Did you know that commenting on blogs is a marketing strategy? Leaving comments on blog posts such as this one is a tool employed by many consultants to drive traffic and attention to their websites.

How does it work?

By leaving useful, engaging comments readers are encouraged to click on your link to find out more about you. And from a search engine optimization perspective, links on other websites that point to your website are a good thing.

Imagine that you’re a copywriting consultant. You come across a post on a professional writer’s blog that discusses the lack of good copywriting these days. You can chime in with some useful, funny commentary that positions

Should you cut your fees for worthy non-profit associations? One of Consultant Journal’s readers, Walela, recently commented on the consulting fees post:

This is my first consultant opportunity: to consult with a  non-profit that received a grant for a teen mentoring program. Are the fee formulas mentioned on the site applicable to non-profits  as well? I want to be sensitive to their financial situation, but not give away my services either.
 

I don’t agree with discounting rates for non-profits. You’re not a charity - the non-profit is. I suppose

Start your own consulting business! So you’d like to start your own consulting business; what an exciting time this must be for you. Congratulations on considering becoming an entrepreneur and wanting to find out how to get started running your own consulting firm.

Steps involved in learning how to start your own consulting business

1. Choose what type of consulting business you’d like to start.
2. Familiarize yourself with what it takes to run this type of business. Will you enjoy it? Do you have the necessary skills? Will the

How to start your own consulting business can be overwhelming. But figuring out how to start your own consulting business is easy if you take it one step at a time. If you need to know how to get started running your own business, you’ve come to the right place!

Before wondering how to start your own consulting business…

Before wondering how to start your own consulting business, it’s important to consider whether you are a good candidate for becoming a consultant.

Odds

How do I become a consultant? As a new entrepreneur, it’s common to wonder, "How do I become a consultant?" I have written many posts to help you become a freelance consultant, but don’t forget to ask for input from working consultants in your field and community.

How do I become a consultant - First steps

In this digital age, sometimes there’s a tendency to ignore the old-fashioned ways of getting answers to our questions. A smart way to find out how to become a successful consultant is by asking people you

There will come a point where you and a client won’t see eye to eye, no matter how well intentioned you are.

Clashes with clients

If you’re finding yourself about to respond to an email that rubs you the wrong way, consider holding off for at least 24 hours.

While it may be tempting to dash off an email right away because you’d like to deal with it promptly or because you feel empassioned in the heat of the moment, hold off for 24 hours. Do write a draft email, but don’t send it until the next day.

Re-reading the original email again the next day may not provoke the same reaction in you, and chances are you’ll

Starting a consulting business can be one of the most exciting times of your life. But starting a consulting business can also be a stressful time. When you start launching your own business, you are taking a leap of faith.

Considering starting a consulting business?

There are many reasons why you might want to be starting a consulting business. Maybe you’d like to set your own schedule, work from home, or spend more time with your family. Or maybe you’ve always dreamt of starting a consulting business, and you’re finally considering taking the next step.

Whatever the case may be, congratulations! Just being here at this site

At times, consulting can be a lonely business. Loneliness can hit home when you have something to celebrate but you don’t have co-workers to pat you on the back! Now and then, it’s important to pause and reflect on your successes. Here are 12 ways to pump your ego.  

1. Make a list of your top 8 projects or achievements.

2. Remind yourself why you started consulting in the first place. And while you’re at it, take advantage of your favourite feature of consulting.

3. Schedule a motivational session with another consultant (or a

Consultants are always thinking about growing their businesses. In fact, even when they’re completely booked up, consultants still focus on generating more leads. 

Here are 5 age-old ways to grow your business as a consultant:

1. Networking: There’s no better way to grow your business than to get out and network. Networking can be structured, attending a Chamber meet and greet for example, or it can be impromptu, striking up a conversation

Start a consulting business; it sounds so easy, doesn’t it? In many ways, it is easy to start a consulting business! The trick is to make sure that you’re well-suited to the type of business that you choose to run.

I want to start a consulting business, but…

Some of you might be entrepreneurial-minded, but aren’t sure what type of business to start. There are a number of consulting businesses to consider starting. Take a look at this list and note which ideas appeal to you.

When you think of procrastination, you may think of putting off small tasks or projects. But over the years I’ve noticed that many people procrastinate big ideas, such as acheiving their career-related dreams.

Putting off your dreams

I’ve been a consultant for over ten years, and I’ve met many people who want to launch their own consulting firms. But while some people actually become consultants, there are others who simply dream of doing it but never actually make the leap.

