Wes Bucey
Prophet of Profit
Consulting – Is it in YOUR Career Future?
Note (Jan 23, 2009): I have "bumped" this thread because it seems VERY pertinent in today's economy.
Consulting – Is it in YOUR career future?
(see also this companion thread:
Contracting/Temping - Viable Alternates in Tough Times)
In my experience over the last forty years, every time there is a downturn in the economy and full-time jobs seem to become scarce, a lot of folks think they can easily join the ranks of those “high paid consultants” they hear about and occasionally see as shadowy figures talking and dealing with top managers at their organization.
Reason for this thread:
Many of my colleagues and associates around the world actually ARE those high paid consultants who deal with the top managers at organizations. When we talk and correspond, one of the main topics that comes up almost every time are the folks who hold themselves out to be “consultants,” but the only thing “consultant” about them is the title they put on a business card. Often we say, “What a shame this guy is so clueless about how to be a REAL consultant.” And then we jump to another topic and mentally dismiss the person from further consideration. On a few occasions, we say, “Wow! That guy is a menace to the profession. He’s so bad, his stink rubs off on the rest of us!” But again, we do nothing, because our “professional ethics” prevent us from bad mouthing a competitor in public, even a stumblebum who gives the word “consultant” a bad taste in anyone’s mouth who crosses his path.
Just this week, we started on another “insider talk” about such “consultants” and I finally said, “Maybe we need a school on how to be a consultant. Then we could just suggest to these guys that they go to school.”
“Yeah!” they laughed. “You create the school and we’ll refer them! Ha! Ha!”
Well, I can’t create a school, but I can create a thread that folks can read and do a little self-assessment and gap analysis to see where they stand on the road to being a successful full-time consultant in ANY field, not just the Quality profession.
Basics
First, we need just a few important definitions. Many folks confuse the terms “consultant” and ”contractor” and often use them interchangeably. Most folks I consider “consultants” probably will agree on the following definitions (If you do NOT agree, feel free to write a post detailing your reasoning.):
Consultant: An independent business person (or member of a firm of such business persons) whose primary value given is ADVICE or EDUCATION. This would include, but not be limited to, folks who advise about mergers and acquisitions and whether to add or delete product lines or enter new markets. It would also include on-site and off-site trainers of employees of an organization who come in to teach something not readily available from experts within the organization (Hazmat processes and procedures, English as a second language, etc.)
Contractor. In the sense we use here, a contractor may be completely independent or work for an agency, but he is essentially a temporary worker performing a job which would be handled by a full-time employee at an organization, but for a number of reasons which have nothing to do with this discussion (perhaps another thread?), the organization prefers the temporary status of the person fulfilling the function. Such temporary contractors include folks working as technical writers, inspectors, assemblers, internal auditors, statisticians, accountants, bookkeepers, typists, clerks, even at supervisor levels, like crew chiefs, quality managers, design engineers, process engineers, etc.
The primary difference for the purpose of this discussion is the contractor is bringing technical skill to the table, but rarely is he giving advice in planning or strategy or spending time training folks to do a task or learn a skill so he can move on to the next organization.
A secondary difference, but often blurred, is that most consultants get paid a fee for accomplishment that rarely has a direct connection to the number of hours worked or the number of pieces inspected or the number of documents written. Blurring may occur when trainers get paid according to the number of students who successfully pass a class. A consultant who comes in to help an organization achieve registration to ISO 9001:2000 may get a flat fee for educating and training the staff to be ready for a third party audit, with a bonus paid when the organization actually gets the certificate of registration. Such a consultant helps select the proper registrar, helps organization personnel write manuals and procedures, trains organization personnel to conduct a gap analysis and become internal auditors for continuing evaluation of the operations against the organization plan.
If the guy just comes in and grinds out a manual and a pile of procedures by himself in a little room, then turns them over to the organization without training the organization folks to do it themselves, the guy is really only a contractor – a technical writer for hire!
The business aspect
Make no mistake, the business of being a consultant is as important as the technical skill and understanding of the subject material the consultant works with. When a guy is loaded with technical knowledge about a topic, but makes a mish mash of the consulting techniques of imparting that knowledge to the client so the client can use it in an efficient and profitable manner is the time when we folks already successful in the consulting business say, “What a shame this guy is so clueless about how to be a REAL consultant.” We recognize the guy knows the subject matter, he’s just clueless about getting assignments and then following through to a successful conclusion. Most often, these are guys who, as employees of various sized organizations were able to fulfill the task, but they didn’t have to worry about the business side of paying for everything like travel, business cards, phones, computers, temporary housing away from home, health insurance, next week’s or next month’s or next year’s assignment and income.
I suggest folks who either already call themselves consultants or who think they want to become consultants give themselves a basic reality check by looking at the Small Business Administration (http://sba.gov/) suggestions for planning and operating a small business and performing a gap analysis between their own ideas and those offered by the combined experience of thousands of small businesses.
Here’s just a brief item I see omitted by many would-be “independent consultants:”
The SBA has a “readiness assessment tool”:
Note the link to the SBA assessment tool is now behind an SBA firewall which requires FREE registration for access ( http://www.sba.gov/user )"
Note (Jan 23, 2009): I have "bumped" this thread because it seems VERY pertinent in today's economy.
