nonsuch consulting - so you think you are ready to be a consultant?

So You Think You’re Ready to be a Consultant…5th September 2014

Presentation to PMI NZ ConferenceChristchurch, New ZealandSep 3-5 2014

Presented by

Youssef Mourra

Founder, Managing Consultant

[email protected]

021 423 620

mailto:[email protected]

2 © Nonsuch Consulting 2014

You?

•You are considering becoming a consultant

or

•You are consulting and would like to hear another perspective and maybe some tips


What right do I have to talk to you?

• I have been consulting for 17 years

• I have consulted in over 10 countries

• I have created 4 consulting companies and sold 2

• I have been a partner in a global consulting firm

• I have been an Assistant-Vice President in another

• I have had a couple of unsuccessful engagements but plenty more successful ones

• I love what I do, I’m nowhere near perfect


The Lifecycle to becoming a Consultant

• Why do I want to be a consultant?

• How do I prepare to become a consultant?

• Making the transition to consulting and getting started

• How do I build a successful and sustainable consulting career?


1. Why do I want to be a consultant?

• What’s your motivation?• Lifestyle

• Financial

• Career

• Other?

• Are you looking to be a contractor or a consultant? The tax man is looking for evidence that you are not just an employee in a different guise. You will need more than one customer.

• Personality type• Extrovert/Introvert? Cheery disposition. Don’t be difficult or prickly.

• Be Positive but realistic. Don’t promise to ‘boil the ocean’

If your motivation isn’t right, if it’s about pride, envy or the ‘me too’ factor or if you think you are going to end up fabulously wealthy, then you will run out of steam pretty quickly. Do it for the right reasons. You may be a ‘fixer’ of things or you want something more challenging

Extroversion is not mandatory for consulting


What will you consult on?

• Project Management?• Programme Management?• Portfolio Management?• Benefits Management?• Change Management?• Investment Lifecycle Mapping?• Better Business Cases?• Gateway Reviews?• All of the above?

• Project Office Consulting?

• Rescues?

• Independent Quality Assurance?

• Coaching & Mentoring?

• PM Toolsets? Scheduling? Planning?

What will be Your Unique Twist on these pretty standard offerings? What extra special or value add focus will you bring on these?


What type of consulting focus will you offer?

• Vertical Consultant• (industry depth and focus) You can

do anything within a particular industry sector

• Horizontal • (process management skills) You

have really strong generic project and/or programme skills and can basically work in any sector or industry

• Finisher? – You will be in for the long haul, taking on the full responsibility and delivering it to the very end

• Provoker? – You will come in and provoke change, show the possibilities, transfer some knowledge and then ride off into the sunset

• Mentor and Coach? – You will engage lightly, hovering in the background and guiding and supporting your client to the desired solution


2. How do I prepare for becoming a consultant?• Try Internal Consulting!!

• In your current employment, practice the art of consulting with your captive market

• Writing skills, is your writing logical, does it build a clear picture? Is it error free? Will people pay good money for it?

• Do you know how to engage as opposed to just communicate? Do you know who your stakeholders are? How well can you relate to them?

• Are you comfortable and used to communicating with senior people in organisations? Do you know what makes them tick?

• Are you able to offer solutions consistently and under pressure?

• Do you know how to communicate ideas and develop thought leadership?

• Don’t live hand to mouth.• Ensure you have at least 6 months of funds to ensure that you are able to chase and win the work you want to do

• What other skills will you have• Will you be a presenter? Will you be a trainer? Delivering Training courses are sometimes the best way to kick off your

consulting career.


Let me share a Scenario with you

• I needed to explain Portfolio Management to an organisation’s leadership team

• I needed them to understand that a good and healthy portfolio needs to contain the right mix of different projects and programmes

• I also needed to get across two other principles to them:• They need to be involved in the decision making process around choosing

the right portfolio

• This process mustn’t be too bureaucratic

• I needed them to leave the room with a clear and simple message about Portfolio Management and why they should get involved….


Holding the Royal Flush of Portfolios!…the unbeatable ‘hand’ of portfolio management

• What are the odds of a Royal Flush in Poker? – see below

• What are the odds in business? – it doesn’t need to be about odds. We need to ensure we are holding the right grouping of projects

The royal flush is a case of the straight flush. It can be formed 4 ways (one for each suit), giving it a probability of 0.000154% and odds of 649,739 : 1.


COMPLIANCE MAINTENANCE TACTICALThe projects we MUST do because of reasons related to Government legislation or existing regulations. We have little choice and we need to get on with understanding the options for how we approach these projects

The projects we SHOULDdo because of reasons related to maintaining existing systems and business processes. If we under-invest for too long, we run the risk of breaking our existing operations and systems

The projects we COULD do because of reasons related to changes in the competitive, technological or global environments. We may not always want to respond to each change, but we need to consider them in our planning


The projects we COULD do because of reasons related to new ideas and innovations driven from our customer, staff and expert base. We need to investigate, approve, reject or invest in these innovations

The projects we WOULD do because of reasons related to the setting and achieving of the strategic plan and vision. What are the projects that best help us achieve our stated vision and contribute most to the strategic drivers?

