Friday 17 December 2010

Follow #goodnews to boost confidence

Seems to me that there are lots of small good news stories emerging at the moment, but they're being swamped by the general doom and gloom in the media. For example, there's manufacturing growth in the South West where private sector growth has steadily increased.


We've seen a steady increase in private clients coming to us looking for consultants and perhaps more significantly there's demand for training - which is one of the sectors that's been hit hardest over the last 18 months. I'll be re-tweeting all good news stories under the hashtag #goodnews - so if you want an antidote to the professional doom-mongers just follow twitter.com/skillfair !

Wednesday 8 December 2010

got the project - but having trouble getting paid?

A common issue for consultants is that sometimes the euphoria of landing a tasty project can evaporate very quickly when you realise that actually getting paid is going to be as much of a problem as getting the work was in the first place! I've been having some Twitter conversations about late payments and thought I'd share some of the ideas with you;

  • check your client has received the invoice a few days after you send it - so they know you're on the case
  • if you have any doubts about the clients financial status, ask for a deposit
  • don't keep on working if you're not getting paid - if you do they don 't feel any pain - make it clear to someone to whom your work matters that lack of payment is a problem and will mean they don't get what they want
  • get someone who's not directly involved with the client to chase the payment (I use my husband for this!)

Any other suggestions?

Thursday 2 December 2010

Are projects like snow?

I sometimes think projects being posted on Skillfair are a bit like snow, some areas get a steady reliable flow - almost regardless of what else is happening, whereas others only see the white stuff in flurries. Last week we had a sudden influx of training related projects (and there seems to be a steady demand for assessors of vocational qualifications in particular) - this is after a fairly dire period in the training industry as a whole.

Today the papers are talking about a bigger than expected rise in manufacturing output and simultaneously we've had 3 fairly tasty engineering related projects appear on the site. These involve vacuum pumps, nuclear materials and safety valves - fairly specialist stuff but it's good to see activity from the industry. The projects have all come via our relationship with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Lets hope the project flurries develop further even when the snow disappears :-)