It’s probably safe to say that most of us would like to boost our incomes. How do you do that without burning  yourself out? How do you break the income barrier, especially when the economy is poor, unemployment is high, there are many consultants competing for the same business, and clients are trimming budgets?

Perhaps you’ve wondered why some consultants maintain high incomes in good times and challenging ones.

Take this simple quiz developed by Linda Popky, a million-dollar consultant and president of Leverage2Market Associates, to find out if you’re working hard or working smart.

1. Do you feel the only way to increase revenue is to bill more hours? __ Yes __No
2. Do you feel the need to justify to clients the time you are putting into their projects? __ Yes __No
3. Do you feel you are frequently treated like a vendor or hired hand rather than a partner to your client? __ Yes __No
4. Do your clients tell you they love your proposal but need to get final sign-off from higher authorities before proceeding? __ Yes __No
5. Do you find yourself competing for business on the basis of price? __ Yes __No
6. Do you work directly with decision makers who have the ability to write a check or issue a purchase order for your work? __ Yes __No
7. Can you clearly articulate why the client should hire you in terms of their key business objectives? __ Yes __No
8. Are you clear on why the client should hire you vs. find other ways to solve their problem? __ Yes __No
9. Can you specifically state the metrics the client will use to measure the success of the project? __ Yes __No
10. Can your client state the impact of the project on their organization, including customers, suppliers, employees, and other stakeholders? __ Yes __No

For questions 1-5, give yourself 10 points for every No answer, 0 points for Yes answers.

For questions 6-10, give yourself 10 points for every Yes answer, 0 points for No answers.

Total up your score.

Less than 50 points: You may be working hard, but you’re not necessarily working smart. Look for opportunities to take your business to the next level.

50-60 points: You’re on the right track, but wouldn’t you like to increase your revenues in line with the value you’re creating for clients?

70-80 points: You’re doing a great job, but there’s opportunity to build your business by thinking more strategically about the value you provide.

90-100 points: You understand the importance of selling on value and you’re always looking for best practices to help you do even better.

Whatever your score, join Linda for the upcoming WIC workshop, “Earn What You’re Worth: Value-Based Pricing” on Tuesday September 20. She’ll discuss ways you can use value-based pricing to get the fees you deserve for the value you provide to clients. Linda will focus on the methodologies of million-dollar consultant Alan Weiss, author of more than 40 books on consulting, including Value-Based Fees: How to Charge — and Get — What You’re Worth — A Guide for Serious Consultants.

Register by September 6 to get the early-bird rate.

By: Michelle Gouldsberry

We develop coping skills early in our lives. Some of these coping skills may be effective in our adult working lives, but in some cases, we may need to develop new skills for dealing with personal issues while still producing at work.

This is particularly true for consultants. In the corporate world we may be able to close our office door for the day, or work from home. We can choose mundane things to work on like clearing out our email or organizing our files. But as consultants, we don’t want our work for clients to suffer when we have periodic issues that take some of our focus and energy.

Here are three suggestions for keeping the rocks moving forward during times of personal challenges and the resulting distraction:

1. Use Lists. I make lists of specific tasks for my projects when I’m feeling on top of my game, for example after exercising or first thing in the morning. These lists provide some simple things I can work on when I’m not feeling well or having difficulty focusing and doing the most demanding parts of my work. You may have to take a call or meeting, and generally we have the fortitude to do a great job there. The client may not even notice we’re off our game. But, in our office where we have a choice of what we do on an hour by hour basis, having this list that we created ahead of time can help us effectively put one foot in front of the other. Choose the things you can do and trust that tomorrow, or soon, you will be able to tackle the more challenging parts of your engagements.
2. Cultivate a professional support network. Similar to personal support groups like friends and family, these are co-workers that you have a personal relationship with. WIC is a good place to develop close work-friendship relationships. Sometimes you won’t need to reach out to this group, like when you’re just having a bad day. Other times, this close network of co-workers that have become friends will give you encouragement and help you feel stronger and more able to work through the challenging times.
3. Set aside a couple of hours for yourself. I know we all have more work and more demands on our time than we feel like we can handle. We also need to give ourselves time to just be, especially during personal challenges. Take a long lunch, go in late and take a long walk, or plan to cut your day a few hours short and go do something for yourself. This can re-energize us and help us get back to ourselves more quickly than trying to force full work days during times when we have personal or emotional needs.

There is no  panacea, but there are helpful tactics to continuing to be productive when that’s the last thing we want to do or believe that we can do. I’d love to hear ways you have found to be productive during down times or times of personal challenges. Your tip may be the one that really helps someone else out.

