Archive for June, 2009

What your consulting contract should include to protect you

posted by Debra on Jun 21

 As with many businesses do, you should prepare consulting contracts that will safe guard your profit making in the business. A consulting contract that is agreed upon between you and client is one of the ways to prevent any inner conflict that may occur along the process of the consultation project.

 
Some of the things to include in every consulting contract would be listing down the payment and terms of billing for the client. You have to state how frequent and how much you would bill the client. In times of slow economy, payments may be put on hold, so you might want to initiate to charge interest on payments that are delayed after a period of 30 days.
 
In the contract, you should also describe your work scope. Bear in mind that you should always stick to your field and never stray too far from what you’re willing to commit at work. Otherwise, you might be held responsible to do needless follow-up for the client at your expense.
 
Stating the time line and duration of the projects in the contract (as well as proposal) will protect you from unforeseeable delays and disrupted payment or fees due to the delay. Besides, stating the duration on the contract will give reassurance to clients through proper, delegated work and being able to manage them until due completion at a give time frame.
 
Beware of what you guarantee in ensuring the best results of the project. There are many factors which are out of our bounds and control that may affect the desired outcome of the project, thus giving an illusion of guaranteed success of your project-dealing may not be a sound idea.
 
Defining a clear ownership and nondisclosure in contracts is also important to include in the contract. You need to make it clear as to who has the ownership of the material that you use during the course of project.
 
A nondisclosure clause is essential in order to draw a boundary line between your business and the client. This is to prohibit the act of disclosing the company’s proprietary data, business strategies and technology.
 
In essence, the main goal of the consulting project is to provide the best result possible for the client as well as keeping them satisfied with your work. Hence, it is important to remain objective at all times to maintain a professional image of yourself as a consultant.

Posted in Coaching, Consulting, Debra Unplugged

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The difference between coaching and consulting

posted by Debra on Jun 18

 Coaching is said to be a unique profession that uses a combination of suitable therapy, consulting and mentoring to assist client in creating a partner relationship between the coach and client. A coach is someone who supports the client and helped to bridge their inner purpose and passion toward achieving a goal and accomplish tasks.

 
A consultant on the other hand, is one that listens to your problem. Based on the information that you gave and a time frame provided, they will analyze the problem and consider them thoroughly before coming up with a solution as well as recommending steps to take to solve the problem. Most consultants deal with clients on a professional basis, giving corporate advices and services.
 
Some of the differences between consulting and coaching lie in the delivering method of the problem. The act of coaching is an on-going process that may involve a broader subject of the client’s life, hence constant communication is essential to ensure that both the coach and client are heading towards the same direction along the coaching process.
 
Consulting is more of a one-way communication. You approach the consultant because you expect them to have expertise in the area better than you do. So you communicate your problems to them, in trust that they will work on a plan for you that are in line with your set of priorities, goals, vision and values. Consultants have certain expectations to meet that are set by their clients.
 
Some of the goals of coaching may include a specific area ranging from career, finances, friends and family, personal growth and so on. In coaching, the client’s personal development becomes the main focus. Whereas in consulting, consultants turn their focus on the client’s problem that needs to be resolved first hand.
 
The coaching process is usually an enlightening one. The coach will help you to see things in a different light of perspective. They will coach you to feel inspired to reach out and achieve your goals. In consulting, consultants will present you with their solutions, and leave you to decide which solution to take upon their professional advice.
 
Perhaps the best analogy to illustrate the disparity between a coach and a consultant would be to use bike riding as an example. In bike riding, a coach will give you a picture on how and why you ride a bicycle. They will help you examine the things that may cause you to fail from riding the bike successfully, and will be present when you ride the bike.
 
A consultant explains to you the comparison between one bike and another. They will teach you how to ride the bike, and will demonstrate a bike riding for you if necessary. Suffice to say, the decision to go for consulting or coaching should depend on your time constraints allowed and the end result you’re hoping for.

Posted in Coaching, Consulting

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How to find clients for your consulting services

posted by Debra on Jun 8

In many instances when you’re running a business, you have to set your eyes on a specific target market that will be drawn to the product or service that you’re selling. So besides looking for ways to push your product to the market, one would have to give a thought and consider the kind of customers who would most likely to buy your product too.

 
As with consulting businesses, there are many ways to promote your consulting service to potential clients. The list of potential clients can be easily narrowed down, depending on your field of consulting business.
 
