Should You Start A Company

What Are The Three MOST Important Questions Keeping You From Starting Your Own Consulting, Coaching or Mentoring Company?

Have you been considering starting your own consulting company?

Have you wanted to tap your aggregate expertise and become a consultant, coach, mentor or advisor – and get paid for helping people and companies succeed?

For a very limited time, Consulting Company University is offering you a chance to get up to THREE of your MOST important questions about starting your own consulting business answered for FREE with zero obligation.

What three answers would MOST help you most get from your current Point A to your desired Point B for YOUR consulting company?

The goal is to give you as comprehensive answers as possible – based on the 30 years of experience of Consulting Company University Founder and CEO, Robert Lee Goodman.  The only requirement is to submit very specific questions about YOUR vision for your company – not generic or philosophical questions. Please send questions that directly relate to you getting from your current Point A to your desired Point B.

Consulting Company University wants to help those who are serious about starting their own consulting company – but who would like a few quick answers to help get them to their desired Point B.

To ask your three questions, just click www.ConsultantQuestions.com for immediate access.

It could be that the trend is already there for everyone becoming a consultant – whether they want to or not.

A recent article in Money Magazine “The Rise of Freelance Nation: Money Magazine” June 12, 2009 had the following point:

“Today about 30% of the U.S. job market – roughly 42 million workers – is made up of independent contractors, part-time or temporary staffers, and the self-employed. By the end of the next decade, long after this recession is a distant memory, this “contingent” workforce will have grown to about 40% of the market, experts predict.”

What About Your Company?

A recent article by Consulting Company University describes how companies everywhere are looking for ways to cut costs – and they can save a bundle by hiring a contingent workforce. That way they don’t have to pay for health insurance, vacation and sick days, matching FICA, office space, office equipment, telephone and Internet lines…the list goes on.

All totaled, this can save a company between 25% and 60% of their human resource related costs. No wonder so many companies are making this move.

But what might this mean to you?

It may mean that your job function, whatever it may be, is going to be outsourced to a “consultant” – or whatever you want to call the new “contingent” position. Whatever the position, there may be a chance that your current corporate job will no longer exist as an internal position.

Why not beat them to it? Why not start your own consulting business now and be ready to “take the order?”

What About You?

Does one of the following profiles describe your personal situation?

• You might have considered becoming an independent consultant but weren’t sure what all the action steps might be hidden in those Deviled Details.
• With the current Great Recession, you might have lost your job and decided that you need to offer consulting services as a way to generate income until you can find your next “permanent” job.
• With the loss of wealth and buying power, you might have a need to earn more money than your current employment provides and are considering moonlighting by offering consulting.
• You might have decided that you want to taste test consulting to see if it really is something you like.
• You might already know you want to be a consultant – but want to know how to start a successful practice and get it positively cash flowing before you quit your “day job.”
• You might already be “in business” but not getting the kind of consulting business you want – or the amount you want.

If any of those profiles are even close to describing your personal situation, maybe it’s time to learn what it takes for you to set up a successful consulting company fast – so you are quickly ready to start promoting your services and are ready to “take the order.”

Consulting Company University

Click on Consulting Company University to see if one of its three programs might help you answer the basic 72 issues you need to understand before you start your own consulting company.

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
Ceo and Chief ImpleMentor
http://Virtual-Exec.com

If you’re online with any part of your business, then you’re faced with constantly writing copy.  This includes sales letters, web pages, blogs, auto responder messages, e-mails, etc.

Many of my clients are start up company CEOs and entrepreneurs who have no background whatsoever in sales and marketing.  Many of my clients are startup entrepreneurs who have little or no cash to pay for copywriting talent (or any thing else.)

I’m certainly no expert on copywriting – and I’m currently working on learning more myself on how to improve my own copy.  However, a friend of mine, Trevor ‘Toe Cracker’ Crook, IS an expert.  He’s also offering 10 hours of downloadable audio MP3s of his “Copywriting Blueprint Formula” for free.

I know that you see a lot of this kind of stuff on the Internet – but I’ve listened to the audios and there is a huge amount of content with virtually none of the usual upsell.

Trevor’s concept on giving away his content for free is “Pay it forward.”  Just like in the novel and the movie by the same name, the idea is to give up front with no expectation of receiving in return.  Trevor’s goal is to “pay it forward” by giving this audio course to one million entrepreneurs.

I’m not an affiliate of Trevor.  I don’t get paid anything for this recommendation. He doesn’t even know that I’m posting this information on my blog or sending it to my list.  However, I strongly recommend you take advantage of this free download, listen to the audios and start applying what you discover to improve your own copy.

This is just my way of reciprocating by helping Trevor - with me “paying it forward” to help him reach his one million Entrepreneur goal.

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
http://Virtual-Exec.com
http://DeviledDetails.com

One of my favorite proverbs is, “The only thing worse than going the wrong direction, is going the wrong direction enthusiastically!”

One thing about us entrepreneurs: we love doing things enthusiastically – especially when we are trying so hard to get from our current Point A to our desired Point B as quickly as possible.

The problem, of course, is that if we go charging off in the wrong direction, at some point we have to stop, turn around and retrace our steps back toward Point A and start all over again.

The upshot of starting over again is all the time, energy, effort and money that you just spent going down that dead-end trail is mostly wasted – the time spent going the wrong direction delays your successful implementation of your vision.

It also means that you need more money, more time, more effort than you would have otherwise needed if you had done a better job of planning and pick the right direction to begin with.

