Skillfair Consultants Network - Blog

Time to hand back the watch?

2011-10-27T16:02:00.001+01:00

Last night I went to see Southside Johnny and the Astbury Jukes. The venue was dire and the performer well past his prime, it made me wonder who tells performers when they ought to hand up their microphones? You would suspect falling audiences and record sales but obviously despite being in a 5th rate venue Johnny isn’t getting the message.

So what you wonder has this got to do with consultancy? Well, it made me wonder who tells a consultant it is time to hand the watch back? If our clients aren’t happy with what we do then they don’t renew a contract – quite telling and something to make us think. But when that happens do we think well I must brush up on my skills or think about diversifying? Probably not to start off with but we should as consultants not just offer up our tried and tested expertise but also learn to embrace new methods of working that will continue to excite and captivate both existing clients and help us to reach out to a wider audience.

As consultants we can gather this sort of information anecdotally from our trusted network but I feel we should take some time out occasionally to add to our knowledge and to perhaps network with new people, some of whom having never met us before (like me last night with Johnny) won’t be afraid to show us where our ways of working could do with a little revision.

So for me the best event in the calendar is the Skillfair conference as it brings together at least 50 and often more consultants both as delegates and speakers with a fabulous array of topics which I would otherwise have to look far and wide over many days to cover.

Unlike Johnny who has lost a potential fan and the respect of a long term admirer I will be observing what my audience is saying to me.

Five weeks till Skillfair Conference!

2011-10-06T17:10:00.000+01:00

Now that the main UK political party conferences are out of the way, the UK’s media and press will no doubt turn its full attention onto our own Skillfair annual conference. It’s now only FIVE WEEKS to conference.

This is possibly the most important opportunity you will get this year to learn more about how to network, influence, market, and deliver your consultancy and advice. We have a really unmissable line-up and the peer-networking will, as usual, be a core feature of the information-packed full-day’s programme.

We are keeping the familiar format of short talks in the morning followed by Open Space where you get a chance to steer the direction of the subjects covered and after lunch, the elective workshops sessions will take place.

Many delegates in the past have said things like “I wish I could have attended ALL the afternoon workshops” and while we can’t quite manage that, this year we are running TWO afternoon workshops with some being run in both slots so there should be more flexibility to see more of what’s most important to you in developing your own business.

This week we feature Stuart Blake who will be presenting a workshop entitled: Impress with your CV/Business Profile

Stuart Blake founded and manages Plan Your Career and Regardez Consulting. His team has over 85 years combined experience in the global staffing marketplace. They specialise in a full suite of CV writing, career planning and coaching services for individuals at any stage of their career, and in all industry sectors. With their expertise and guidance, individuals can maximise their full potential through effectively marketing their skills and experience.

Stuart began his career in 1986 at Robert Walters Associates, the leading financial recruitment business. He then became UK Managing Director of Harrison Willis, a multi-disciplined multi- site recruiter and later, Managing Director of Greatfleet (Fleet Search and Selection).

Whilst many of Stuart’s clients are individuals, he has also worked extensively with the Armed Forces and within the Public Sector. Described by former employers as “a great motivator and manager” with the ability to “inspire and encourage” people in their careers, Stuart’s session will be key to helping consultants impress their prospective clients.

See the entire timetable and speaker list here : Skillfair Conference 2011

Business Intelligence? or Business Intuition?

2011-09-01T16:42:00.000+01:00

How do you make your business decisions? Facts or intuition...
How do you measure performance? Actionable metrics or gut feel...
Do I have good business intelligence? What is it?

If you Google ‘Business Intelligence’ the top search Wikipedia offers this insight:
“Business intelligence (BI) mainly refers to computer-based techniques used in identifying, extracting, and analyzing business data ... BI uses technologies, processes, and applications to analyze mostly internal, structured data and business processes. Business intelligence aims to support better business decision-making...” But even this explanation is out of date as external and unstructured data are falling within the scope.

In simple terms business intelligence encapsulates the interaction and collaboration of data, technology, processes and people to give a competitive edge ...and every business is at a different stage in their BI strategic evolution. There are significant benefits from getting this right and threats for poorly executed or zero strategy. Assessing the four key ingredients in turn:

The volumes of data available to companies are expanding at rates never seen before. The traditional internal sources are being augmented by large volumes of external and unstructured data from web and social media sources and data coming from the adoption of new technologies such as RFID and smart sensors. The key challenge is how these rich data assets can be translated into business value.

The technology landscape is moving rapidly with virtualisation, cloud computing, the Web 2.0 technologies (social networks, wikis and blogs) and software capable of analysing huge data sets at a transactional level. The growth in mobile devices is driving the way in which data is consumed by the customer and is increasing the need for companies to provide Mobile BI. These technology changes have made BI, once the reserve of large companies, accessible to all. But technology is just an enabler in this journey.

Getting your business processes aligned to your business model and operating as efficiently as possible has always been a critical success factor. The advances in both data and technology are challenging some of the traditional business models and processes. Customers are becoming more demanding and the speeds at which decisions need to be made are shortening.

It is the role of people that ensures whether these three factors can be harnessed successfully. These people include all stakeholders in a business...including shareholders, management, staff, customers and suppliers. The organisational agility of SME’s put them in a strong position to take advantage of an increased focus on their BI strategy.

UKITA can help with guidance on how to assess the options and implementation of successful business intelligence and data strategies. If you would like more information, email andrew.corbett@ukita.co.uk - As Sherlock Holmes said “Give me data dear Watson!! I can then make an informed deduction!”

Thanks to Peter Dean - peterdean@bi-strategy.co.uk - from Business Intelliegence and Strategy for the use of this piece. http://www.bi-strategy.co.uk/

Ten years and 30,000 consultants

2011-08-25T16:59:00.000+01:00

This week saw us reach a significant milestone.

On Tuesday, the 30,000th consultant signed up for their 3 month guest consultant account. That's an awful lot of people through our virtual doors in our more than 10 years of operation.

That doesn't mean that we have 30,000 consultants as current members of course.

Not all guest account holders go on to become full paying members and not all full members stay with us for the rest of their natural lives (shocking but true)

The actual numbers at any time are in the 'ball park' of 1,000 full members, 1,000 on guest accounts and a further 10,000 ex-members, ex-guests, registered clients and people who have simply asked to be kept informed. So we have around 12,000 people on our weekly email contact list and getting this newsletter.

That's quite a large community divided across corporate, engineering & technology, IT consultants and small business advisers. It's a fantastic targeted audience for members to post projects and offers to and for companies to advertise to in the weekly newsletter.

A reminder of how Skillfair works:

Every day we scan over 1,100 websites and other sources, then our UK-based analysts - led by Cath - select and tag the best with the skills needed for the project or tender. Overnight, our system compares these with the skill-set you have entered and drops your personalised listing into your inbox around 8 am each morning. That's a lot of legwork and expert sifting being done for less than 3 pounds a week.

Members can also search for consultants with particular skills to bring in on their projects and can put their own projects and offers into the system. We also take some commercial advertising as long as it is appropriate for our audience. We also have arrangement with some public and private sector organisations to enable them to post their projects straight into Skillfair which means that many of the projects don't appear elsewhere.

People can also speak to the membership helpline which is looked after by Angela and she helps members to get the most out of the system, optimise their profiles and she gets to know the people who phone or email her regularly. When clients put tenders and projects directly into our system, Angela gets in touch to make sure the client is genuine and at the end of the project contact period - she gets back in touch with them to find out how it went for them.

Skillfair isn't just a computerised conveyor belt then. There are real people at the heart of it who are constantly working on members behalf, looking for ways to improve the services and listening to your comments about how you would like to see things improved.

If you know anyone who ought to be getting the benefit of Skillfair, please forward this message along to them and tell them to consider signing up for a guest account to try us out.

Chips off the old blocks?

2011-08-04T16:55:00.000+01:00

So. Will they just rebuild the 9 big sandcastles that got kicked over as a series of smaller but similar sandcastles?

What am I on about? Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPS) of course - I shouldn't care about them, but I seem to.

The bee in my bonnet is the risk of un-thought-through obsession with so-called high growth companies.

Which comes first - the public-sector assistance or the growth?

The NESTA report (read it here) provides figures about the often-quoted 'vital 6%' of businesses that give rise to 54% of the new jobs as providing evidence that we should be helping these companies more or less to the exclusion of all others. I won't treat you to my broken record about how if all the silent majority of businesses with modest growth ambitions merely employed one or two extra people then it would have a massively greater uplift effect in GVA and employment than a few poster-boy projects that get in to the regional business press being photographed with some well-known local politician in the frame. I also won't rehearse the joke about the computer firm that was so successful it had to move to SMALLER premises. It was mildly amusing in the 70s when I first heard it, the point that in the modern digital economy, growth often means a bigger server, not hiring extra people.

Where is the research that shows the long-term prognosis for these high growth companies? Well, here for a start ! Click to read A Fast Track Decade

It's a short enough read for a dullard like me and makes its points succinctly. It makes the point that a sizeable number (one in five) of high growth companies aren't around a few years later - although where's the control statistic for non high growth companies over the same period? It also provides an interesting comparison between the characteristics that make for high growth in good times (timing, strength of management) compared to what's correlated to high growth in difficult times which is differentiation through niches and innovation.

A number of other interesting points are made in the document but my real plea is that someone does some new thinking and maybe some research about whether the NESTA 6% figure still holds true, holds true across all industry sectors and the longevity of the jobs apparently created.

In the meantime, I fear that the LEP boards may simply pick up the clothes left behind by the RDAs and cut them down to match the new slim-line funding sources and end up doing a pale imitation of the perhaps imperfectly-targeted schemes that the RDAs were so fond of.

How about some new thinking and new research anyone?

The Brazilian Connection

2011-06-16T17:48:00.000+01:00

This week, we have been snowed-under with the preparation and hosting of a small trade mission from Brazil and were still taking care of them at 7pm Thursday night when the giant wheels of the newsletter presses usually start to turn.

The delegation is from an organisation called FIESC http://www.fiescnet.com.br/ which is a single hybrid business support organisation for Santa Catarina state which is one of the 26 states which make up the Federative Republic of Brazil.

As Brazil is the B of BRICS, it's been interesting to spend 3 days hosting the delegation, showing them how the UK's IT and consultancy sectors work and drawing comparisons with Brazil.

With over 6 million inhabitants, Santa Catarina is about the same population as the West Midlands so we can try to compare it economically to a typical UK RDA region.

FIESC is a combination of BIS, Chamber of Commerce, Business Link, UKTI, e-Skills and Technology Strategy Board with departments covering each industry sector and employing 2,000 staff to do this for an RDA-sized economy.

Then there is also the federal (national) layer which overlays these functions.

Is it my imagination or are they really very well provided with business support in Santa Catarina?

In the many meetings we had over the 3 days, one common theme that came out was that the EU is much more internally diverse in its business cultures than an outsider might think and that a number of uniform, deeply-held but always unattributable perceptions or prejudices were in place regarding which countries are good or bad to work with, reliable or unreliable business partners, honest or less honest counterparts.

Anyone care to guess which EU countries were the saints and which the sinners?

Have any of you got contacts or interests in Santa Caterina state or elsewhere in Brazil ? Or are interested in getting involved in a possible future project involving 2-way exchange of expertise, products and services between Brazil and the EU?

If so, get in touch using the usual methods and depending on response, we would look at setting up a 'UK-BRICS opportunities' group.

How do you deal with incoming enquiries?

2011-02-09T10:36:00.000Z

I receive emails from numerous discussion forums and was intrigued this week to see a someone regaling the list with a tale of woe after trying to place some work with suppliers. The client had asked the list for recommendations for suppliers to build some specialist software, and had duly gone off and called the recommended companies, about 10 in all. 3 had failed to answer the phone at all, 5 answered the phone but couldn't pass him onto someone to deal with his enquiry and the final 2 were the right people but wouldn't discuss budgets in even the vaguest terms. So despite no doubt spending considerable time and effort soliciting enquiries from potential clients none of the companies came close to actually getting the business.

