“Think about small business owners who are looking for reasonable rates and how you can come in and help with certain aspects of a business,” says Dorethia Conner, a personal finance coach. “Many small business owners don’t want to pay the big prices for a major marketing firm.”

But, how do you begin to establish yourself as a consultant? Conner and career coach Brian Mosser offer these tips:

Build your portfolio. To establish credibility as an expert, it’s important to show your track record by creating a portfolio, Conner says. “Talk about results you had while on the job,” she adds. Showing a measurable impact of your work will allow businesses to see the potential for a return.

Part of building your portfolio includes creating a list of references and possibly reference letters that also speak to your skill and expertise. “Testimonials are crucial,” Conner says. Don’t hesitate to ask previous clients or bosses for reference letters that speak to your accomplishments.

Network, socially and beyond. Along with building a portfolio, leverage social networks to build your brand and online network. Creating a personal Website is easier than ever with services by free sites, such as WebHero.com. Once you sign up, Web Hero provides easy-to-use templates that allow you to upload your portfolio, content or other information. “If you don’t want to do a full-fledged Web site, at least set up a blog and write about your expertise,” Conner suggests. WordPress and Blogger also offer free blog setup.

Also, spruce up your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking profiles, says Moser. Include a branded summary, your headshot and experience. Use other social-networking sites like Ziggs, Naymz and Ziki to increase your visibility by posting versions of your biography and headshot. Create a personal “branding kit” that includes business cards, resume, cover letters and portfolio. Also, create a “social media resume” which is a multi-media dossier that will give the potential hiring manager a layered and dimensional perspective on who you are and what you know. The networking method typically takes up to two months to get a bite, so don’t get discouraged, Moser says.

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Set your price points. Part of the competitive advantage of being a private consultant is your years of experience and your creativity. Another part is the competitive cost. When consulting, decide on how much to charge for your services. “You’re not going to charge top dollar and you’re not going to charge bottom basement; but you’re going to meet [clients] in the middle,” Conner says. Research the industry to find out how much other consultants in your geographic location and with your background usually charge. Don’t forget, you can customize packages to better fit your client’s business and financial needs. Visit Consultingbusiness.com for more information on setting your price.

Become your own PR agent. “There are more small businesses than large corporations in the United States,” Conner says. Since small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, these companies should be your primary target–initially. To find local small businesses that may need your service, join local young professional organizations. Become a regular at events held by your local chamber of commerce. To get the word out about your services, consider marketing yourself as a public speaker as well to these trade and professional organizations. Speaking at industry events can boost networking opportunities and allow you face time with a slew of potential clients.

Remember, 60% of job seekers are hired via their networks, not online job boards, says Moser says. So, don’t spend all your time online. “Make a record of the people you worked and dealt with,” he says. Let your network know that you are a consultant and let them know what your area of specialization. Moser recommends setting up breakfast meetings, sending holiday cards, your current resume, or an email “just saying, hi.”

Read more…

5 networking dealbreakers

5 simple keys to providing quality customer service

3 passion-to-profit myths debunked

I presented a marketing proposal to a company where I formerly interned. We are into our third meeting, and I’ve helped them develop a number of initiatives and ideas to pursue, so far, free of charge. How do I bill consultant fees? And how much should I be compensated if they use any of my ideas?

—E. S.
Via e-mail

I’m concerned that you’ve shared information and have yet to solidify a contract for payment. It seems as if you’re offering free services, but expecting remuneration. Compensation, which should always be established up front, can be set as a single price around a plan, ideas, or strategy to reach one or more goals; or it can be set up as a retainer, with the company having face time (or phone time) with you for so many hours per month to get ideas, feedback, etc. According to business consultant Désirée H. Young of VentureWalk Business Partners L.L.C. in New Orleans.

Depending on their goals and level of detail, plans can range from $500 to $25,000. “The actual price depends on many factors, including the industry, how implementation-ready the plan is, the consultant’s level of expertise and experience in having his or her strategies bring results, and the geographical location,” says Young. At the least, develop an estimate for clients so they can budget accordingly, and always require some payment before any work starts (as a deposit or set-up fee). In the end you need to know your own worth and value in order to place a price on it. To help you with assessing your value, read The Consultant’s Quick Start Guide, by Elaine Biech (Pfeiffer; $35).