That’s really the purpose of The Four Big Dots that are covered in my Deviled Details Action Planning Service.  The Four Big Dots of Deviled Details are: your personal plan, your financial model, your action plan and your business plan.

Even if you just do a little bit of work on each of the Big 4 Dots…even if you only generate a couple of dozen action items…even if you only make sweeping approximations for your underlying business model assumptions, you’re probably going to be much better off because you’ve eliminated some of those wrong directions.

The more time you spend on all of those Deviled Details, the more wrong directions that get eliminated. The more wrong directions that get eliminated, the much more likely will be your success.

So, what’s it worth to you?

How many hours are you willing to invest in order to eliminate as many wrong directions as you possibly can? One? Five? Ten? Hundred?

How many hours, months or years are you going to waste, otherwise, cleaning up the mess from not doing it right the first time?

With The Deviled Details Action Planning Service, you will learn how all four Big Dots are interrelated for your own company – and how not doing even one of the Dots correctly can be a deal killer that will block your path to success.

Find out more by clicking Deviled Details Action Planning Service.

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
Ceo & Chief ImpleMENTOR
www.Virtual-Exec.com

You probably know you need a business plan – and I can help you with that if you need one – but do you also have an Action Plan for Implementation?

• Do you even know ALL the dots that go into “connecting the dots” for your new business?
• Do you know the W Cubed – W To The Third Power – for each action item and milestone required for your new company?  WHO?  Is going to do WHAT?  WHEN?
• Do you know all the major and semi-major milestones and “Deviled Details” to REALLY get from Point A, where you are now – To Point B, where you want to be?
• Have you taken into account the REAL costs that go with each of those “Deviled Details?”

My Action Planning Service is focused on helping you comprehensively answer ALL of those questions – so you REALLY know what is required for the success of your new company – including all the dots and all the deviled details.

The goal of the Action Plan is to collect, in one place, ALL the action items that will be required to realistically implement your vision for your company over the next 12 months.

With the optional Financial Business Model AND the Detailed Action Plan for the next 12 months showing all major and semi-major milestones, you will have a very comprehensive road map for your new company. You will also know what resources it will take, money-wise and people-wise, to get you from Point A to Point B.

We will go through up to three iterations as we brainstorm and revise items, priorities, dates and budgets.  As we fine tune your Action List, we will focus on available assets and personnel and the right timing for bringing more folks into the company or outsourcing some of the tasks.

We start with 10 hours of my one-on-one consulting and mentoring.  For most clients, this is all the time that is needed to generate an accurate and meaningful Action Plan for their business. The cost:  only $2,750.  Additional hours are available at my standard rate.  The incremental cost for the optional Financial Business Model is only $500.

To date, I’ve already helped the founders and CEOs of over 2,000 diverse companies in over three dozen countries with their business planning, fundraising and plan implementation – to realistically define & implement the right action plan for their business.

Isn’t this the kind of expertise you need for your company?

Isn’t it time you have a real game plan to get you to YOUR Point B?

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
Ceo & Chief ImpleMENTOR
www.Virtual-Exec.com

What dragons are stopping you from taking the next step with your start up or emerging company? Are you stuck at a fork in the road on your way to success with your vision?

While individually working with over 2,000 entrepreneurs and start up company CEOs, I’ve noticed that, in many cases, one or more of a particular half-dozen deadly dragons can often stop a company in its tracks.

Which ones are blocking your personal path for your start up company right now?

1. The Indecision Dragon – Closely related to the Overchoice Dragon, this brute keeps whispering “What if this and what if that…” which keeps you from making key decisions and making progress. Yogi Berra, the New York Yankee philosopher, said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” What are the top dozen genuine pivot points for your company right this minute? What do you need to know today to make a decision on each – and cross each one off the list as completed? What do you finally need to know to get past that fork in the road? Remember: No decision IS a decision – one that can affect all future decisions, choices, direction and timetables. Don’t lose by default. (more…)

As I get questions from readers from my Ask The Chief Dragon Slayer Campaign, I will take some of the questions that I think might have a broad audience and post them here on the blog.

This one is filed under “Dragons – Personnel: How do you fire the indispensable person in your organization?”

Question:

We just moved and I have decided that even if you built an office across the street and moved in slowly, it is devastation to the routine. My staff all get their feathers ruffled despite the fact that their gain is significant in the work place. It just chaps me to no end to deal with WHINERS! Even though I am a woman CEO, I have to admit that I loathe women employees as a rule anyway – but whining women disturb me to my very core.

For the record, I employ 7 men to every woman – not by design but just the way it worked out. The women that I have (for the most part) think like men, behave like men and love men. However, I have one NAZI fem , the HR director, who is causing problems for the whole organization with her attitude and approach. Even though she is indispensable to my company, she is my biggest mistake. How do I rid myself of her since no one else knows what she knows in so many very critical areas?

Susan

Answer:

I remember all those hassles….during the 15 plus years I had my real estate companies and had hundreds of folks working for me, we moved the corporate offices (me, and about 50 other execs and corporate support people) about three or four times….into bigger and bigger…and nicer spaces….once into an elegant, brand new Class A, high rise next to the Galleria in Dallas with over 10,000 sq ft.

I got so tired of all the whining about space….who had the nicer office, who had more space for their division or subsidiary, who had nicer furniture, computers, view, ad nauseam…just like dealing with eight year old children….and those were my first reports – presidents and senior level VPs….not to mention the rank and file….all of which is just one of many reasons that I decided 14 years ago, it would just be me – and superstar contract labor!

With regard to Der Führer, my intuition is that you will fire her. That will be the probable bottom line. How much more time and energy (more…)