In theory small companies and one man bands have an advantage in this scenario - if you work for yourself there's no question of delegating dealing with enquiries to someone else. But the story does highlight how important it is to be clear about the questions you need to ask a client to understand exactly what they need, how big a job it's likely to be and whether you are a good fit to their requirements. We know from experience that extracting the right information from clients can be remarkably difficult, which is why we have a standard form we use to collect background information about the projects that come in to Skillfair. Given that a client calling you to ask for help is what most of us are working hard to achieve I think it's well worth taking some time out to make your own checklist or questionnaire so you make sure that you're the one company that does respond well to the next enquiry!

JH2MHZ73FE6N - tag for technorati - ignore :-)

2011 - Outlook for consultants

2011-01-21T18:01:00.001Z

The early results from our 2011 fee rate survey are coming in already - we asked people how they feel about 2011 and we're getting quite positive vibes. Over half our consultants are expecting their businesses to grow this year - including those with a bias towards the public sector. Seems to be a combination of 'any change means there's a need for consultancy' and a feeling that businesses are adjusting to new market conditions and just 'getting on with it'. To let us know what you think just complete the survey - there's a prize draw for a free Skillfair membership if you leave us your email address.

Getting together to do business

2011-01-14T12:08:00.000Z

Sorry for the silence here since Christmas - having slipped on the ice and broken my wrist my appetite for typing has been a bit subdued! Just sent out this week's newsletter talking about the importance of collaborating with other consultants to win business that you couldn't win by yourself. Then realised that it would be a really good idea if people who already belong to established networks could let other people know about them.

The easiest way to do that was to start up a LinkedIn discussion on the subject, so if you belong to or are aware of formal or informal networks that you think work effectively please let us know here or comment on this blog.

Follow #goodnews to boost confidence

2010-12-17T08:26:00.000Z

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 !

got the project - but having trouble getting paid?

2010-12-08T10:58:00.000Z

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?

Are projects like snow?

2010-12-02T08:36:00.000Z

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 :-)

Training industry waking from the dead?

2010-11-22T08:45:00.000Z

Training is an industry that's often hit hard by recession - it's a very easy area to cut budgets and is often one of the first to feel the axe and the last to emerge as companies start to feel more confident. As a result, freelance trainers and small training companies have to plan for fairly severe ups and downs in business volumes.

Over the last few weeks we've been seeing a few training and workforce development projects coming through from clients - and this has turned into a significant flurry in the last week. Probably too soon to say training is back to normal, but there are definite signs that this whole are is reviving. On past experience there will be an even bigger flurry of work just before Christmas (as people clear their desks for the holidays) and again in early January - so any independent consultants, facilitators and trainers on Skillfair should probably stop Christmas shopping and make sure they're ready for incoming enquiriues!

Looking Forward - this Wednesday and beyond!

2010-11-15T16:27:00.000Z

Despite the dark evenings, wind and rain - I really like this time of year as there's a real sense of urgency as people try to fit things in before Christmas - and you can also start to put one year behind you and plan for the next. It's strange that a simple thing like clicking the calendar on one day can make such a difference, but in all the businesses I've worked in there's always been a significant surge in business in January. I also like November because our annual conference is our only chance each year to meet you face to face and find out directly what you think about business, Skillfair, consulting and lots of other issues. If you haven't booked yet we have 2 or 3 places left for next Wednesday - just click here for details and to book.

The theme of the conference is 'Personal and Business Growth' - the aim being to set people up so that they're ready for what 2011 will bring. Even if you're not able to come along it's worth spending some time over the next month or so planning and working out what you need to do next year. It may be that you've been frantically busy working - in which case you could look at ways of delegating some of your work to get a better balance - or if the effort you've put in on sales and marketing just hasn't borne any fruit at all - now is a good time to take stock and work out what to do differently. We'll be listening hard to everyone on Wednesday so even if you can't make it we'll make sure to share the ideas and insights that come out of the day over the next few weeks.

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines

2010-11-04T08:40:00.000Z

Finding the motivation to do difficult things - where do you get it from?

I've been following a discussion on motivational quotes on Linked In - and some have made me chuckle - particularly;

"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines."

Posted this on the Skillfair LinkedIn group and predictably got even more useful advice and quotes back from members - my favourite so far;

"Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles; it empties today of its joys"

Consultants Conference - Last chance to book

2010-11-03T11:54:00.000Z

The Skillfair conference is only 2 weeks away - and we're looking forward to meeting members and guests from all over the UK. If you've been waiting to see if your diary is clear, we have less than 10 places left and there's usually a flurry of last minute bookings - so now is definitely your last chance to book.

The formal sessions will cover topics including sales, marketing, social media, tendering and many more - with the aim of providing you with a boost to your skills and energy levels - something that is much needed in the current economic climate.

We'll also be announcing our plans for the next phase of Skillfair's development and asking for your opinions and input. For information on our thoughts so far have a look at the Skillfair blog.

We've kept the price for this year's conference the same as last year at £150 (£125 for Members) - making it exceptionally good value - to book your place just click here and login - or check out the full agenda.

Useful guide to using a consultant

2010-08-23T08:54:00.000+01:00

Just spotted a very useful Guide to Using a Consultant from ICAEW - tweeted by theLBSS - straightforward and balanced. It reminded me of asaying I've heard a few times, which is that the second consultant a business uses is always better than the first! Essentially, this is because businesses often don't really know what they want the first time round - and this often results in a fairly unsatisfactory experience for both the business and the advisor/consultant.

Second time around the business is usually much more focused, chooses an advisor who will be able to meet their objectives and everyone is happy! It would be nice if we could skip the first unhappy experience though - do you have any other thoughts on how to do this?

Useful info on Security Vetting

2010-08-20T08:07:00.001+01:00

Consultants and contractors who want to work in the public sector, particularly in defence or the more sensitive areas, have often found the vetting system an insuperable obstacle. Essentially you're told you can't be vetted until you're in a contract - but won't be considered for a contract unless you've been vetted.

PCG have been lobbying government on this issue for a number of years and there's been a recent Prime ministers statement on the subject that sets out the rules more clearly than before.

Take a look at the PCG website for more details.

Should Business Advice be Free?

2010-08-20T08:03:00.001+01:00

Discussions about LEPs seem to be gathering pace despite the holiday season and a couple of LinkedIn groups have sprung up to discuss developments around the country - From RDA to LEP and Local Enterprise Partnerships. A separate issue that's also being discussed is whether startups and small businesses should expect free advice at all. Given how much advice is already available on the internet there's an argument that small businesses should just be left to get on with things.

The main argument for free advice being provided by the government is that if businesses are better advised and equipped they are more likely to succeed and grow - with benefits to the whole economy. The counter argument is that people may be less likely to listen to and act on free advice. Given that so many of our members have lots of experience working with small businesses I thought it would be interesting to fund out what you think. If you have a moment, please fill in this one page survey and give us your thoughts - I'll post the results here next week.

Really useful sources of business advice

2010-08-12T18:26:00.000+01:00

I've been reading a lot of blogs and articles about business advice and support recently, many allied to discussions about Business Links etc, and it occurred to me that this group should be an excellent source of what you might call 'really useful sources of advice'.

I have distinct preference for 'going straight to the horses mouth' so probably my top ones are the key government sites;

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk

http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/ (Patent Office)

These are very factual though so it would be interesting to know what sources you've found most useful in your business so far and why.

What makes a good article or blog post?

2010-07-30T08:53:00.003+01:00

My request for small busines oriented articles last week generated plenty of offers of help, so thank you to everyone who responded. In the longer term we plan to make it possible for all members to publish their own articles on the site making Skillfair a richer source of advice, which will help boost your own website presence on search engines as well.

A few people have asked if we have any editorial guidelines for articles - I'm reluctant to be too prescriptive as I know that things like length and amount of jargon depend very heavily on what you're writing about. But there are some key features that I think any article needs if it's to earn it's keep as part of your marketing effort - so I've written a brief article "What makes a good article?" - why not take a look and let me know if I've managed to follow my own advice!

What's in a LEP

2010-07-29T16:46:00.000+01:00

LEPs are Local Enterprise Partnerships and it looks as though they will be in charge of any funding for small business advice once RDAs and Business Links disappear.

I've been hearing about events around the UK set up by Chambers, Councils and other interested parties to discuss setting up new Local Enterprise Partnerships. So far I know they've happened in West Midlands and are planned in Plymouth and Lancashire next week. If you know of any others please feed back here.

Anyone for a wildebeest collection?

2010-07-26T09:11:00.000+01:00

Well the school holidays are here - so it's my turn to manage our tenders research and loading process. The flow of big tenders has definitely slowed down - but the smaller and more niche opportunities seem to have increased to compensate, which is good news for smaller companies.

I'd forgotten how many weird and wonderful projects there are out there - particularly on the fringes of the public sector - our researches take in not-for-profits, charities and an assortment of former public sector organisations. This weekend saw what could be my all-time favourites though - one from the Natural History Museum for Wildebeest Collection Storage cabinets and another to manage the "hanging of Armada paintings in Pariliament"

Priceless!

Don't be scared of social media

2010-07-21T16:06:00.003+01:00

Social media is the buzzword of the day in marketing speak, but to us mere mortals, it can prove to be a bit of a minefield. We’ve got a great workshop at the conference this year which will provide an overview of the main tools available and some practical insight on how you can use these to promote your own services. http://www.skillfair.co.uk/content/1075/Skillfair-2010-Conference.aspx

In the meantime here are a few dos and don’ts of online networking:

· Take a bit of time to get to know particular forums and discussion groups before you join – this will give you a good idea about who’s active and the way it’s run.
· Once you’ve found out about a group's protocol, make sure you follow it! Whilst some groups are happy for you to do a bit of self promotion now and again, others may not look at it so kindly.
· Beware of ‘reply to all’ buttons – if someone has requested an answer with personal information, send it to them and not the whole group!

RDA and Business Links – What Next?

2010-07-19T14:50:00.007+01:00

The news that the Government will be scrapping Regional Development Agencies and the small business advice services provided through Business Link has caused a fair amount of consternation and uncertainty among business advisors and independent consultants. Not surprisingly we at Skillfair have been watching with interest and have put in our two-pennyworth on the subject. Our general stance is that small businesses should be able to choose how they access advice and that the best people to provide that advice are the independent advisor and consultant community (see our letter to Mark Prisk) rather than large organisations, whether private or public sector.

I’ve talked with a number of consultants from different parts of the UK recently and also attended a talk by an RDA representative last week. The impression I've received is that this confusion is likely to last for some time yet. The RDAs and BIS (department for Business, Innovation and Skills) are currently working on the detailed process for winding down the RDAs, something that is likely to take until early in 2012 to be fully complete. This may seem a long time but each RDA has at least 300 people to deal with and in some areas of the country they also have significant contracts with deliver companies that will need to be unwound.

So what will the result be when the process is complete? It’s hard to be clear on details but the information we have is that business start-ups will be serviced as much as possible via the web and that BIS favours using their own websites to ‘signpost’ start-ups to web resources provided by the private sector rather than delivering advice direct. Support aimed at growth businesses and other specialist support will be provided through Local Enterprise Partnerships – which it seems are likely to consist of consortia of local government organisations, the exact composition of these will vary from area to area. It seems like that these LEP’s will need to source any face to face business advice from the market so there may well be opportunities for individual advisors and groups of advisors to bid for this work – and obviously we’ll make sure that Skillfair tracks these tenders as they emerge.

What is Skillfair doing?

One of the main complaints we get from members is that we don’t get enough opportunities from the private sector, and although the level of private projects has dramatically increased since we launched the new website we feel we could do even better – particularly when it comes to attracting smaller businesses. Given the confusion in the small business advice market we think that more SMEs will be turning to the web and sites like Skillfair – so to make sure that our members get the benefit we’ll be making a number of significant additions to our service over the next few months.

