Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with consulting

Name my business!

bonsai forest — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:58:40 -0800

Name my business / consulting service: I've been helping friends and some small businesses get into the social media space - set up blogs, facebook pages, twitter accounts, simple flip video youtube videos, etc. I want to do this full time as a business, and offer services like doing the blogging for them, facebook updating for them. Social Media Specialist would best describe what I want to do, but focussed on small businesses and individuals. I came to this partly from my experience with a small business that wanted to do this, and started to do it, but could only do a very half-assed job because no one had the time to update things regularly.

Any ideas for what to name my consulting service?

I've got to go, but I know just the guy to help you out...

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:29:02 -0800

Have you, or someone you know, ever actually quit your job and convinced your employer to hire you back as a vendor or consultant, producing great happiness? I work in data security for a company whose clients are financial services firms. My job is mostly technical: I consult on internal projects to make sure things are done securely and in compliance to relevant regulations and standards. My background is systems and infrastructure.

There's one aspect of my job that I really enjoy. To me, it's an aspect that could be pretty easily outsourced: it deals with our vendors, and many of our clients outsource it. There are lots of aspects of my job that I don't like: you know, dysfunctional organizations and awful office politics and a growing feeling of stagnation. I have a decent relationship with my boss, although he might see this as 'disloyalty' if I handle it poorly. I don't know how higher levels of management within the organization would react. My wife has a stable job with a decent salary; we could take a reduction in my income but getting it wiped out would be hard. I'm not asking about cash flows or financials right now.

Anyway, that background is somewhat immaterial. I'd like to quit my job and have my employer hire me back to do a certain portion of it, a service which I could then extend to other customers as well. This is something I've heard whispered tales of people doing, but never seen in person. What's my best strategy for doing this successfully?

Temp email: forceloverhat@gmail.com

As a productivity coach how can I best serve information workers.

jeffreyclong — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:14:53 -0800

As a productivity coach how can I best serve information workers. I have discovered that after years of reading and implementing the systems and tools of Getting Things Done, Lifehacker.com and other productivity resources I have become a marketable professional resource to information workers. I have successfully coached for free 2 people in a high stress major software company in order to gain experience. I am now looking to understand their work environment better and hone my skills. I imagine there are many information workers on metafilter so I'm hoping you can help me out.

1. What are the specific difficulties that hinder you from being as successful at your work as you would like to be.

2. If you were going to work with a coach, what would be the best means to communicate in a manner that would not interfere with your work. My sole means of communicating so far has been email. But I am finding that my clients only fit me in, rather then having me be on their calendar. I've wondered about a 10-15 minute phone call twice a week with followup emails that review the conversation and contain action steps. What do you think?

3. What have been your most successful collaboration tools. One client's work email is and meetings are such high volume due to her involvement with multiple projects that she has little time to actually work. I suggested that groupware like a wiki, or backpackit.com or other 37signals webapps would significantly improve her team's productivity and slow down the flow of email. What similar tools have you used successfully. Can you recommend PC server-client software (I use a mac) for this purpose or webapps that are secure enough for a company that needs to protect its information.

4. If you would be willing to pay for such expertise, what would you or your company be willing to pay? What would be the return on investment that you would expect?

Thanks for any help you may provide.

Freelance to Freedom

Spurious — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:05:29 -0800

Books on freelancing? Looking for inspiration to take the plunge. I get out of my current academic position in 1.5 years and I am not returning to academia. My dream is to launch a freelance consulting career (consulting on my research topic). Sometimes I am confident I can do it, other times I am pessimistic.

What books can I get to inspire me to keep pushing towards launching a freelance consulting career?

Consulting Career Planning

Spurious — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:28:16 -0800

Wanting to start doing independent consulting work in two years. Advice for now? I am a phd student at a respected environmental policy program. I am on track to graduate in two years. I do not want to go into academia. The academic job market is horrible and the ivory tower is not applied enough for my taste.

Instead, I want to do independent (freelance) consulting work. Since I would only start consulting two years from now (after I graduate), I was wondering what I can do now to help my future consulting career.