By: Melody Appleton

The concept of time management remains an enigma for many and it’s understandable. On any given day, we start with 24 hours and within that time-frame process through personal and professional needs, tasks, projects, responsibilities, priorities, and everything else. There are days when we feel very accomplished and others when we feel completely defeated. It can be a continuous see-saw of productivity versus ineffectiveness.

Rather than monitor the minutes and attempt to control every single factor, I suggest a new approach where the focus is on the end result and one’s productivity levels. The goal is to examine life as a whole and consider time from a more broad perspective as it relates to how you live your life or your living style. The approach is called Timestyle, or time management for your living style.

Below is a snapshot of the Timestyle approach to time management, also known as the 5 P’s of productivity.

1. Keep your eye on the prize – In order to get to the bottom of your time management struggle, the first step is to identify why this is so important or what is the intended goal. Most commonly, people want to feel ‘better’ or ‘less stressed’ however that is only part of the prize. Keep pushing yourself to define ‘better’ and ask how being ‘less stressed’ will improve your life. For many clients, tears will roll down their cheeks when they hit on the prize – this is a good sign.

2. Manage your priorities – When asked, most people will say they have eight to ten priorities. The very definition of a priority is the primary or main concern at any given time. In my opinion, it’s almost impossible to have nine main concerns, at any one moment, and still do them well. The challenge is to narrow the priority list to three or four and focus on those. Narrowing the list allows for greater focus and intensity, thus improving your chances of success. If narrowing down the list is too scary, consider this phrase: for now. Simply work on those priorities, for now, and feel free to define ‘for now’ as needed.

3. Plan, plan, plan – If ever there was a secret weapon in the time management war, planning is it. Success levels increase with an element of planning in one’s life. Chances are, if you are habitually late, easily misplacing items and unable to complete projects, it may be because there is a failure or reluctance to plan. Planning saves effort, time, money, and rewards you with less stress and more time to do what you truly want to be doing. When planning, it’s important to do three things:

• Practice T4T. Plan for today and the next 4 days, or 4 tomorrows.
• Start small.  If planning is a foreign concept, focus intently for a short time, 5 to 10 minutes. A lot can be accomplished in a few minutes.
• Note the change. What is different with the advent of your new planning strategy? Are supermarket visits less frequent? Are you early to appointments? Less stressed? More productive and organized?

With practice, planning skills will develop quickly and become second nature. Eventually, planning one month, a year and even five years into the future will become the norm.

4. Identify partnerships – Admittedly, this is where clients push-back the most. The initial reaction is partnering costs extra money and is inconvenient. I’m here to challenge that notion.

Partnerships come in many forms and the goal is to get you focused on doing that which brings you pleasure and value. If running errands or grocery shopping are major headaches, then order groceries online and pay the nominal delivery fee. Find a dry cleaning service that picks up and drops off – again, the delivery fee is nominal and you’re able to do what you’d rather be doing

Be creative with your partners. Get family members involved – there’s no reason one person needs to do the bulk of the work. Even small children can learn to hang their coats and carry in their sippy cups from the car. Visit a recipe website and have weekly menus delivered to your inbox. Shopping lists are often included and you will know ahead of time precisely what’s needed for the week

Professionally, outsource the projects or work you struggle to complete or dislike. Create systems and streamline your workload with templates. Remember, partnerships come in many different forms.

5. Practice. As with any new habit or regimen, it takes practice for the routine to take hold. Dr. Maxwell Maltz wrote in his best-selling Psycho-Cybernetics, it takes 21 days for a new thought or activity to stick.

On second thought, perhaps the last ‘P’ ought to include patience and perseverance as well.

By: Stacey Vulakh

Mysticism is something we scarcely associate with business.  However, I believe that some part of us wants to be optimistic even if it takes ‘something’ to remind us of the magic that is inside us.

I was wearing a pin the other day that was of a gold pig flying over very tall buildings.  A client questioned me about it “Hey Angel, what’s that pin all about?” I replied It reminds me that if pigs can fly –so can I.  It’s a good luck charm that I use when I have to remind myself to find the power inside me to accomplish whatever I need to accomplish. A two time CEO of successful startups, she replied “I have one of those too.  I wear this multi-colored pearl necklace every time I have to do a pitch to a VC.”

The blue eyed amulet is a very common souvenir that one finds in Turkey.  It however is not unusual to find this in front of stores, buildings and hanging from cars.  Yesterday, visiting with my web designer, I noticed that she too had one of this blue eyed amulets hanging right next to her desk from where she created all her work.  She proudly displayed it as her own ‘good luck’ charm.

As a coach, I often have my clients find a picture or an item that reminds them of something they wish to be reminded about.  It can be a rock that they carry in their pockets that remind them to be firm and assertive, or a fake $1,000.000 bill that reminds them of their financial goals.   There is actually a coaching term for this; it’s called a ‘Structure’.