SME Marketplace

The first change is that we’ll be adding an SME market to our existing Business, IT and Technology markets. This will have a much reduced set of skills focused on the core SME requirements and will be open to Accountants, Solicitors and other general business advisors. The new market will be accompanied by a revamped search facility that will allow clients to search without worrying about which market they’re in – and will also guide them to skills they’re looking for by ‘auto-filling’ the search for them rather like the search facilities on Amazon and eBay.

Existing members will be able to add a free profile to the SME market for the first year – after which they can decide whether to keep more than one profile.

Advertising

You’ll have noticed that adverts have been appearing on your daily alerts for a while – we plan to continue this and also to add a new ‘Advert Alert’ which will go out on Wednesday evenings. This alert – which will be entirely optional – will allow businesses providing services to small home based businesses like consultants to advertise their services to our consultant database and will provide another reason for small business owners to visit the site.

Small Business Site Launch

We are currently designing a new branding or 'skin' for the Skillfair website aimed solely at appealing to small business owners. This will be very simple, direct and to the point and it’s objective will be to link small businesses up as quickly and effectively as possible with advisors and consultants who can help them. The new website will exist alongside the existing Skillfair site – but using the same functionality and database so that as long as you have a profile on Skillfair, SMEs will be able to find and communicate with you – there won’t be any extra charge for appearing on the new site.

We’ll be inviting you to contribute articles and advice for small businesses to this site rather than trying to provide these ourselves, all of which will be linked back to your own profile and websites so that you benefit from the effort and exposure. We will, of course, be making sure that Skillfair and the new site feature on any government sponsored website that emerges from the coming changes and we’d appreciate your support in that and in publicising both the SME market on Skillfair and the new site when it’s ready.

Connecting sideways - who should you link with?

2010-06-18T07:55:00.000+01:00

I spent last Thursday evening talking about Social Networking & Marketing with a group of managers and consultants from IBC and CMI (the Chartered Management Institute) and apart from the challenge of fitting nearly 40 people into a room designed for 25, one of the key issues we discussed was how to make sure your efforts in social networking reach the right people. While posting your deep thoughts and what you had for breakfast on Twitter may be fun it won't bring in any business unless your potential clients are listening! As we all know though, the people you most want to meet as a consultant are the decision makers within a business and they're often far too busy to get involved in online networking - in fact in larger companies they may not even be able to access the websites.

One option that can pay dividends is to think slightly sideways about who you need to contact and influence. For example, if you offer facilitation or training you might be better off trying to contact interim managers or change managers who need to find ways of changing the way an organisation works. Similarly, HR specialists could seek out lawyers who specialise in employment tribunals and web designers could (and often do) hook up with marketing agencies and graphic designers who target similar clients. So your challenge for the weekend is to see if you can come up with a creative set of sideways contacts to make - to share them with with us just post a comment here.

Whcih gadgets are really useful in business?

2010-06-03T18:06:00.001+01:00

Watching assorted news items about queues for iPads in London this week I was reminded of all the really useful gadgets I've bought over the years. Each one claimed it would allow me to organise or improve my life, but with a few honourable exceptions such as my trusty ultra-lightweight laptop, they've generally fallen by the wayside. As a result I've become a bit of a Luddite in the last few years, refusing to jump on the latest bandwagon and making do with well-known technology. However, my life hasn't got any less busy and, like most consultants, I really do need to make use of any spare time when I'm travelling, if only to deal with the rising tide of email.

Having given in and acquired an iPhone though, I still have choices to make: Should I download an App to keep track of my time or stick with a notebook? Which of the dozens of news feed readers should I pick? Would I actually use a to-do list or a business card scanner on my phone? I'm not sure of the answers yet, but I'd be interested to know which bits of technology you've found genuinely useful over the years. I think many consultants hold off investing in new technology for fear of wasting time & money - and it would be really good to share information about what really works. I've posted here some details of some technologies I've found useful - why not add your thoughts on the best (or worst!) gadgets you've tried.

Laptops - couldn't be without one but much prefer a lightweight one I can tuck in my briefcase
Mobile Phone - actually I've barely used this till recently as my home office is in a signal balckspot - but have just acquired a signal booster from Vodafone which might change everything!
IPhone Apps - so far I've found these useful;

Magnifying glass - good for those who need reading glasses!
RSS feed reader - lets me see whats going on on Skillfair without logging in

Considering, but not sure about, business card scanner, voice to email, time recorder, to-do list

Big vs Small in Business and Consultancy

2010-06-01T09:40:00.000+01:00

It's funny how sometimes you start writing about a topic and then find that lot's of other people have picked up on the same thread. Having talked about big vs small business in rugby terms last week I've come across a few discussions on LinkedIn Groups ( Marketing Consultants and Accountancy Age) talking about the pros and cons of using large consultancies or independents. My take from a client's point of view on when to choose large or Small is here.

Then an article talking about the issue from a different angle popped into my inbox (Telling the 800lb Gorilla to go...) talks about big vs small from the competitive angle - in other words, should you worry about competing with the big boys - or just focus on ploughing your own profitable little furrow?

Rugby 7's and Small Business?

2010-05-28T08:00:00.000+01:00

This may seem a rather odd metaphor, but while watching the World rugby sevens tournament last weekend it struck me that the difference between a 7 or 15 a side team is a lot like the difference between small and big businesses. In a sevens team there are never enough people, they all have far too much to do and quickly become exhausted. By contrast, although the 15 a side game is still very demanding there's a little more time to organise and take an occasional breather and it's much easier to defend your position. And of course some teams get themselves thoroughly stuck in a rut.

Attack is better than defence

What's very noticeable about sevens games is that it's almost impossible to play a purely defensive game, teams have to take risks and while the best teams have a clear plan and strategy they're also very good at spotting an opportunity. I think there's a message there for smaller businesses - while it's tempting to cut costs and pull your horns in, few of us have the resources to do that for very long - and we certainly can't tread water for as long as larger businesses. All of which means our best strategy is to go out and attack the market, tell people what we're doing and create the opportunities we need rather than waiting for things to improve by themselves.

Everyone Counts

Another feature of 7's vs 15's is that in 15's, at least at the lower levels of the game, it is possible for one or two players to under-perform without the results being catastrophic. In 7's though everyone has to perform to their absolute best all the time, otherwise the whole team will go down!

If you have any ther sport/business analogies or comments please let me know!

Any suggestions for our conference this year?

2010-04-01T16:16:00.000+01:00

Following on from Gill's blog about meeting positive people, it's prompted me to start thinking about this year's conference. It's going to be held in London in November and we've decided to stick with the new format we introduced last year of shorter sessions during the morning and longer, more in-depth workshops in the afternoon. Every year we work hard to research material and speakers that are informative, relevant and provide the 'positive energy' that's generated from like-minded people coming together - if you've got any suggestions for topics and speakers for this year's event, please let us know!

Meeting positive people gives you energy

2010-03-25T19:20:00.000Z

Meeting up with other people who have a positive attitude to life and business has given me a real boost over the last few weeks. I've been very lucky - attending a speed networking event run by the IOD in Reading, meeting up with a very positive group of Skillfair members in London, and topping all that off with a team meeting this week. The result has been that I feel really energised and have started tackling a whole range of challenges that I'd left on the back burner. So if you're not sure what you should do next, why not get out and about and pick up some energy from your fellow businesses?

I'm booked to speak at quite a few events over the next few months so I'm hoping the energy will keep coming, if you're around Derby, Birmingham or Central London it would be great to meet up.

please don't use premium credit cards

2010-03-22T10:49:00.000Z

Being an entirely online business we take all of our payments online - and over the last 18 months we've been hit by successive increases in the costs of credit card transactions - each transaction costs us around 3.5% of the gross payment (including the VAT) and the percentage has increased steadily. It's always amazed me how much public discussion of credit cards only talks about the interest rate charged to customers and ignores the fact that the banks now take a cut on almost every retail transaction in the UK.

This morning I've had yet another letter from my 'friendly' bank saying that any transactions on premium cards will cost an extra 0.7%.

This is affecting all retailers, on and off line - so if you want to keep your money out of the banks clutches please avoid the premium card - and you'll be helping the retailers too.

Useful social marketing sites and tools - can you add any?

2010-03-18T20:25:00.000Z

One of the most useful aspects of our on-line marketing workshop last night was being able to pick up on new facilities and websites that other people suggested. This table is a summary of all the ones we discussed - if you have any others please let us know.

Google	Search Engines -The amount and quality of your content is important in making sure your site or blog is indeed. Links to and from other related sites are also useful
Bing (Microsoft’s new search engine)
Yahoo
MSN
Wikipedia	An authoritative site with definitions of just about everything. Look and see if a subject you know about is in need of an editor – but be careful to be unbiased and non-commercial in what you say
Delicious	bookmarking sites where people can search for articles and blogs.
Digg
Twitter	A micro-blogging site – people post 140 character messages about what they’re doing. You can follow people you find interesting and other people can follow you.
Google Buzz	Google’s version of Twitter
Facebook	Used heavily by teenagers and increasingly adults to run their social lives. Post events, pictures, messages and play games
LinkedIn	Much used by professionals, particularly those looking for work. Can post a detailed CV, start discussion groups, post events etc. There are many LinkedIn groups for professional disciplines and other organisations – or set up your own.
Viadeo	Similar to LinkedIn – some different features on each. Generally business oriented
Naymz
ecademy
YouTube	Video sharing site – great time waster!
FlickR	Photo sharing
MySpace
Free index	Business directory and forums for small business
Hotfrog	Free Business directory
Plaxo	Online contacts/address book
Hi5	Like facebook but (allegedly) more fun

Wordpress	Sites that allow you to build a blog very quickly – just subscribe and you can have a blog within a few minutes. Then you just need something to say!
Typepad
Blogger
joomla
Technorati	An index of blogs – mainly US dominated
Feedburner	A way of providing people with feeds from your blog/twitter account
Moonfruit	Template based website building sites
Webeden
google
Crazyegg	Shows a heatmap of your website, tells you where people click
Google analytics	Shows you how many people visit and what they look at
Google Wave	Tools to help you collaborate with partners and clients eg share calendars, co-edit documents
Google Wiki
Huddle
Tweetdeck	Have multliple twitter personalities and/or searches going
Twitterfeed	Link your blog or website feed into twitter
Hootsuite	Similar to tweetdeck - Other twitter clients here http://www.twitstat.com/twitterclientusers.html
friendfeed	Allows you to pull together feeds from friends and display in one place
slideshare	A place to share slide presentations on LinkedIn
Xobni	Link your Outlook email to LinkedIn – similar facilities are also part of the next release of Office.

Would tenders say anything without the banned words?

2010-03-12T11:33:00.000Z

Just seen a post about a new list of 'banned words' that IdEA say shouldn't be used in public sector communications. The list builds on an earlier version here - trouble is for a lot of the tender we post if you removed these words they quite possibly wouldn't say anything at all!

Crowdsourcing for new ideas

2010-03-11T18:47:00.001Z

As you might expect with a workshop on on-line marketing looming I've being doing some reading around to make sure I'm up to date on current thinking - and a phrase that's cropped up a number of times is 'crowd-sourcing'. Essentially, this is the idea that the more people you can get involved in solving a problem or designing something the more likely you are to hit on a novel and effective result. I'm a little sceptical of how useful this is as I think the quality of results will always depend on the quality of your crowd, but I do think there's real value for independent consultants and small businesses generally in tapping in to the ideas and knowledge of other people.

In many ways this is the main benefit of networking, whether on-line or face to face. Other people have different approaches to life and business and the more new people you meet and exchange ideas with, the more chance you have of coming up with your own new ideas. I'm often amazed at just how varied the businesses are that I come across at networking events - and the stories of how people decided what business to start. I also find that approaching events with the aim of listening to other people's stories is much less daunting than going with the aim of selling and is generally more productive anyway!

