Over the past 10 years, I have had the privilege of knowing and working with some awesome people. Some have successfully started a consulting business, others got started but had to return to the workforce as their business entered difficult times. In either case, you have to applaud people who follow their dreams.
If you are starting a business, congratulations. You are one of the few. The brave. Someone that wants to make a difference. Let’s get you to the point though, where you join the elite, someone who not only successfully started a business, but also someone who was able to make a living at it.
First of all, do your homework. Here are two outstanding books on starting a consulting business.
Secondly, assess your strengths and weaknesses. From my observations, most consultants struggle in the area of marketing and sales. Most consultants are proficient at what they do but they don’t know how to sell. In order to succeed, you are going to have to learn how to market and sell yourself. I’m not talking about your 30 second elevator speech, creating a website or developing your social network. These are all important, but, at some point you are going to have to close a sale. After building your business plan, ensure you get some help in developing your sales technique.
Here are some other things to consider before starting a consulting business:
Is your product or service relevant?
Is it the right time to start a business?
Can you live with minimum income for at least 3 years?
What is your target market?
What are the demographics in your area for your target market?
Do you have access to capital if you require seed money?
Is your family supportive of your endeavor?
Did you bounce your ideas off three trusted advisers? What did they say?
There are two blogs that I often visit that give me ideas about business and marketing.
Yesterday I accompanied my wife on an extra-credit assignment for a class she is taking at Sacramento State. We went to the California History Museum in Sacramento and were treated to a educational trip down memory lane. There were several exhibits that I found interesting and thought provoking.
The Journey – and – the Welcome
One of the exhibits we visited was a video documentary of early migrants who made their way to California in the 1920s – 1950s. One of the stories revolved around a family moving to Anaheim from Texas in a 1950s car emblazoned with a sign that indicated they were from Texas. Upon their arrival they were surprised at how many people would wave to them and say things like, “welcome to California, Texas”! Is that the same greeting they would get today? I don’t think so. In fact I jokingly told my wife that people might wave, but they would probably be waving something else at them besides their open hands. What has happened to our country since the 1960s? Have we lost our innocence?
Cultural Melting Pot
With all the talk of illegal immigrants today, I was astounded to learn that California has always had a large immigrant population. In the 1860s, 39% of California’s populace were immigrants with this number slowly declining to around 13% in the 1990s. With the rise in immigration recently, today 22% of California’s populace were born outside of California. Put in perspective, today we have less foreign born Californians (by percentage) now then we did 100 years ago. So why the big fuss? Have we lost sight of who we are? Are those of us who achieved prosperity by the opportunities provided by America now trying to close the doors on others who have a dream?
I recently finished teaching a project leadership class and as usual we had some great discussions on what leadership is all about. I believe that there are two facets to leadership:
Getting Things Done
Honoring others
Getting Things Done
Leaders must get things done. Period. No excuses. No exceptions. If you can’t get things done, you are not leading. Leaders get things done. Having said that, don’t confuse winning with accomplishing. As a leader your goal should never be to win. You can’t control that. Your goal should be to accomplish all the things needed to win. Let’s take submitting a proposal or bid as an example. Your goal should be to submit the best proposal possible. It should be thorough, compelling, accurate and pristine. If you submit a quality proposal, but lose to a competitor, you’ve still accomplished your goals. However, if you submit a proposal of low quality, you are not getting things done.
Honoring Others
A leader must not only get things done, but must also honor others in the process. When we consider “others”, we are talking about everyone. The things you do should honor the following people:
Customers/Clients
Employees/Team Members
Your family and the families of your employees
Shareholders
The general public
Your specific industry
If you are getting things done, but someone else is harmed by your actions, you are not leading. A leader honors others.
I’ve been away for awhile due to a family emergency and recently received grim news from several friends who were recently diagnosed with cancer. I was reminded how fleeting life is and that it is important to live the life we have to the fullest. Here are some things that crossed my mind.
What is on your “to do” list that you’ve been putting off for awhile?
What places do you still want to visit and experience?
Who do you need to reconnect with?
Who do you need to make amends with?
What impact do you still need to make? What legacy are you leaving behind?
