The Career Encouragement Blog

Leaving a Corporate Job to Become a Consultant

Hundreds - and possibility thousands - of columns, books, and blogs are devoted to the topic of leaving your job to start a business.  The prevailing idea for corporate employees seems to be to start a consulting business of some type.  And while self-employment is not for everyone, it is certainly is a worthwhile and wise choice for many people.  I am concerned, however, at the tone of irreverence and downright disrespect that many of these publications take towards corporate America.  There are two general themes to the negativity:

First, many of the "leave corporate America and become a consultant" advisers neglect to mention that when you are a consultant you need clients.  And for most of us, our clients are corporations.  It is nearly impossible to secure a client if you have an attitude of disrespect towards them (individually or organizationally).   For the sake of making this point, I'll exaggerate a bit, but why would a business hire a consultant whose attitude is "I hate this place so much I ran screaming out of here, but I'd like to hang around a few hours a week and charge a high rate for it?"

Second, many "freedom" advocates will subtly imply that in corporate America you will die a slow death in a cube while the world races by around you.  To the contrary, the most successful consultants I know are grateful for their corporate experience.  They recognize that they received training in both functional skills and corporate processes, as well as a good understanding of the language and culture of the business world that makes them effective as consultants.

I would never begrudge anyone their dream to start their own business - how can I when it is the route I have chosen for myself, and it has been so good to me and my family?  However, in light of some of the scary writings that are out there on this topic, I do feel compelled to offer two pieces of encouragement if you are planning to go the route of consulting:

1. Make sure that you have identified your target client base, and that you have a good sense of respect for who they are, what their goals are, and what they do every day.  Learn to admire what they achieve, and develop a desire to learn from them and to be a part of their success.
2. Figure out what learnings from your current and past work experiences you are grateful for.  Did someone pay for you to take a class?  Did a boss teach you a particular process or skill that you can now teach others?  Ask yourself if you have learned everything you can from your current and past corporate opportunities. 

The two pillars of a great career are developing your skills and making a contribution.  If you can find the ways that you have done this in your corporate job, and figure out how to do them both as a consultant, you will be much better prepared to navigate the transition from a corporate job to life as a self-employed consultant.

Building a Successful Business

Terrie Wheeler of Professional Services Marketing, Inc. is one of my heroes for 3 reasons:

1. She kept her eye on the goal.  I had the privilege of knowing Terrie "way back when" she was launching her marketing coaching business.  She had ideas for what her business could be, and she thoughtfully, and persistently worked to make it happen!
2. She's a working mother who figured out how to have success and joy in both her work and her family life.
3. She has worked hard to help others have great careers too. 

Reason #3 inspires me in my work the most.  I truly believe that if you work hard to help others (whether it be your direct reports, your peers, or even your boss) have a great career experience, you cannot help but have a great career experience yourself. 

The Minneapolis Star Tribune recently profiled Terrie's accomplishments and how she has used her success to create opportunities for others.  Congratulations, Terrie!

Have a back-up plan!!

Hi Folks -

You may haven noticed that I haven't posted for some time now. That's because a few days ago, just as I was logging in to the Internet to put up a posting, my computer screen suddenly went black and a gray box appeared with the words:

Beginning physical memory dump.

You cannot imagine the horror I felt!  I tried in vain to turn off the computer and stop whatever devastation was occurring.   No such luck.  It would not turn off manually, it would not respond to control-alt-delete, and even when I unplugged it the machine continued to run on battery power. 

Long story short - the hard drive blew.   And although I have saved various critical projects on a jump drive, I didn't have a comprehensive data back-up plan in place so I lost essentially everything.

I have a 2-year old Dell Latitude with a 4-year warranty, so they sent a techie to my house to give me a new hard drive.  Then he casually boxed up my old hard drive and slipped it in his bag.  WHOA!  What about my data?  Apparently Dell does not do data recovery AND they have a "part for a part" replacement policy whereby if they give me a new part, I have to give them the old part.  NO WAY, I said.  If your product failed (they think the hard drive blew because of some sort of mechanical problem) you don't get to abscond with my data.  So they gave me 7 days to get my data and return the old hard drive to them.  7 Days.  Right at Christmas time.  When my whole household was down with the flu (did I forget to mention that part?).  Well not the whole household.  In accordance with the irrevocable rules of all things Mommy, I did not get sick while the rest of them lay in the throes of agony calling for liquids, pain meds, the remote control, another pillow, etc. etc.

So in a rare lull in the action, I dashed over to the most famous tech repair shop in town.  They checked my disk, told me it was torched, and they could send it out to a clean room facility in Kentucky for a "third level data recovery attempt" which would cost me between $1,500 and $2,000.  Hmmmmm...how badly did I want my old life back?

I mentioned my struggles to a colleague who thought their number was high and told me about a little shop he used a couple of years ago to fix his wife's computer.   He said they recovered data others said was irrecoverable, and they were CHEAP!  But he couldn't remember their name - just that they were "a few blocks south of 62."  I immediately kicked into gear with my well-honed PhD-level research skills and pulled out the yellow pages.  I looked under "Computers" and there was a small, unassuming ad:

Chip Heads.  Data Recovery.  On Penn Avenue a few blocks south of 62 in lovely Richfield.  http://www.chipheads.com/

Their shop was neat, clean, welcoming, and most of all - encouraging!  In less than 24 hours they cheerfully recovered all of my data for about $250.  Awesome!!  These guys are running a great business - I cannot say enough positive things about the great experience I had with them. 

So the moral of the story is this:  1) regularly back-up your data.  I now have a remote hard drive I save everything to (the guys at Chip Heads will give you good advice on this.  Since they don't sell computer gear, they will recommend what is most cost-effective for you).  2)  If you have a problem with your computer and you live in the Twin Cities metro area, don't waste your time with the big name, glitzy shops.  Go see the guys at Chip Heads.  You'll save time and money, and you'll have a great customer service experience.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Is being an independant consultant right for you?

Being an independent consultant is not the right career choice for everyone.  But if you've ever considered quitting your corporate job for life as an independent consultant, you'll be interested in a recent report by the Hudsen Employment Index: The Lure of Autonomy - A Global Study of Professional Workers.  Among other things, the report points out that while independent contractors do not receive many of the direct benefits of full-time employment, they are typically better paid and happier.

What do you think?  Post a comment and let us know!