We're very lucky at Skillfair to be able to use your collective experience and ideas to help us improve the service and come up with new ways to help you and other consultants. In that spirit we'd like to invite ideas for topics that you'd like to see covered at our conference in the autumn. It will be in London in November and we plan to use a similar format to last year, 3 or 4 short talks plus a variety of longer workshops, but we're really keen that the agenda should reflect the issues and problems you're interested in. So if you've seen a great speaker or have a topic that you think is worthy of a workshop session then please let us know

Why are consultants like old bananas?

2010-03-08T15:46:00.000Z

No idea really why consultants are like bananas, but having raced back from picking up a sick teenager from school I got home just in time to be interviewed about consultants & freelancers fee rates on Radio Essex. Trying to compose my thoughtful and articulate comments I was slightly thrown to hear the presenter rattling through assorted uses for old bananas - including a slightly bizarre 'banana coat'!

Things got a little more serious when he started to introduce the subject and we covered all the thorny issues of working for yourself, finding clients, setting fees and the dreaded 'feast and famine' issue. It was nice to be able to promote the concept of freelancing as a useful means for businesses to access highly skilled people and hopefully any of you live in Essex and caught the broadcast won't have found me too embarrassing!

Skillfair members get higher rates than average

2010-03-05T15:22:00.000Z

Having so much data to analyse from the fee survey last week, I didn't get round to checking the regional variations, so I've now added them to the detailed results. As last year, people who say that they work 'all over the UK' do better than anyone and the table is still topped by this category, London and the South East. What did surprise me though, was just how many people are truly mobile as this category made up well over 33% of the responses. More interesting still is the fact that Skillfair members report fee rates on average 11% more than the overall average!

Things are looking up for the self-employed

2010-02-26T08:58:00.000Z

Life has been tough for many independent consultants and freelancers over the last year or so. Clients are under pressure to reduce costs and retain permanent staff – plus to read the press it would seem there are thousands of newly redundant 40 and 50 something’s looking to set up as self-employed.

After analysing the results from this year's fee survey, though, it seems that most consultants are optimistic about the coming year. A whopping 93% see revenue stabilising or improving this year and over half expect to grow.

There has clearly been pressure on fee rates, which have dropped an average of around 8%, and many of our respondents have been asked to work for free - or as good as - at some point in 2009. The good news though is that while people are happy to be flexible for charities or businesses that are really struggling generally they feel confident enough to walk away from clients who are just pushing their luck - which often results in a change of heart from the client!

The key I think is to be clear about the value you bring to a client and make sure they understand this - arguing about fee rates fades into the background if your client knows you will deliver and trusts you to improve their business.

Demonstrating quality

2010-02-22T09:13:00.003Z

I've always been impressed by the depth and variety of experience that so many Skillfair members have, and that's been reflected in the testimonials, references and other information they've provided for quality checking purposes. We've now added a new feature to the system that allows members to display their key memberships and accreditations alongside the quality rating - so clients can see immediately who is 'Prince Qualified' or a 'Chartered Marketer' for example. We'll be contacting the various professional bodies over the next few weeks for permission to use their logos so members will only be able to display their credentials if they've provided evidence of these to us. Once you're a full member of Skillfair you'll be able to add further detail to your profile, as well as your professional credentials, all of which boosts your own website presence on search engines.

Of course qualifications are only part of the story, they're a good way of demonstrating commitment to your profession and distinguishing yourself from other less well-qualified providers. But once you're in touch with a client the various bits of paper are much less important than what you actually do and unfortunately it is much easier to damage a good reputation than it is to build one in the first place. We've had feedback from a few project owners recently that messages they've received have included some fairly obvious spelling mistakes. In a competitive market it's easy to rush your response to any enquiry but it's more important than ever to check and double-check before sending any message - you may be the first to respond, but if you give the wrong impression you'll also be the first on the reject pile.

PS having made that comment about checking things carefully I went live with the new feature without my usual double check that everything was OK - Doh! Apologies to anyone who tried to use it on Friday and was frustrated - all OK now and I promise to be more careful next time :-(

professional, institute, accreditation, CIM, MBA, Prince, ISO

do clients deliberately mislead in tenders?

2010-02-09T16:04:00.000Z

Apparently The National Federation of Builders (NFB) has conducted a poll, which shows that a fifth of small businesses think local authorities do not advertise their tenders properly. Details here

Having just done stint of tender loading I think they may have a point - of the 10 I've just loaded onto Skillfair 3 had seriously misleading titles.

For example, "IT services: consulting, software development, Internet and support", is actually a tender to provide a data centre to host some servers and "information systems or technology strategic review and planning services" is a housing management information system.

I have some sympathy with the clients as they do get a lot of responses but it makes me very glad that we actually read every tender and change the titles to something more meaningful before sending them to our members!

Weird and wonderful tenders

2010-02-05T14:23:00.002Z

One of the things that makes searching for tenders for Skillfair interesting is the eclectic nature of some of the requirements. In the last few months, some of the more unusual ones have ranged from a Totem Pole artist and designer for Liverpool, an entymology consultant for a museum in Berkshire, research into odour nuisance from sewage sludge, plus my all time favourite – being a hermit for a month in a museum tower.

Keeping it simple - do consultants over complicate things?

2010-02-05T07:46:00.000Z

I've come across a few blogs and discussions this week where people have been discussing how they should refer to themselves and their business. Critical issues such as 'do we talk about training or learning' or 'are you a mentor coach or a coach mentor' seemed to have assumed a life of their own. It's true that the language we use makes a difference to how people react to us, the idea behind 'learning and development' rather than 'training' being to help the recipients of the service feel more in control, but I do wonder sometimes if we sometimes agonise too much about how we describe ourselves.

Clients generally come to us with a very clear idea of what they want done and very rarely use complex language to describe it. They are much more likely to ask for 'help' rather than 'coaching' and for a 'training course' rather than a learning experience. Of course, some special language or jargon is essential in getting the precise nature of a requirement across - and we quite often have to resort to looking up some of the more technical requests we get - but in general I think it's worth sticking to plain and simple language whenever you can. If you're not sure if your profile or website has veered too far from simplicity why not ask a friend to review it or take a look at the Plain English website for guidance. I particularly liked their before and after examples of management gobbledegook.

social media - is it just for girls?

2010-02-03T09:06:00.000Z

I've just noticed something odd about the people who've signed up for our Intelligent On-Line Marketing workshop in March. Going by the names it looks as though 80% of them are female - which started me wondering if there's something about the topic that attracts women rather than men?

Do the fellas think they already know how to do it? Maybe you don't want to plan that far ahead or perhaps that male cynicism and scepticism is getting in the way?

If it's the last point - I share the cynicism to some extent, there's a lot of hype about things on-line and it's really important to cut through that and understand exactly which elements of on-line and/or social marketing will deliver useful business contacts rather than the inane chatter that seems to swamp the good stuff on most sites.

What do you think - and what aspects of social marketing are you using?

are things looking up?

2010-01-27T18:35:00.002Z

The 'end of the recession' was hyped up over the weekend, so that yesterday's growth figure of a measly 0.1% seem rather disappointing. So the question is, what's really happening in business and how is it affecting the consultancy and freelance market?

Our fee rate survey seems to be showing some pressure on rates with many consultant reporting clients asking for work to be done for free or very low rates. But on the upside, conversations with contacts in the recruitment industry suggests that the marketing and advertising industries have suddenly started hiring. This suggests that businesses are starting to feel more confident and are looking to marketing to build more sales as the economy picks up.

We've certainly seen a pick up in projects coming to Skillfair, ranging from marketing advice for small businesses through associate requests in business advice/HR to experts in cryogenics!

All of which suggests that now is a good time to start thinking about your own marketing activity. If you're not currently occupied then use the time to check your strategy and get networking, if you're busy maybe you should consider taking on a specialist to help you market yourself so that you don't hit a bad patch when current projects finish.

Whatever size your business, there's a marketing specialist out there who'll be able to help - for some pointers to the kind of activity you should consider, take a look at http://www.skillfair.co.uk/content/757/Need-help-with-marketing-.aspx or for more anecdotal stories about marketing try http://blog.asmartbear.com/

Do you join for business or to socialise?

2010-01-22T17:03:00.000Z

There's been a lively discussion on the Skillfair LinkedIn group on the reasons people join different networking organisations or professional institutes. Some people have joined to get access to insurance or meeting spaces whereas others are more interested in developing their specialist skills.

What seems very clear though, as one member put it,

"There is no doubt that those independent consultants who ‘put themselves about’ – i.e. proactively network in their local/regional business community, will do far better than those who just sit back and hope business will come to them."

So even if your choice isn't perfect it will be better than doing nothing!

How much should a consultant charge?

2010-01-15T17:00:00.000Z

The initial response to our fee rate survey has been stunning - well over 500 responses in the first day. If you've not had time to fill it in yet, please do - the more response we have the better. We're interested in hearing from clients about the kind of extra help they commission and how much it costs - as well as from consultants, advisors, freelancers and interims of all kinds.

One interesting feature that's already emerging is that a lot of people have been asked to do work for free or for very low rates in the last year. Your responses to this seem to be split depending on the reason, with many of you quite comfortable with providing help for little return to charities or to small businesses who are struggling, but with much less sympathy for larger concerns or middlemen trying to maintain high margins in the face of client pressure.

Freelancers always get through!

2010-01-13T17:42:00.000Z

Chatting to my optician today about the snow and how much disruption it's caused - it turns out that he's a freelance locum, working for several opticians in the area - and at each shop he's been the only person to turn up on the days when the snow was heavy.

As he put it, "I don't get paid unless I work, so it takes a lot to stop me getting through!". Coupled with the fact that so many consultants and freelancers are well set up to work from home I think those businesses that make good use of them will have suffered much less over the last few weeks.

What do you think?

Time for self-help?

2010-01-07T18:28:00.003Z

As it's the start of a New Year and the end of the 'phony war' in UK politics, I was going to talk about the impending election this week - but the weather and all the stories surrounding it have made me think that we should regard politics & economic ups and downs as just another form of weather. In snowy weather it pays to clear your own path and in difficult economic conditions I think our best tactic is to go out and help ourselves, and if possible do something to help the other businesses we're in contact with. So if you do nothing else this week, come up with 1 action you can take to get involved in some business activity, join a networking group, volunteer for a committee, offer a small business some free advice or training - whatever works for you. It will keep you busy, generate activity and make you feel better too!

Next week we'll be sending out our annual fee rate survey, and we'd like to ask for your help in getting as many people as possible to respond. A number of our partner organisations, including IBC, IMechE & PCG, will be sending the survey out to their members, if you have contacts in any other groups or professional bodies who might be able to do the same we'd like to hear from you. If you can help, please email us or give us a call.

What will you read in 2010?

2009-12-18T17:47:00.000Z

In the middle of the run up to Christmas it sometimes feels as though nothing will happen until we've reached the 'other side' of the holidays. In particular, if clients haven't decided to start a new project now, they probably won't pick up the phone until 1st working day of January, which in my experience has often been a frantically busy day. So a good way to think of this period if you're not currently busy on a project is as time to prepare and think about how to approach the market in the New Year, what new things you're going to try and how you're going to develop your skills and practice to make sure you get the best and most interesting projects.

On that note, there's been a lot of debate recently about whether the future lies in on-line news or if printed papers and magazines still have a place. I know a lot of people rely on industry magazines to keep up to date with developments and new ideas and I thought it would be interesting to get a view from you as to what publications (on-line and off-line) you rely on. We've done quite well in getting news about Skillfair consultants into the press this year and as part of our drive to support your own marketing so information on what you and your clients read would help us with that. If you have a few moments to fill in this very short survey we'll be able to give the Skillfair verdict on on-line/off-line and tell you which publications you should be aiming at for your own articles.

New Website for Skillfair

2009-12-06T16:59:00.001Z

The new Skillfair website is finally here, we hope you like it. We've tried to keep the way that the site functions very similar to the old one while making use of the new design to make some tasks much easier.

