company. And then that owner may simply work from a home office.
• A home staging consultant may work from home for marketing, planning and administration, but also run meetings and do some arranging and decorating at the homes of clients.

What does a home-based business or work opportunity mean for you?

Related:

• What kind of work could you be doing? Discover Your Inner Consultant.

Via Lockergnome, this week's Friday 5 looks at the top 5 reasons a PC consulting business may be failing. I know most of you are not in the business of computer tech consulting, but take a look at the article anyway. It may ring true for you.

I especially liked his tips about clients who try to drive down your consulting fees:

Haggle me once, shame on you, haggle me twice, there’s the door, buddy.

Never be afraid to fire a bad customer.

This week's Friday 5 comes from Marketing Pilgrim: 5 ways negative reviews can actually help you.

I can't say enough about tip #3:

Fix the problem. Research suggests that a customer will tell ten people about a negative experience with a business. However, if you fix the problem to their satisfaction, they’ll tell twenty people how happy they are!

This tip is talking about evangelical customers. I'm one of them. If I love a product, I tell everyone I know. But, if I have an awful experience, I'll tell the world. In fact, I'll even tell my blog, as I did with Soapopular.

Just recently, I wrote to a coffee shop to tell them that their clerk made fun of me and then super-heated my child's mac and cheese. I could have just let it go and never made a purchase there again. But I did them a favour by writing to them and explaining why they'd lost my business. I haven't heard from them, though. So now I'm telling all my associates why they should avoid that shop. I'd estimate they've lost thousands of dollars in business from me alone.

So, if someone says something bad about you, embrace it as a learning opportunity. And get thicker skin.

This year, I've tried to maximize my earnings while minimizing the time involved. This is because of injuries from a car accident and the time crunch involved in raising a young family. I'm happy to say that I'm getting more bang from my time than ever before.

Since the New Year, I've been focusing on a new strategy for making more money. I set a timer for 10 minutes and do nothing but revenue-generating tasks for that time. I'm not sure where I first hear the idea -- probably The Four Hour Workweek. But, wow, has it been effective.

I stop and do nothing but earn money during those 10 minutes. No answering email. No surfing the web. No checking phone messages. No taking phone calls. All I do for 10 minutes is work at things that pay.

The result? I've reduced my non-billable hours. And I'm whipping through projects like never before. Since I usually work by the project when I set my fees, I'm making more money...while working fewer hours overall.

Wow. Try it. It only takes 10 minutes. Just do stuff that results in revenues for 10 minutes.

The consulting life can be awfully decadent sometimes. Work when you want. If you want. How you want. Where you want. In whatever clothes you want. But sometimes that lifestyle can get the better of you...meaning it's time to get yourself in gear again and reset your natural rhythms.

For me, that became painfully clear on September 11, 2001. I woke up around 10:30 am Pacific that day. I got up, drank some coffee, checked my email...saw some message about the WTC from a friend. Thought it was something to do with her work, since she was an emergency preparedness planner. Went back and checked her email again. What was that about planes and towers and crashes?

As I watched the TV in horror, I realized that the rest of the world had seen those images hours before.

At that moment, I decided I needed to bring my day back into alignment with the rest of the world. I started getting up earlier. I'm still never one to be at my desk by 9 am...heck, some days I don't get to my desk till mid-afternoon. But I do have waking hours a little more like those of the rest of the world. Besides, I have kids now...6 am is no longer a foreign concept. And sleeping in is a thing of the past!

Related

• The Body Clock Guide to Better Health at Amazon.com

Sparkline. The word stood out when I was reading Tony Rose's Decision Support Analytics blog recently. I'd never heard of a sparkline before. So I went looking for a definition. Apparently, Edward Tufte invented the sparkline. He defines sparkline on his website as "data-intense, design-simple, word-sized graphics", but I prefer the explanation over at Wikipedia, since it includes examples of the graphics. Apparently, they're intended to be used within text, like symbols in a sentence. Call them modern-day hieroglyhics.

