Consultancy..

[Virtualgal]

Oh, I'm really sorry if I've come across that way. That's, genuinely, not me at all. So apologies if I've come across like that, I don't know how I managed that. It absolutely wasn't my intention.

I honestly don't have any major expectations or expect anything handed to me on a plate. I'm not quite sure what I said to indicate otherwise, but, again, that's definitely not me in general so I apologise if I've written the wrong thing or come across like that.

No, I just don't want to be telling you lies. There's more than one business out there, so why try and force yourself to do something you know you won't have your heart in, when you could find something that fills a market need but that will also be something you can commit to and give your all. That's all I'm saying. Better to focus on an area the market needs but that you don't have negative feelings around, at least, for me that is true. It's like deliberately finding something you won't be motivated to do, that just doesn't make sense to me, that's all. Not just from a personal perspective, but a business one. It's not just about like, but I do think something you have your heart in is more likely to be a successful, all I can say, for me, I genuinely feel to pursue a business that I would hate, when there are market needs in other areas and industries, wouldn't feel like a good move.

Yes, thank you for that. I tend to come across the ones that charge 50 and 100 dollars, so I'll try and remind myself of all the higher charging ones when I think of pricing. Thank you for your input.

The same one... the reason I ask is because your comments sound a lot like "I will do what I want and want to get paid big time for it" instead of what the book explains, more in the area of "Do what the market asks", based on needs.

But I see you understand the point.

I will leave it at that and allow others to continue working with you on finding value in what you like.

I really like PatrickP's advice. That is a real need.

I know big resume-writing companies charge $300 and $400 to 'help' you with your resume, and it all in reality is a template and a tech writer spends an hour or two plugin your old resume in this template. If you do better than this, at $200 a piece, you should have lots and lots of customer paying you to help you with your short term needs.

 

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[Virtualgal]

It can vary, sometimes it can be two hours, sometimes six. That's why I was thinking more resume advice, but I wasn't sure if there was a market for advice alone.

I'm definitely, 100% going to take Patrick's advice. I'm just looking for some other kinds of income whilst I'm working on that, as I imagine it might take me some time to do that (especially when I haven't created/written anything like that before).

 

[Leoto]

I hear stories of people offering consultancy for $150 dollars an hour, but they all tend to have computer/technical skills, which I don't.

I don't know that I can help you with ideas of what type of consulting to offer, but I might be able to offer some ideas regarding determining your hourly rate once you figure out what type of service you want to offer.

There's actually a bit of a science to the determination of the hourly rate. Coincidentally, the $150 rate that you threw out just so happens to be my actual billing rate for the consulting work that I'm currently semi-retired from but in which I still occasionally engage.

In negotiating this rate with the consulting company to which I provide my consulting services, we started off with what my annual salary would be if I were to be an in-house consultant. That number was $150k. We then added 25% in benefits and overhead allocation, and added another 20% on top of that as an "independent contractor premium" - i.e. someone that's called upon on an as-needed basis should get a higher hourly rate than a regular employee that's guaranteed a certain annual pay. Similar idea to how if you order smaller batches from suppliers on Alibaba, the more expensive the price per unit would be. So $150k x 1.25 x 1.2 = $225k per year. We estimated that a typical consultant in this line of business would be about 75% billable, so if the total work hours was 2,000 hours per year, billable hours would be 1,500. $225k divided by 1,500 hours came to $150 per hour.

So in your situation, one way to help determine (and negotiate) your hourly rate is to research what your annual salary would be if you were to do similar work as a full-time employee somewhere, and then add benefits and premiums and divide the resulting annual dollar amount by estimated annual hours worked. That should get you in the right ballpark, and if your clients ever ask you for justification of your rate, you'll have some proper analysis to back it up.

 

[Virtualgal]

Thanks Leoto, that's really helpful, thanks. Yes, I definitely think I could benefit from a more considered approach to pricing. I think I consistently undercharge (confidence in myself, I think) and I always find myself wanting to discount. Sometimes even when clients have asked me about different services I find myself pushing the cheaper one, no idea why. So I will definitely take that onboard and, hopefully, if I do it like that I will be more liable to stick to it and be firm. Thank you.

 

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[Leoto]

I think I consistently undercharge (confidence in myself, I think) and I always find myself wanting to discount.

It's totally OK to offer discounts, especially when you want to get new clients that aren't yet sure of the quality of your work. The best way to do this is to maintain that your standard hourly rate is $X, but indicate in your engagement letter (or whatever contract format you use) and your invoices that you are offering a "professional courtesy discount." If they end up liking you, you'll get repeat business, at which point you can revert to your original price, and they'd be happy to pay once they trust you. What you DON'T want to do is make it look like the discounted price is your standard price.