I've Got Your Number

kristi — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:00:34 -0800

I love numbers! Especially numbers that track things. What services could I offer that involve fairly simple numbers? (Note: no significant statistics background; NOT advanced math.) Lately I've been noticing how much I love tracking things with numbers.

I've been playing with CRONometer (calorie tracking software), and enjoying watching variations in all kinds of measurements (fiber intake! Vitamin A! sodium! Whee!).

I love playing with Quicken and watching the numbers go up and down over time.

I love tracking my website hit stats.

It just all makes me hugely happy.

I currently do website administration and development, with a focus on Drupal, and I'm fortunate enough to have plenty of work at the moment. But I can't help wondering whether there's a service I could provide that would involve this kind of number tracking. I can write clearly and enjoy writing pretty well, so reporting on numbers would be fine. I've even done some week-to-week tracking of AdWords and Google Analytics for a few clients, but I'm not sure how much need there is for that.

Note that I have no real background in statistics, and I am definitely not talking about advanced math here - I hope one day to learn calculus, but that day has not yet come.

So - any suggestions for services I could offer that would involve tracking numbers, and types of customers who might need those services?

Thanks!

Can my wife work for me?

teg4rvn — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:33:53 -0800

Is there a financially beneficial way to bring my spouse on as an employee in my consulting business? My wife has been a stay at home mom for 10 years and has been looking for part-time work for the last 1-2 years without luck. She is highly educated in her field, but most people simply want full-timers. As a result she has remained unemployed. I have an on-the-side consulting business that grosses 20-30K each year. Essentially, lawyers send me stuff to review, I provide an opinion, they pay me. Is there any way I could bring the spouse on as an employee and get some sort of financial benefit to the household (not to mention getting certain things done that I ordinarily don't have time for such as website updates and/or more sophisticated communication with my clients)?

To Non-Profit or Not

Spurious — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:27:23 -0800

I want create a legal entity for my consulting work and research. Should I create a non-profit or a company? You are not my lawyer.
I will talk to a lawyer.
This is not a legal question.

I am an academic researcher. My expertise is in (let's pretend) environmental policy. I would like to have one foot in academic research and one foot in for-profit consulting work. For consulting work, a friend suggested I create company for tax and liability purposes.

However, I would also like to apply for research grants, which often require that the grant recipient be a non-profit organization.

If I want to conduct both consulting work and apply for research grants, should I create a non-profit or a company?

Thanks in advance!

How much should I charge for consulting work?

hellodonna — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:11:04 -0800

I will be doing some consulting work. Basically I will be strategizing with a very small company on optimizing their presence on the web and helping them with social networking. Here's my problem-- I have no idea what to charge for my time. I will spend two hours driving to them and probably an hour or two consulting. What do you think I should charge? I don't want to be too low but I am also scared that I might be too high. What do you think would be a good rate? I am located in the Philadelphia area if that makes any difference.

Is it appropriate to ask for a finder's fee? If so, how much?

melissasaurus — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 07:29:20 -0800

Is it appropriate to ask for a finder's fee? If so, how much? I have a friend who does web design. A contact of mine, a consultant, has a client who needs to revamp their website. Consultant asked if I knew anyone who could do the work. I plan to recommend web designer friend.

If I make the referral, is it appropriate to ask for a finder's or referral fee? If so, what are the particulars of doing this: How much is "standard"? Who pays it - designer? consultant? both? Should I ask for a flat fee or a percentage? Should it apply to any further contracts that may result, or just the one instance?

Any advice, especially from those who have paid or received such fees in the past, would be greatly appreciated.

Round Table Group - Does it work?

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:26:43 -0800

About every 3 months, I receive an email asking me to join this company's [The Round Table Group (http://www.roundtablegroup.com/)] network of experts as a consultant. Is it worth my time? Is it a rotten deal? Are they blowing smoke? I have expertise in certain areas of engineering. I work at a university as a researcher. In the past I served as a consultant to law firms couple times (one big patent case that made the tech news headlines and another that involved disagreement between two companies on what caused extensive damage to a jet plane). In both cases, I was directly contacted by the law firm (different firms) and in both cases they were more than satisfied by my services. However, this is not a usual line of business for me. I should also mention that I am not the go-to person for the services they were looking for; there is no go-to person, there are a whole bunch of qualified people who could have done the job.