I love the concept of a sparkline. I'm hoping to start using the symbols in my reports and marketing tools. In the past two decades, we've seen symbols surge in use -- just look at the pictures in the navigation bar of your browser. So it's inevitable that pictograms would show up in written text.

Related to sparklines

• Beautiful Evidence by Edward R. Tufte at Amazon.com

Where's Waldo? On a Vancouver roof! You may have run across Waldo, the bespectacled, stripe-shirted guy, at some point in the 80s or 90s. Well, a Vancouver art school student has constructed a giant Where's Waldo character on a Vancouver roof to make her own Google Earth game.

What's this got to do with business or consulting? Well, the art student has taken something that's "been done" and given it a twist. You probably thought Waldo had gone the way of Trivial Pursuit, neon shirts, and friendship bracelets. But this simple art school project has revitalized Waldo. So, if you've been putting off starting a business because you think everything's been done, you might want to stop to Discover Your Inner Consultant.

Excited about closing a new consulting deal, Edward rushed to start the job. Mary, a VP at a local software company, had agreed to hire him to develop several sales tools to help sell software to call centers. He worked furiously on the new project for several days and fired off a draft and a status update at the end of the week.

Edward* didn’t hear anything for a few days, so he waited a little longer. At the end of the next week, he followed up with a phone call. To his surprise, he heard an unfamiliar voice. “Uh, I was looking for Mary,” he said, uneasily. “Oh, Mary’s no longer with the company,” replied the voice.

Although Mary had agreed to hire Edward, she had never kept any documentation. And Edward had simply started the project, thinking that a verbal deal was enough. But, even though a verbal deal is legal where he lives, Edward had a hard time convincing Mary’s boss that a deal had ever existed.

Fortunately, Edward was able to file in small claims court and win his money back. But it took a considerable amount of time and energy. He spent hours preparing for the court case and, even after he won, he still had to follow certain processes to get his money back.

Between chasing after the delinquent client and preparing for the court case, Edward spent about 75 hours of his time. Given that he usually billed out at $65 per hour, he lost $4875 in earnings that he could have made from other clients. Even though he won $2,000 from Mary’s former company, Edward never made up for lost time.

What could have saved Edward? A simple written contract.

Even if you live in an area where verbal contracts are legal, it's always easier to have something in writing. Check out the contracts and legal documents from our affiliate program at US Legal Forms.

*Names have been changed.

Tax time always tests my organizational skills. I collect dozens of business receipts in a month. Many of these are from retailers that print with disappearing ink. Typically, tax-collecting agencies prefer readable receipts should you—I shiver even mentioning it—ever be audited. Thankfully, a friend of mine told me about a solution, Neat Receipts.

This small machine scans your receipts, helping you stay organized at the office, at home and even when you're mobile. As Neat Receipts say on their website:

"It helps you scan and organize all of the paper mess that piles up: from your mail and bills, to business cards, receipts and business expenses, to recipes, home warranties and insurance forms. You can even streamline tax preparation! Say goodbye to clutter and hello to an organized, digital life.”

My friend Michele, who runs a consulting business, recently viewed a demo of the scanner and knew she couldn’t be without it! Neat Receipts is IRS and Revenue Canada compatible. Data also easily transfers to programs such as QuickBooks. Michele has already sent away for hers, so stay tuned for a review of what promises to be a great piece of technology!

Neat Receipts may also be purchased at Amazon.com.

Related to taxes and gadgets:

• Office Gadgets
• Tax write-off list

I have a bit of a baby face. Always have. Hopefully, I always will. And that baby face has sometimes been the bane of my career, since people seem to think I'm younger than I am. "Aren't you a little young to be a consultant?" people sometimes asked when I was starting out. Um, no.

You see, to be a consultant, you don't need a set amount of experience. You do need sales skills, consulting skills and some past successes on which to build. You need some references and perhaps some contacts. But you don't need a specific amount of experience.

Of course, the consulting fees you can charge will probably depend on how much experience you have and just how well you can sell clients on your potential. But, again, you don't need a specific amount of experience. You just need paying clients.

Do you think there's a benchmark for experience in independent consulting?