However, the ultimate question is not to find out who your target market are or the type of clients whom you would consider to introduce your service to. Prospective clients are everywhere. The key is ‘where’. You just need to know where to locate them.
 
Whenever independent consultants meet a person who is doing successfully well in their field, they would never hesitate to ask them this: Where do you find your clients?
 
It seemed like a sensible question, but the fact is that clients are ordinary people who do everyday things that we do. Like you and me, they perform daily activities or routine like reading a magazine while waiting to get their laundry done, jogging in a park, on their way to gym, commuting on the bus or train, talking to someone on the phone, chatting with someone through instant messenger, surfing the Internet, dining at restaurants etc. The possibilities of finding them are endless!
 
Most of your potential clients spend a significant amount of time around interacting with people and are available at public places. So when it comes to finding your clients, you may consider approaching them through communicating with people who can introduce you to them, or try meeting clients in places where they gather so you can have a face-to-face approach with them.
 
Also, when you get to talk to them, don’t forget to write down their names and contact numbers (including email addresses) so that you can get back to them later in much detail to see if they’re interested in your service. Prior to this, hand them your contact card to let them acknowledge your business.
 
Now that you know where to locate them, it would be better if you could narrow down a list of your ideal clients. Specifically, you should apply on your street smart knowledge to identify the type of clients that are present in your business area and the kind of clients you are looking for.

Posted in Seminar Marketing, Success

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How to Create an EBook for Under $50

posted by Debra on Jun 4

This is exactly what I did in less than 1 week to create THREE (3) unique Reports that I needed to give away for Free with my Opt-in box.  Now I know I’m using this method to create a unique info Report, however the very same methodology can be used to create your very own digital book!  I taught this method to my students and they went absolutely crazy over this strategy that several of them went out and implemented it right away! Below is my STEP BY STEP process.  Keep in mind you can use this for unique Reports or eBooks.

STEP 1:  Decide On Topic and Name.  Your first Step is to decide on the topic and name for digital book/unique info Report.  I needed 3 unique Reports.  Here are the topics and Headings: "Creating A Successful Consulting Business", "Creating A Successful Coaching Business", "Creating A Successful Seminar Business".

Keep in mind my purpose and intent here was to provide general info in the form of a unique info Report that would entice someone to opt-in and give me their first name and email address for my unique info Report.  I’m using this for my blogs.  Note that my Headings are pretty generic.  That is just fine for right now and for the purpose of creation.  I will come back and enhance these Headings to make them more persuasive later.

STEP 2: Secure rich Content Content Writer.  You need someone to write these articles for you… don’t try to do everything yourself.  And Keep in mind it doesn’t have to be perfect…. it just has to BE!  Get yourself going by having someone help you.  You can always come back and improve later, that’s the easy part. Here are some resources: www.forums.digitalpoint.com - this is where we get our writers, www.craigslist.org - simply search for services or post an ad, www.elance.com - this is a site a lot of top marketers use.

What should you be paying per rich Content?  Answer: $5.00.  If it is more than this, keep looking.  Also… if you are looking for a lot of articles, consider negotiating a package rate or for a long term relationship. The key here is not to mention that you need a digital book!  Because then the price goes up to $1000 or higher!  All you want is the info and then YOU will format it into your digital book or unique info Report.

STEP 3: Create Your rich Content Headings.  Okay, now you need rich Content for your digital book or unique info Report.  The way to do this is to go to your rich Content Content Writer and give them the topic and a list of articles you want written.  Keep in mind these Headings will change later to be your chapter Headings… for now all the rich Content Content Writer needs to know is that they are writing articles.

The articles will be about 500 words in length.  It doesn’t matter what order you put your request in, however the closer to your book outline you can get, the easier it is for the rich Content Content Writer to see the flow and make the info seem continuous.  This is the flow you want.  This isn’t set in stone and you can always change it later.  As a matter of fact I rearranged the chapters to make them make even more sense and to put them into a more logical sequence for my audience.

STEP 4: Format The rich Content.  Once you get your articles back from your rich Content Content Writer (average time is 24 hours to 4 days) you are ready to put them together as chapters into your digital book or unique info Report and then format the rich Content.  You can implement a few strategies here to increase the rich Content.  1) Request more articles and combine the rich Content into chapters, 2) Add your expert opinion as rich Content and supplement the info, 3) Add case studies to demonstrate the key elements of the rich Content, and 4) Add graphics, charts, tables, testimonials.  All of the recommendations should be implemented to create a value and rich Content-rich product that is unique and exclusive to you.
 

Posted in EBooks

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