Want to be freelance but not sure when to quit your job?

The question as to whether you should quit your job if you are thinking of going freelance or selling your knowledge as a consultant starting a consultancy can be answered in several ways depending on your circumstances.

In any situation, I would make sure that before I quit completely I had some clients. Not potential clients but actual ones. Customers lined up ready to pay you for what you can do. No clients = no business, unless of course you have enough money saved up to last you at least 6 - 9 months (just in case it takes this long to get your first contract).Some consultants either start getting clients before they leave their jobs or they run their consultancy alongside their employment. This is not possible for many but for those who either work part-time or are in jobs where they can either devote some time and energy to developing their own consultancy ideas or have permission from their boss to pursue personal interests.

If you want to be a full-time independent consultant then make sure you not only have some clients first but also that you have a business plan in place. This means knowing how much you need to make to survive, how you are going to get the work that will provide the money, what your marketing strategy is, what your quarterly targets are.Any decision to start up on your own is like taking a jump off the cliff. Sooner or later, one way or another you will have to do it if you want to be fully independent.

Preparing for this is as much psychological as it is practical. Make sure you have support from those around you - your family mostly, friends, and colleagues. Having them 'swim' with you, cheering you on will make it seem easier than it would otherwise. If your closest aren't with you it can make it more lonely.

A consultant is a person who works by selling their specialist knowledge. So you need to make sure you have this knowledge and have the propensity and appetite to develop it as the industry it serves changes. You may also need to acquire a professional qualification or certification. So make sure you have the requisite bits of paper. As soon as you do quit your job you will need to figure out your own balance between the time you spend marketing and the time you spend delivering. If you are delivering a lot then you will have little time for marketing. Don't neglect this or else when you run out of work to deliver there will be nothing in the future.

So when should you quit your job?' Quit your job when you are confident you have all the above in place. This planning will make the landing softer than it would otherwise be. That's not to say it will be easy, it won't! It will be a long time before you feel really comfortable - but you will eventually. Be patient and you'll enjoy the ride.

So, in summary, before you quit:

Line up some Clients

Create a business plan

Get support from family and friends

Work out (at least in theory) your Delivery/marketing strategy

Be patient!

When you feel ready, go knock on the bosses' door, tell them you are going to start your own consultancy and get their support too. Be honest, clear and express your gratitude for their help in developing your career and giving you the opportunity to work for them. Resist the temptation to gloat or show to much de-mob happiness. Keep friends - never know if you'll need them again and they may well become a client.

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How to run a workshop

How to run a workshop

Workshops offer a great forum for providing information, training, development, team-building, communications, motivation and strategic and operational planning. The participation and involvement of staff increases along with a the feeling of ownership and empowerment.

Workshops are very effective ways of in managing change and achieving improvement in a range of scenarios, and particularly the creation of ideas, plans, process and actions in order reach or to achieve particular business and organisational goals

Workshops are perfect for breaking down social or business barriers, improving the links and communications within and between departments, as well as beyond them. Workshops are also good for (CRM) customer relationship management development.

By far the most effective team-building format is the workshop. focusing on the people's key professional and personal responsibilities/interest areas. A workshop can integrate these aspects so that they develop in tandem. After all we cannot entirely separate the personal from the professional.

I use workshops regularly. Within my business I used to use them to train people within organizations to lead better to function better in teams, to deal with and manage change. Now since my business has changed I use them to educate others in how to promote, market and sell their products and services better. Essentially I use them to teach people what I learned myself about running a small business.

How a workshop works is dependent on the leader and the participants. The leader is more of a facilitator than a teacher although teaching and informing can also be a key feature.

Before a workshop starts it’s useful to know what the expectations of those attending the workshop are and that they ‘want’ to be there.

It is also useful if the group are unfamiliar with each other that there is a period at the beginning for them to get to know each other. This should be followed by some input – either from the facilitator or the group (led by the facilitator). There should be time to discuss this and to bring out key themes. Don’t feel under pressure to answer any question perfectly that emerges yourself. The idea of a workshop is that people discuss attempt to resolve each others questions.

Over the course of a day long workshop don’t attempt to cover more than 4 topics; two in the morning and two in the afternoon. Also makes sure there is a clear and obvious relationship between these topics.

End the day making sure that everyone has a satisfactory outcome from the information provided and the method in which it was discussed.

To keep energy levels high it is important that there is as much interaction as possible and that as much humour is shared as possible.

A leap of faith or leap of fate?

When you start your own freelance consulting, trainer, or coaching business you will know that what is often required is what is referred to as a ‘leap of faith’.

When business advisers and motivational books talk about taking a ‘leap of faith’ what do you think of? I think of it as the need to do something that I felt I just had to do, and although it would incur a risk of some kind it was a necessary thing to do.

Leaps of faith always reward you – even if they cost you in the short term. When I established my business – having previously been employed, it was scary but I knew I had to do it. When I decided to go to university, when I decided to get married these were also leaps of faith.

However, I also know some people who have taken similar 'leaps of faith' and it hasn't worked out for them. Also there are things I have done where I thought I was doing the right thing or taking the right ‘leap’ but it hasn’t worked out well.

So what’s this all about? Well, I think the important key here is understanding the word ‘faith’. Sometimes, when things aren't going the way we'd like them to, we'll latch on to anything in the hope that it will make a difference, turn things around. But mere hope without faith is what I call a ‘leap of fate’. I don’t believe in fate or blind determinism– I don’t believe there is a pre-planned destiny that we blindly embrace.. Yes, I am a person of strong religious faith and believe there is a plan for individuals but that individuals are also co-creators in that plan and what makes it work is faith. Faith is the surety that something is right and necessary. A leap of faith needs to be fed, nourished, supported and practised in order to produce results.

A leap of faith is a leap of strength but a leap of ‘fate’ is not. And this can be the difference between when our leap works out and when it doesn’t.

We make leaps of fate when we are overly vulnerable and afraid. I'm sure you have lots of examples, business and personal, where your judgment was affected by fear or a frustration with a current situation and an overwhelming desire to make a change in the belief that it was ‘right’.

So, from this position of vulnerability and fear, we took what we believe was a leap of faith... and it went wrong... A leap of faith is accompanied not with overwhelming vulnerability and fear (only a little vulnerability and fear, yes there is always some fear), but with - get the rest here www.consultancy-coaching.com

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