I would like to do more consulting (who wouldn't, right). And this company seem to facilitate this. AFAICS they take a certain percentage from your consulting fee and probably from the firms hiring the consultants too. It looks like, a professor from Stanford University works with them and studies their business plan (does that give the company more credibility? I don't know).

Long story short, any MeFite who may have had experience with this company on either end of the deal (law firm or expert), could you please share your experience?

As always, thanks so much!

(I am sure a number of MeFites have received the invitation email and would greatly appreciate an AskMeFi-thread on the topic.)

Taxes/licenses required for Nevada company providing consulting services in California?

Jacqueline — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:16:38 -0800

Taxes/licenses required for Nevada company providing consulting services in California? My friend has a small business incorporated as an LLC in Nevada. This business manufactures and sells scientific instrumentation.

Another company/organization is going to pay his business for him to travel to their site in California to demonstrate the instrumentation. They're not buying or leasing the instrumentation (yet), they're just paying for the use of it with the accompanying services of the operator (him).

What State of California taxes or business license requirements apply here? Should we also investigate county or city requirements for this sort of thing?

(I don't even know which California government office to call to ask!)

Thanks!

What do you charge to not do any work, but instead sit around and wait, just in case?

CommonSense — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:19:44 -0800

I have no idea what to charge to be "on call" for a year, just in CASE a computer has a problem. I got a call this morning from some guy that works with a company that has a government contract with -- I'm guessing -- the Social Security Administration here in Baltimore. His company does IT for them. Well, they have a couple of Macs that they want someone on call for, and surprise surprise, his company wouldn't know how to spell "Mac" if you spotted them three letters.

I do ONLY Mac support and consulting, on kind of a "boutique" business -- I'm a sole proprietor, and I consider it a strength that small businesses always are dealing with me, the same person, and know they'll get me whenever they call, e-mail, or have me come out to their location. So I guess this guy found my company website on Google and called.

Basically, he wants to know what I'd charge to basically be on call, 24x7x365x4 (I don't know what the x4 is, but I'm assuming four business hour response time), for a one-year contract to cover these two Mac Pro machines their client has. Mind you, they don't need me to come out on a scheduled basis or anything like that; they just want to have someone to call for onsite support/repair in case something goes wrong.

I can do tech support, server work (on OS X Server), networking, and LIGHT hardware (e.g., memory upgrades, hard drive swaps, cloning/imaging). I don't do more hardcore hardware stuff, like logic board replacement, etc., much less do it AT the client site -- but I don't think many companies who DO do that kind of service can do it at the client site, either. (There's just a shitload of tools, workbench, etc. you have to have.)

Now, these are pretty new, high-end machines, and the odds of them having serious hardware problems inside of a year are pretty damn low. Still, say something comes up. Would I be OK by explaining to them that it's a high-level repair that HAS to be sent out, and then coordinating everything (pickup, drop-off at a repair facility, being sole point of contact with said repair facility, picking it up when it's done, and delivering it back to the client site)? All the while, I could give them a loaner machine (not necessarily as high spec, but functional) in the meantime.

I've never been asked for something like this, and I don't really know how these government deals work. Also, I'm really not sure HOW the hell to charge to a company that wants me on "retainer," though doesn't actually need me to even show up unless something goes wrong. Yet, the guy who asked me was looking for a quote, something along the lines of a monthly fee or whatever, even (apparently) if I go months without so much as a phone call or e-mail with these people.

But say something big happens and I have to coordinate repair, etc. Do I have to eat the cost, in light of the fact that I'm charging them a retainer? In other words, are we looking at more of an "insurance policy" model rather than a "service contract" model (wherein the latter actually entails regular onsite visits, etc. -- you know, something that's actually DONE, regularly)?

It kinda sounds too good to be true, but hey, it's the government. Working logically isn't their strong suit.