INNOVATIONSTRATEGIC


INNOVATION

STRATEGIC

TACTICAL

MAINTENANCE

COMPLIANCE VISION

Gate 3Gate 2Gate 1

Filtered out initiatives



• Project Proposals• Execution• Handover to BAU

• Detailed Business Case

• Prioritisation

• Initial Business Case• Option & Impact Analysis• Prioritisation

Project Categories

Let’s be real about the true lifecycle of the different type of projects we need to

have in our portfolio. We need the Leadership Team to be involved at each

gate


VISION

Gate 3Gate 2Gate 1




Business Cases & Decision Gates

So, the Leadership Team needs to take the lead in regularly and actively

weeding out those projects that don’t allow an organisation to achieve its

strategic vision


3. Making the transition to consulting and getting started• Set the DATE – and stick to it.

• Spread the Word

• Get your Consulting Toolkit together

• Get your Consulting Infrastructure in place

• Get your Strategy sorted

Organise a date and stick to it. Preferably, you will have consulted with your employer, your partner, your family and your contacts. My

advice would be to start in Feburary/March time for reasons I will

outline later


Spread the Word

• Let people know what you are doing

• Get a profile not a CV

• Identify a foundation client – build your business around this client

• Linked-in Profile – keep it up to date and clear about your consulting intentions


Consulting Toolkit

• Get your proposal templates in place – have one for simple and one for complex proposals.

• Get your commercial documentation sorted. Keep it simple. You are not a multi-national. Review all legal documents that come across your desk and identify a document that you could use yourself.

• Get your Intellectual Property sorted and up to date

• Get a laptop/tablet and you will need a printer and a smartphone

• Preferably, you will have a desk somewhere, at home, in a serviced office or a hot-desk somewhere. It needs to be quiet and without distractions


Consulting Infrastructure

• Get an Accountant – one that charges fixed prices for your GST returns, your Annual return etc.

• Get a business account• 3 bank accounts ( I will explain later, why) – and get a business debit card

• Business Cards = Get plenty and hand them around at every opportunity

• Website – just a business card online, keep it simple to begin with• I strongly recommend Textus to you (http://www.textus.co.nz/services)

• Your IT – do it all on the cloud• For email, I use Layer3 http://www.layer3.net.nz/ and it costs $15 per month

to have Outlook online. Also, I pay $165 per year for Office 365 for 5 installs (mac or pc) and get 1TB online storage included

http://www.textus.co.nz/services

http://www.layer3.net.nz/


How much did this cost?Check out my site

http://www.nonsuch.co and you’ll be surprised at how little it cost me

http://www.nonsuch.co/


Your Strategy

Budgeting

• Be clear about your offerings

• Who are you targeting?

• Will you go through agencies or go direct?

• Proposal Type:• Time & Material

• Time & Material (capped)

• Fixed Price

Pricing

• Set up your pricing structure:• Volume Pricing. Have separate pricing

in place for• 1-10 day assignments

• 10-30 days assignments

• Assignments greater than >30 days

• Hourly Pricing. The industry standard is to charge • A full Day rate for 1 day’s work

• ¾ of your day rate for a ½ day booking

• ½ of your day rate for ¼ day booking

Write the strategy for your business and ensure it can fit on one A3 Page. That will be your SOAP (Strategy On A Page) and it will keep you focussed and ‘clean’


Estimating your Assignments

What - clear What – not clear

How - Sure

How – Not sure

Fog

MoviePaint by Numbers

Quest

Be Transparent and either slice off pieces to focus on or factor into your estimating

Be very careful when estimating and ensure you have confidence about the What you are delivering and the How you are delivering it before you quote

confidently


Your Strategy

Don’t forget…• Budget your time effectively:

• 4 days billing per week• ½ day ON the business per week -

fixed• ½ day time for networking

• Get your year’s income in 10 months• Dec and Jan are not great months.

Put money aside for those months. You will feel the pain in February from a cash-flow perspective if you haven’t

Don’t forget…

• Budgets• Training Courses? – go Online. Don’t waste

valuable billing time attending a course during the day

• PMI Conference? – Just remember, you will be paying to attend AND missing out on income, so budget for it

• Start your new consulting business in Feb/March• This will ensure you are prepared for the

slow time of the year


4. How do I build a successful and sustainable consulting career?• Looking after the Customer

• Looking after You

• Looking after your ‘brand’

• Maintaining Financial Discipline

• Valuing Your Time

• Growth?


Looking After the Customer

• Delivery quality• Deliver on time. Higher expectations on both now that you are a consultant

• Respond to proposals quickly.• Each day that passes is another big drop in the temperature of your client’s eagerness

• Get things down in writing• Ask for a Statement of Work or some bullet points where things aren’t clear. Had a great phone

call with a client or a prospect, follow it up immediately with a summary in bullet points on actions or key points

• Be clear about what’s in and out of scope• The best discussions in helping define scope are around the things we think we are NOT

delivering

• Spend your client’s money carefully and better than your own• Be transparent. Keep receipts and pass them back to client.

• Learn to say ‘No’.• You are there to make your client look good. If you stuff up, you make your client look bad.