One significant change that means you should check your profile is that we now allow you to specify whether you show your own name or company name on our directory and UK Consultants Map - so please take a few moments to login and make your choice.

if you have any problems using the new site, or spot any bugs, please email or call us and we'll sort things out as quickly as we can.

Skillfair site upgrade - Saturday 5th December

2009-12-04T16:59:00.002Z

Well it looks like we're going to go for an upgrade tomorrow - so the site will be unavailable from about 9am. With luck and assuming no major hitches it should be back up and running by mid afternoon.

We've kept the functionality of the parts of the site consultants use as similar as possible to the old site, but the menus have changed and there have been some improvements to the profile pages to make them easier to use.

If you have any problems please email or call us as usual. NB if you can't see where to login, it's moved to the top right hand corner of the page!

Open Space discussions - what topics interest you?

2009-11-26T21:05:00.001Z

One of the highlights of the conference for me was the Open Space discussion. The key feature of this session, facilitated by Chris Pearse, was that the topics for discussion were suggested entirely by the delegates - and the discussions were also self-led and managed. Some of the topics were ones I expected to come up, but others were a surprise and it was great to have such a wide range of open and constructive conversation. It seems a pity to stop there, so I've set up a discussion for each of the topics that was suggested on LinkedIn so people can keep chatting.

The threads were;

what is the outlook for public sector spending, who will gain and who will lose?

how to use Skillfair better?

how do pay grades & structures impact on company performance?

how can consultants use social marketing effectively?

how can Skillfair help consultants collaborate to win larger bids?

hobbies and interests

what tips do people have on tendering successfully?

National Freelancers Day

2009-11-23T12:50:00.002Z

We're really looking forward to meeting people at Henley in support of PCG's National Freelancers Day - if you're too far away from Henley there are meetings organised for this afternoon all over the UK. Just go to http://www.nationalfreelancersday.org.uk to find a local event or register to view the webcast which is live now.

Consultants Conference 2009 - presentations

2009-11-19T16:52:00.002Z

It's taken me a while to 'come down' after yesterday's conference. We started the day with a sinking feeling as news came in of people who'd been on the road since 6.30 and were still stuck in driving rain 3 hours later, but once things were under way it felt as though the sun had come out.

The change in format, 3 quick presentations, a long discussion and then parallel workshops, seemed to work very well as the pace varied and we were kept moving around both mentally and physically.

Slide shows are never as good as hearing real people speak but the morning presentations are now available on Skillfair for those who couldn't make it - and anyone who wanted them as a reminder.

Follow #sfair on Twitter for news of the conference

2009-11-17T22:37:00.002Z

We finally made it to Manchester ready for tomorrow's conference - after a fine display of how genuine attention to customer service can (just about) retrieve the worst situations. Our train started from Southampton at 10 am bit was an hour late by the time we joined it and finally gave up the ghost at Birmingham New Street at 3pm.

What was a fairly difficult situation that could have resulted in some very grumpy travellers was relieved by the tone of voice of the train customer service assistant whose final announcement (after 10-15 apologies for earlier delays) - started with 'I've got some bad news, I'm really sorry but this train is terminating'.

Her honesty and genuine appreciation of the difficulties that the problems presented was really refreshing!

None of us like delivering bad news to our clients, but I know from experience that however complex the situation it's best to be direct and honest as that leaves the customer respecting what you've done - even if they are still inwardly fuming!

We hope none of the people attending tomorrow's conference will get stuck on a train, but if you do, or you just can't make it to Manchester please remember to follow #sfair to keep up with what's being discussed and we'll give you a full run down on Friday!

Who are your real competitors?

2009-11-05T17:39:00.002Z

The current economic climate means there's a good deal of competition for consultancy projects of all kinds and if you keep finding clients shutting the door on you it can start to feel as though the last people you want to connect with are other consultants who may compete with you.

My experience though is that I've much more often lost business to other issues within the client than to other consultants. Reasons for not starting a project have included;

We don't have the budget
The boss doesn't want to change what we already do
We'd rather use an in-house person because otherwise they'll be made redundant
Priorities have changed - and the budget's gone with it

In fact, I've found that other consultants have been a very good source of leads as they have direct contacts with businesses that are very difficult to obtain from scratch. Of course, they're unlikely to refer business to you unless they're sure that you'll do a good job and maintain their good relationship with the client - so its well worth nurturing relationships with your peers so that they view you as a 'good person to do business with'

A new website for Skillfair

2009-10-29T17:01:00.001Z

The Skillfair website is currently being re-developed and I thought it would be useful to share our plans for it with you, and to ask for your comments and ideas – particularly if there are features that you think would help you and that we haven’t thought of.

Phase 1

We’re taking a phased approach to the redevelopment to minimise the risk and potential disruption. Phase 1 is concentrating on;

Upgrading the technology platform to give better stability and ease of maintenance for the future
Focus on capturing new clients and encouraging them to contact consultants
Improving some aspects of the user interface while avoiding major change.

Some new features that you will see immediately are;

For casual visitors/clients;

A streamlined site with easier access to Search for consultants
Wider variety of articles and advice aimed at encouraging clients to use the service
Showcase consultant information on the home page alongside projects
Links from consultant profiles to ‘other consultants with these skills’ to encourage browsing

For Consultants;

Improved interface to edit your profile, broken into smaller chunks for ease of use
Ability to display company name on the directory if you wish
Skill search facility
Matched project listings – will show projects on all markets
Facilities to help you manage your project contacts, showing which are new, active, lost etc.
Improved account status page with details of your membership, ability to reprint invoices manage alert settings etc

For Clients;

Matched consultant listings will show consultants from all markets
Consultant search will show all markets
Improved facilities to manage responses to projects, showing which consultants are new, active, rejected etc.

Phase 2

Once Phase 1 is live we plan to use the new technology platform to further improve the interface and particularly to allow you to provide more and richer content about your services. The main changes we currently plan are;

A web 2.0 style interface for profiles – this means you will be able to format your profile, add images, links, documents etc
Allow you to add articles, press releases, white papers etc to your profile
Add details of your professional memberships, testimonial letters etc
Add features to help you manage the ‘incoming’ projects – indicating which you’re interested in and filtering out those that are of no interest

Phase 3

Other features that we are thinking about but would like your input on how they would work best and/or whether they’re of interest include;

Allowing consultants to run their own subject based ‘special interest groups’ through Skillfair

Using the site to encourage collaboration and joint bidding – we’ve had a number of suggestions about this and are currently looking at a mechanism whereby you could indicate your interest in collaborating , on any project or on a particular project

We welcome any ideas or suggestions you may have on how the site could be improved either to capture more clients or to make using it easier and more efficient – just comment on this blog to let us know what you think.

Remote Working

2009-10-26T19:05:00.002Z

There's been much discussion in the press about the pros and cons of remote working – many of our members are experienced home workers and are well placed to identify what works and what doesn't, so we recently surveyed them to find out how important technology is to remote working and what other factors are involved in a successful remote relationship. To see the results and read the full article visit:

http://www.changeboard.com/resources/article/2768/enabling-remote-working-trust-and-communication-/

- we'd be very interested to hear your comments and experiences.

Jo Bausor

Real projects for real consultants

2009-10-12T09:08:00.007+01:00

We've seen quite an upsurge in projects posted directly by clients over the course of 2009, perhaps because clients are keen to get value for money and avoid the overheads of larger consultancies and agencies. But what's most satisfying about what has become a regular flow of projects is that the majority of them are what I call 'real projects for real consultants'.

Engineering consultants AdrianTaylor put the point well, "I'm most impressed at how the real solidly engineering jobs are rolling in to Skillfair at the moment. Recently it was those troublesome trucks on the railway, then it was advice on how to take a significant piece of plant to pieces - and now it is the deliciously tantalising matter of potentially supervising the supply and installation of small scale gas-turbine and steam-raising power for electricity generation.
And before all that, I got a problematic railcar to drive (ahem - 'assess') for a couple of days. Congratulations!"

Not all our recent projects have been engineering related but they have generally had a satisfyingly 'meaty' flavour and have been well received by those consultants with the particular specialist skills required.

The art of the tendering process

2009-10-11T19:23:00.001+01:00

I noticed a comment on Twitter about the problems an extremely experienced consultant had with tendering, in that as a newly set up limited company he didn’t have the financial history that’s often required for larger public sector tenders.

Our members frequently tell us about the same problem and our advice is that Skillfair can be used to find associates that have got the appropriate requirements to join a bid team. It's also worth checking with the client too - sometimes even though they say '3 years accounts' they are happy to look at newly formed companies.

It seems that there’s a real art to the tendering process and I’m looking forward to Marcus Eden-Ellis’s session on Tendering skills at our conference this year , which should help to de-mystify the process and give some insight into the knowledge and skills required to submit a winning tender. For more information visit: www.skillfair.co.uk

See Skillfair Members on LinkedIn

2009-10-02T08:30:00.003+01:00

One of the nice things about Skillfair is the feedback and comments we get - all of which help us to keep in touch with what you're doing. Some of the comments on this blog have developed into quite extensive and useful discussions as well.

The Skillfair website has been around for quite a while now and over the last 6 months or so we've started to redevelop it to allow us to make use of the kind of facilities that are now available on the web, such as blogging, tweeting etc. The first phase will focus on encouraging more clients to post projects on the site and making sure that information about consultants is readily available to them.

While working on the site we've spent a lot of time considering whether to build a forum or discussion facility - in the end we've decided that it makes more sense to piggy back on a system that many people in consulting already use, so we've set up a members-only Skillfair group on LinkedIn.

The group facility allows you to discuss issues of interest, post news items and network with other Skillfair members and also provides an alternative way to access our tender & project feeds. LinkedIn users will be able to see that you belong to Skillfair alongside any other affiliations you may have.

How do I find that next project?

2009-09-29T10:16:00.003+01:00

If you're having a quiet period this is the $64,000 question - and sometimes it seems as though everyone you meet has a 'magic' answer that will get you that elusive next contract.

Chatting to Skillfair member Nick Harvey last week reminded me that it's doing the basic things that really counts. Nick mainly takes on interim roles so is either incredibly busy or 'resting' as actors would call it. In the quiet times his policy is to 'do useful stuff' - that is; get out and meet existing contacts who are themselves busy; offer to help people bid for work; be active in his professional body/networking groups. In short, to keep busy and be seen as a 'useful person to know'.

While this may seem a rather random approach it works for two reasons. Firstly, if you meet enough people who are actively in business you will eventually meet someone who realises you ca help them - and secondly, while this may seem bizarre - people are more inclined to do business with people who are already busy.

Seems to work for Nick anyway, half an hour after we finished our chat he emailed to say the bid team he's been working with has landed a tender :-)

What animal represents your consultancy?

2009-09-18T16:15:00.002+01:00

I regularly give talks and run workshops on marketing consultancy and one of my favourite approaches is to ask the participants to draw themselves or their business as an animal. This usually generates a fair amount of nervous laughter and comments about lack of drawing ability. Fortunately I can't draw for toffee either so when people see my efforts on the flip chart they feel able to give it a go.

The sheer range of creatures we wind up with is amazing- from hyenas, cuddly teddy bears, fish fowl and sometimes an imaginary creature. The most surprising one last night was the very friendly and chatty consultant who protrayed himself (very artistically I may say) as a 'bull in a china shop'.

The interesting thing about this exercise is it helps you think in a more creative and personal way about your business. If you also take an objective look at the creature you come up with from a clients point of view it can also lead you to changes you need to make in your approach to attract more or better clients.

So what kind of animal best represents your consultancy practice?

Spell Check Your Profile on the Web

2009-09-08T14:49:00.002+01:00

I'm probably the last person the web to discover this - but I've just found that Firefox, Chrome and Safari all provide built-in spell checking functions. Given the number of times I mis-type words like netwroking and marekting this can only be a good thing!

If you have a spare half hour I'd recommend downloading the latest version of your favourite browser and then checking through any online profiles for typos and spelling errors (they come underlined in red).