For anyone who's done this before, I'd love to hear whatever input you can offer. Better yet, some suggestions on what a good ballpark range is, too. These are two high-end Mac Pro machines, probably no more than a year old, pretty nicely souped up. FYI, I normally charge businesses $135 an hour for onsite support.

Should I tell my boss that I'm planning to move on?

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:10:45 -0800

I'm looking for specific guidance (based on experience or intuition) about whether or not to tell my boss that I am planning a career transition--and whether/how to approach the boss about helping me find a job that will better suit my talents, interest and ambitions. I've known for quite a while that the culture at my firm and my role specifically were not an ideal fit, but now (after 2 years here) I'm ready to do something about it.

I'm actively seeking a new career (ideally consulting non-profit and public sector organizations on policy, management or communications). I'm applying to only the most relevant positions and starting to network to identify firms, positions and people with similar interests.

So the question that just struck me this morning: "What if I networked through my current employer?"

My managing director has made clear that he wants to talk to people who are thinking about leaving in order to help them identify ways to make them happier--here or at another job. And then there's the mere fact of the firm's wide and deep contacts in government, politics and other elite DC circles--which could be valuable resources for making a more efficient transition.

So does anyone have experience with telling a boss that they're planning to leave and/or soliciting a boss's help in networking or identifying a new role outside of the company?

Black-Belt licensing wizardry

mathiu — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:18:21 -0800

Is there any restrictions on advertising consulting services using the term "six sigma". Do I have to be certified or pay licensing fees before offering consulting services on the topic? I know of the various institutions offering classes but don't know if going through any of these is cumpolsory before starting to use "six sigma" in advertising one's product to others.

YANML but you might know how this industry is set up. I am in Germany but information must not be limited to my home country.

How do we make sure our client in India pays their last invoice?

davidfitzy7 — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:35:41 -0800

Our consulting company is doing business in India and we need a way to make sure that our client will not skip out on the last payment in our contract. I don't mean to single any country out, but we have a new project in Mumbai and we got burned several times recently by other clients in India.

We have been told it is common practice not to pay the last invoice for a project. Our submission to the client is a digital / hard copy report. Typically we send our report and request our final payment, but we have no real leverage to make sure they pay we just cross our fingers.

Is there any other strategy we could be considering - is there anything like "escrow" which we could use to make sure the transaction happens smoothly?

Consulting to help create a "draw" to bring people into booth at medical tradeshow. How much should I charge?

UMDirector — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:12:18 -0800

Consulting to help create a "draw" to bring people into booth at medical tradeshow. How much should I charge? I am working to create five paragraph concepts for a marketing company to draw people into their clients booth at a medical tradeshow. Previously this consisted of something along the lines of giving away pens or having a Wii for them to play in the booth. They want something more innovate and tied with their advertising themes.

I am used to setting fees for production services, but those are somewhat standard. I have a good amount of specialized training for this sort of idea generation and feel that is likely worth something. I do some of this type of work through another company but I have no idea what they charge us out as. This is also a bit more work than when I typically work for them.

I also have no idea what the overall budget is for the entire project.

So how much for five ideas in paragraph form?

Consulting - am I doing it wrong?

Anonymous — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:37:04 -0800

I'm just starting out as an independent network and systems contractor and I think I've agreed to a bad deal. What are my options? This all came about as I got what sounded like a cool job offer and the recruiter offered to help me setup a contracting gig rather than hire me as an employee. But the more I learn, the less it sounds like I'm in a good spot.

Backstory: Senior windows/cisco IT guy, damn good, (mcse+messaging/ccnp skills, but no certs) 14 years experience implementing all manner of microsoft and cisco products in a midsize environment, done management and budgeting, like the job but hated the non-technical parts. I was let go last year and after failing to find a good fit locally I wanted to switch over to consulting in a new larger market so I moved to Washington DC a month ago.

One company responded to my resume within an hour (!) and I was asked to come aboard after a short phone interview on a sunday (!!) to bring up an office for a federal agency as a subcontractor the following monday(!!!). Sounded quick and easy on the phone last week. Well, things have been "held up" and there are no servers or routers except a leased line to a single hosted box. So I'm doing helpdesk grunt work for ~50 users with no end in sight.