So what sets the doers apart

Getting a business credit card is just another step in the process of becoming a consultant.

Financial institutions are becoming increasingly accustomed to offering financial products to consultants. But if you’re considering getting a business credit card, it’s simplest to apply for credit cards or lines of credit before making the leap into consulting full-time.

If you no longer have an employer, don’t worry. It’s still possible to get a business credit

How to start a consulting firm is a crucial concept that all new entrepreneurs should familiarize themselves with. But don’t worry, learning how to start a consulting firm isn’t difficult. In order to launch a successful new business, it’s as simple as doing research and writing a business plan.

While many entrepreneurs have a background in business, it’s not always the case. Regardless, I always advise new entrepreneurs to write a business plan.

How to start a consulting firm - Is there only one right way?

Some of you may read this and

Over the years I’ve come across many websites that can help build your business. Here are six websites that you may find useful when building your business.

1. Twitter - Twitter is a website that helps people communicate "through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?" Twitter has become a popular way to let clients–and potential clients–know what’s new in your business. Twitter certainly isn’t for all consultants, but you’d be surprised at the number of consultants who use Twitter to build their businesses.

2.

Although I’ve been a consultant for over ten years, I can still honestly say that consulting rules!

Here are eight reasons why:

1. Work-Life Balance: Even before I had a family, work-life balance was important to me. I don’t know of any other lifestyle other than working as a consultant that offers such flexibility with few drawbacks. And it’s not just women who want balance, men

Many people dream of becoming consultants. But if you’re already working as an employee full-time, it can be difficult to make the leap into full-time consulting. This is one of the many reasons why you may want to start a side business. But is it ethical to run a side business while holding down a regular job?

Yes, it is ethical to run a side business while holding down another job! In fact, it’s becoming increasingly common for nine-to-fivers to use side businesses as a way to launch into new careers.

Via Anthill Magazine, here are the top 5 small business opportunities during the credit crunch:

1. More skilled workers available
2. Good time to cut back unnecessary expenses
3. Cheap capital
4. Better rates for advertising
5. Low prices on capital

For consultants, this can be a fantastic time to be in business. That’s because many companies start outsourcing projects or turning to short term contracts, rather than committing to hiring full-time employees.

Related - Become

How to start a consulting company is one of the first tasks you are faced with as a new entrepreneur. Once you’ve figured out how to start a consulting company, you get to focus on the fun stuff: consulting! So let’s talk about how to get your consulting business off the ground.

How to start a consulting company - It all starts with a plan

One of the best ways to get your consulting company started on the right track is to write a business plan (also known as a business concept). In your business plan, you’ll investigate the important questions related to

Start consulting! Congratulations, you want to start consulting. Now that you’re considering launching a consulting business, you’re probably wondering where to go from here.

Start consulting

If you’re wondering how to start consulting, you’ve come to the right place. My blog has over 1100 posts detailing how to start consulting.

Whether you want to start your own IT consulting business or whether you’re wondering what type of consultant you should become, I’ve written about it all. The place to launch

How do you become a consultant? Once you’ve made the decision to run your own business, the question that invariably follows is "How do you become a consultant, anyway?" There are many ways to start running your own consulting business, but the best way to become a consultant is to start by writing a business plan.

How do you become a consultant?

As soon as you decide you’re a consultant, you essentially become one. But before taking the leap and figuring out how to become a consultant as you go along, I recommend putting together a business plan.

I was quoted in various Canadian newspapers today in a piece on work-life balance. The article says that I started my consulting business so that I could stay home with my sons. However, it doesn’t point out that I started the business several years before I even had kids. It was part of long term planning for work-life balance.

Still, many people start businesses once they have children. It’s increasingly popular for women to start businesses during maternity leave, especially here in Canada where mat leave is a year long. I wrote

The power of business mentors can be easy to overlook when you’re busy planning a new career or running your business. But although you may feel you have little time to dedicate to finding and working with a mentor, your success and growth may depend on it.

Five reasons why you need a mentor

• Expertise

Mentors have knowledge and experience that you can draw upon. Mentors have been there. They are in the position to say, "Have you tried…" and "When I was in your situation, I.." and "Have you looked into.."

• Networking

Mentors

Becoming an expert can help you bolster your consulting business. After all, as a consultant, you’re supposed to be an expert. If you establish your status as an expert, you should be able to win over more clients and charge higher fees. You should also be able to work more productively, since, as an expert, you know the tricks of the trade.

