What are the best places to work as a consultant for nonprofit and/or charitable organizations? [more inside]
posted on Mar 29, 2008 - 9 answers

Please, help me figure out how to find short-term work that fits a very narrow range of variables. [more inside]
posted on Mar 14, 2008 - 3 answers

Should I go back to work for the huge corporation, or stick it out and try and work for myself? [more inside]
posted on Mar 12, 2008 - 8 answers

I'm currently running a business where I monitor computers for people. I use custom made software that gets by all the anti-malware scanners and through the firewalls. I have been charging $40/hr for the first hour, and $45 for each hour after that. Since most of work may only take 1-4 hours per client I've been told that I'm charging too little. Figures have been thrown at me by friends, family and even clients that I should charge $60, $75 or even $100. What is a fair amount in this business. Yes this involves spying on people at the workplace, churches and spouses. My first question. I've searched mefi for similar stuff and came up empty.
posted on Mar 10, 2008 - 15 answers

Based on my career experiences so far, I think I'd be pretty good in a role focused on crisis management (ahh! everything's broke! fix it!) and crisis prevention (situation normal, let's keep it that way). The question, then, is how does one get into this field? [more inside]
posted on Feb 13, 2008 - 12 answers

What should I expect in a first interview with a consulting company for a summer internship? [more inside]
posted on Feb 5, 2008 - 7 answers

I'm an IT consultant with a broad set of skills and experiences, and I need help finding my niche! [more inside]
posted on Dec 21, 2007 - 3 answers

Hello MeFi peoples, I am trying to find the tool or tools to run my sustainable business consulting practice, which I started in August, and I've been going a bit nuts with too many choices. I've been looking all over, and am getting near hits, but all "not quite there"s. Highrise sort of works, but has some quirks that that it doesn't hit the mark, and it's missing some of what I want to do. Daylite looks interesting, but no...well I'll explain below. Basecamp, same thing. Copper, ditto. Help me find the needle(s) in the haystack! [more inside]
posted on Dec 19, 2007 - 14 answers

Entry-level consulting positions: graduating in May, I have two standing offers from consulting companies, one in Dallas and one in Manhattan. Help me choose! [more inside]
posted on Dec 16, 2007 - 32 answers

I am currently working at a consulting firm and consider myself to be a half-decent writer. Before I apply for my MBA, I'd like to enhance my application by writing articles for business magazines. How could I do this? Do you recommend any particular publications that might be willing to take a freelancer? [more inside]
posted on Dec 12, 2007 - 8 answers

How do I spin this? And how much should I charge? [more inside]
posted on Dec 6, 2007 - 10 answers

I have an interview tomorrow (yikes) with a political consulting firm. Problem: I don't actually know what this means. What exactly do political consultants do? What kind of questions should I expect to be asked? What kind of questions should I ask them? Help! [more inside]
posted on Dec 5, 2007 - 9 answers

I have a year before I am eligible to work for a big consulting company. What should I do during this year to maximise my chances of success, or bump up starting salary? [more inside]
posted on Nov 30, 2007 - 10 answers

A very successful business has just decided to build their next mission critical application using free open source tools developed by my small little consulting company. They want to contract with us for ongoing support and improvements. How should we structure the deal? [more inside]
posted on Nov 15, 2007 - 7 answers

In follow up to my highly unsuccessful question from last week (which btw you are still very welcome to answer), what do you actually do when you work in "consulting" and how do you get there? [more inside]
posted on Nov 8, 2007 - 9 answers

Help me with Web / IT consulting and billable time. Consulting firms make their money on billable hours - what percentage of a 40 hour work week needs to be billable for different roles within the company? [more inside]
posted on Oct 24, 2007 - 7 answers

I've been struggling to find accounting software, online or PC/Mac based (either will do) that is suitable for a computer consulting practice. I need to be able to handle the typical basic things done by QuickBooks, like invoicing and estimates, simple A/R and A/P reports, etc. But that isn't enough. I need to manage multiple bill rates on a per consultant/per customer/per job or work order basis. QuickBooks doesn't do that, and I've tried hard to find out how to make that work. Any advice, hive mind?
posted on Oct 3, 2007 - 3 answers

What research topic should I do if I want to impress a future job interviewer to get into technical/business consulting or even project management sometime down the track? [more inside]
posted on Sep 29, 2007 - 8 answers

How to divide up a company amongst 3 people when 2 people will be doing most of the work for the first 6-12 months. [more inside]
posted on Sep 27, 2007 - 10 answers

[ConsultingFeeFilter] My fee schedule outlines rush-fees, I have a new client that should officially be charged the fees for some recent work. I am not going to charge the fees and want them to know that I am giving them a pass this time, what is a good way to tell them that I am waving the fees because they are a new client and want to build our budding relationship, but make it clear that this is a one time deal? More Inside.. [more inside]
posted on Sep 24, 2007 - 20 answers

Quadruple your pleasure! I'm a newly minted green business consultant, and would like your help on four things: finding a CMS or blog system to create a website for my business, finding places where you think a green laptop case would/should be sold, blogs/social networks to get the word out about it, and suggested protocol to approach said blogs/social networks. [more inside]
posted on Sep 24, 2007 - 12 answers

I'm a software development consultant and am getting frustrated at the number of potential clients slipping through my fingers. I get a good number of interested leads through my website or through referrals (thanks guys) but the ratio of potential clients to paying clients is too low. What might I be doing wrong and how can I help gain these clients? [more inside]
posted on Aug 8, 2007 - 23 answers