This article originally appeared in the February 2010 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.

Lawrence M. Hibbert and Randal D. Pinkett (Photo by Mary A. Brown)

Every recession has its casualties. But if the story of Newark, New Jersey-based BCT Partners (www.bctpartners.com) is any indication, the collapse of a company can also spark something greater.

“I would describe it as a reinvention,” says Randal D. Pinkett, chairman and CEO of the management, policy, and technology consulting firm. Before Pinkett, 38, won Donald Trump’s The Apprentice in 2005, he and his business partners overcame the demise of their educational training company, MBS Educational Services and Training, in the midst of the 2001 recession. But that’s just the beginning of their story.

At the start of 2001, MBS was coming off of its best year since its 1993 launch with $373,000 in revenues. “We began noticing that the economy was going down,” recalls Lawrence M. Hibbert, 37, co-founder, president, and chief technology officer of the company. Then the attacks on Sept. 11 took place and companies stopped flying their employees to the training conferences MBS organized. “[Before] we had about six or seven major accounts,” says Pinkett, who remembers them losing all but one. We were pretty much back to zero.”

When the books closed on 2001, revenues had dropped to $150,000, so they decided to focus their energy on bringing in new business. “We loved training––we had been doing it for almost 10 years and we were good at it,” says Hibbert. “But we did not become so emotionally attached to that work that we were unwilling to discard it if opportunities were not available.”

To determine a new area of focus, they looked to their roots. Pinkett, Hibbert, and fellow founding partners Dallas A. Grundy and Jeffrey A. Robinson all met while studying engineering at Rutgers University. Plus Pinkett had recently finished his doctoral work in media arts and sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It seemed only natural that they focus on technology consulting and implementation. Along with the new direction came the new name.

Once again they looked inward securing their first technology consulting project with their church. They referenced that work to go after other projects and targeted nonprofit organizations that Pinkett had built relationships with while at MIT. The plan was successful. After making $282,000 in 2002, the now 16-employee firm made $1.8 million last year and projects $2.5 million in 2009 . The company is still challenged by the task of diversifying from government and nonprofit clients such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development and The Rockefeller Foundation to top 500 clients. However, their triumph in 2001 gives them confidence. Pinkett says, “It was a test of our faith and a challenge to our collective resolve.”

This article originally appeared in the December 2009 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.

Phara McLachlan (seated) looks to take information technology to the next level. (Source: Steven P. Widoff)

“People are now starting to realize it isn’t just about hardware, networks, doing something with a server, or showing someone an application. It’s more than that,” says Phara McLachlan. “And especially in this economy, people are realizing they need to have certain programs in place to help the business save money and keep track of things.”

As president, CEO, and founder of Animus Solutions Inc. (www.animussolutions.com), a Tampa, Florida-based management and information technology consulting firm, McLachlan, 32, says IT goes beyond setting up servers and computer networks.

McLachlan’s firm provides best practices consulting and implementation services to accomplish IT asset management, software license compliance, information technology infrastructure library-based IT security and services management goals for mid-size to large companies such as ATK Launch Systems, the $4.6 billion aerospace and defense company and Quest Diagnostics Inc., the $7.25 billion leader in diagnostic laboratory testing, information, and services.

New this year is office-managed services, where consultants, targeting smaller organizations, will have the capacity to manage outsourced tasks.

The firm was launched in July 2004, and began as a one-woman certified Minority Women Business Enterprise. It has quickly grown into a 10-person firm, steadily building its client roster and services; 2008 revenues were $650,000. And McLachlan anticipates finishing the year near $1 million because of its recent expansion of services. New this year is office-manage services, where consultants, targeting smaller organizations, will have the capacity to manage outsourced tasks.

The New York City native was introduced to technology and computers by her mother, who founded a Haitian newspaper. After graduating from high school in 1995, she spent the summer writing a program to keep track of the school’s alumni. “They still use it today.”

McLachlan, a 1999 graduate of the University of South Florida who was working as an IT consultant, decided to launch Animus in 2004. She used the bulk of the roughly $50,000 in startup funds (a combination of her own funds and revenues earned from contracting) to develop a Web presence, get certification in best practices-IT asset management, and purchase a virtual office. That first year, the company earned revenues of $300,000. The company grew over the next two years, but with its growth came a backlash.