But becoming an expert isn’t as hard as it sounds. Malcolm Gladwell, in his new book Outliers, says it takes 10,000 hours to become world class at

How long does it take to become a consultant? When considering making the leap into consulting, many people want to know how long it will take to establish their business. In other words, how much time does it take before you can rely on a steady income?

With a well-organized office and a stack of business cards at the ready, many consultants feel prepared to work. But next comes the most crucial step: finding clients. How long it takes to become a consultant depends on how quickly you are able to build your list of clients.

How long does it take to establish your own

Wow, 2009! Happy New Year!

Are you working on some goals for the year ahead? As I look back on my list for 2008, I see that I achieved more than I expected with my business and personal goals…but that my home renovation list has a lot of items I haven’t crossed off! Well, with the diving real estate market, I admit we lost some motivation with our renovations.

But, in terms of my business and personal goals, I’m pretty happy. 2008 was all about pushing my comfort zone and taking the time to invest in myself and my business.

How about you? When you look back at 2008, where did you succeed?

I’ll be talking about my goals for 2009 in my newsletter

Looking for ways to increase your earnings? Leverage your writing skills. A few months ago, Jon Wuebben sent me a copy of Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web. Since I started out as a freelance writer, I was curious to see what Jon had to say about writing.

Content Rich is worth a read. If you want to

This is a guest post by Christine Epps. Christine is new to the world of consulting, but she hasn’t let that stop her. Here’s her take on becoming a consultant when you’re still new to the world of work….

Being just 22 years old and a “budding” retail marketing consultant in Baltimore, I constantly meet “senior” consultants and clients who equate my age to my talent.  “Oh you’re only 22 years old? So you’ve been doing this for, like, what, 22 minutes? You’re just a baby!”

Not only are

The top five ways to have a greener business meeting — great green business meeting tips from Planet Green. The point about telecommuting is powerful. Back when I worked for the federal government, I was aghast at all the one-day meetings for which top executives flew in. Going 3,000 km for a meeting you could have in person? Yikes! I just never bought in to the idea that they needed to see each other in person to communicate effectively and bond as a team. It made me very happy, just a couple of years later, to be doing business with companies in California, Colorado, Georgia

Today’s my birthday. And you know what? I’m NOT working today. I’m taking the day off. I’m hanging out with my kids, my husband and my friends today. I’ll be chatting on the phone with friends and family, but I’m not answering business calls or following up on work email. Nope! Today is all about the things I value most.

And that’s why I became a consultant. I take days off all the time. I work when I want to work — and my schedule is a little out of the ordinary. Sometimes, I hire other people to do the work, while I’m out enjoying life. I can’t imagine going back to the nine to five grind in an office some where. Sure,

Consulting may be the most immediate thing you can do to increase your income, if you already have a job. Previously, I mentioned that consulting can be a rewarding second job that potentially beats the stock market. Well, it may beat trying to get a raise, too.

Let’s say you make $75,000 a year. In a recession, it may be hard to convince your boss to give you even a cost of living increase. But, with inflation rising, perhaps you feel you need five percent to keep pace. That’s $3,750 a year. In an immediate sense, it may be practical to simply do an extra 100 hours of consulting each year at $37.50 an hour (which is a rock bottom rate in my part of the world).

A second job may beat investing in the stock market. Yup, you heard me right. Let’s say you pick up a side job at $8 an hour and you work eight hours a week. By the end of a year, you’ll have earned $3328 from your second job. Now compare that to the stock market.

ROI from a second job

If you invested $66,000 and got a consistent rate of return of five percent, you’d match the returns from that second job. You might be in a better tax situation, but let’s not consider that for a moment. If you don’t have a magic way to put $66,000 in your pocket right this moment, a second job may be the best option you have

Happy Hallowe’en! Enjoy! But, tomorrow is November 1st. So start getting ready with those holiday cards. if you want personalized holiday cards or discount Christmas cards, you need to get moving. Holiday cards are a great way to remind clients you’re still alive — and to thank the clients who keep you going. So, party tonight, but get those cards tomorrow!

Related to holiday cards and greeting cards

Business

Several great things happened to me yesterday. I’ll share a few of those things with you now.

My graphic designer delivered new covers for Discover Your Inner Consultant and Consulting Fees: A Guide for Independent Consultants. I think these new graphics do a much better job of conveying the content you’ll receive. I’m working on imbedding the graphics into the actual PDFs now.