Make a list and set some goals. You don’t want to end up with a song left in your heart when you leave this world.
A student asked me how to “manage up” the other day and I thought I’d give you my thoughts on this difficult but interesting topic. The most critical ingredient for managing up is to believe that you can. In every case I can think of where someone was good at managing up, this individual had enough self-confidence to believe this could be done. If you don’t think you can somehow influence leaders above you, you might as well not try. You have to believe. If you believe, great. If you don’t – what is preventing you from believing you can influence those “above” you?
Assuming you believe, what does managing up mean to you? If it means changing someone’s behavior or personality, you’re asking for a miracle. These things are best managed from above or within, but would be difficult at best from the bottom up. Reality number one – you can’t change people.
When trying to manage up you need to be specific. What exactly are you trying to accomplish? What are your goals? If you need a poor leader to be a better leader, you are probably out of luck as this requires changing someone’s behavior. Instead of being so general, ask yourself what do you need this person to do? Is it to provide better organization? Do you need better direction? These things can be accomplished by “managing” upwards.
As an example, if you need better direction, give the leader(s) you are having difficulty working with some options and a deadline. Have them pick a direction. If you feel especially empowered, you can even tell them what you are going to do and then see if they tell you not to. If you need more organization, you need to provide the organization and get your ineffective leaders to buy off on it. Focus on the task/results, not the behaviors.
As promised, I’m continuing my tips for job seekers. There are a lot of ways to write a resume, but here are a few very common mistakes that I’ve seen people make recently.
Lack of focus. Your resume should target a specific job which means you’re going to have to have more than one version. The temptation many job seekers have is to put everything that they’ve done on the resume, in the hopes that whoever looks at it will find something they like. I call this wishful thinking, hoping, or fishing. What you really want, is to have your resume SHOUT out that you are THE ONE for the job. That means researching the company, finding out exactly what they are looking for and ensuring your resume hits these hard.
Use of industry specific jargon, or lack of clarity around a job title. What is an Administrative Assistant? To some is means clerical help. To others it is an Executive Secretary. Still, others use it to describe an Office Manager. Have someone read your resume to give you feedback on clarity. As a footnote, I know Monster.com and others will review your resume for a hefty fee (hundreds of dollars). Save yourself the money and just give it to a few friends or join a networking group. You can use the money to go out to dinner.
Lack of bullets. Hiring managers scan resumes. Quickly. When I’ve sifted through resumes in the past, I immediately make two piles. Potentials vs. Not Potentials. Within 15 – 30 seconds, I make a decision on a resume and place them in one of the piles. It the Potential pile is too small, I might make another pass through the other stack to see if I missed something. Obviously if I’m looking at a resume for 30 seconds, I’m not going to read the entire resume, but will be looking for things to jump put. Formatting is key. Ensure your highlights stand out.
I had the privilege of serving as a coach at a career fair last night and have reviewed quite a few resumes lately. I want to pass on some observations based on common errors that I see people making and will be making several posts on this topic over the next week or so.
Avoid the Shotgun Method
While the shotgun method might make you feel better because it looks like you are doing a lot, your chance of success does not necessarily increase proportionately with the volume of jobs you applied for. The key is to apply for jobs that…
You are qualified for
You have experience at
Are appropriate for your career level
I have talked with quite a few people who are looking for “anything”. From a hiring manager’s perspective, that doesn’t cut it. As an example, I’ve met several experienced managers applying for entry level positions because they think the middle management market is non-existent. One gentleman in particular was a previous director of marketing in the newspaper industry. He is applying for entry level sales positions because his network is pretty small and he doesn’t think he can find what he called “invisible” jobs (jobs that are open but not posted on bulletin boards or advertised). Using this shotgun method, he is getting interviews, but, he is not getting hired. Why? Because he is in his mid fifties, competing against younger people in their 20s and 30s. The perception is that he doesn’t have the energy to keep up with a younger salesman or woman. I know, that is age discrimination. Being over 50 myself, I find that a bitter pill to swallow. But it is reality. Instead of just applying for as many entry level sales positions as he can, he should be building his network and focusing on landing a management position.