One of my subcontractors recently asked me if she could add my client's name to her resume, since she'd been doing work for them on my behalf. "No problem," I replied. "But why are you sending out a resume to solicit consulting work?"

My friend often sends her resume to prospective clients. If that works for her, fair enough. But I never send my resume when I'm trying to land a client.

Why? When I'm trying to land a deal, I'm acting as a business. I'm not an employee. I happily point prospective clients to a custom-written bio, my website, testimonials and references. These tools serve a similar purpose, but they're not the same as a resume.

You don't ask your hairdresser, plumber or mechanic for a resume. And you don't ask your banker or accountant for a resume. So don't act like a prospective employee when you're trying to land a deal.

Do you use your resume for consulting work?

Related

• Do consultants and freelancers need resumes?

Have you signed up for your free copy of the Consultant Journal newsletter? Last week, I sent out the very first copy to 653 readers. And all but five people have decided to keep receiving the newsletter.

What did we discuss in the first edition?

• Staying in touch with clients year-round
• Promoting your business for free
• Getting a head start on tax time

Sign up for your free consulting tips

Make sure you get your free copy of the next Consultant Journal newsletter. Sign up using the easy form at the top of this page. Your email address will only be used to contact you about Consultant Journal -- it will not be shared.

You can also subscribe to the Consultant Journal RSSfeed.

I often receive a flurry of emails from people interested in legal advice. I'm not a lawyer and I can't provide legal advice, of course. But I understand that many of you need help with consulting contracts, invoice templates, non-disclosure agreements and so on. After doing some research, I've formed a relationship with US Legal Forms.

US Legal Forms was founded by attorneys. The firm has several attorneys on staff to maintain the site and products.

I had considered enlisting a lawyer to create some templates and legal documents for Consultant Journal, but, having reviewed what US Legal Forms has to offer, I decided not to reinvent the wheel.

As you'll read on their website, US Legal Forms offers several advantages. You can:

• download forms immediately
• fill out the documents
• access customer care agents available Monday-Friday, 8am-7pm Central Time
• call a toll-free number for immediate assistance
• apply for a full refund if you're not 100% satisfied

I should not that I am now an approved affiliate for these products. So, if you buy from US Legal Forms, I'll receive a small commission. It's a great way to support Consultant Journal while improving your own business.

Wondering what I mean by Friday 5? That's just my short hand for the top 5 list I run every Friday. I've written several Friday 5s, since introducing the idea in August 2007. They usually relate to consulting and small business management, although sometimes I get a bit creative. I usually link to top 5 lists elsewhere on the web, although sometimes I write my own and I'm always open to reader submissions.

Related

• Today's Friday 5

Think you've got a good small business customer relationship management system going, just because you have a database full of email addresses? Think again.

Top 5 reasons email addresses are useless

1. To be truly valuable, leads need to be qualified
2. You need permission to contact people -- otherwise, you're spamming
3. An email address tells you nothing about the contract's profile
4. To be effective, you need to target leads and prospects by qualification status
5. If you don't have a system to measure and learn from responses (or the lack thereof), you're throwing your money away

Related

• What the heck is the Friday 5?

I've enlisted a graphic designer and development team to help me overhaul the look of Consultant Journal. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to let me know.

(Update: I'm adding content here, because my blog apparently won't support such a short post. I am very interested in your input for this blog. If you have any ideas -- including criticisms -- please let me know.)

You may have noticed that Consultant Journal was down for six hours today. We run our own servers and a power outage earlier today shut down my server. I didn't think to reboot till this evening. Sorry if you came here looking for a post -- or if you sent me an email that bounced. Here's today's post on freelance rates.

Independent consulting -- the freelance life -- appeals to many people. But, when you go into independent consulting, you aren't quite doing the same thing as someone who works for a big consulting firm. Sure, you'll still be consulting, but you'll be wearing several other hats.

As an independent consultant, you'll need to manage your own business. That means you'll be in charge of marketing your services, finding clients, making sales, getting paid and managing projects and relationships. You may need a richer set of skills than someone who just shows up for work. You'll need to handle everything from legal issues to sales concerns.