Unfamiliar with the name Animus, clients still reached out directly to McLachlan because they were comfortable and satisfied with her work. Many would request her personally for jobs, which was only sustainable for so long as the company grew in clients, size, and function. McLachlan had to prove to longstanding clients she’d worked with as an independent contractor that the company and team were a qualified reflection of her.

“Our goal was to have our clients confident in Animus Solutions consultants, in their capabilities and experiences as leading experts in their respective fields,” she says. McLachlan immediately focused on providing her already skilled staff with additional training to reinforce Animus’ relevance and reliability.

For Animus, the extra step continues to pay off with referrals for new clients. Between 2007 and 2008, revenues grew by 34%. And earlier this year, Animus was recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in Tampa Bay by the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

“IT really does affect how well an organization is running,” says McLachlan. “IT affects people. IT affects location. IT affects the bottom line.”

This article originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.

Wakeman used technology to replace a costly office.

When Vanessa Wakeman left corporate America to start her own business in 2003, she did so with a bang. She rented office space in midtown Manhattan for her full-service events management and public relations firm, The Wakeman Agency. “In hindsight, it was not a smart move,” says Wakeman, 40. In fact, she admits it was an “expensive learning experience.”

Wakeman duly nixed the pricey offices and turned to SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions. “I wanted to share documents, I wanted to have meetings, and I wanted to be able to find freelancers and subcontractors.” Fortunately, Wakeman found all of that with SaaS. Software as a Service works like on-demand cable TV. The provider licenses a particular application to customers for use as a service on demand and customers may host the application on their own Web servers and disable it after use or after the on-demand contract expires. This benefits the entrepreneur since it’s generally low-cost relative to purchasing a software license and often offers seamless integration and easy access to product upgrades.

Wakeman says InfoStreet’s (www.infostreet.com) StreetSmart platform stood out from the crowd. InfoStreet’s customizable offerings include calendar and e-mail service, an employee portal, and CRM (customer relationship management) tools among other services. With an annual investment of roughly $2,000, she works with a core team of five and a roster of roughly eight to 15 freelancers on a variety of PR and fundraising projects for clients.

“InfoStreet allows us to control what information employees have access to while making sure that they have what they need to work effectively,” says Wakeman. Plus, “It requires a few thousand dollars per person to set up an office, as opposed to $10 with InfoStreet.” The Wakeman Agency expects between $600,000 and $625,000 in revenues for 2009.

Right Time for SaaS?
Although SaaS providers have been around for years, the recent recession has really forced companies to rethink their core competencies, says Jen Grant, vice president of marketing for Box.net (www.box.net), an online document storage, sharing, and collaboration service. Rather than installing and maintaining applications on company servers, many firms are now opting for these types of solutions.

“Everyone is looking at their bottom line again,” Grant says. Ease of use and the low cost of Internet-based solutions are now generating “tremendous growth” in the industry.

Wakeman combines Infostreet’s offerings with services from Salesforce.com to foster efficiency and better serve her clients. “We can mix in things like document management with CRM to build The Wakeman Agency. I have found some pretty great tools that give me a big corporate feel with a small business budget.”

A Peek Into the Cloud

Cloud computing — The “cloud” is simply a metaphor for the Internet, which is typically represented visually as a cloud.

SaaS – Software as a Service; it is the practice of developing and deploying applications to customers as a service rather than a boxed, single-sale product. Pros include the ability to access information and work remotely, collaborate on projects, and reduce overal costs.

Some examples include:

• Box.net and drop.io: Secure online document sharing and collaboration
• Salesforce.com: Sales and customer relationship management tools
• Google Apps and Zoho.com: Consumer and small-business applications

This article originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.

Then in business for just three years, Sutton had often been working 60- to 70-hour weeks to build the company’s client base in the U.S. The trip to Asia meant additional preparation. In fact, after touring the company’s facility, Sutton realized that she needed to rework her presentation and proposal to better fit it to the organizational needs of the client. So, despite enormous jet lag, Sutton pulled an all-nighter to get ready. But when the presentation was over, all of the long hours she had worked caught up to her.

“I got an adrenaline rush when I was giving the presentation, it went very well, and we ended up getting the contract,” Sutton says. “But when I got back home, I got hit really hard. I remember first feeling what felt like a brain freeze so much so that I couldn’t get a handle on what to do next. That was followed by what felt like flu-like symptoms, and then my body just shut down altogether,” she says.