I also received a parcel yesterday. My sample print copy of Consulting Fees came in the mail. I’m really impressed with the print copy. Now

Christmas jobs — whether you’re self-employed or working for someone else, it’s not unusual to pick up a seasonal job over the holidays. But, if a "Christmas job" is on your holiday wishlist, start looking now. The best jobs go fast and, with the current economy, employers may be a bit choosier than we’ve seen in recent years.

Why get a Christmas job?

Many people opt for seasonal jobs, since they get discounts. Still others want to soften the blow of holiday bills or pay down existing debts. I know many consultants who pick up second

Succeeding as a consultant becomes easier when you know a lot of people. Those people can become clients, provide testimonials and references, and give referrals. But how do you build up a strong network? Here’s an easy, sure-fire way to meet 400 people a year.

Go to one event per week. Spend two hours at the event. Every 15 minutes, have a real conversation with someone new. By the end of the year, you’ll have met 400 people.

Of course, to include those people in your sphere of influence, you need to connect in a meaningful way. That means you have to do more than just "work the room".

People are more likely to follow advice from expensive consultants, according to a post forwarded to me by Tony.

It makes sense. People who charge higher fees are simply perceived as "better". When I was starting out, I thought it made sense to charge the bargain rate of $35 an hour for my consulting. I soon realized that this made me look junior. In fact, the higher I’ve raised my fees, the more clients I’ve landed. (Granted, I do have to follow up on the promise of those higher

Closing deals is a basic sales skill. If you are having problems closing a deal you need to figure out why. Then you need to pinpoint the problem and fix it.

For example, if you have a tendency to speak in a monotone or speak too fast, you may be undermining your own effectiveness. So, practicing a better "sales voice" could prove helpful as skill in communicative ability is often closely associated with closing a deal.

Verbal delivery is just one example. You may have different things you need to look at. They key is to discover the flaws and work on improving them. 

If you are having

Closing a deal is critical to success in sales and business. If you are not closing deals then you will not be generating revenue! So take a little time to learn the basic sales skill of closing a deal.

First, make sure the person who is being pitched clearly understands your service. If the client is not sure about what he or she is buying they probably will not purchase. This is why you need to paint a clear picture of the service. Asking the buyer if there are any questions or concerns can eliminate this problem. Of course, clearly and concisely answering the buyer’s questions helps,

The online printing company UPrinting.com has offered to sponsor a special contest for Consultant Journal readers. They’re offering 500 free 4×6" postcards to one lucky reader.

The winner of the postcard printing contest can choose any of Uprinting.com’s stocks, including the eco-friendly 13pt recycled cover stock, 14pt gloss cover or 14pt matte cover. Shipping is included if you live in the United States or Canada — if you’re elsewhere, you’ll need to pay for shipping.

If you’d like to enter

This is a guest post from Laura-Jane Koers. She’s been writing a series on becoming a freelance writer.

Finding Bigger and Better Contracts

With a number of freelance writing gigs under my belt, I was on a quest to land bigger and better contracts.

I applied for a number of projects, and the learning curve was steep.

What Works and What Doesn’t

I quickly learned what works and what doesn’t. For me, honesty is key. I don’t pretend that I’m

On Fridays, I usually offer up a top five list. Well, today I’d just like to give you one thing: one good reason for becoming a consultant.

This afternoon, I’m taking my kids to a neighbour’s birthday party. Yup. It’s Friday and I’m going to be eating cake, wearing a party hat and playing games with my kids and their friends. And I won’t be skipping out of work or taking precious holiday time to do it. Heck, for the morning, I’m planning to play with my kids, too.

And I’ll let you in on a little secret: I do this all the time.

Sure, I sometimes work odd hours, but I do so on my own terms. And the reward is that I can spend

Picking up a second job or side job — or starting a side business — can be a good way to recession-proof your life. Via NPR, here’s a list of ways to help yourself weather the storm of a recession. They didn’t specifically mention second jobs and side businesses (such as consulting), but I’ve talked before about how second jobs can help you get ahead. There are tons of reasons to have a second job, especially when the economy is looking a bit shaky. (Or incredibly shaky.) I’ve given examples of side jobs, but I have to admit that consulting

Ever feel like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders? Sometimes, consultants feel like they’re carrying a heavy load. After all, if you’re in business for yourself, you may be trying to do everything from sales to accounting. But there’s a secret formula that can help you.

It involves a little math. I won’t apologize for that. But you don’t really have to understand the math to get the point. A guy named Metcalfe worked out this law. You just need to get the idea — not the math.

The secret formula involves relationships. If you’re an independent consultant and the only person in your business, you have no relationships.

