CONSULTANTS CONNECT!

Last Wednesday, we had a our first Consultants Connection Affinity Group lunch meeting. This meeting was designed for IGC members who are consultants and coaches and who want the additional support of a peer group who can share, discuss, and brainstorm topics that are particularly relevent to consultancies and service businesses.

Such things as how to handle difficult clients, pricing, word-of-mouth and referral marketing, leveraging strategic partnerships, training, continuing education, resources, best practices, etc.

A really wonderful opportunity for members from a variety of industries to come together to share challenges, strategies amd network together.

The turn out was amazing, the discussion was lively, and the exchange was rich!

Here are a few take aways:

Q. How do I avoid giving away all of my ideas in my proposal but at the same time demonstrating my value which will help secure the client engagement?

A. Have the client pay for the proposal if they want one that is more in depth than an overview of the project. This will allow the client to get an idea of how you work and how you will work together! Their is work involved from your end, however, if they do not use you (but like your ideas), everyone has been compensated fairly. The client demonstrates respect for you from the beginning which will start the relationship off on the right foot! It is actually a wonderful way of working together in a limited capacity before signing any agreements or long term committments!

A few tips on how to grow your network to help secure your next client and improve your business development efforts overall!

1. Make a committment to meet a certain number of new people a month - this can be in a variety of capacities (social and business) but this will help you expand your network for future work.

2. Unless you want people to walk away thinking you are a generic "consultant" clearly articulate the types of projects you work on, the types of clients you seek to work with! This way, people can be better equipped to help you or hire you!

3. Keep in touch with new contacts - find create ways to make multiple impressions with new contacts - for example, send annual holiday cards, monthly newsletters, a follow up emails, interesting articles, research, findings, and trends, etc.

Join us for the next one. We are looking forward to it! Tuesday, September 23rd; 2-4pm

OVERLY SOCIAL? MAKING SENSE OF THE MADNESS

Social Networking has been and continues to be all the rage. But for someone who is coming late to the party, the whole web 2.0 landscape can be pretty confusing and intimidating. I imagine that it is a full time job just keeping up with everything new. Never mind about catching up on the already well-loved tools.

However, I do want to share two things with those fellow resisters out there.

First is the a Business Week article by Auren Hoffman, The Social Media Gender Gap, where Hoffman discusses how women are outpacing men in the use of social media tools. Although initially surprising, the rational seems to make sense.

Hoffman writes, "Women's behavior online, on the other hand, is less transactional and more relationship-driven. They spend more time on social networks building relationships, communicating with friends, and making new friends. Married women use social networks to share pictures and treat their network profiles as family home pages to share with friends and relatives. And because they use social networks to be social, a dollar spent marketing to acquire a female user goes a lot further than on a male user.".

This seems especially important given that many of us (women business owners, at In good Company in particular) have businesses whose target market is women.

Seems like it is time to get on the bandwagon! But, how?

Enter my second resource, a book called Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, and recommended to me by IGC Member Frances Spark of Spark Consulting.

Authors Li and Bernoff use Groundswell to decipher and describe various social media tools and link them to business goals and outcomes. Thank Goodness. Fears about stumbling around in cyber space are assuaged and time can be can be spent productively.

I imagine the key to success is to focus on a few tools that meet your business goals and to use them well rather then open an account on everything available. Hopefully Groundswell can help me pick the right ones....ah, more homework.

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GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY

I am very excited to attend the next Entrepreneur Training Session facilitated by Golden Seeds on July 30th. It seems like an amazing opportunity to learn about pitching your company to angel investors, raising equity capital, and company valuation. I am including the event information below in case anyone wants to join me.

What a wonderful way to learn from these incredible women! I am interested to meet the other participants as well...

Entrepreneur Training
Half day educational training session to prepare you to successfully raise equity capital from angel investors

WHEN: July 30th, 9am-1pm
WHERE: 750 Lexington Ave. NY, NY
COST: $280
TO REGISTER


Shared by Adelaide