My business idea...brilliant, or a waste of time? Have you, or your business, ever needed a service like this? Has any company you worked for ever employed anybody to do this? [more inside]
posted on Jul 11, 2007 - 18 answers

CRM / Project Management question: Help me find a solution for handling both CRM and Project Management in a seamless fashion (either via OpenAir / SalesForce, or a totally new solution) [more inside]
posted on Jul 2, 2007 - 4 answers

How do I fast track my way into consulting? [more inside]
posted on May 27, 2007 - 8 answers

If you are a programmer who works on contract, how do you gracefully deal with an excess of opportunity? [more inside]
posted on May 5, 2007 - 5 answers

I hear that sometimes businesses and other institutions hire "ethics consultants". Does anyone know anything about getting into ethics consulting or the actual day-to-day activities in ethics consulting? If not, has anyone seen an ethics consultant in action at a company? [more inside]
posted on Feb 12, 2007 - 4 answers

Thoughts on consulting: Hell or just Heck? Despite the headline, I'm interesting on hearing both negatives and the positives. It's that time of year again where people freak out about getting their BA and then embarking on the Great Hereafter, and somewhere in this path, the mutterings of 'consulting' are heard. Weigh in, AskMe. [more inside]
posted on Jan 3, 2007 - 14 answers

Do I need to fill out a W-9 form if I live in Canada but do consulting work for an American company? [more inside]
posted on Dec 6, 2006 - 3 answers

Now that I'm consulting, how can I gracefully tell colleagues that I'm not going to give them free advice? [more inside]
posted on Oct 26, 2006 - 19 answers

How do I gracefully get rid of a client with whom I don't want to work any more? [more inside]
posted on Aug 23, 2006 - 24 answers

How should I handle this sticky job situation? I was offered a job, declined, have worked as a consultant, and now they hired an executive and charged him with tasks I would have been doing had I taken the job. [more inside]
posted on Aug 22, 2006 - 10 answers

I need to come up with an hourly rate for a contract programming job, and have no idea where to start. [more inside]
posted on Jun 29, 2006 - 12 answers

Where can I find consulting contracts/agreement templates specific to the UK? [more inside]
posted on Jun 28, 2006 - 3 answers

Where can I go to find a reliable freelancer to do some PHP programming for me? [more inside]
posted on Jun 19, 2006 - 14 answers

I'm looking at taking on a freelance consulting project for a nonprofit in the SF Bay Area that involves creating web interfaces to a SQL Server backend. This would be my first non-voluntary (i.e., >$0) freelance project. What rate should I ask for? [more inside]
posted on Jun 9, 2006 - 8 answers

What's the best way for me to structure going from being a full-time, on site employee to a half-time, offsite one? [more inside]
posted on Apr 12, 2006 - 3 answers

How can I grow my DC area computer forensic investigation business? [more inside]
posted on Mar 29, 2006 - 10 answers

Case Interview Tips. I'm applying to several business analyst/consulting jobs that require a case interview as part of the screening process. I've never done one of these and I'd like to hear your experiences with them. [more inside]
posted on Feb 14, 2006 - 7 answers

How can my housemate turn down a job offer he's verbally accepted? So my housemate (not me...I wish) was offered a job this fall at Bank of America after doing an internship in cash equities sales there last summer. He verbally accepted it but hasn't submitted the signed contract yet. While he liked what he was doing he wasn't completely smitten, so this winter he interviewed for other jobs at various firms and today landed a job as a consultant at Bain. How can he gracefully get out of the BoA job without pissing too many people off or facing potential sanctions? [more inside]
posted on Jan 27, 2006 - 30 answers

I was laid off recently and want to use my knowledge of AppleScript to do some consulting. I have a meeting this week about automating tasks for a local newspaper, but am uncertain how to bill such a project. [more inside]
posted on Jan 22, 2006 - 1 answers

How can I cut my work hours in half and have my pay scale down accordingly? [more inside]
posted on Nov 30, 2005 - 10 answers

Any actual, personal experience with famous "Marketing genius", Jay Abraham? Or do you know somebody who actually used his consulting services? [more inside]
posted on Nov 25, 2005 - 7 answers

Help! I'm so very stressed out. How do I convince my luddite of a boss that our office desperately needs a regularly scheduled IT person? I even have a perfect person in mind. [more inside]
posted on Nov 9, 2005 - 12 answers

Should I bill clients for scheduled appointments they missed? [more inside]
posted on Oct 24, 2005 - 26 answers

Ethics in billing IT hours: I'm not 'working' but I'm not 'not-working'. How can I bill for my time? This is a lot more than just being on-call. [more inside]
posted on Oct 13, 2005 - 18 answers

For a friend, "I run a small computer consulting business on the side in my spare time. I have a bit over two dozen clients and do regular work for a handful of them. My question is, does it make sense to go thru the process of creating a business? What advantages or disadvantages would this give me? How much would it cost? Any other uggestions/ideas/comments/etc.. would be great! Thanks!"
posted on Sep 5, 2005 - 5 answers

I have a question about risk and ethics in freelancing- computer programming and web design. [more inside]
posted on Aug 29, 2005 - 13 answers

My buddy just got hired, right out of university, by a big-shot consulting firm. What's a good, cheap gift I can give him? [more inside]
posted on Mar 18, 2005 - 18 answers

After 5 years working my full time corporate programming day job I'm almost ready to give up the security to spend the majority of my time on exciting non-profit open source projects. But for various reasons I want to keep the corporate job on a consulting basis. Any advice on how to negotiate going from full time to part time? [more inside]
posted on Mar 16, 2005 - 6 answers