So on to the help setting myself up. I was asked and agreed to quote a flat monthly rate (which now seems low (works out to be ~$200 for an 8-hour day, less the more I work)), at net 30, for this on-site support. There is no set end date. I have to be on-site 8a-5p every day unless I make arrangements for another guy from the same agency to cover me. I cannot leave if there is no work, but if there is extra I'm expected to stay until it's completed. If it matters I have no contract or SOW only an NDA, so I think I'm free to walk away at any time.

Questions:
1) Is the money range low for my skill sets in the area?

2) Is this a normal contract structure for federal IT contractors or this area?
2a) How do I get a feel for the norm in this area without actually trying to hire people?

3) Can / Should I try to renegotiate the verbal deal?
3a)How do I best go about renegotiating without burning bridges? I'd like to do the actually implementation work if it ever happens, but I really want to get away from desktop support.

4) Where can I learn more about starting out as an independent so I can avoid these mistakes in the future? There were some links in other contractor posts, but they seemed aimed at designers so I'm not sure how much applies.

Any other resources or help with starting out as a newbie consultant would be greatly appreciated. A good contractor community site would be ideal.

Thanks in advance.

anon to avoid attaching my real name to the mess I've made. I'll happily followup in mefi-mail or with a mod if needed.

Lawyers in consulting

happydude123 — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:08:26 -0800

Do consulting firms such as Mckinsey, Boston Consulting hire lawyers for consulting work specifically? What are the skills that lawyers have that make them good management consultants

What kind of records do most sole proprietors, freelancers and consultants keep?

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:39:33 -0800

What sort of state of organization are the financial records of most sole proprietorships in? I've had a small freelance business for about 15 years. About 3 years ago, I was in a car accident that was 100% not my fault. (The other driver admitted fault and there were witnesses.) I am now in the middle of legal dealings with my insurance company, because of the state of whiplash, the effect on my pregnancy and the effect on my ability to run my business and maximize earnings. (I do have a lawyer.) The insurance company is asking for all my financial records from the past nine years. They want copies of every receipt, invoice, mortgage interest statement, etc.

I've never kept a general ledger or anything like that. I just invoice and pay my expenses and credit cards and stuff like that. I've never been very formal about things, although I am excrutiatingly honest. I don't lie on my taxes. However, there have been situations where I just phoned the mortgage company to get the interest amount for my mortgage for the year (for business use of home), because I figured that if I got audited by the government, I would just phone and get a statement sent out. And, as I mentioned, I don't have cash flow statements or anything like that. And sometimes my receipts are in my name, my husband's name or both our names. But I always put money into our joint account to cover everything, usually lump sums throughout the year.

I had planned to incorporate and set up with an accountant, but, because of the car accident, I am just beginning that process now. Going forward, my records will be more diligent, since I'll be incorporated.

But, I'm wondering...what is the typical state of financial records for most freelance and consulting type businesses? My lawyer seems baffled that I have unaudited records...he's not used to sole proprietors. He seemed surprised that I had been doing my own taxes (for all but 3 of the total years, because, honestly, the accountants never got me any more tax back than I got on my own). For the most part, my business records are my personal income tax records, since the sole proprietorship income tax is part of that. I never saw any point to doing balance sheets and neither did the bookkeepers or accountants. Are other freelancers and consultants in a different situation? (Again, I'll be changing this going forward.)

Recommended books on consulting?

inigo2 — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:41:13 -0800

Any recommendations on books about business consulting? I work in consulting, and one goal is for a few of us to read a book per quarter, and then discuss, to keep us learning. I know that "business consulting" is a kinda broad category, but I've purposely left it that way so I don't miss out on some good books. I've found a few lists ("Great Books about Consulting" on Amazon, and this Consulting Books list at UF. The two that have jumped out at me thus far are:

"Executive Leadership: A Practical Guide to Managing Complexity" by by Elliott Jaques, Stephen D. Clement, and Ronnie Lessem (amazon link)
"Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used" by Peter Block (amazon link)

Any other specific suggestions? Thanks!