Startups…consulting tends to be a fairly low risk business endeavour, but sometimes it paves the way for other opportunities. According to this list of five reasons to create your own start up, an article from the Social Science Research Network says that:

…entrepreneurs who succeeded in a prior venture (i.e., started a company that went public) have a 30% chance of succeeding in their next venture. By contrast, first-time entrepreneurs have only an 18% chance of succeeding and entrepreneurs who previously failed have a 20% chance of succeeding.

So, although most consulting businesses

I recently got bids from subcontractors. One of the subcontractors noted that, if I wanted to use PayPal for payments, I’d need to pay an additional five percent. Five percent of the contract! Yikes!

For a $100 contract, that would be $5. For a $500 contract, that’s $25. You get the idea. Ouch.

But that’s not the thing that stuck out for me. It’s that applying a PayPal charge violates PayPal’s user agreement:
4.7 No Surcharges. You agree that you will not

You want to sign a contract?! Why on earth do we need to sign a contract? Can’t we just do this on a handshake? Can’t I trust you?

Well, you could but both parties are leaving themselves wide open for potential hassles that a signed and agreed upon contract would eliminate. If you feel nervous asking your clients to sign a contract, consider these points:

1. Contracts provide a description of responsibilities. Rather than suffer through the confusion of wondering

Those of you who’ve been following my newsletter (subscribe above right) know that 2008 has been all about expanding my comfort zone. I’m doing all sorts of things that I wouldn’t normally do. Well, as part of that, I’m taking part in the Run for the Cure on October 5th. Proceeds go to the breast cancer foundation. Last year, on that weekend, I was recovering from a C-section and celebrating the birth of my second son. I’ve made a lot of changes this year and have had one of the best years in my business, too.

I invite you to sponsor me in

Becoming a freelance writer — here’s part 2 in a series on becoming a freelance writer by Laura-Jane Koers. My hard drive failure delayed publication. Since we last heard from Laura-Jane, she’s been in the recording studio for CBC Radio! That’s Canada’s public broadcaster. Laura-Jane will appear on Definitely

Via ezinearticles, here’s a list of the top 5 reasons unconventional business cards work.

One of the best business cards I’ve ever seen was for a software company that based its technology on mathematics related to cubes. When you pressed down on the sides of the business card, the die cuts helped the paper fold into a cube. This reinforced the idea and gave people a reason to hang on to the card, perhaps to show their friends. In fact, I only recycled the card a few weeks ago, even though I met with their marketing department around 2002.

Related

Perhaps you avoid using a contract because you believe that a person’s word is more valuable than any piece of paper. Well, perhaps that works for you. But what if you want to get out of a deal and you’ve only got a verbal contract? How would you defend yourself, if the client sued to get you to deliver?

Despite all best intentions, sometimes consultants and clients have a hard time working together. For example, if a consultant is repeatedly ignored or challenged on advice, the consultant and the client may not be meant for each other. If the differences can’t be worked out, then it may

If you consult, freelance, do work for hire or otherwise provide services, you should be using a contract.

Why use a contract

There are many reasons for two parties to enter into a professional services contract. The main reason would be to establish rules and parameters. Without a professional services contract, a venture might descend into disorganization or confusion. To avoid this, a professional services contract clearly defines all aspects of the work to be performed. Of course, the contract needs to be comprehensive in order to be effective.

What to include in a contract

• A

I usually post a top five list on Fridays. Well, I’ve been very busy with a hard drive crash that took place last weekend. My poor Acer laptop finally kicked it. The hard drive died. And it took a little piece of me with it!

Well, it’s not so bad. I back up my hard drive on a fairly regular basis. And I was able to pull my Outlook file off the hard drive before it died.

I’ve lost data before. It’s awful. It’s not a life trauma, but it isn’t exactly fun either.

Five reasons to back up your hard drive

1. Losing data may disrupt your work.
2. Trying to crack a dead hard drive can be expensive or time consuming.
3. Losing

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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,

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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,

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

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.

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recession. Market downturn. Doom. Gloom. If you pay attention to newspaper headlines, you may be wondering if you should give up your consulting dreams right now. In spite of all the negative headlines out there, a recession may actually be your ticket to success. That’s right — consulting in a recession can be a great idea.

I started consulting in the 1990s. As a result, I’ve seen the Japanese banking fiasco, dot-com crash, September 11th fallout, stock market contraction and the drop in the US dollar, among other things. Each one of those scenarios posed potential difficulties for me and my clients. Yet I’ve kept my head above water (and a roof over my head)

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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,

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

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.

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