When scaling your consulting firm up from an individual to a team, you’ll have to decide whether to hire contractors or employees. Learn the pros and cons of each.
When you want to grow your consulting firm, you’re probably going to have to bring on additional people. There’s only so much of you to go around. Make deliberate choices about whether the people you bring on will be contractors or employees. Ensure those individuals’ interests are aligned with yours.
If you’re going to bring on contractors, you don’t run into all the employment and tax issues and they’re going to be a more flexible workforce. The downside is they can leave suddenly and they don’t always share your personal interests.
If the people you bring on are employees, they’re dedicated to the work, but they come along with a lot of administrative issues you’re going to have to deal with. If you need someone who’s fully committed to building your firm but that person’s only interest is part-time work to supplement their income, you’re not going to be happy with that result.
Ensure interests are aligned between you and the people you bring on. A lot of times I get people who say they want to work with me, and we run a training firm. They’ll tell me, “Well Mike, when you can’t do the training session, just throw me that gig.” The problem is, I don’t need people for bandwidth to do the training. I need salespeople. That relationship won’t work out, so I have to hire different people.
I’ve chosen a structure where I have contractors. I don’t want to deal with the overhead. I don’t want to deal with the administrative issues. It’s great that I have contractors because I don’t deal with those issues. The downside is, sometimes I struggle to get my contractors’ attention and have them focus on building my business versus other interests they’re pursuing.
Know the different benefits and drawbacks of contractors and employees. Make sure you choose deliberately to drive the outcome you’re looking for.
Want more weekly consulting tips? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start improving your decision-making strategies. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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As a consultant, your relationships with your clients are invaluable. Learn a few strategies for maintaining your client relationships.
Client relationships are the lifeblood of your business. Be deliberate about maintaining them. Regular contact will keep you top of mind. Beware of excessive contact; they’re going to ignore you or block you if you’re in their inbox too much. Find excuses to reach out to them like, “Hey I read an article and I thought of you,” or “I heard about a cool new technology and I thought you might be interested in it.” Send these notes and leave it at that. Don’t try and sell during these interactions. They know you eventually want to sell them something. Just focus on being helpful and good things are going to come.
Learn the importance of communicating what sets your consulting firm apart from your competition.
When you run a consulting firm, you have to answer one very important question. What makes you special? If you can’t articulate what sets you apart from all the other consulting firms out there, you’ll be hard pressed to win business away from them. You’re going to have trouble winning the bid when other firms are in the mix. Have a clear statement about why you’re differentiated. It’s that differentiation that will enable you to compete on quality instead of being in a race to the bottom on price. Read more
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Whether it’s knowing what you need and what you don’t on a project or knowing how to manage conflict effectively, a long 500 mile stroll can help you build these skills.
A few summers ago, I hiked the ancient Camino de Santiago trail across Spain. It was the best month of my life for many reasons. Along with a lot of other great things I got by walking almost 500 miles, it also taught me some valuable project management lessons that I can use at work.
Less is More
When you are carrying everything you need for a month on your back, you learn to be very smart with differentiating what you need versus what you want. Variety in clothing colors and styles drives complexity and weight in packing a backpack. By the end of the trip, I found that I used 20% of the clothes I packed 80% of the time, and the rest was dead weight. I ended up throwing away a lot of the “I want” clothes and just washing and wearing the “I need” clothes more.
LESSON – As I scope future projects at work, I will ruthlessly force myself to differentiate between what is essential to deliver well, and strip out all the “nice to have” parts of the project that aren’t absolutely required.
Someone Has Probably Done this Before
An amazing thing about the Camino de Santiago is that people have been walking that same trail for over a thousand years as part of a Christian pilgrimage. Whenever I got a blister or a twisted ankle, I realized that hundreds of people probably had that exact same problem at the exact same place and got through it somehow. When I walked by the 800 year-old ruin of a hostel for medieval pilgrims, I realized they probably dealt with the same loud snoring and other problems that today’s pilgrims face. My guide book had the following quote from the journal of a German peregrino in the 1400s that could still be written today – “The women (nuns) in the hostel yell at the pilgrims a lot. But the food is good.”