A structure is something outward that reminds us of what we need to be reminded of -inward.  Now, you might consider this as unscientific.  But in fact, a study was developed by Dr. Gerald Zaltman in 1990 at the Harvard Business School.  As Zaltman described it “A lot goes on in our minds that we’re not aware of. Most of what influences what we say and do occurs below the level of awareness. That’s why we need new techniques: to get at hidden knowledge-to get at what people don’t know they know.”

The technique that evolved from this is sometimes referred to as “Metaphor Elicitation”.  Metaphor Elicitation is used in many businesses like marketing and advertising.  It uses a technique of leveraging pictures to define things that might be difficult for us to explain or verbalize. So if you were testing your logo.  You might show your logo to different people and ask this question:

What thoughts might you have about my business when you see my logo?

You may get responses like:
- I would think that your business might deal with getting people together or that collaboration is a result of the work you do.

- This logo reminds me of a parable about 5 engineers who were sitting at the table that had to figure out a very complicated problem.  Perhaps your business is about working with these engineers.

As you can see – the one logo or visual elicits several different perceptions and stories.

So, if you need to keep being reminded of the story that you wish to tell yourself; either I know I can do it because you see this pig is able to accomplish an impossible feat; or the blue eye wards off all evil clients and brings only the good ones; or the strand of pearls helps me to bring forth those pearls of wisdom I need when I am being drilled by a VC. -then find that item or picture that you need to elicit positive energy or thoughts.

Sir Richard Branson, Founder and President of the Virgin Group shares what he calls is his good luck charm. “Well, my office is my good luck charm. I work from a hammock on a lovely island, and my hammock is where most of my good ideas come from. I really believe in working from home rather than working in the office, so if I have a good luck charm, I’d call it my hammock”. Virgin Group created more than 300 branded companies worldwide ranging from mobile telephony to transportation, travel, financial services, media, music and fitness.

Last Saturday, I got a chance to hear Actress/Humanitarian Whoopi Goldberg at the San Jose Civic Auditorium.  In an interview she was asked on how she made it out from the public housing project in Manhattan compared to the other children that were there with her.  Was it talent? To paraphrase, she replied “No, not talent.  There are many talented people out there.  I believe it was luck!”

What’s your good luck charm?  Or do you believe that luck is part of your formula for success?

By: Angel Rampy

Best Practice lessons from the employment arena
Companies usually put a lot more effort into hiring employees than they do into hiring consultants. Larger companies actually have a standard selection process for hiring employees – this includes gates like:

– a completed application and reference checks,
– 2 levels of management signing off on the new hire,
– the same people interview all candidates for a given position,
– standard interview reviews and feedback

These are all examples of common elements of a standard employment process that actually works.

Some of the often ignored lessons from these selection processes should be addressed in marketing your business as a consultant. Think about the ways companies select employees based on that theoretical “cultural fit”:

• Does the consultant fit the pace of the organization?
• Does their experience mirror the work to be completed in today’s project?
• Is the consultant someone who has shown that they can flex on a dime as changes occur in the business?
• Does the consultant’s communication style fit the organization (or at least the manager in question)? – Think about method, frequency, status updates, etc.

What are the subtle issues that make someone want to work with you? The better handle you have on these perceptual issues, the easier your service is to sell to this client.

We’ll be addressing more on this topic in other blogs.

By: Deb McClanahan

Powerful Advice from Warren Buffet and Seth Godin
Two very influential people have recently commented on the power of pricing.  Warren Buffet said “The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power” and Seth Godin said “the goal, no matter what you sell, is to be seen as irreplaceable, essential and priceless. If you are all three, then you have pricing power.”

Pricing professionals like me find it exciting to see pricing in the headlines. There have been plenty of links and tweets about these articles but what does this have to do with consultants?  From my perspective, consultants are pricing professionals too. You may not think of yourself that way, but you probably set prices more often than most product managers!

Pricing power is rooted in delivering value.  For consultants and small business owners, pricing power is relevant in two ways:

1.      Regardless of your consulting specialty, you impact your clients’ power to price.  You may help them create a higher quality product or service or deliver a better customer experience which is valuable to their customers.

2.      The ability to increase your clients’ pricing power is your value.  This value will give you the power to set higher prices.

If you focus on being irreplaceable and essential for your clients’ success, you will be providing value and perhaps even be seen as priceless.

Watch for my next post on relating price to value where I’ll provide clarity on how to get the highest price for your value.

By: Robin Pieracci

I used to be an owner. If someone reacted negatively to a situation or an exchange, I owned their reaction. I focused on it, internalized it, and wouldn’t let it go. What an energy drain that was – and a total waste of time. I knew the only thing I could control in any given situation was my own actions and reactions, but did that stop me from owning the person’s negative response? Nope.