Sutton says she was in bed for two weeks unable to do anything for her business.

“All those things that had to get done, and I would have wanted to get done immediately had to be on hold while my body caught up with my head,” she says.

Having learned her lesson, Sutton says she now makes a point to incorporate downtime into her busy schedule. In fact, she sets aside four hours every quarter–usually on a Friday–for non-work related activities that include a leisurely lunch, spa appointment, or shopping.

“Because I am a mother and wife, I used to say my off-time is when I’m with family, but that’s not really off-time, as any wife and mother knows. So, I have to make sure my downtime is something just for me,” she says. “I go some place that I cannot take my laptop, and even though that time isn’t usually a full day, it’s at least four hours during regular business hours so I can feel as though I have taken a little time for myself.”

It’s no secret that running a small business requires commitment. But over time, the long hours, tight deadlines, work-packed weekends, and missed vacations can take its toll on your mental and physical health, driving you to the point of business burnout. Peggy Duncan, personal productivity expert and author of The Time Management Memory Jogger, says the signs of business burnout are easy to identify.

“You’re irritable, you dread going into the business, you have a lot of fatigue, and you’re ready to just sacrifice your dream and throw in the towel,” Duncan says. “For a lot of people who have gotten to this point, they are also financially strapped, and they’re robbing Peter to pay Paul, but Peter is just as broke as Paul,” she says.

Duncan says fighting business burnout begins with simple organization.

“Burnout happens most of the time because owners did not plan their businesses sufficiently from the beginning, so they don’t have processes and procedures in place,” Duncan says. “Create or streamline processes and procedures for everything you do because that’s going to eliminate a lot of wasted effort and prevent the chaos that leads to burnout.”

Here are six other ways you can keep burnout at bay:

Delegate: Although it’s probably one of the most difficult things for an entrepreneur to do, shedding responsibilities is crucial to freeing an overwhelmed mind. Hand off specific duties to qualified members of your staff. If needed, train people to assume the additional work. If you’re short on internal talent, outsource the activities you need completed. Delegating will allow you to not only lighten your load, but also better focus on your core business chores and those tasks that drive your bottom line.

Schedule “Me Time”: Everybody needs time to rejuvenate. Schedule vacation time –without your laptop and BlackBerry — and stick to it. Ditch eating that tuna sandwich at your desk and take a monthly lunch date with a colleague or friend. Designate a family night with your spouse and kids to play games, see a movie, or have dinner at your favorite restaurant. It’s a great way to relieve your mind of the business and refresh you for the next day. “It’s very easy to say, ‘Well I’m an entrepreneur so I always have to be available,’ but if you don’t take some downtime then it will hit you hardest at the worst possible time,” Sutton says.

Incorporate technology: Duncan says many business owners invest in technology, but don’t learn how to use it. Once you get organized, choose equipment that will make it easier to run your business and save you time with the overall operation. “The biggest time management mistake people make is not realizing how much time they waste. It’s really hours, weeks, and sometimes months because they are doing stuff the way they did it 20 years ago,” Duncan says.

Stop to celebrate your business: You don’t have to wait until your 25th anniversary to acknowledge your business achievements. Whether small or large, celebrate your victories. It can have a great psychological impact on you and your staff and avoid the possibility of burnout. “Burnout can often come from feeling as though you are spinning your wheels (and not getting anywhere). This will get to you after a while if you don’t stop to acknowledge the wins, the certifications, the new lines of business that you didn’t have the year before,” says Sutton, who, after winning Lufthansa Technik in the Philippines, held a big dinner celebration for her staff.

Get regular check-ups: Consult with your doctor about a proper diet and exercise routine. It will give you the energy you need to run your business and maintain good health. Getting enough sleep is also key to preventing burnout. Ordered by her own physician, Sutton says she gets a minimum of seven hours of sleep each night.

Ask for help: Business ownership can be tough, but you don’t have to go it alone, even if you’re a solo entrepreneur. There are many resources available to help you deal with your daily business dilemmas so burnout doesn’t become a reality. And much of the help is free. Talk to other entrepreneurs about their tales of business burnout and how they managed to maintain their momentum. Also, visit www.score.org for free advice and information from experienced business counselors.