For information on the browsers use these links;

http://www.google.com/chrome
http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

NB you may need to load a dictionary to make the firefox spell checker work - just right click on any web form and select Add Dictionaries

It's not entirely clear if Internet Explorer version 8 has a spell checker but no doubt it will soon - this is the link to download.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/worldwide-sites.aspx

Hiding in plain sight - are you visible?

2009-09-02T17:28:00.002+01:00

Like I suspect quite a few parents around the UK I've been mulling over the possibility of getting some extra tuition for one of my sons. After asking around it seems the web is the place to find a tutor and the process has been quite informative. There are a mix of directories, tutor agencies that are easily found - plus a handful of sites that just run adverts that take you to yet more directories.

Agencies are remarkably coy about pricing and you have to dig quite deep to find out what their T&Cs are (sound familiar?) but what struck me most of all was the variation in the profiles loaded by tutors on directories. Some were excellent, giving you a real sense of who the person was, where they would be able to help and whether they would be a good fit. At the other extreme there were a number of apparently local tutors with completely blank profiles - who have all missed out on a possible opportunity.

I know from my own experience that real life often gets in the way of loading uinformation on websites, I've lost count of the number I'm registered with and keeping them up to date can be very time-consuming - but if you've taken the time to register and paid for a directory entry (whether its as a tutor, a consultant on Skillfair or any other site) it does seem to be a real waste to leave your entry blank!

The Friday Afternoon Effect - consultants should work weekends

2009-08-21T16:41:00.003+01:00

It's become a standing joke in the Skillfair office that however quiet a week is, things always get busy on a Friday afternoon. True to form I was just getting on with tidying up work before going away and a nice juicy project pops in at 4.30pm on the dot. The same pattern applies for tenders with the numbers peaking at the end of the week.

Because we quality check direct clients as well as consultants that quite often means the alerts will go out either ove the weekend or first thing Monday morning. So if you want to be in with a chance you need to make sure you check your email then.

If the Friday happens to be the last day before a holiday then the effect is even greater - so watch out for a flurry of projects this coming Bank Holiday Monday!

2009 Skillfair Conference Attendee List

2009-08-20T08:52:00.002+01:00

Going to any conference or event is a great opportunity for networking - but just taking a random walk through the available people may mean there are really useful and interesting people you just never meet.

When you go to an event it's always worth taking a few moments to glance through the attendee list and see if there's anyone that you particularly want to talk to. They may be a potential client or partnher, or just work in an area that you're interested in. If you can't work out who they are there's nothing wrong with asking other attendees if they've met your 'target' - but do wait until you've had a chat first!

To help people going to the Skillfair conference we've created an online attendee list - you don't have to appear on this if you prefer not to, but if you've already booked and want to appear on it, please check it out.

Refresh your marketing - where to start?

2009-08-13T15:54:00.006+01:00

The summer is a great time to take a look at the marketing you've been doing and to see what can be improved - and sometimes it only takes some very small changes to make a big difference.

Step 1

Scribble down the key services that you offer, the type of clients you generally work for and how that's helped the clients

Step 2

Take a look at your website and read the home page - do the words comfirm what you've written down - or do they say something much more vague? The words may sound impressive but the broader the message the less likely it is that a client will get a real sense of who you are and what you do. If the mismatch is very big - you should concentrate some effort here, and probably get in some outside help to give you an objective view.

Step 3

Happy with your website? Now list down all the internet sites where you have a presence - LinkedIn, Twitter, ecademy, forums etc etc The chances are that you'll have a slightly different description of you and your business on each one, and if you're like me some of the information may be seriously out of date. Now go round checking each one and update the information - don't make it identical as different sites have different styles, but make sure the key messages (and phone numbers etc!) come through. If possible include links to the other sites where you have profiles - for details of how to link to your Skillfair profile click here.

To link from your Skillfair profile to other sites, click here

Keep your inbox under control while you're away

2009-08-05T16:24:00.002+01:00

I know that getting ready to go on holiday is hard work especially when you work for yourself. Putting contingencies in place and making sure bills are set up to be paid by the bank. Setting up an automatic reply to e-mails and changing your answering machine message is standard, but why not look at those e-mails you get, do you really want to send auto replies to everyone?

Wary of coming back after three weeks away to an overloaded inbox I have made an effort today to switch off my e-mails from my networking sites both social and business and have also switched off my Skillfair alerts, I can easily look at the projects I have missed when I get back. It is easy to do just log in and go to my accounts and click on e-mail alerts and change the settings.

I've just added a reminder in my calendar to switch everything back on after the holiday!

email marketing - does it work for consultants?

2009-08-05T12:51:00.002+01:00

Following on from Gill’s comments about marketing, I wanted to share a few thoughts about email marketing. Many people throw their hands up in horror and view it in the same way as junk mail but targeted correctly, it can be a really cost-effective form of communication.

As an alternative to buying in lists of cold prospects, look at your existing customer base - use emails to retain customers not just acquire new ones. Tell them what’s going on in the industry and alert them to any press articles or events you’re involved with (not forgetting links to the details of course!). Use it to reinforce your marketing messages and build a relationship with your customers, taking the opportunity to cross sell products and services at the same time. You can also use email to say thank you when someone purchases something from you, providing a good way to open up dialogue about other products you offer.

Above all, be consistent with your message and think about the person you’re sending the email to – we’re running an in-depth session on email marketing at out conference in November, for more details click here

Qualification, not qualifications, is the key

2009-07-30T19:35:00.003+01:00

Over the last year or so I've talked to lots of consultants - some have given up on tendering for business because they say it never works, but others have been very successful. Sometimes the problem is that the particular sector is just too competitive and there are so many bids the process becomes a lottery - but I've noticed one things that all the successful people have in common (Mike Nott who's just won his very first tender is a typical example!) .

They all spend a lot of time and effort working out exactly which tenders to go for and reject many more than they actually respond to. Mike calls this 'developing a discerning eye', that is knowing what is right for you and what isn't - but that's something that can take time to develop so I thought I'd help a bit by developing a check list of things that you should consider before putting pen to paper and writing that proposal. Let me know if you think it's useful.

Marketing doesn't work! - or does it?

2009-07-22T11:57:00.004+01:00

I quite often talk with consultants who tell me they've tried networking or direct mail or email marketing - or any other form of marketing and 'it just doesn't work!' - so they've given up. Very often when you chat a little more it seems that it's not so much that the technique involved doesn't work but that the particular variety they've used simply hasn't fit their business and personal style.

A common complaint is from people who've signed up for a local networking group and feel they've spent the whole time referring business to other people and getting nothing back. The problem usually is that these are consultants who need to work with larger companies because their experience is best suited to a corporate environment - and the truth is that large company executives don't generally attend local networking lunches (unless they are themselves trying to sell something!).

If you're targetting larger companies and want to meet the right people then you need to work out what events they do go to - which will probably be the large and relatively expensive conferences that help people keep up to date with their industry. This may seem like a costly approach but 1 good contact in the right industry has to be better value than lots of lunches that get you nowhere!

The same targetted approach applies for all marketing so if you've tried it and feel it hasn't worked you may need to adjust your sights and aim at a different set of people or companies. But whatever you do, don't give upas that definitely won't bring in any new clients!

How can Skillfair improve?

2009-07-20T14:54:00.003+01:00

David's blog about successful companies beign curious about their customers and their place in the world reminded me that it's time for our annual customer survey. Web based companies seem to find it harder in some ways to work out what their customers think - we can measure what our customers do online very easily and some get obsessed with 'abandoned shopping cart ratios' and 'click to £' rates' and so on. But that doesn't tell us what customers think about us or why they come back time after time, or leave without paying.

Since it's that insight into customers minds that is really vaulable and allows us to change what we to do to provide a better service the survey is really important to us. If you can spare 5 minutes to complete it we'll be very grateful, and will enter your details in a draw for a free place at this year's conference or a free Skillfair membership.

To take the survey just click here

What makes a successful company?

2009-07-16T19:09:00.004+01:00

I’ve studied and worked with all sorts of businesses for more than 30 years and have been mulling over recently what it is that makes some successful and others not.

I've come to the conlusions that it’s not luck but leadership with the right philosophy supporting an open and enquiring culture that makes a successful company.

So when you look at how your company or your clients’ companies work, what characteristics should you expect to see:

Over-arching an insatiable curiosity about the worlds in which the company does business and recognition that change is the way of life driven by these worlds.
Commitment to innovation as a way of life driven by the worlds in which the company lives and controlling the way the company responds
Recognising that your customers choose to buy because you offer them a reason to buy that is relevant to them
The company is right-sized to be part of any of the communities in which it lives and that people in the company are also part of the community
Processes and structures within the company are only relevant as long as they serve the needs of the customers and the wider communities.

These features apply just as well to a one-man-band as to a large corporation - for more depth and ideas on what effect these features have on a business click here

What do clients think about consultants #1

2009-07-08T16:48:00.004+01:00

We follow up on all the projects that clients post directly on Skillfair and in the main they're very please by the level and quality of the response. But there are a few things that clearly make their lives difficult and that astute consultants would do well to take note of!

Last week we had a very specialised request for help with an engineering problem which attracted only a handful of responses. The client had followed them all up but was 'amazed at how few people had properly filled in profiles' - his very sensible suggestion was that consultants should get a friend or business contact to review their profile to spot any gaps or areas that need to be expanded.

We already send a profile status email to our members every 2 months to remind them to keep up to date, but we've now added a facility to allow you to send your profile details to a contact as well, just login and got Edit Profile. While we were at it we've also add the ability for any Skillfair user to refer any consultants details to a friend - so if you see anyone on the site who looks particularly useful why not pass their profile on?

PS I should point out that we only follow up with clients who've posted projects directly on Skillfair - I'm afraid calling 100-200 public sector organisations every week to see how their tenders went is beyond us :-(

Skillfair 2009 Consultants Conference - early bird discount

2009-07-03T09:15:00.004+01:00

We really enjoy running our annual conference, but I have to admit that getting the speakers and agenda sorted out can be very stressful - particularly as time starts to tick past and there are still loose ends to fix. Jo has done a great job this year and we have a really nice mix of short presentations, networking sessions and longer workshops - which I think will make it a very relaxed but worthwhile event.

The 18th November seems a long time away at the moment, but I'm sure that by then we'll all be in need of a bit of a boost - so if you fancy a trip to Manchester to network with other consultants and experts in their field why not book your place now? Just go to www.skillfair.co.uk for details.

There's a £25 discount available off the already reasonable price of £150 if you book before 31stAugust

Adding depth in an interview

2009-06-23T08:57:00.002+01:00

I spent most of yesterday interviewing students with a view to hiring one for the summer to help us with admin on Skillfair. The job isn't particularly exciting but we need all the usual attributes that you'd want from a graduate - self-motivated, thorough, ability to work relatively unsupervised etc etc.

I'd forgotten how little experience most people have at this stage - but there were still some who managed to shine despite that and I've been trying to work out why. The trick seems to be making sure that when asked an open question , like the dreaded 'where do you want to be in 5 years time' the good candidates don't necessarily answer the exact question but do provide plenty of detail that gives you an insight into who they are.

I asked all students what they wanted to do after graduation and in truth none of them really knew, but the answers ranged from 'Dunno, guess I'll wait and see what's available' to 'Well, I'm not sure but I've explored these 3 areas and I'm, trying to get some work experience in this other area to see if I like it' - I'll leave you to guess which answer was most impressive :-)

I think providing the right amount of relevant detail is a key skill for consultants pitching for assignments, whether by email or face to face. You need to provide enough to give the client some idea of your experience and how it might be relevant - but avoid drowning them in irrelevant information.

benefits of an objective view

2009-06-18T17:22:00.003+01:00

People have pointed out that there are lots of 'consultant stories' around other than the watch-borrowing one - I particularly liked this one from Stan Wright about a consultants take on an orchestra and this (rather old) one about the difference between a Japanese and American rowing eight.

