business

Friends and colleagues who know me well know I’m a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell and his book Tipping Point.Read More >

One of the many challenges consultants face is staying energized and engaged in our work. It’s clear when we have great work and great clients, it drives us to do more and we perform at our best.

In my discussions with other consultants, we all have (or had at one time) clients who don’t pay on time, make constant demands or frequent changes to the scope of the project. We put up with them and tolerate them to keep their business, but they actually do more harm than good. Believe it or not, there is such a thing as bad business.Read More >

(From Sologig.com)

In addition to advanced degrees and a significant amount of industry experience, these skills are "must haves" for any professional consultant:Read More >

For the most part, we as consultants are blessed to have a quality base of clients who are reliable, trustworthy and respect us for the work and value we provide them. However, we hear stories from time to time where a relationship with a client goes sour. It may have happened to you, personally.Read More >

I’m always looking for ways to improve business networking and the more I’m in business for myself as a consultant, I like to collect and share with people ways to connect with other professionals whether online or offline. The following are list of tips I have found useful over the years. Keep in mind as you read through them, some will work for you while others will not. It depends on the type of business you are in and the people you wish serve. Some tips, however, are universally accepted and should be applied regardless.Read More >

I’ve often said that people do business with those they like, know and trust. It is especially true in consulting.

Sometimes, we take for granted that our clients are placing a lot of trust in us when they choose to do business with us. By the time they decide to turn to a consultant, they are usually in a vulnerable position. Exposing their flaws or highlighting their failures to a third party outside the walls of their own organization is probably last on their agenda. Read More >

Please forgive me when I grab the soap box from time to time as I announce my pet peeves in regards to business and consulting.

Last time I talked about e-mail addresses - how not using a qualified domain name for your business in your e-mail address can alter your business' image. This time, I'd like to talk about outgoing voicemail messages. They seem harmless enough, but let me give you an example:Read More >

Editor's Note: TVCNet member Mike Fisch of Apropos has written a post for his blog about the difference between a feature and benefit. Because of its relevance to consulting in the process of marketing our products and services, we have reposted it here. Enjoy!

It's important to distinguish between features and benefits, because customers care much more about benefits. In fact, benefits are really what sell a product.Read More >

Recently I learned a very handy way to manage the flood of e-mail that I'm sure you too experience on a daily basis. It's called Inbox Zero and there is a collection of articles on this topic at the site 43 Folders.Read More >

As a consultant, you want to be on top of two things in your daily work. First, is what is being said about you and your business. The second, is what is being said about your profession and the industry you serve.

The internet has made it easier to monitor what is being said about us and our industry. You could go through the daily routine of running keyword searches in your favorite search engine to see what appears, but there is a simple way to keep tabs on your reputation by automating this task.Read More >