One year in…what have I learned?

One year in…what have I learned?

I left EY in September 2020.?After recognising that our global pandemic was not going to be my friend in terms of seeing the world, I very gently, and with great care, began to set up a small, but perfectly formed reward consulting business.?My aim was to do exactly the same thing that I did before, but better.?Probably cheaper – but that wasn’t a central pillar of the business plan.

I began working with clients with intent in January 2021.?So I am a year in.?

I am no life coach - but with new year resolutions about to be sworn in, I have decided to share some of the things that I have learned whilst working in a such different way.?My experiences are not yours.?But they may help inform a decision you could be contemplating – for good or bad!

First, a paragraph of explanation.?I had been a partner in a professional services firm for over 15 years.?And working in that space more generally for over 25 years.?My day job was strategic reward consulting.?The exam question was, how easy would it be to carry on working outside of the big brand and the big support network??Doing, in effect, exactly the same thing, but without all of those trappings?

I should add, I mean carry on consulting – for a variety of clients on a project by project basis.?As opposed to interim work.?Which is a totally different thing.?I don’t do interim work.?Or possibly, no one wants me to – it’s a bit chicken and egg.?I would love to read an equivalent piece on the experience of becoming an interim.?But it’s not one for me to write!

I will share my five big learnings.?All of them positive!

My five revelations

Generosity is everywhere

I have been truly humbled by how kind and generous people have been with time, advice and counsel.?Leaving a big beast of a firm and starting a business consisting of, well, nothing really, is a humbling experience.?And there is a community out there who want you to succeed and who will help to make it so.?They don’t even want anything in return for this support.

So find your network and embrace it.?And suddenly you will find yourself reciprocating.?And realise that you don’t need anything in return either.?I think it’s called karma.

Have something to say

There is a certain language that a big consulting operation is addicted to.?It usually sounds important.?But often it’s just words.?Accompanied by a picture of someone intently looking into the middle distance holding a pair of VR goggles.?With a headline in capitals screaming something like “WORKING HYBRID TODAY – WHILE FUTURE PROOFING TOMORROW”.

I knew this wasn’t me.?So I have done something different.?I have published, over the course of the year, pieces derived entirely from my client work.?By definition they are current.?I write them to help me understand the issues I am trying to solve (i.e. I need them anyway – it’s not marketing).?They are real.?And they are complex.?

They sound a terrible route to market, in fairness.?But I’m not trying to appeal to a broad cross section of society.?I’m trying to appeal to a tiny cross-section, who does what I do.?

You will never do that, by writing “WHY PURPOSE IS THE NEW CULTURE” and following it with a statistic from a tiny survey at which 77% (its always 77%) of people have confirmed they are “VERY ACTIVELY SEEKING NEW WAYS OF WORKING WHICH EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY”.?Honestly, I’d rather look at cat pictures.?

?Your scale is your advantage

It is just you – you can start something instantly.?Spend days thinking about whether a new piece of thinking has legs.?You can over-deliver.?You can ring up a client and say “maybe we should start again, but better”.?Being small is a massive advantage.?Make sure that you use it.

Don’t do it on your own

There are very few pieces of work that I have done on my own.?You need colleagues, a sounding board, expertise in areas you are not pre-eminent at.?You need people to encourage you, or slow you down.?There are tactics to agree, or accounting standards to disseminate.?

A client deliverable is improved by falling out with someone over whether it was as good as it possibly could be.?An invoice is improved by someone reminding you that VAT has not been 17.5% since 2011.?There is literally no piece of consulting that does not benefit from being approached with a consultative mindset.?Funny that.

Being small is an advantage.?Being solitary is a disaster.

Focus is all

You need a space to own.?I do reward consulting for people businesses – where people represent the value in the business (I mean really the value, not just stated by the employer to be the value, which is a totally different thing).?A high percentage are technology focussed.?The rest look similar to professional services.?I understand the space.?I can deploy learnings between clients.?I can actually be sector-focussed.

People in consulting say they are sector focussed, but often mean they have been "assigned to an industry group" – but outside of that token home do pretty much anything.?Embracing focus is a deep relief.?I urge you all to do it.

Is it all good?

No.?I’m not a start-up evangelist.?

Procurement, GDPR, VAT, holidays (how do you take holidays?), cash flow, that irritating voice in your head suggesting it could be going better, taking hours doing something that an old colleague could have done in ten minutes, getting ill, being too successful and hence too busy, being not successful enough and hence too quiet, wanting an office, wanting bits of technology that you know you’ll only use once, wishing you could dial IT support, thinking fondly of a stationary cupboard (is that a pandemic thing?).?The list is, actually, quite long.?

So what does that tell me?

Working on your own is a short term joy.?Over the longer term, working in a team is better for you and your client.?It tells me that the best answer is not working on my own.?Or working in a huge beast of a firm.?But somewhere in between!?

Have a lovely break – keep well and see you next year!