LESSON – Whenever I start a new project at work, I will seek to learn from the experience of others who have done similar projects in the past.
Our teams are under tremendous pressure. That pressure creates stress which diminishes performance. You can build a more resilient team through some simple leadership behaviors.
Let’s imagine that you are in a unique position. Your team has the talent it needs. Your organization has a strategy that continues to work with a plan that will adapt to your competitor’s actions. You have enough cash to handle the changes in your markets. Your team is ready to work hard and the energy in your offices has never been better. There’s only one question left to answer: is your team built to last?
The problem with our global economy, political uncertainty, and reactive media is that too many of us are living at our edges. We work hard. Our kids’ schedules make us look like our schedules are calm. We play a lot. We travel constantly. We are on our phones frenetically. This means that our brains are always paying attention to something—until they can’t.
In the hot seats of Humvees looking for IEDs or the turrets of tanks, our service men and women rotate out every half hour to 90 minutes. Most of us can only concentrate for 40 minutes at a time, but we expect our teams to start early with staff meetings, handle conference calls on international schedules, and respond to emails at all hours. Our brains are not built for the constant stimulation.
So how do we stay focused and mentally healthy when our expectations of ourselves and our teams to produce keep us under constant pressure?
Give people freedom
Your ideal schedule may not match the people on your team. In a study where students were given control over their time, they reported higher happiness, more role clarity, and less overload. How much would happy teammates who knew their job and felt like they could handle it be worth to your organization?
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/20220103-Team-Laughing.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2022-01-03 08:00:562022-01-03 01:41:49Is Your Team Built to Last?
Leadership is a skill that requires constant practice. The world changes and brings new challenges every day. How can you ensure you’re staying fresh as a leader and not going the way of the dinosaur?
Leadership abilities can grow stale and out of date. While most leaders have good intentions, and want to do a great job, the early excitement for the position can quickly turn into frustration from the demands.
Leadership isn’t for the faint of heart, and it isn’t ‘learned’ once you’ve attended a leadership conference. It is a challenging skill that must evolve with your personal growth and a changing workforce.
Make a choice to be the leader who is continually growing and maturing in leadership abilities and new skills for leading the team. This podcast will provide insight on whether you might be going the way of the leadership dinosaur and how you can turn that around.
Here at thoughtLEADERS, I’m fortunate to work with some incredibly bright people. Maureen Metcalf is one of them. She recently discussed the topic of staying fresh as a leader with Steve Caldwell at Manager Mojo. They got together on his podcast to discuss how to keep yourself from going the way of the dinosaur. Listen to the podcast here:
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/20211220-Dinosaur.jpg?fit=1920%2C1281&ssl=112811920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-12-20 08:00:502021-12-20 00:39:33Are You Becoming a Leadership Dinosaur?
The caller ID stated “Mike.” The phone was on the fourth ring. I held it in front of me, watching the screen, mouth dry, sitting at my desk, thinking, “Here it goes again. He’s going to speak Chinese and I won’t understand.”
Creative Food, the vegetable-processing company I had started in China the year before, was on the verge of bankruptcy. Every project I initiated had failed. All the foreign experts I had hired had left. My operations were in such bad shape that my own customers, who included big fast-food chains like KFC and Pizza Hut asked my new recruits why they had come aboard a ship that was sure to sink. On that day, once I finally answered the phone, I had to ask Mike to repeat himself several times. Read more
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20211114-Four.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-11-15 08:00:062021-11-14 23:26:33Four Ways to Become a Complete Leader
Our brains are under constant assault from stressors. To reduce the amount of stress you feel and to improve your resilience, move. Move around physically. Exercise. Walk while on conference calls. Move. Movement has huge benefits in terms of stress reduction and resilience.
A data breach impacting millions. A failure of your core systems due to too much volume leaving users stranded. Two key executives leaving without successors in place.
If you are a leader, imagining each of the aforementioned, true, situations, is enough to double your heart rate. And it should. Thinking about attacks, major human errors, and poor planning triggers the region of your brain that causes stress.