 

[Virtualgal]

Great plan, I will definitely do that from now on, thanks very much.

 

[skipper]

• Able to obtain a U.S. Government Clearance

I pass the others... dunno about this one

 

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[andviv]

It's totally OK to offer discounts...
...
If they end up liking you, you'll get repeat business,

I don't think this applies to this demographics. How many clients have come back to you later for another resume/consultancy?

If you are effective then I should not have to come back to you as your job was perfect. I found my new job, I don't need you for the next few years.

You shouldn't have repeat business in this industry. This is a problem from the perspective of recurrent income --or lack of.

 

[andviv]

Able to obtain a U.S. Government Clearance
• Able to obtain a U.S. Government Clearance

I pass the others... dunno about this one

Google is your friend:
Security Clearances help in obtaining a job

There are different levels of clearance.
But basically, no criminal record, no blemishes in your credit report (if the level of clearance deals with personally identifiable information or other data that could be sold, or access to certain types of facilities), personal and professional references that can be verified (and they do interview these people). A through background check.

 

[andviv]

Make a small course which you offer online for download, that way you basically multiple yourself and it can become passive for you. Instead of you having to talk to each person and not sell nearly as many.

Great example of this, today's AppSumo deal:

AppSumo: The Store for Entrepreneurs

Hiring people sucks.

...and it's HARD.

......and it's expensive.

..........and if you F*ck up, it's even MORE expensive.

Big companies have giant HR teams to find their people.
But this is the old and inefficient way of hiring.
And the time-consuming way.
And the expen$ive way.

There's a new hiring method we've been pioneering at Sumo Headquarters....and it's worked SO damn well, that we're not hiring the traditional way anymore (giving us more time to eat our 14 meals a day).

When we helped other friends hire in a similar way, they were BLOWN AWAY BY HOW FAST & EASY THE PROCESS WAS.

In fact, one our Sumo friends showed this method to their HR person....and she actively resisted doing this because it threatened her job! Sorry lady.


THE PROBLEM WITH A TRADITIONAL INTERVIEW....
....is when a dude comes in for the interview, it's just NATURAL for him to "try and please you." (not in the giggity way) ;-)

This means if you say, "Ok Bob, you know this job gives you a HUGE responsibility, and sometimes you will have to work much past normal work hours.

.....the guy (or girl) won't just back down and say, "Oh no! I can't accept this job! I'm super lazy and you shouldn't hire me!"

NO.

They will say, "No problem! I can handle that workload! Let's do it!"

You're happy.
They're happy.
They get the job.

You spend time training him.
You spend time interviewing him.
You spend money at every step of the hiring process.

....and 3 weeks later once the "love phase" is over, you realize this a**hole is NOT responsible, and is totally screwing up your business!!

Now you have to go through the whole emotional (and money-sucking) process of scolding him for bad work, and eventually firing this guy, and REPEATING THE WHOLE DAMN INTERVIEW PROCESS!

The reason this all happened is because you gave this person "an offer they can't refuse." Especially when people need a job, they'll easily lie or "embellish the truth" to get the job.

This is why you DIS-QUALIFY THEIR a$$ BEFORE THEY EVEN GET TO THE INTERVIEW!

This doesn't mean being a douchebag in your ad. It means asking the right "magic" questions that disqualify people without them even knowing it. We even give you sample scripts to use.


Let me give a personal examples of how I hired an assistant within 17 hours using this method:

I needed an assistant to help out with random stuff (some of it pretty computer-technical). I was already so damn busy, and the LAST thing I wanted was to sift through hundreds of resumes and setup meetings with random people (I wanted an assistant because I was already OVERLOADED with work! .....hiring was just adding to the problem).

With this system, I spent less than an hour making an ad, and got the most qualified assistant within 17 hours. The system I put out automatically eliminated 95% of people....and only the most qualified responded. Since I used certain "magic" questions, he called me first, and demonstrated how he had experience in every area I needed.

Two days later, he was working out of my apartment every day.....editing all my videos, creating all my webpages (MUCH better than I ever could), and setting up all my products.


HERE'S A MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESS EXAMPLE:

"We run an auto shop with a highly-charged environment. For this reason, people who are bad at confrontation and high-pressure do really poorly....and end up fu**ing up a lot.

But even though we TELL people this right up front, 100% of the interviewees tell us "Oh, I can handle it! No problem!"

Until Neville explained it to me, I never realized I was "Giving them an offer they couldn't refuse."