Both jokes/stories make the point that if a consultant or organisation loses sight of the purpose of the organisation then they can very quickly destroy any value that it has. In bigger organisations it can sometimes see as though the majority of effort goes into looking at how the organisations internal processes function rather than concentrating on what actually needs to be delivered to customers.

The value of an objective view is that you can often ask the awkward questions, such as, 'why are you doing this?', 'do customers actually think your service is good', that internal staff are either deterred from asking by politics or don't want to ask in case they lose their jobs!

When is a future truth useful?

2009-06-11T20:12:00.001+01:00

Having blogged about "Consultants watch-borrowing habits" this week, I've been on the look out for other comments from clients that would offer hints about how best we can present ourselves to clients to have a better chance of winning assignments.

I almost dismissed an article about Tim Smit of Eden fame, headlined as rewriting the rules of business, but the final paragraph made me stop and think. Smit said “I discovered a technique that revolutionised my life. It’s called lying – or rather, the telling of future truths. It’s about putting yourself in the most public jeopardy possible and saying ‘I am going to do this’, so the shame of not doing it would be so great it energises every part of your being.”

I think there are times when telling a 'future truth' can help a client understand why we can help with their business event when we don't have the specific industry experience they're so often looking for. I think the trick is to come up with an experience that is close enough to be convincing and explain why that equips you perfectly both to help them and bring fresh ideas from a similar but different sphere. Of course, downright lying is most definitely not acceptable, but a little creativity and imagination may be all it takes to make your pitch stand out from the crowd!

Consultants watch-borrowing habits

2009-06-10T13:34:00.003+01:00

There's an old saying that ' a consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time and then charges you £50 for the privilege' , something that will strike a chord with many business people. Although this is an 'anti-consultant' line it does illustrate what many managers use consultants for.

I've lost count of the number of times I've been told by a manager that 'Everything you're saying I've already told the management - they won't listen to me, but they will listen to you because they're paying for your advice'. The reason this works is that companies tend to assume that their employees have their own agenda when they recommend change - and see external consultants as providing an objective view of the world.

I think this external view is something that we should promote in a psoitive way - after all it's our knowledge of a range of companies and approaches to problems that is our stock in trade.

First (and last) impressions count

2009-06-04T21:54:00.003+01:00

We all know about first impressions being the important at interview - but what does your internet impression tell clients about you before you've even met?

Having spent the day travelling to Manchester and back with Jo to check out venues for this year's conference I've been reminded just how important first impressions are. I won't name names, but the first place we visited was somewhat spoilt by a group of people hanging around the main entrance smoking. Although our view of it improved as we went through the building and saw the much nicer entrance that our delegates would actually use, it was really difficult to shake off that initial image.

Of course, we all know that first impressions are critical in an interview or client meeting, but as more and more people have extensive online profiles it may be that concentrating on your first physical meeting might be too late. Web pages are remarkably persistent and what seemed like an appropriate descritpion of yourself a few years ago may not make the grade now - so it's well worth typing your name into Google occasionally to see what clients can see about you before you meet them.

are you a good partner?

2009-05-28T13:06:00.005+01:00

David made a good point about partnering with other professions (and consultants) in his comment on my blog about business advice. Which got me thinking about the debate we had a while ago about specialists versus generalists. One of the issues to bear in mind is that if you appear to be the sort of person who 'does everything' then other professionals may be wary of working with you in case you try to take over the whole job.

If you can articulate clearly the things you do best it becomes easier for both clients and potential partners to see where you fit in their business.

Partnering is a very effective way to get business, people regularly post joint bid requests on Skillfair and report that this is a good way to win bigger contracts than they would normally go for. So why not think about what kind of business or profession is likely to know people you could help?

Some of the more obvious examples include;

IT providers working with accountants
graphic designers, marketeers and web designers working together
Lawyers passing work to HR professionals and vice versa
Engineers helping out patent & IPR specialists

As a starting point, try thinking about your last few clients, what problem they were trying to solve and who else they might have gone to for help if they hadn't found you.

opportunity for business advisors?

2009-05-26T13:33:00.007+01:00

I've just read an interesting article on FTOnline that talks about the recession and the impact that and the proliferation of new support schemes is having on the RDA s and Business Links. I wanted to comment on the FT- but you can't - so thought I say my piece here.

I know quite a few of our members work through Business Links, but I think there's a real opportunity here for independent Business Advisors to create their own relationships with the small business community and avoid all the bureacracy that goes with the BL approach. There are a lot of people currently thinking about starting up a business and they almost all need advice of some kind - and while BL is a useful source of basic advice they are very stretched. So how do you find the startups that will pay for and thrive on your advice and input?

These are just a few suggestions, feel free to add your own!

Get to know your local accountants and solicitors - almost everyone knows they'll need an accountant when they start up so these can be a good source of client contacts
Set up a local networking group - just invite a few contacts to meet for coffee at a local pub/hotel and get them to bring a Guest. Doesn't need to be a formal group but you may be surprised at how a group with the right atmosphere snowballs.
Run a workshop or seminar on starting a business - don't make it free but don't expect to make a profit! The more people you can get to come along the more chance you have of making contact with some new clients. Publicise through networking groups, local paper, blogs websites/email

How to get the best from a consultant or consultancy

2009-05-21T18:29:00.003+01:00

I had a fascinating insight into the client's perspective on consultants this week as I went to a meeting of IBC's Consultancy Purchasing Steering Group. The aim of the evening was to talk through the risks and benefits of consultancy assignments from both sides of the fence, culminating in a discussion of a draft set of guidelines for the 'consultancy sales process'.

The audience was a mixture of purchasers and consultants - which had the benefit of making sure both sides had to take a conciliatory approach rather than just complaining about each other. There were plenty of good points made, but I was struck by how concerned people from the purchasing community were about the behaviour of consultants once they're 'inside' the organisation. Unexpected changes in personnel, surprise additions to the bill for 'account management' and hunting out or creating extra work were just some of the examples quoted.

I think part of the reason was that many of the purchasers involved work mainly with very large consultancies who have large numbers of staff and very sophisticated sales and account management skills. The positive message that came through is that if clients ensure that they are an important account for the consultancy then they can ensure the best service. Key points to help with this are;

Choose a consultancy for whom your assignment will be a significant but not overwhelming project

Find a consultancy with the right skills but an interest in growing into your sector

If there's likely to be follow on work make sure the consultancy realises that

Be a 'good' client, give them a clear brief and monitor progress regular

If you have any tips for other people on how to get the best out of a consultant then feel free to add a comment.

What do you want to see on Skillfair's Conference agenda?

2009-05-18T12:07:00.001+01:00

We've been working on the agenda for this year's conference almost since the last one finished and are getting to the stage now where all the pieces are starting to come together. We are currently planning to run the conference on 18th November in Manchester, although we've yet to settle on a firm venue.

While the feedback from last year was very positive, a number of people commented that there were rather too many presentations and that it was difficult to go into any depth or have detailed discussions in the time available.

To change the balance we're planning to split this year's event into a mix of very short 20 minute presentations and longer workshops that will last 1.5 hours. The workshops will be able to cater for a maximum of about 20 people each so it's obviously important that we pick the right ones to run.

So that we can make sure we get the right mix of talks and workshops I'd really appreciate it if you could take a few mmoments to look at the topics available and let us know what you think - just click here to have your say about the content of the agenda.

Easy way to check your profile

2009-05-15T13:08:00.003+01:00

I stumbled across this rather useful web site yeterday - called the gobbledygook grader it looks at a piece of text and counts how many over used or essentially meaningless words have crept in. It also gives you a very visual representation of which words have been used most.

Not surprising that when I ran it for a few of my newsletters the word 'consultant' loomed rather large then! But I've tried out on a few consultant profiles with varying results - be worth taking a few minutes to run your profile through and see what it shows.

NB you need to untick the 'send me newsletters' link if you don't want to get emails from the website owner.

experts or generalists?

2009-05-13T11:06:00.002+01:00

Richard Horswell brought up a subject which is dear to my heart yesterday. On receiving his weekly alert of people who have joined or renewed Skillfair he wrote in saying

"I'm wondering whether I would be better off not receiving these, and I'll tell you why. Firstly it worries me how many multi-talented people we have on the panel ! Seriously, I ask myself how some individuals can have so many specialisms....If I look below for people with Market Research skills (my specialism) I find experts in utilities, police, IT, performance reviews, OR, budget management, website design, banking, campaign planning and much more. And this is just a small sample of members. Perhaps MR is not really a specialism at all, but something lots of people feel they can handle...."

My answer to him was that I find people generally will look at the skills lists as things they can do or have done in the past whereas I firmly believe that we should choose these skills judiciously. Only choosing those that we want to receive alerts of projects and tenders of. Background skills and what we have done in the past that gives us the gravitas to complete our current tasks can be explained in the profile summary. Doing this will take out the element of consultants looking like "jacks of all trades" and keeping us all as experts rather than generalists.

There are those who genuinely do have all these multi faceted skills available but they tend to be consultants who represent associates so obviously their needs will be wider, but again an explanation in the profile summary that they are one of three / twenty / a hundred will be helpful to clients searching for the right person for their needs.

Of coourse Richard can simply unsubscribe from the alerts but then he would be missing out on hearing about people that he may benefit from knowing about. As to Market Research not being a specialism I think it definitely is and isn't to be devalued.

Skillfair Draft Code of Conduct

2009-05-07T17:09:00.003+01:00

As an internet based service, Skillfair operates in an environment where it can be difficult for people to trust each other. The prevalence of spam emails, internet scams, phishing, identity theft and so on makes us all a little wary of information coming to us via the web – but at the same time it is an invaluable tool for building and developing business relationships in a way that would have been next to impossible with only a telephone and telex machine.

This code of conduct is not intended to replace or supersede the many excellent documents and codes of practice already in existence and which many people will already have signed up to on joining a professional body or trade association. Its purpose is to try to remind all of us of the key principles we should adhere to when working through the internet so that everyone we deal with feels they have been treated fairly, professionally and courteously.

I’ve divided the code into separate sections for Project Owners and Consultants but they mirror each other in many aspects – in fact I think the overriding principle to keep in mind is to ‘Do as you would be done by’ at all times and whatever the role that you are taking in a business relationship.

Project Owners

As a project owner, you have access to something that many consultants and advisors are interested in – that is an opportunity for work. You may be concerned that you will get far too many responses to deal with – or that you won’t be able to find the precise specialist skills you need. Whatever your exact requirements our experience is that following these simple points will lead to a smoother and ultimately more successful search.

Be as clear and detailed as you can about the nature, duration and location of the assignment, even if you have to qualify the information. On the whole it’s better to say ‘we think it will take 10 days but that may change’ than to say nothing at all about how long the assignment may last.

Be specific about the skills and experience you are looking for. If there are certifications or other requirements (such as location, PI insurance etc) that are non-negotiable then make this clear.

If at all possible include some information on budgets, you can quote a range of rates or a cost for the whole project to protect your negotiating position, but giving an initial idea will help consultants to determine whether or not they should apply.

If you are acting on behalf of another organisation, as an agency or in some other capacity, then you should state this in your project summary so that consultants are aware that their fees are likely to be subject to commission.

If your requirement is speculative, such as to form an associate network or a bid team, make sure that you explain this and give some indication of the likelihood of an assignment resulting from the requirement.

Projects on Skillfair don’t include your contact or company details, this is done to protect your privacy and to allow you to control how you deal with consultants. However, it does mean that consultants don’t know who you are when they apply – you should let them know your name and contact details as soon as possible so that they know who they’re dealing with. You can do this very simply by sending an acknowledgement email via Skillfair.

Communicate clearly and promptly with all consultants who contact you. No-one likes to send (or receive) a ‘thanks but no thanks’ email but this is always infinitely preferable to not knowing what has happened. If you get far more responses than you expect and simply can’t work through them fast enough please try to send a simple holding email so that consultants know what is going on. This also applies if the project in question simply ‘goes away’ – as professionals we all know that budgets get cut and managers change their minds but being kept in the loop makes things easier.