Your amygdala, which I call your alarm, is a tiny, almond shaped region in the middle, left, and right sides of your brain. Bears have alarms. So do iguanas. Our ancestors a thousand years ago did too. Animals and old-timers needed their alarms to stay safe. To avoid danger, they had to be able to run and hide from nastier creatures or avoid the wrong food or water.
Our problem today is that too many moments in life feel like a Sabre-tooth tiger approaching, as we sit safely in our offices, drive comfortably in our cars, and have full fridges of healthy, nutritious food (in addition to cake, wine, and cheese).
That’s why you and your execs are stressed. Their alarms are on all the time. The risk from hackers has never been higher. Our technology is more powerful and more complicated than ever, and only continues to become more so of each. Our teams are made of independent, smart colleagues who will take a better job. As we think about these realities, unlike danger from which you can fight or flee, we need modern solutions. So many of our stressors are stuck in our head and we don’t know what to do.
What is also common with our ancestors is that they too sought relief from the things that stressed them out. What used to be the purview of shaman and healers is now the focus of neuroscientists and applied psychologists. Many of the answers that the ancients discovered intuitively, we now have empirical data to back up. You don’t have to let the stress you feel last. You can inoculate yourself from the real triggers that may, in fact, get worse in the years to come.
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/20190130-Couple-Running.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=19601280Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-09-20 08:00:022021-09-20 03:41:03Is Your Executive Team Stressed? Then Move!
Too often, entrepreneurs seek business partners for the wrong reasons, from skills to capital. Whether leading a startup or growing organization, here’s how to avoid making a bad decision.
“Do I need a business partner?” I’ve been a business adviser for more than 40 years and this is one of the most common questions entrepreneurs ask, whether they are starting their first business or expanding an existing one.
Holding onto as much of your company’s ownership as possible and sharing it only when absolutely necessary is simple logic. But entrepreneurs often succumb to the emotional need to partner. Though by nature an independent and confident group, they start tossing ownership around with little or no regard for its current or eventual value.
So whenever I’m asked that question, I remind them that there’s no Rorschach test for what a successful business partnership looks like. Too often, you may think the inkblot looks like an opportunity, while your partner sees only obstacles. It’s an extremely tough chasm to bridge. But if you’re seriously considering a partnership, ask yourself these five questions as your guide: Read more
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Where do personal and company brands intersect? Should an entrepreneur seek to establish their own name first, or focus on the company brand to launch? Unlike the chicken/egg predicament, when the entrepreneur builds their personal brand first, establishing their presence and representing their vision, passion, talents and mission, the company brand becomes proof of that vision and an element of fulfilling their mission. Read more
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I was born in the U.S. but raised in Iran from the time I was an infant. As a gay man in an extremely homophobic country like Iran, there was no way for me to thrive while being honest about who I was. When I was 18 years old, a horrific car accident broke both of my legs and left me unable to walk for a year as I recovered. Afterward, I packed up everything and moved to the U.S., determined to create a better life and find success as my authentic self. As a Middle Eastern man who didn’t speak English, I was certainly at a disadvantage when I came to this country. But I found success through diligence, investment in myself, and a strong belief in the value of mentorship. Read more
https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Two-men-working-on-laptop.jpg?fit=1920%2C1262&ssl=112621920Trevor Joneshttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngTrevor Jones2021-04-26 08:00:162021-04-26 01:37:08Mentorship: My Secret Weapon for Overcoming Obstacles & Becoming a Strong Leader
One common struggle entrepreneurs face is that they spend too much of their day putting out fires. That leaves them less time to do the most important work in their business. It also stretches them thin from a personal perspective, so they end up overworked, stressed out, and unfulfilled.
Are you spending all day putting out fires?
Do you struggle to get ahead with your workload because there’s so much on your to-do list?
Have you spent years telling yourself that you need to better train team members but haven’t had a break long enough to do so because you are putting out so many fires?