We started putting some of Neville's techniques into our ads....and from then on the un-qualified people STOPPED coming in. I can't tell you how many fewer people we have to interview....to find the good ones.

If you presume each interview takes an hour to setup & prepare (it actually takes WAY longer), that's a LOT of money we've saved from this change to our hiring process."
--K.A.


WHO THIS IS FOR:

Entrepreneurs looking to hire an assistant REALLY FAST.
Small-to-medium biz owners looking to hire at some point....but don't wanna do the typical "Interview-15-shitty-candidates-before-finding-someone-good" method.
If you wanna to keep these hiring scripts and training in your business "arsenal".
If you have people doing your hiring for you......Give this to your employees to watch before hiring someone (this will have a massive return on your investment).

WHO THIS IS NOT FOR:

Extremely large corporations with already-established HR hiring processes.
People who have no intention to hire anyone ever (what's the point of watching this then)?

This Fatass Sumo openly discloses my weight is 510 lbs....and I'm gonna openly disclose exactly what you're getting in this deal:

HERE IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE GETTING:

Scripts for a Craigslist ad.
Scripts for your Google Forms questions (just pick which info you want from applicants, and paste the question into Google Forms).
Scripts for your "elimination" video.
Case Studies. Watch how we build a "system" that filters out candidates...in just minutes....without ever talking to a single person.
Video training (that's NOT boring! Gasp!) that will take you through the whole process. We keep the videos short and informative (usually in the 3 to 7 minute range).
No fluffy bullshit videos to waste your time. (The whole point of this is to SAVE you time)! If you need a re-fresher on a certain step, just go back to that section and watch. Everything is neatly broken up.
To put it blunt Young Sumo-ling, here's exactly what I'm promising from this course:

Spend less than 2 hours to watch this whole course, and you will
learn a new method to hire quickly and easily.
No more boring HR-style hiring.
Sumo hate's boring hiring.
Anyhow....this hiring course will pay for itself MANY TIMES OVER hiring just ONE person. We had friends implement this, and within a day have the best candidates (who were already pre-qualifie) were sitting at the top of an easy-to-read list.

It saved them weeks of time.
It saved them a bunch of money.
It saved them lots of boring work and frustration.
One of the reasons we made this course was so people can let their employees watch it, and learn how to hire the new way. So if you've got people you're showing this to, it will save them (and therefore...YOU) countless of hours.

If you put this system in place, and DON'T get your first qualified applicants in the first 4 days....call me personally and yell at me: Neville - 713.301.1546. ....that's how much we believe in this method!

See the points with this?

* Solves a huge need for businesses
* Passive
* Money-back guaranteed
* Low price so any business owner will pay $69 for it without thinking --I'd pay $99 without blinking for a system like this that works. I am buying it to study what they say and see what I can learn.

 

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[Vigilante]

Separate time from money. Nearly everything you are describing would require you to physically be present and do something. Much like a bricklayer, when you are laying bricks you are getting paid. When you stop laying bricks, you stop getting paid. What ever you create here needs to live separately from time constraints so that you can separate your time from your income.

 

[Virtualgal]

Thank you. Yes, I know that's the wrong thing long term, but I was looking at it as a starter to try and move me forward. Get some cash coming in, in a way that takes up less time than a full time job, with the next step looking at other forms of income. But, to be honest, I'm not sure what I should do now. But definitely understand that time for money isn't the way forward for future. Like I say, I was thinking of consultancy as something I could do right now, rather than a job, but will go back to the drawing board and think again. Thanks very much.

 

[Vigilante]

"Begin with the end in mind" --- Steven Covey

 

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[Virtualgal]

Thanks very much for this. Definitely, absolutely see the point and, yeah, they have some great products at AppSumo. Again, I've just been looking at consultancy as a first step, as a way to get income rather than a job, with the idea of it taking less time. But maybe I should be rethinking that. The idea was start something immediate, with less hours than a full time job, but I don't know whether that's right or wrong now. Will think some more on it.

I am definitely going to work on a passive product too, for future though, thank you. Actually, I got the email from the guy who wrote that course at AppSumo, always really useful tips, especially on things like copywriting, and he comes across as a really likeable guy too.

My areas of expertise aren't so much with small businesses, but that shouldn't matter, especially if I work on something for job seekers. Hope the course is good for you, I imagine it will be, the quality standards seem pretty high.

Great example of this, today's AppSumo deal:

AppSumo: The Store for Entrepreneurs




See the points with this?

* Solves a huge need for businesses
* Passive
* Money-back guaranteed
* Low price so any business owner will pay $69 for it without thinking --I'd pay $99 without blinking for a system like this that works. I am buying it to study what they say and see what I can learn.