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.

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

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 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

• 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

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.
2. The Perfection Dragon – This varmint keeps telling you to stop until absolutely everything is perfect. The trouble is few things in life are ever perfect. I have found that sloppy success is almost always far better for most companies than procrastinated perfection. What else do you need to know to be perfect enough for now – so you can take the next step? Is this another paralyzing fork for you?
3. The Dollar Dragon – This is one very lethal dragon that needs to be dealt with wisely. How much money does it REALLY take for success? How much money for proof of concept? How much capital do you need to keep you from running out of cash before positive cash flow? Where will the capital come from? How are you going to knowledgeably answer all of these questions about YOUR start up company? How much longer will it take for you to know the right answers so you can make progress? Do you have a dollar waiting on a dime?
4. The Expertise Dragon – We all have our own unique set of skills we’ve learned over the years. We all also have missing skill sets – stuff we’ve just never learned yet. What are the top dozen missing skill sets for you and your company, right here, right now? What are the gaps in management? What is on your Action List that requires more expertise than you or your team members have? What kind of expertise could you use to get you past this dragon and on down the road to success? Who can provide you this expertise? What are you going to do to strengthen your strengths and minimize or eliminate the weaknesses? Are you making critical decisions without the right expertise? If so, what are the short-term AND long-term risks and real costs of those potentially lethal bad strategic and tactical decisions?
5. The Time Dragon – It’s really too bad that there are only 30 hours in a day and 8 days in a week. Even if there really was that much time, most of us would still constantly run out of this continuously depleting commodity. Ever notice how this dragon, and life, keeps getting in the way of making progress with your new company? Does your business model and concept get more stale as more time passes without progress and competitors move forward with your ideas? What major and minor tasks on your Action List can you delegate so that you can buy more time for you to lead the charge and get farther done the path toward the success of your vision?
6. The Implementation Dragon – Do you really know all the puzzle pieces required for the complete big picture of your start up company? Do you know all the steps required for successful implementation of your vision? Do you have a comprehensive Action List of all the steps required to get you from where you are now to where you want to be in one year? Five years?

Or, are any or all of these dragons going to keep blocking your path – so that a year from now, five years from now, your vision, and you, will be in the same place where you are today?

Sometimes, it seems like ALL of these dragons are blocking your path to success for your vision – all at the same time. And, these are just six of the multitude of dragons that try to interfere with entrepreneurs just like you from starting their company and successfully implementing their vision.

Which ones are causing you the most grief today?

What other dragons, specific to you and your company, are also blocking your success?

It IS Lonely At The Top

Who do you turn to, as a start up or emerging company CEO or founder – for sound business advice, for a different perspective, for efficient brainstorming, for help with your dragon slaying? Who do you use as a mentor and trusted adviser, who can give you objective, one-on-one, confidential and experiential help with your own company?

For many CEOs and owners, it really IS lonely at the top.

I’ve successfully helped many hundreds of clients answer exactly these kinds of questions and slay these kinds of dragons.

I have found during my past 15 years of consulting with start up and emerging companies that many of the above half dozen dragons can be slayed with just a few hours of mentoring. Often, it just takes one or two insights and epiphanies to get my clients past those dragons and much farther down their path toward achieving their goals.

Get Help Now

The power of these quick insights is why I offer my clients my Start Up Company Mentoring Service at http://www.StartUpCompanyMentoring.com.

Are there other issues, problems or opportunities you would like to brainstorm about your company?

I invite you to check out the site for my services. There, you can usually sign up for as little as one hour of mentoring. Once you sign up, we can immediately schedule a teleconference to discuss your dragons and your goals.

Of course, we can’t solve every problem, and slay every dragon, in only an hour or two – but, together, we might be able to efficiently brainstorm some quick answers for you – and a genuinely implementable action plan – that will get you past these pesky dragons and get you closer to your vision of success.

Reserve your brainstorming and mentoring time now by visiting http://www.StartUpCompanyMentoring.com.
PS: Limited AvailabilityOne-on-one mentoring and dragon slaying is probably the most enjoyable part of Start Up Company University for me. I love the rapid fire brainstorming and efficient problem solving with my clients – and being able to provide so much pivotal help in such a short period of time.

However, my availability for one-on-one mentoring can be very limited due to my other client, corporate and personal commitments and time requirements. Hence, some of my mentoring options may be unavailable at any given time.

Please check http://www.StartUpCompanyMentoring.com for the current status and availability.

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 do you want to allow her to waste for you and the whole company between now and the fire date? To get there more quickly without critical problems, you might want to consider some, or all, of the following:

• Before you start anything, drive defensively…assume sabotage. (Just because you are paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.) Back up all her computer files, etc. especially since she runs HR…
• Get her to give you a detailed action list of all the items she sees as important that need to be done for the next 3 to 6 months. This is a good idea anyway…since it should show:
  • Action Item issue
  • Priority
  • Start date
  • Due date
  • Functional area (Personnel, Insurance, workers’ comp review, etc.)
  • Expected cost if any…other resources required
  • I personally like having folks do this in Excel since the columns can be easily sorted

By making sure this is an all inclusive list, you will know what loose ends need to be covered if she quits or you fire her on the spot.

Besides the paranoid motivation, I find having these written action items from ALL first reports to be a great idea. I do this with a lot of my clients and they very often respond that they have gained immense clarity without getting bogged down with micro-management.

Even though your first reports will moan about having to do yet another report, many, if not most, will use it as a way to show how busy they are…how important and indispensable they are….and that they deserve a raise!

If you have all your first reports do this, then Der Führer will see no red flags. Besides, this is a natural since it is both a new year AND new office space!

Give her a chance to solve the problem(s)….this is my usual approach with first reports…but it requires total candor…in writing….and a 90 day performance plan….with major candid reviews every 30 days.

• Write down every objection you have to what she does or how she does it.
• Write down why you see the current approach as a problem or a negative impact.
• Write down what you want to see as SOP for each item, including the exact attitude.
• Make clear that is what you require for the corporate culture you INSIST on for YOUR company.
• Don’t mince words on any of the above….but keep it objective.
• Ask her if she can make the changes to match the culture you insist on.
• If she says no, decision made. Objectively.
• If she says yes, she will make commitments and promises to change. (N.B.: She may or may not even be able to change.)
• Monitor, manage, critique and review once a week or every two weeks or once a month…whatever makes sense for your organization.

If there is genuine improvement…keep on with the monitor, manage, critique and review until you can check this issue off your list. If there is no genuine, substantive improvement, fire her. That means her last day is THAT day. I’ve learned, way too many times, when you fire someone, you do not keep them around for even a day! Not even until the end of that day!

Consider, for your sized organization, outsourcing the whole thing….it may be cheaper and give you even better coverage for all the things that go into HR these days! If nothing else, outsource in the interim so that you don’t feel rushed hiring the right replacement.

What do you think?

Post your ideas if you have other thoughts.

Ask YOUR Question

Go to www.StartUpCompanyQuestions.com and ask your own question. You might see it answered here – and you will get invited to a FREE teleseminar and webcast on the “Top 21 Questions Entrepreneurs Want to Know MOST about Start Up Companies!”

Robert Lee Goodman, MBA
Ceo & Chief Dragon Slayer
www.CeoResource.com