How much should they pay me?

jefficator — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:58:52 -0800

How much should I reasonably expect to be paid if working as a private consultant designing a tourism project for a city chamber of commerce? I am working on designed a "Freedom Trail" type project for a medium-sized American capital city. I will be discussing compensation for the project soon. How much should I demand for this type work?

Job Opportunity Gut Check

thinkpiece — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:37:38 -0800

What questions should I ask myself in order to decide if I should take a new job in this economic environment? It's basically giant corporation vs. boutique consultancy. I have a stable middle-management job in a large corporation which, although while not exactly exciting, is secure and gives me a certain degree of responsibility and creative control in an area I'm not particularly interested in. The salary, benefits and growth opportunities are all average to good. The soulless bureaucracy, fizzled initiatives, office politics and general no-fun atmosphere leave my entrepreneurial, adventurous side cold. I've been there 18 months, like my boss, feel appreciated. I have recently been approached by a well-established, boutique UK consulting firm committed to building out the NY office. Their core competencies are much more closely aligned with mine, they seem to be on the move, they are well connected and have a dynamic client list with several projects on deck that would immediately fall into my area. Not to mention, more money, more freedom, better title, great events and projects, travel.

My question is: now that we have gone to the next level in discussions, what kinds of economy-related questions should I be asking about their business model? It's obviously a tough climate for strategy consultants -- I want to ask cogent, meaningful questions in order to surface their thinking about the economy and to find out what they're doing to stay strong during this recession.

Should I consider a pitch from GuidePoint to be a part-time consultant?

forforf — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:15:48 -0800

Anybody know anything about GuidePoint Global Advisors? I received an unsolicited request to join them, but I'm not sure how legit it is, and my "too good to be true" sense is tingling. I tried searching, and found people that listed being an advisor as part of their credentials, but didn't find anything that would help me understand the value chain between GuidePoint clients, GuidePoint, and advisors. I am concerned that GuidePoint may be interested in more than just getting a cut of some type of consultant fee, but that might just be me being overly cautious. Below are relevant parts of what they emailed me:

Based on your background and experience in the Technology field, I wanted to invite you to join GuidePoint Global Advisors, a consortium of industry and academic leaders around the world. As an Advisor, you can participate in paid consulting opportunities with our clients, typically through phone calls that are 30-40 minutes in length.

Guidepoint Global is an independent research firm that manages a network of industry advisors who provide consulting services to our clients, who are global investment management firms. As a Technology Advisor, you will have the opportunity to consult and collaborate with investment managers on the latest industry developments mainly through one-on-one telephone consultations. Our clients would like to speak to experts in various Technology fields to get a better understanding of industry trends and market dynamics.

All consultation requests received by Advisors are completely optional, require no minimum time commitment, and are scheduled around the Advisors’ availability. Advisors are compensated quickly and generously according to an hourly rate that appropriately reflects their time, or a contribution can be directed to a charity of their choice. Topics for discussion will be based on public information and Advisors are prohibited from discussing proprietary information or violating any confidentiality agreements in force.

So, is this an easy way for me to make a bit of extra money? Front for a recruiting scheme? A big datamining effort to get me into their database so they can profit by (how?...)?

Any information or pointers to information would be greatly appreciated.

Accenture v. Big 4 Accounting: Which job do I take?

demagogue — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:16:19 -0800

What's working at Accenture like? Specifically, in the Systems and Integration practice, although I am hoping to move to the Management Consulting practice-- the recruiter says that employees are eligible for consideration for that switch after a period of 2 years (quite likely to be recruiter BS, I understand).

I'm weighing an analyst position in the Systems and Integration practice against an entry-level accountant position with a Big 4 firm. Americans: think CPA; Canadians/Ireland/Aus/etc.: think CA.

FWIW: The consultant job pays a little more than 15,000 in the first year. I think for me personally, it's that I think the consulting job has a 80% probability to be more interesting, and it will probably pay better; in 5 years though, I think the exit opportunities might be a little better with the CPA/CA, possibly hours and money-wise. That's what I think, though.