That may sound intimidating at first, but most people can build needed skills -- or outsource the work to someone else! You learn as you go and you'll be a stronger, more resourceful multi-skilled consulting in year three than you are in year one.

Related to independent consulting

• Setting consulting fees
• Lead generating
• Finding new clients
• You're in business to make money

I've had a few people ask whether I offer an affiliate program for sales of Discover Your Inner Consultant and my Consulting Fees Guide.

I'm currently working on an affiliate program. If you'd like to receive information when I announce the program, please contact me.

Business Valentine's card -- it's not an overly common idea, but some businesses send out Valentine's cards each year. A business Valentine's card may stand out more than a traditional holiday card, since people receive fewer.

Tips for business Valentine's cards

1. Keep it professional. Don't be romantic.
2. Keep religion out of it, unless you know your recipients will respond well.
3. Send cards out well in advance of February 14th. The magic will be lost if they arrive later.
4. Keep it clean. Make sure your images and words are professional -- make sure your cherubs are dressed!
5. Consider sending out a direct mail campaign that ties into Valentine's, rather than simply sending out business Valentine's cards.

Ah, New Year's Eve! If you haven't already started thinking about your New Year's resolution, take a few minutes today to do so. Last year, I forecast big things for 2007. I hoped for a fortuitous year. Even though my husband, child and I were in a car accident last year, many other things turned out well. I've been especially pleased with the growth of Consultant Journal -- I'm pleased to offer a resource for others interested in surviving and thriving as consultants.

Just before last New Year's, I said I'd blog naked in 2007. I hope I've been able to accomplish that. I told you about home office isolation, cashing my first cheque, the time I made $500 an hour and my struggles with turning down work. If I've done it right, I've brought a little more of myself into my posts, while still writing articles so that they go beyond my own experience.

Still, 2008 is just around the corner. Stay tuned for more resolutions!

In this week's Friday 5, Danielle Chonody shares her list of the top 5 reasons everyone should own a home business. Well, perhaps "everyone" is a bit ambitious, but she does make a compelling case. She writes:

When you are working for a corporation or even a small company your compensation is generally determined by industry standard. With your own business your income is determined by the amount of time and effort you put into the business, and your self development. A home business gives you the ability to dream big as no one puts restrictions on the growth of your business and your income but you.

Hear, hear.  Your home business is limited only by your own ambitions and talents. Sure, you can earn a six-figure income in a regular job, but it's pretty hard to earn millions at a job, unless you tap into some stock options. With a business, you can create a system for generating money -- and it won't be limited by the hours you work.

Related:

• The 4-Hour Workweek (Book at Amazon)
• My post on The 4-Hour Workweek

Do consultants need resumes? You need them for just about every other kind of job, so why wouldn't you need one in the world of independent consulting?

Well, you may want to have a resume on hand. But you probably don't need to show it to clients. You should be focusing on your skills, experience and education as part of the sales process -- not simply shooting your resume over to prospective clients. You're not applying for a job, so you shouldn't need to use a resume.

What do you do?

Have you read The 4-Hour Workweek? Author Timothy Ferriss wrote this book to show people how to downsize time spent on work and upsize time spent on personal pursuits.

It may sound impossible, but I know someone who makes $30k a year from working four hours a week. Sure, $30k may not bring you riches, but it's a pretty good return from four hours a week. If you're looking to earn money on top of your regular job, top up retirement income, stay at home with kids or ailing family members, or just make decent money while working as little as you can, $30k isn't bad at all. My friend is a marketing consultant and freelance writer who charges around $145 an hour. With just four hours a week, she brings in $30k a year.

But imagine if my friend found ways to get other people to do work for her. Imagine if she also tapped into recurring revenue streams. She could earn far more than $30k a year.

I've got The 4-Hour Workweek on my holiday shopping list. If you've read it, leave a comment. Thanks.

Cheap Christmas cards -- believe it or not, one of the top reasons people visit this site is to find out about cheap Christmas cards. If you're in the market for holiday cards, I recommend you check out my past posts on cheap Christmas cards. It's already November 22, so you'll want to get going if you're planning on sending cards to clients and business partners. I strongly recommend sending out holiday cards as part of your annual marketing campaign strategy.