Consulting – Is it in YOUR career future?
(see also this companion thread:
Contracting/Temping - Viable Alternates in Tough Times)
In my experience over the last forty years, every time there is a downturn in the economy and full-time jobs seem to become scarce, a lot of folks think they can easily join the ranks of those “high paid consultants” they hear about and occasionally see as shadowy figures talking and dealing with top managers at their organization.
Reason for this thread:
Many of my colleagues and associates around the world actually ARE those high paid consultants who deal with the top managers at organizations. When we talk and correspond, one of the main topics that comes up almost every time are the folks who hold themselves out to be “consultants,” but the only thing “consultant” about them is the title they put on a business card. Often we say, “What a shame this guy is so clueless about how to be a REAL consultant.” And then we jump to another topic and mentally dismiss the person from further consideration. On a few occasions, we say, “Wow! That guy is a menace to the profession. He’s so bad, his stink rubs off on the rest of us!” But again, we do nothing, because our “professional ethics” prevent us from bad mouthing a competitor in public, even a stumblebum who gives the word “consultant” a bad taste in anyone’s mouth who crosses his path.
Just this week, we started on another “insider talk” about such “consultants” and I finally said, “Maybe we need a school on how to be a consultant. Then we could just suggest to these guys that they go to school.”
“Yeah!” they laughed. “You create the school and we’ll refer them! Ha! Ha!”
Well, I can’t create a school, but I can create a thread that folks can read and do a little self-assessment and gap analysis to see where they stand on the road to being a successful full-time consultant in ANY field, not just the Quality profession.
Basics
First, we need just a few important definitions. Many folks confuse the terms “consultant” and ”contractor” and often use them interchangeably. Most folks I consider “consultants” probably will agree on the following definitions (If you do NOT agree, feel free to write a post detailing your reasoning.):
Consultant: An independent business person (or member of a firm of such business persons) whose primary value given is ADVICE or EDUCATION. This would include, but not be limited to, folks who advise about mergers and acquisitions and whether to add or delete product lines or enter new markets. It would also include on-site and off-site trainers of employees of an organization who come in to teach something not readily available from experts within the organization (Hazmat processes and procedures, English as a second language, etc.)
Contractor. In the sense we use here, a contractor may be completely independent or work for an agency, but he is essentially a temporary worker performing a job which would be handled by a full-time employee at an organization, but for a number of reasons which have nothing to do with this discussion (perhaps another thread?), the organization prefers the temporary status of the person fulfilling the function. Such temporary contractors include folks working as technical writers, inspectors, assemblers, internal auditors, statisticians, accountants, bookkeepers, typists, clerks, even at supervisor levels, like crew chiefs, quality managers, design engineers, process engineers, etc.
The primary difference for the purpose of this discussion is the contractor is bringing technical skill to the table, but rarely is he giving advice in planning or strategy or spending time training folks to do a task or learn a skill so he can move on to the next organization.
A secondary difference, but often blurred, is that most consultants get paid a fee for accomplishment that rarely has a direct connection to the number of hours worked or the number of pieces inspected or the number of documents written. Blurring may occur when trainers get paid according to the number of students who successfully pass a class. A consultant who comes in to help an organization achieve registration to ISO 9001:2000 may get a flat fee for educating and training the staff to be ready for a third party audit, with a bonus paid when the organization actually gets the certificate of registration. Such a consultant helps select the proper registrar, helps organization personnel write manuals and procedures, trains organization personnel to conduct a gap analysis and become internal auditors for continuing evaluation of the operations against the organization plan.
If the guy just comes in and grinds out a manual and a pile of procedures by himself in a little room, then turns them over to the organization without training the organization folks to do it themselves, the guy is really only a contractor – a technical writer for hire!
The business aspect
Make no mistake, the business of being a consultant is as important as the technical skill and understanding of the subject material the consultant works with. When a guy is loaded with technical knowledge about a topic, but makes a mish mash of the consulting techniques of imparting that knowledge to the client so the client can use it in an efficient and profitable manner is the time when we folks already successful in the consulting business say, “What a shame this guy is so clueless about how to be a REAL consultant.” We recognize the guy knows the subject matter, he’s just clueless about getting assignments and then following through to a successful conclusion. Most often, these are guys who, as employees of various sized organizations were able to fulfill the task, but they didn’t have to worry about the business side of paying for everything like travel, business cards, phones, computers, temporary housing away from home, health insurance, next week’s or next month’s or next year’s assignment and income.
I suggest folks who either already call themselves consultants or who think they want to become consultants give themselves a basic reality check by looking at the Small Business Administration (http://sba.gov/) suggestions for planning and operating a small business and performing a gap analysis between their own ideas and those offered by the combined experience of thousands of small businesses.
Here’s just a brief item I see omitted by many would-be “independent consultants:”
The SBA has a “readiness assessment tool”:
Note the link to the SBA assessment tool is now behind an SBA firewall which requires FREE registration for access ( http://www.sba.gov/user )"
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