If you answer yes to any of these questions, congratulations. You’re your company’s best firefighter. This role is important because it can keep a company going for a long time. Fires come up in every business. These businesses need firefighters on the inside to prevent those fires from spreading.
So many business owners I coach complain to me that they spend all their days “putting out fires.” I get it. That’s how I felt for my entire first decade at Diversified Industrial Staffing, too. I spent every day putting out fire after fire, keeping the business open for nearly a decade before the flames got too big for me to control any longer. Every day, it was fire after fire. I’d swoop in and save the day and then move onto the next fire. That was my Groundhog Day. I’d head to the office, put out fires all day, and head home. The next day, I’d head to the office, put out more fires, and head home. I’d do that day after day until everything collapsed.
The first step to getting out of that stressful routine is to shift your mindset. Sure, you will likely remain your company’s best firefighter. That’s not an issue. Fires will pop up in entrepreneurship. But if you’re going to be your company’s best firefighter, you can’t just put out fires and then move on. Firefighters do much more than that. You need to complete the work of a firefighter.
Firefighters don’t just put out the flames of a burning structure and then head back to the station. They also take time to research the cause of the fire and, if there are signs of arson, work with law enforcement to prosecute the arsonists.
If we know we are our companies’ best firefighters, we must shift our mindset and complete the work to identify the cause of the fire. When Greg worked with me to continue the job at Diversified Industrial Staffing, I learned that my fires were all caused by arson. We had someone inside the company who kept starting fires. Thus, the solution was to either get rid of the arsonist or prevent them from being able to start fires in the future.
Unfortunately, I learned that the arsonist at Diversified Industrial Staffing was me. If not for me, I wouldn’t have had so many fires to put out. When I realized that, everything changed. Instead of seeing myself as the hero who swept in and put out fires to keep the company going, I visualized myself starting a bunch of fires and then running around putting them out until the fires grew too big for me to handle. I loved the jolt of adrenaline solving the problems. I felt like I had accomplished something that day. It was a fool’s dream.
It’s not just me, either. When I work with leaders who are overwhelmed by putting out fires all day, I ask them to shift their mindset from putting out fires to completing the job. Virtually every time, my clients realize they were their company’s chief arsonists too. Some of them identified other arsonists as well, but every single one of them realized they could quickly improve their company if they just stopped starting fires themselves.
You don’t have to find yourself crumpled on the pavement (or worse) to recognize that something has to change in your business, either. Sure, a setback could be as large as bankruptcy, or it could be as small as a mishandled meeting. What they have in common is a gut-wrenching, hair-raising feeling of regret, fear, and self-doubt that stops us in our tracks and stunts our growth. But many times, we feel overwhelmed by putting out fires all day because we don’t do the work it takes to prevent fires in the first place.
As leaders, we can be the best firefighters—while also being the chief arsonists. Think about it: the scary but joyous feeling we, as entrepreneurs, get from putting out a fire can be very visceral, like a spike of dopamine. Often, we lack self-awareness around the “rush” it gives us. So we will be subversive and act as an arsonist, which is self-sabotaging long term, in exchange for the rush of putting out the fire and being seen as the savior, the only one who can put out the fire. But we can make the complex simple by merely doing something different.
As straightforward as it might sound to identify the source of fires before moving on, you won’t be able to do it if you don’t shift your mindset. It takes awareness, discipline, and continuous practice to do so. Otherwise, the stress and relief of fighting and extinguishing fires will send us right back into our own versions of Groundhog Day.
Todd Palmer is a highly sought-after speaker, executive coach, and longtime CEO of Diversified Industrial Staffing. With the mindset shifts and business techniques shared in his new book From Suck to Success: A Guide to Extraordinary Entrepreneurship, he transformed his company into one of the fastest growing companies in America, landing it onto the INC 5000 list an impressive six times.
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https://i0.wp.com/www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/20210206-Firefighters.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=112801920Mike Figliuolohttps://www.thoughtleadersllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/logo.pngMike Figliuolo2021-03-08 08:00:012021-02-06 18:36:50Entrepreneurs: The Best Firefighter and Chief Arsonist