How to find a qualified consultant – that’s a subject many companies struggle to address. But help with determining how to find a qualified consultant may be hard to get. So, here at Consultant Journal, we’ve put together this article to help companies find the help they need.

What do you need from a qualified consultant?

To determine if a consultant is qualified to help you, you must identify your needs. Work out what you need from the consultant. Then determine what skills, knowledge or experience would help you meet your needs. Consider whether anyone in your existing organization can help – or whether you need to bring in an outside consultant.

Where can you find a qualified consultant?

Ask your colleagues, trade associations, professional associations and other contacts for referrals. Check out directories and the Web for listings. Your existing professional consultants, such as accountants and lawyers, may be able to make recommendations, too.

How do you choose a consultant?

Contact several consultants. Not all consultants are created equal. Some may specialize in your particular area – whether it’s a particular problem or industry. You’ll want to talk to the consultants – or at least exchange email messages. Ask about their fees. Early on, you probably should not expect a bid, since it takes time for the consultant to learn about you and your unique problems. But you should be able to get a feel for how they go about quoting on a project.

How do you verify that the consultant is qualified?

Ask the consultant to outline their experience, skills and education. Check references. You may even want to do a background check by calling their past employers or academic institutions. Depending on the consultant’s field, you may be able to request a portfolio or examples of past projects. Keep in mind that many consultants work under non-disclosure agreements, so you might have to speak with their past clients if you want details.

Next, discuss the project with the consultant. You’ll want to discuss your goals, milestones, price and time line. Observe the consultant’s response. Have they done this before? Do they seem to understand you and your problem? Do they listen to what you have to say? Can you see yourself working with them?

Choosing a consultant for the first time can be an involved process. But doing a little legwork in the beginning can save you time, effort and money later on.

Just a quick note to say that the power in my office went out for a few hours today. Everything is up and running again. So, if you've sent an email or been unable to access this site, you should be able to do so now. Sorry for any inconvenience. Thanks for your patience! IT woes plague all of us from time to time.

Interested in taking on a side job? Lisa Manfield, who works in marketing for The Tyee newspaper, mentions that her paper is offering $5,000 journalism fellowships. According to The Tyee:

The fellowships are $5000 each, and go to independent journalists wanting to report a series of articles that educate citizens about important issues in British Columbia.

Entries for this round are due Dec. 15, 2007....Winners will be announced Jan. 31, 2008. The resulting series -- each one consisting of three or more articles of at least 1000 words each -- will be published on The Tyee, and made available to other publications, pending approval by the authors.

If you dabble in freelance writing, you might want to check out the fellowships.

Related to freelance writing side jobs:

• Become a freelance writer

My Become a House Flipper post has generated a lot of interest -- most recently from the producer of Flip That House. Producer John Ziomek of Flip That House writes:

My name is John Ziomek and I am a producer on Flip That House! If any of your readers are about to flip a house, I would love to speak with them. We are currently casting for our fourth season and interested in speaking with good people with quality projects.

Sounds like fun. If you're interested, contact john.ziomek@arp.tv.

As a consultant, it's sometimes tempting to try to be all things to all people. A prospective client contacts you and asks if you can do "X". You've done X before, but only a few times and it isn't really what you excel at doing. However, it's hard to turn down a new client and you could use the money. So you decide to take the contract.

The next week, another client calls. Could you do "Y"? You've only got a vague idea of what you're doing, but you could use the money. You take the job.

A week goes by, and you get an email from an old contact. Can you do Z? Sure thing. You could use the money.

By the end of the month, you're spending all your energy trying to master X, Y and Z. You've barely had time to do the work in which you really specialize. You're overwhelmed, strapped for time and barely able to get the work done, let alone work.

What went wrong? You spread yourself too thin by trying to tackle more than one niche at a time. As a consultant, you need to figure out what you do best and stake your claim in that area. As your business grows, you can move into related areas, if it makes sense. But don't try to do everything at once.

Not sure what you should focus on? Check out my Discover Your Inner Consultant guide or try doing a skills inventory.