Michael Maynard provides his perspective on whether a career in consulting is suitable for you. Sage advice -- just in time for Thanksgiving consideration. Thanks Michael.
Previously I discussed RIF's (Reduction in Force), otherwise known as getting laid off. Being without a job can be a very jarring experience. What you thought you knew about your status with your ex-company is no longer true. For many, this blow to the ego leads to loss of self-worth and depression, even though it wans't really their fault.
A natural emotional over-reaction is to start thinking, "I'm never going to be the pawn of the corporate world ever again. I'm going to work for myself." Translation: I'm going to show how valuable I really am by helping other companies succeed, especially my former company's competitors.
I'm going to be a consultant.
OK, go back to the phone booth and put on your civilian clothes. Just because you want to strike a blow against the evil doings of corporate Jokers, doesn't mean you're ever going to get the opportunity to do so. I was a management consultant for over 20 years (and I was a very good one at that)... However, I'm the exception, not the rule.
I've read various consulting industry studies that showed 95% of individuals and companies that enter the consulting business leave within 6 months. Expand the time to 1 year and that percentage goes up to 98%. My goal in writing this article is not to stop those of you who want to start consulting, but to provide information that will help you make a more informed decision about whether the consulting business is right for you. These are the major misconceptions about consulting.
Clients call you. In my time as a consultant, I think I had 3 potential clients call me or my company first. The business world is not looking for another management consultant who wants to help their business. The biggest initial challenge for beginning consultants is to land their first consulting assignment, other than those with their former employer or where friends and family work. Don't wait by the phone expecting IBM, General Motors or even Joe the Plumber to call you. It just doesn't happen.
You spend your time consulting. My analogy about entering consulting is like being a club golf professional. You become a pro because you love and have passion about playing golf. However, the various managerial duties of the golf pro limits their time to play to a minimum. Part of the joy of management consulting is getting to work with your clients and help them solve problems or start new initiatives. Even in the large consulting companies, like Bain or Anderson Consulting, it is the junior consultants who spend their time on site consulting. The higher you go in the consultancy, the less time you spend doing the consulting work.
What you really spend time doing is the administration, marketing and sales that lead to consulting assignments. When you are working on assignment, you still need to spend the same amount of time doing the administration, marketing and sales. You hope that you can get out from the assignment to make an in-person sales meeting.
You control your schedule. I once was on a 3 AM conference call with my client's CEO. Because of the CEO's nocturnal life style, he was raring to go, I and his managers who were on the call weren't. Back to the golf analogy, I got a lot of "you must spend a lot of your time playing golf with your clients all afternoons." I can remember 3 times where I played golf with a client or prospective client.
Even if you are doing well, being an individual consultant or part of a small consultancy means spending 60 to 80 hours per week, every week. My former business partner, Dr. William Mott, had a great term for this: "persistence over time." The more you make the time doing the right things: mailing out pitch letters, writing articles for publication, or lining up speaking engagements, the more business you will get in the long run.
But even when you are consulting, your time is not your own. There was more than one time that I did an all-nighter to put together a proposal or write the findings report. What ultimately became my last assignment, despite having a strep throat, I worked all night, drove to the client site in a snow storm and delivered the report 10 minutes before the final project meeting. I knew that I almost put a good client and friend at risk because I could no longer be counted on to deliver on commitments I made. I needed to get out.
You can consult while finding a new job. Maybe you can, but I never met anyone who could do this. As described above, consulting is a full-time job. So is finding a new job. Occasionally, I know of consultants who go to work for their clients, but I would maintain that if you can be tempted by the offer of a job, then you aren't really a consultant. You also run the risk of crossing yourself, having a potential employer/client get your consulting materials and your resume. The risk is not getting either employed or consulting because you've given the executive the idea that you don't really know which one you want. If you can't manage your own business, then why do you expect executives to meet with you?
There is a lot more I can write about becoming a consultant at this time, but I think the above gives you a realistic picture of what the consulting life is really like. You have to want to do it or else you're just wasting precious time that you should be spending finding a "real" job. Consult with yourself and manage yourself to be successful with the career choice you've made.
About Michael Maynard: Michael is a free-lance journalist and management consultant. As a freelance writer he has written for CEO and CIO magazines and other magazine and newspapers. He was managing editor and featured columnist for Global Business Newsletter. He was also a featured columnist for the Washington Post-Newsweek syndicate. For more than 25 years, Michael has been President and Co-Founder of Azimuth Partners, a marketing and business development consultancy. Michael is currently lending his consultant talents to Improved Experience, which helps employers use feedback to measure and manage competitive advantage, engagement, and retention. You can reach him at michael@improvedexperience.com.
Technorati tags: consulting, self-employment, Reduction in Force.
Comments