While general skills such as management, supervision or administration are easily transferable, they are also very common. To say you are a good manager, is to say nothing. Everyone who has ever managed someone else will be competing with you for “management” positions. To make your resume stand out, look for ways to bring a specific set of skills into focus that someone may be looking for.
I was reading a discussion in one of the LinkedIn Groups that I belong to, and a question posed by John Moore, “Does Loyalty Exist in Business? Should It?”, piqued my interest.
My thoughts are that it depends on how you define loyalty as it can have several implications:
There is the negative implication of “blind” loyalty that has gotten many people into trouble. Blind loyalty would mean continuing to support a business, even when its product or services may have seen better days. People who look at Ford the same way today, as they did 25 years ago may fall into this category. My parents’ generation was more prone to this line of thinking, but people under 50 rarely think this way.
Then there is gratitude to a company or product that may have served you well in the past.This form of loyalty may take the form of casual but not full blown support. You may by something like a Ford T-shirt or baseball cap, but you won’t by a truck from them anymore.
Last but certainly not least, is earned loyalty. If people buy a Ford Truck because they still offer a great product at a great price, then obviously loyalty is still around.
Bottom line – loyalty still exists but in today’s economy but people remain loyal only if the company deserves it. How do you ensure loyalty? By staying relevant and offering a great product or service. Don’t expect to be around if you start cutting corners to save a few bucks.
You read right. Despite furloughs, layoffs and pay cuts, we should celebrate labor day. Why? Because we can. Labor day was instituted to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of the American Worker. You can read about its history here.
I know this year has been tough for a lot of people. It’s been tough on me too. Let’s not lose perspective though. Our country may not be the leader in all things anymore and we may be losing ground to other countries in some areas, but, America is still a great country. People from all over the world are still trying to immigrate here because no matter how fed up we are with our government leaders and our financial institutions, it is still a great place to live.
As for the American Worker? If there is anything that Americans have proven over the years, it is that we are resilient. Yes times are hard. But perhaps this is what our country needed. We were going down paths that were fiscally unsustainable. While we all want to live comfortably and retire, maybe…. just maybe, we got a little to complacent. Maybe we were asking for too much, and giving too little. Perhaps we lost perspective on what it takes to make our country thrive.
Perhaps we do have to work a little harder in order to provide for our families. Just maybe, we need to be move involved as a people in the functioning of our government.
But here’s the point, we live in a country that allows us to work hard and be rewarded for our efforts. We just need to take advantage of it.
Many immigrant families that migrate to our country find financial security and happiness. Why? Because they are not afraid of hard work and they are hungry, in some cases very hungry, for financial security. Americans can take advantage of this too! We should be celebrating our freedoms and choose to persevere despite the state of the economy.
What do you think? Will the American Worker bounce back?
All the best!
All the time!
JT
In these tough economic times, how do you keep your employees motivated and inspired? My advice would be don’t try gimmicks, but find ways to celebrate real accomplishments, instill hope based on a look to the future and ensure everyone knows that what they are doing is making a difference.
Gimmicks are easily seen by employees as just that… a gimmick. Gimmicks include things like an employee of the week award, chair massages or bring your dog to work day. These things are fine to do, as long as you realize they won’t produce long lasting motivation. If you ask someone what they like about the company they work for they probably won’t list these things first.
People go to work for the following reasons:
A fair wage for a days work
To do something they love
To make a difference
If you want to truly motivate people, take care of these things first.
Pay them a fair wage. Here in California, there is a hamburger chain called In-N-Out Burger. Teens like to work there because they pay above minimum wage. In-N-Out wants to attract quality people, so they pay more up front. No hassles. A fair days wage, for a fair days work.
Hire people who are suited for the job they will be performing. If people are doing something they love or enjoy, they will stay motivated. I once worked with a secretary who hated her job. Needless to say, she wasn’t very good at it.
If people feel good about what they are doing, they will feel even better if they know that the company is making a difference. If you don’t feel like you’re making a difference, then why bother. Even making something like making toilet paper is important. Can you imaging what the world would be like if there were no toilet paper, or if the paper we had was made of cardboard?
To help people love their jobs, treat them with respect and ensure roles, responsibilities and expectations are clear. Help keep conflict to a minimum.
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