Consultants

Bidding for work is always a competitive process and whether a project has come directly to Skillfair or is a tender that is publicly available you will probably be competing for the work with many other equally well qualified and personable consultants. This makes the Client's task of selecting a short list and then awarding the contract very difficult and often time-consuming so that anything you can do to make the job easier for the Client will tend to improve your chances of winning the assignment. If you follow these key points you will maximise your chances of winning and also reduce the amount of effort you waste applying for projects that you don’t win.

Read the details provided by the client carefully, if they have provided a specification document read this as well before you decide to respond. Then draft your response in a word processor before sending it via Skillfair to make sure that you have taken the time to check it against the requirement before you send it.

If the project requires skills, certificates or other attributes that you don’t have and it’s clear that these are mandatory requirements then you are unlikely to be successful and will be wasting both your time and the client's by responding. Occasionally the skills that a client requires are very rare or unusual and it may be worth ‘giving it a go’ but this is unusual – if the requirement is fairly standard but you don’t fit it then there will be lots of better qualified people responding.

Always include a covering note explaining exactly why you think you can help the client, this demonstrates that you have read the requirement and that you understand what they need. Sending an empty message with a link to your profile or an obviously standard message doesn’t help the client and won’t help you.

Make sure before sending your response that the contact details Skillfair holds for you are correct and your email is working. If you are on-site or away make sure you include suitable phone numbers so that the client can get in touch with you easily.

If you are acting on behalf of another consultant, either an associate or as an agency, then say so in your response. If the client has specified individuals only then you should respect this and not respond unless you intend to do the work yourself.

Once a client has responded with an acknowledgement you will have their contact details but you should use these with care. It is reasonable to follow up a few days after you’ve responded to see what’s happening but bombarding a client with calls or emails is more likely to annoy the client than win you the assignment.

When the client does come back to you to ask questions or arrange a meeting you should try to respond as quickly as possible even if you are working on-site, a timely response at this stage is critical to building a good working relationship.

If at any point you realise that you can’t take the assignment, whether because of a change in the skills required or because of other commitments, you should tell the client immediately. It is always difficult to turn down work but in the longer term this is the only way to maintain your professionalism and level of service.

Are things on the up?

2009-05-07T09:58:00.001+01:00

I was heartened to read that according to a survey released yesterday, consumer confidence is at its highest level in a year, after recording its third monthly rise - the public's view of the overall state of the economy brightened from -31 to -15 over the past month, and the rating of the state of their own personal finances rose from -6 to -3. Is it the weather, the thought of a summer holiday or an overall perception that 'we've got through the worst of it'?

I'd be interested to hear your views and if this cautious optimism is feeding through to the consulting community?

Daily Rates For Work In High Risk Countries

2009-05-06T17:47:00.002+01:00

I wonder if any consultants can offer advice on what addition to daily rates would be appropriate for working in what are considered high risk countries such as Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq and the likes?

DIY PR for Consultants

2009-04-29T09:05:00.006+01:00

Hiring a PR agency is probably beyond the means of many consultants, but that doesn't mean you can't get yourself into the press. The key is to come up with a new and interesting angle and target specialist magazines or websites that cover your area of expertise.

Writing a press release is the easy part, the hard part is coming up with a story or article that will appeal to the editors of your chosen magazine or website. It can be really hard to come up with a new angle by yourself, so try getting together with other people in your local area or specialism and brainstorm ideas for all of you.

If your target is the local press then you'll almost certainly need a local connection of some kind - charity stories, new offices and so on - and you'll probably need at least an idea for a picture to go with it.

Specialist trade press are more likely to entertain a technical or 'thought-leaderhsip' articles, make sure you read through a few back-issues to see what's come up and whether you can find a new approach.

So, why not try a bit of DIY PR and let us know how it goes! For more tips and information on writing a press release click here

What makes you trust someone?

2009-04-27T08:00:00.002+01:00

The issue of trust comes up regularly when discussing the use of consultants and advisors - we all want to become 'trusted advisors' to our clients - but clients often find it hard to know which advisors to trust.

I've just had eye surgery and while unable to do anything else have been pondering what it was that made me choose and ultimately trust this particular surgeon with one of the most vulnerable and critical bits of me.

To kick off, I went to her initially because the optician I've been going to for many years recommended her - in his words, 'if I needed surgery she's the one I'd choose'. Qualifications and experience were a given since this is someone who works in both NHS and private practice and I'm fairly confident that you don't get the 'consultant' tag in that environment without having done the necessary training and testing.

So that's the starting point - but I could easily have backed out or changed my mind after meeting - so what else did the consultant do that confirmed my choice? She didn't ooze charm, in fact like most surgeons I've come across she was brisk, efficient and possibly a tiny bit 'gung-ho' - utterly confident she could 'fix' my problem - but I left entirely confident that I was doing the right thing, with the right person.

I think there were two clinchers for me - she took the time to explain what the options were, had read her 'brief' (my referral letter) and treated me like an individual rather than assuming that the standard cure would be right for me. The final element was her sheer enthusiasm for her subject - it may sound weird, but having someone peer into your eye and exclaim 'what a lovely myopic disk' is incredibly reassuring!

I'd be interested to know if anyone else can share similar thoughts on why they've trusted someone?

Step by Step Guide to Tendering

2009-04-23T18:07:00.002+01:00

One of the questions we get asked most often at Skillfair is, ‘Can a small company win a tender and how do I do it?’ The short answer to the question is ‘Yes’, but the ‘How-To’ is a bit longer. This series of articles is intended to take you through the key issues step by step so you can decide if engaging with the tendering process is worth the effort for your business and if you go ahead with it to help you do it as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Some of our members are relatively large companies who've won large projects through tendering, worth many hunders of thousands of pounds - but we also have one man bands who've won projects, got themselves onto preferred suppliers lists or teamed up with other consultants to win larger projects. The feedback we get is that it can be done, but you need to choose your tender carefully and be prepared to put the effort in over a period of time to be successful.

Each of these Q&A articles can be read standalone, or you can work your way through one at a time. Click here to read the Q&s

When you’ve read everything, you may feel that you want to give tendering a try but still need more help. There are plenty of consultants and advisors on Skillfair who have a background in procurement and tendering and who specialise in helping companies get to grips with the process, to get in touch with one to help you the easiest approach is to post a project on Skillfair explaining the kind of help you’re looking for.

success story - with a warning!

2009-04-21T20:38:00.002+01:00

A few weeks ago a client who had posted an interesting short IT project called us to say that they'd had no response from any of the consultants who'd initially contacted them. We (well Angela actually) immediately hit the phones to find out where everyone had disappeared to and despite the absence of answer phones and some dodgy email addresses managed to get through to people.

It was very satisfying to hear today from Nick de Voil that he's signed the contract for the engagement for an 'IT systems audit' - in Nick's words;

"You'll remember a couple of weeks ago you called to let me know the
company who posted this project were having trouble getting hold of me.

I just wanted to let you know that I signed a contract for the
engagement today - so thanks very much for going to the trouble! This
personal touch is the type of thing that makes Skillfair a great service."

Well done to Nick - and to everyone else, remember to make sure your answerphone is switched on or you divert to a message service or you will lose out!

Financial Requirements For Tenders - how do you do it?

2009-04-21T11:59:00.003+01:00

Martin Kendall raised an interesting point today wondering " if there is any collaborative thinking so far on how best to "tackle" the requirement in most tender requests for a demonstration of "financial strength". Whilst it would be possible to collaborate in resourcing to form appropriate capability for a tender I cannot see how "one man band" consultants could overcome the "financial strength test" "

I thought that there must be a correct way round this and know that many Skillfair users have told me that they use umbrella companes to go in under for the first time, but for some tenders financial strength shouldn't be such a big issue, that there could be other ways of demonstrating your ability to be a sustainabe company and demonstrate your commitment to the future?

Does anyone have any coping strategies that I might be able to pass on to Martin?

what are management consultants really worth?

2009-04-20T17:02:00.002+01:00

After a rash of articles in the press that seemed to suggest that £200 a day was a perfectly OK rate for a 'management consultant' we've been working on getting a more balanced view out. So it was great to get a story into the Mail on Sunday about our recent fee survey that emphasised the experience and skills that are required to add value to clients businesses.

There's a link to the article on This is Money where you can add your comments as well.

Are business personalities regional?

2009-04-20T14:57:00.003+01:00

Interesting article this Sunday about people in different regions of the UK having different personalities. Huge generalisation of course, but in my wanderings around UK networking events there is definitely a different atmosphere in the different regions. Londond seems a bit more serious and 'buttoned up' than other parts of the UK - but maybe that's just because everyone has had to fight their way through the tube.traffic to get there!

Question is are consultants in the different areas also different - and does having a non-typical personality work for you or against you?

Don't be negative about the competition

2009-04-14T17:28:00.003+01:00

Mr Brown's embarassment over the alleged smear campaigns reminded me of the first rule of sales - never, ever 'diss' the competition. Why not? Because the more you talk about the competition the more attention you give them and the more important they become in your client's mind. I have occasionally come across salespeople who spend so much time having a go at the people they see as their competitors that I've learned nothing at all about their own products and find myself wanting to check out the competition at the first opportunity.

Of course, we consultants are much more subtle about things (aren't we?) but if you ever find yourself kicking off with; 'Of course, we're not like the big consultancies who .... ' maybe you should rewind and try again.

What entrepreneurs can learn from the G20 summit

2009-04-09T18:04:00.003+01:00

London has calmed down and the protestors and media who were out in force have quieted now that the G20 summit is over. Aside from the global stimulus package announced, the photo opps and the tensions, there are some good tips that entrepreneurs can learn from the global gathering on how to get through the recession. Essentially, the message from the world leaders was 'we know what we need to do and we're going to do it'.

This attitude needs to be adopted by smaller businesses and there is no reason why it can’t be. Everyone knows times are tough and as a small business it's easy to sink into feeling that there's nothing you can do. However, the businesses that stay positive and take the right actions to deal with the recession are the ones that will survive and, better still, be ready to thrive once economic conditions improve.

There are simple ways to take action. For example, if you have to cut costs make sure you cut intelligently. Don't make your business look shabby or ineffective. Do something positive and get the message out to your customers that you’re doing well and can still be relied upon! Something as simple as sprucing up your website by getting rid of old articles and news and replacing them with your latest and greatest business achievements shows that you’re still thriving and succeeding – a lick of paint can work wonders!

If you really can't see anything wrong with how your business looks or worse, can't think of anything positive to say – you may need an objective advisor to help you look at things with a fresh eye. Online services like Skillfair can help you link up with consultants in your area with the right experience for your business needs. Self employed consultants are a valuable resource and can provide services such as business advice, executive coaching and marketing on a part time basis. A small investment can produce big results when it comes to the morale of your staff and the direction of your business.

Buck the trend of doom and gloom and take action to get through these hard times. Like the G20 leaders, work out what you need to do, tell everyone about it and then get on and do it - lets hope the G20’s do that last bit as well!

little things destroy trust

2009-04-09T08:34:00.003+01:00

When you work alone or in a small company it can be quite easy to lose confidence and end up projecting a rather dismal image to your clients so given that it's spring cleaning time we should all do a quick check of how our business appears to the outside world. Try these checks as a starting point;

Ring the phone numbers on your card - are they still valid, who answers the phone, does your voicemail message sound professional and confident?

Email yourself from a test email address - we get a surprising number of bounces because people have changed providers and forgotten to redirect their email

Do a search for yourself or your company on Google, does your website appear, have you contributed to any blogs, is your Skillfair profile (and any other profiles) up to date?

Take a look at the last dozen emails you've sent - do they all have your contact details included, are they confident and positive, clear and to the point?

If all's well then you can take a break with a clear conscience - if not then a little spring-cleaning on your business image will make you feel better and, more importantly, will ensure that potential clients get a positive impression however they make contact with you.