Going Independent Redux Avoiding 5 Bone-Headed Mistakes

I chose to become an independent consultant twice in my lifetime consulting career. I must have liked it because I was independent in various forms for twenty-three of my thirty-seven years in the field.

The first time my boss gave me the opportunity to go on contract for a year, work about half-time, control my schedule and attempt to save my marriage. I did some of those things, but I didn’t work half-time and I didn’t save my marriage. I did control my schedule some and while I didn’t say “No” enough, I loved the autonomy. After the year was up I supplemented work with my former firm with new local clients so I could be close to my children as they grew up and stayed independent for eight years.

It was a magic time. My vision was to “change the world of work.” I look back now and smile at how preciously na?ve I was. But I had fun, stayed home enough, sub-contracted to my old boss, who was then independent too, and found local clients courtesy of friends. This brings me to my first mistake.

Bone-Headed Mistake # 1: Not saying “No”

I mentioned that during my “save-my-marriage” contract year I worked more than the half-time I committed to and failed at the “save-my-marriage” objective. There were other reasons. I did work less than the hundred-hour weeks I had been working, but the work was interesting and the money more than I’d ever earned so I didn’t say “No” when I slid over half-time. I made the same bone-headed mistake several times in my independent career.

In the lead-up to the 1991-2 recession, I was preaching to my clients about recession-proofing their business, using the example of a trucking firm’s rule FBO 50, keeping at least fifty percent of their business in food, booze, and oil, recession-proof customers. My own client mix was 100% two clients, consulting and radio advertising. These two recession sensitive industries felt the pinch. My revenue went to zero.

Bone-Headed Mistake # 2:Taking your eye off the Revenue Cliff.

During this same period same period I had a rule “always save twenty percent of time for marketing.” I preached this rule to other aspiring independent consultants. But . . .” the money was good and the work was fun” . . .when projects ended and any follow-on fell prey to the recession, there I was starting from scratch with my two main referral sources suffering from a recession.

I dug my way out of that one, but I ended up taking a sub-contract project in Thailand that involved a very strenuous workload and no time available for marketing. The second “revenue-cliff” arrived about the time I was growing tired of independent consulting downsides, smaller projects, fewer colleagues, constant marketing and the loss of autonomy of subcontract work. I joined Gemini Consulting, which was a good path for me, but it? wasn’t until later that I understood the bone-headed mistake that lead me there.

Bone-Headed Mistake # 3: Are you a Gig-Economy Freelancer or a Consultant?

There is no judgement implied here, but you have to choose.

A freelancer does “pair of hands” work, often subcontracting to former employers or small consulting firms. Freelancers tend to be generalists doing whatever needs to be done, trading some autonomy, for the convenience of someone else finding the client.

An independent consultant typically specializes in some core methodologies. She has a process, that is a way of doing the work, including, but not limited to, expert content (industry and discipline -strategy, technology, etc.) or a process methodology (continuous improvement or organization development, etc.). The consultant may work alone or with other independents, but must be good at avoiding Bone-head Mistakes #s 1 &? 2.

Truthfully, I struggled with this distinction till later in my career, but my life would have been easier if I’d made the choice earlier. It would have helped me avoid bone-headed mistake #4.

Bone-Headed Mistake # 4: Not Making the ‘Build vs. Buy” Decision Well

This is still a hard choice for me. I like to learn; I am motivated by autonomy. I tend to think I can do anything myself. So I learned to put up this website, rather than hire a web designer as I did previously. Yeah, it took me longer and I didn’t price my time because, well, I’m retired, but it fits a pattern.

As an independent, I did my own administration, billing and bookkeeping, three-finger-typed my own letters, made my own PowerPoint slides. And. . . and this is the important bit. . . When I was overloaded I just knuckled-down to do more work myself when I should have hired another consultant to help.

The second time I became an independent consultant I left a firm after a disagreement with a boss. I took two clients I brought to the firm. I found some subcontract work to supplement and ultimately I took on a partner. Actually Keith found me and we were quite na?ve about our collective ability to find new work together. Our break-up was a little messy and a result of poor decision making on bone-headed mistakes #s 1 & 3.

What Keith taught me is the value of hiring help where we needed. Later, when I formed the Results-Alliance and partnered with the late Dr. Richard Taylor, I had learned the value of putting the most skilled resource available on the job.

Independent consultants get stuck, imprisoned by their generalist capabilities and need for personal autonomy and control. They knuckle-down when? overloaded and fail to hire help, You might survive that way, but ?you certainly can’t build a firm that way.

Bone-Headed Mistake # 5: Ignoring Self-Development

The best consulting firms offer internships to undergraduates, hire undergraduates, hire the same people back after they go for an MBA, JD or other graduate degree. The firms train consultants in workshops and in planned deployment on client and firm research projects. These firms provide mentors to guide the up-or out-choice, and the direct client development or thought leader choice.

What does the average independent consultant do? “Uh, I read the Wall Street Journal”

Yeah, it’s like that for some who are scrambling to find and deliver work and riding the revenue rollercoaster off the cliff occasionally. Someone once told me “You are the product. If the client didn’t buy today, maybe they’ll buy the new and improved edition tomorrow, but expecting anyone to buy the worn-down and wearing-out version isn’t very realistic.” Save time for self-development, reading books, taking courses, working with colleagues who are smart and most especially taking time to reflect on and document what you’re learning. That’s what you’ll be offering tomorrow’s client.

Here's the good news. I made all these bone-headed mistakes, ?survived, thrived, and retired to live happily ever after. Yes, really. You can even do better than me if you’re not learning about bone-headed mistakes by making them yourself - again.

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