And if you would have asked me anytime last year if I thought I’d ever be able to relinquish ownership, I would have said highly unlikely – even though I knew it was better for me and my peace of mind.

That changed this year, and it’s been freeing.
Take an Aerial View
What brought about the change? Quite simply, I needed peace. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, 2010 was a year filled with turmoil and challenges, and it left me in a constant state of stress. So I sought a means of finding peace amidst the chaos, and I knew it had to start with me. Nothing like a good push to change your way of thinking.

I started by acknowledging that we all have baggage; and we often carry that baggage into each new situation. In fact, the stronger a person’s reaction to a situation, the more likely old baggage is involved. And I no longer wanted to be another’s baggage carrier.

To change that, I now consciously take an aerial view whenever I find myself in a conflict situation and ask myself:

• Did my actions or words contribute to the situation?
• Did I bring any baggage?
• Is there anything I could do differently?

That’s all I can own. That’s all that’s within my control. I fix what I can and what is mine to fix. If the other person is still out of sorts they own that, not me.

Is it easy? No. Do I always do it just right? No – I am human after all. But every time I try to own it, I remind myself that it’s not mine to own. The important thing is I make a conscious effort to follow this process and not beat myself up when I slip up.

What about you? Am I the only owner or recovering owner out there?

If you find yourself carrying another’s baggage, what do you do?

I’d love to hear from you, as I’m always looking for other tools that I can adopt.

By: Avery Horzewski

Join us on Thursday night, 10/21, at the WIC general meeting for a fun scavenger hunt. From 6:00 – 6:30pm,  you can team with two of your friends to seek answers hidden around the room to some tough questions for a chance to win some prizes. Along the way, you’ll learn more about WIC and the pro bono experience. Make sure to stop by the Pro Bono table to learn about the many opportunities to power your business growth by becoming a pro bono team member in 2011. Then stay to learn to how to grow your business from top-earning consultants. See you there at the Quadras Conference Center in Menlo Park on Thursday!

By: Deborah Hoard

Recently, in a spurt of ‘abundance thinking’, where I was convinced that 2010 is going to be a MUCH better year than 2009 (I can’t afford to think otherwise, can you?!), I decided to do an inventory of people/resources I can turn to when my workload is too heavy to do it all myself.

Like many fellow consultants, I can perform every function needed to support most client projects myself, but have found it very wise to outsource certain portions of my research projects when I have a heavy client load in order to ensure that my time is spent on the things that are: 1) high value activities, worthy of my $100+ hourly rate and 2) things that only I can do based on my unique talents or the client relationship.

In an effort to streamline the process when I need to turn to other resources, I created a spreadsheet that provides me with a quick glance at the resources I’ve qualified and established relationships with over the past 10 years.  Some of the features of the spreadsheet:

• Every row is a different person/resource
• The first few columns include contact information, notes about the resource and their specialty
• The rest of the columns are categories of resources such as Interviewing, Analysis, Recruiting, Panels/Lists, etc.
• I put an X in each column/category that a given resource can help with

Having this quick reference allows me to rapidly scan a given column when I have the need for support in any given area.  When I meet/qualify new resources, I add them to the spreadsheet, which ensures that I think of them when the need arises.  This saves me a LOT of time and helps me make sure I make the right choice for each project, which helps ensure high quality results for my clients.

Let’s all think ‘abundance’ for 2010 and do a similar inventory of our resources…and if you don’t HAVE back-up resources, be sure to find some…WIC is a great source of qualified people who can partner with you to help in almost any element of your work.

By: Jen Berkley Jackson

It seems that the recession is finally ending. But if you’re like me, my business took a beating and I have some major planning to do to be poised for opportunities in 2010. However, it seems so overwhelming to do it all by myself.

Luckily, WIC has a workshop on December 1^st that can help me – and you – be ready to take advantage of the business upswing. Seven experts are available to explore all aspects of our businesses, in a one-to-one setting, and help develop the best strategic approach.

We’ll walk away with:

• A blueprint for our businesses
• Valuable tips from the experts on sales, marketing, resourcing, process improvement, competition, client/market assessment, and branding
• Action items to kick-start our success in 2010

So carve out some time to concentrate on your success and join us at the WIC December  “Jumpstart Your Business for 2010” Workshop:

December 1, 2009, 8:00am – 12:00pm

Network Meeting Center

5201 Great America Parkway, Suite 122, Santa Clara, CA 95054

(408) 562-6091

www.networkmeetingcenter.com

Learn more and register at www.womeninconsulting.org

By: Deborah Hoard