Looking After You

• Keep learning• Maintain and build your qualifications

• Don’t ignore your collegial needs• Why not form a lunch club or a dinner club? Get your fellow colleagues and competitors

together and commit to regular attendance. Don’t be too busy to not go.• Get involved more actively in your local PMI chapter

• Commercial/Social discussions – don’t be afraid to do both with your customer and do it from the outset. Don’t be shy.

• Actively encourage feedback whether good or bad• Emphasise this by being comfortable with any feedback and don’t be defensive. Learn from

any critical and improve your offerings, your approach and your service accordingly

• Stick to your strategy when you are not sure

• Look for and find a mentor, we all need guidance and support no matter who we are


Looking After You

• What’s the right number of clients to have?• Try and find 1 High Volume, 2 Medium Volume and 3 Low Volume clients

• You will need strong Stamina• You might be in for some long nights occasionally

• You will need lots of Intellectual Horsepower• You will do research and lots of thinking and it could go on for days!

• You will need lots of skills• Some that spring to mind include Negotiation Skills, Listening Skills,

Engagement skills, Presentation Skills, Communication Skills, so read as much as you can and try and learn one thing new about each per month.


Looking After your ‘brand’

• Give ‘free’ time through voluntary mentoring and coaching

• Be generous with your IP where appropriate

• Write a White Paper or two of value

• Speak at the PMI Conference and at other industry body conferences or meetings

• Network carefully, look out for tyre-kickers (the time-wasters)

• Don’t be desperate in your pricing or demeanour• Don’t cut your prices or add scope just so you can win a piece of work.

Protect your brand by holding the line.


Maintaining Financial Discipline

• Step 1: Go to your bank and start a bank account with three linked accounts and give them the following nicknames:• Your day to day account which is where you will pay your bills from should be

nicknamed ‘Float’

• Your account where you will hold your GST should be named as such, ‘GST’

• Your account from where you will pay your corporate and provisional tax should be nicknamed ‘Tax’

• Step 2: It’s time to invoice a clientas per the table to the right

• Step 3: You send the invoice!

Item Amount

Consultancy Services: $1000

GST (@15%) $150

Travel and Expense Receipts (incl GST) $200

Total $1350


Maintaining Financial Discipline – Part 2

• Step 4: The client pays the invoice into your bank account• Yay! You’re rich now! Right? Just hang on

• Step 5: The GST component does not belong to you• Immediately transfer the $150 into your GST nicknamed bank account

• Step 6: You will have to pay tax on the original $1000 services• Immediately transfer 40% of that, $400, into your Tax nicknamed bank account

• Step 7: The $200 on expense have now been reimbursed to you• But you will need to keep a ‘float’ to ensure you are not caught short when buying

coffees/stationery/software/fuel/airfares/car expenses/taxis etc. Always keep an eye on our cashflow and make sure you have enough money to get through each month in terms of business expenses

• Step 8: Discuss with your accountant an appropriate amount of personal drawings to transfer into your personal account


Maintaining your Financial Discipline

• Start your invoicing immediately an engagement starts and track your hours and expenses as you go. This will avoid a lot of stress at the end of the month

• Don’t fracture your days. Keep whole days clear for consulting – ring fence a day of the week for minor engagements or for networking

• Don’t go mad with purchases. Be modest about your business tools. They in themselves won’t make you any revenue.

• No need for a flashy car or flashy dress, it just sends the wrong message to your clients and their staff


Valuing your time

• Reads my emails

• Manages my appointments

• Interfaces with my accountant

• Manages my receipts and invoicing

• $50 per hour

Say hello to Joy, my virtual assistant!

http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz

As you get busier and busier do not waste time on low value tasks when you can outsource this to your Virtual Assistant. With your cloud access, allow your assistant

to do the support tasks that take up so much time. Work out your budget and buy the time you need each

week or month as you need it

Is she real or is she virtual?

http://www.strictlysavvy.co.nz/


Grow your business?

• Lots of Questions if you decide to grow your business:• Will it be just you or will you grow it? Will you go into a strategic partnership or will

you be joint-owners?• Are you going to Collaborate or Compete with fellow consultants?

• Collaboration can be a great way to establish whether you could work with someone going forward

• Are you going to hire contract Associates or take on fulltime permanent staff?• There are risks with both approaches

• Will you be establishing a ‘body-shopping’ business or a consulting body?

• Either way, don’t enter into any arrangement unless you know and have discussed how you will painless exit

• Remember, exciting plans can lead to expensive pain• And always, keep reviewing and updating your strategy


Any Questions

• Got more questions?

• From Monday 8th September, I will have a new page on my website:

http://www.nonsuch.co/consultingadvice

• You can download this presentation

• You can ask questions and discuss issues with or seek advice from me

http://www.nonsuch.co/consultingadvice


Thanks and Good luck!

• I can handle the competition or collaboration!

• Thanks for your attention and attendance today

• For more information, please contact me on• Phone: 021 423 620• Website: www.nonsuch.co• Email: [email protected]• Follow me on @youssefmourra

nonsuch consulting - so you think you are ready to be a consultant?

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