Top 10 Consulting Pitfalls
Excerpts from Monster career advise.
Contracting is the life, isn't it? You put your bare feet up on your desk, make a few phone calls to clients who eat up your advice like caviar, and then just count your money.
Not quite. There are lots of things that can go wrong when professionals go independent. So it's a good idea to survey the road for some of the most common potholes, and to consider making a pit stop before you blow a tire and lose control of your business.
1. You Stop Prospecting for New Business
Countless consultants get in a rut and work with the same small group of clients year after year. Stability is great, but if you don't regularly test the market for more challenging projects and prestigious clients, you could be missing stellar opportunities. Here are 5 steps to warn a client.
- Here are five additional tips for having effective and constructive conversations in difficult situations:
- Give Fair Warning: The element of surprise won't work in your favor, says Loren Ekroth, Las Vegas-based founder of National Better Conversation Week. "You don't want to blind-side the other person, so ask them to get together at another time in a private, confidential place to clear up some issues. Let them know what you see as the issues and give them some time to reflect and prepare their thoughts for when you get together."
- Have a Plan of Attack: "Consider what you want to say, write it down, and sit with it for awhile," says Suzanne Bates, author of Speak Like a CEO: Secrets for Commanding Attention and Getting Results and president of Bates Communications in Wellesley, Massachusetts. "Writing it down will help you act, instead of react. If you're not sure what you want to say, discuss it with someone you trust. Be sure that person can be trusted not to disclose it. Confidentiality is critical. You don't want to complicate the situation."
- Be Prepared for an Ongoing Process: Be ready to have to continue the conversation later, cautions Alexander Grashow, director of the consulting practice at Cambridge Leadership Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Difficult conversations are iterative and most often require the people involved to negotiate changes with their people, departments or communities."
- Call for a Mediator: If you think the conversation will become heated, ask that a mutual, trusted colleague be present to mediate and keep things civil, Ekroth suggests. "Often the simple presence of another puts antagonists on their best behavior so differences can be worked out with civility."
- Check Assumptions at the Door: Making too many assumptions is a common mistake, Bates says. "It's easy to assume we fully understand the other person's motivation. We are too quick to jump to conclusions about people's actions, behaviors and attitudes." To avoid that, forget about who is right and focus on understanding the other person. "Be genuinely curious. This will help you get clarity. Separating fact from assumptions is the key to arriving at real understanding. Questions also interrupt the blame game and create an atmosphere of trust instead of suspicion."
- Armed with these tips, you'll be ready the next time you have to have a tough talk with a colleague or client. And you'll be more likely to achieve a positive outcome for everyone.
2. Your Fees Don't Keep Pace with the Market
You have a longstanding relationship with a client and can't seem to find a way to move your fee up from $60 an hour. Rising expenses chip away at profits, and it's obvious that other potential clients would pay you $90 an hour, no questions asked.
3. You Enter Agreements Blindly
Work for hire, hold harmless, irrevocable assignment -- who knows the meaning of all that legal mumbo jumbo? You'd better find out -- with the help of a lawyer if necessary -- or you may end up in civil or bankruptcy court.
4. You Give Away Your Intellectual Property
Your client takes that ingenious little algorithm you wrote, turns around and licenses the code to five other companies for a cool $500,000. It's all perfectly legal, and what do you have to show for it? Resentment.
5. Your Home Office Gets Out of Control
Your office looks like an office supply store that got hit by a tsunami. You've actually lost business by misplacing contact information. Or maybe your toddler knows where to find that flash drive, and she's using it to test her new molars.
6. Bad Work Habits Lower Your Productivity
Billing by the hour can be profitable, but not if you keep clocking out to watch TV or shop online for stuff you can't afford because you're not billing enough hours. Even if you think you're spending time wisely, there's probably room for improvement.
7. Your Work Becomes Your Life
Do you work every weekend? Is your spouse preparing to hit you with a conjugal negligence suit? If so, you need to put work in a larger perspective and get a life. If you don't, your professional creativity and productivity will suffer.
8. You Fail to Ride the Technology Curve
Even if you don't work in the high tech arena, technology is key to your business productivity. Do you frequently rekey lots of data? Wait around while your PC completes tasks? Spend hours looking for basic information? If so, you're losing your competitive edge.
9. Your Professional Skills Stagnate
What's new in your field this year? What have you learned this month? If you don't have good answers, your stock value will drop like a dotcom's in spring 2000.
10. Your Grapevine Withers
What's the contractor's most valuable business property? The Rolodex. If you don't keep up with customers, colleagues, rivals, mentors and other players, you're toast.
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