Want to be a Consultant? Better have thick skin.

You notice them, sometimes envy them.

They seem happy, smiling even on Monday mornings. They come in, stir things up, then vanish when your boss starts reviewing the budget.

Consultants. Sometimes they work for a consulting firm, other times they are solo. You wonder how they got so lucky…and if you should join their ranks.

What you don’t see, however, is everything that transpired leading up to that happy Monday morning.

To be an independent consultant, or even start your own consulting practice, you must have the ability to completely disconnect your feelings from situations. No, I’m not exaggerating. This isn’t to complain or scare you away, this is just the hard truth about consulting that isn’t talked about.

Client first communication to first payment time…not exactly a bi-weekly paycheck.

The first headache is the timing of projects. You get a call or e-mail about some potential work. Normally it takes two weeks or more from initial communication to project start. You’re told to send your invoice/hours every two weeks. The client pays net-30 days (could be 15…could be 45+). That’s 8 weeks, two months, from initial contact to first payment. If you’ve had a gap between projects, you’re watching that savings account drop quickly.

Project length? You mean “oh no we lost our budget”.

You start a 3 month project, happy to have the income again and the ability to breathe a bit financially. 6 weeks into the project the client comes to you “we just had our budget cut, we have to wrap up this week”. You had 6 weeks left of work, now it’s 6 hours. You take an extended lunch and start contacting every contact you have in your network, hoping someone needs you to start soon.

Referrals…promises rarely kept

You’re hoping to find a new project soon. A friend/former colleague, new LinkedIn connection or family member sincerely wants to help you out. “I know someone at ______ I’ll introduce you”. Typically one of the following will happen:
1) They forget about it and never make the introduction
2) They e-mail or LinkedIn IM the person and you at the same time, the contact doesn’t respond
3) The respond, but with a “no thanks”
4) You find out that person has nothing to do with what you do and can’t help you
5) Somewhere around the 5% range the introduction will lead somewhere. Promise of future discussions is the norm, but occasionaly you’ll get lucky and a project will come of it.

Working with other firms…the silence echoes.

You network with other firms, hoping to help each other out as projects come up. Sometimes this can work beautifully. Other times… well here’s what can happen from our own experiences.

1) “I don’t provide the same service you do but I have so many clients that ask about it, I’ll send them to you.” They don’t.
2) They constantly contact you to see if you have work for them, but ignore your e-mails when you are looking.
3) They contact you about a project need then fail to communcate things like…
a) Oh the client requires local talent in Boise only
b) They don’t actually have the project signed
c) They just stop responding to e-mails or phone calls
d) “They pay net 90 days”
e) They want a 30 year expert at rookie rates

Honestly the communication part is the biggest, most painful part of the experience. Sudden silence. Project details that could have been brought up in the first contact. Unreasonable rate expectations, etc.

Parterning with “complementary” firms”

They provide difference services than you. Easy to refer work to each other. You have lunch, talk in broad terms, have a good idea of how to help each other, then a week later they ask for a profile for a project. You’re excited, it looks promising, then nothing. A month later that firm is offering the same service you provide, they figured out the profit margin they could get with sub-par consultants and greed takes over.

Pounding the pavement…over and over and over…

A consultant has to balance their time between networking for projects, doing the actual work, invoicing clients, keeping up with their professional education, and also the normal soccer practice, school plays, date night with the spouse, etc. You are always networking, you never know when a project might be canceled a week before the start date (happened to me last year) or ended early. Even if it goes the full length, you see that end date rapidly coming and that delayed first project payment looms.

Why is that consultant smiling on a Monday? Perhaps they are working for the first time in a month. Or maybe they just lined up another project later in the year. Maybe the start date worked out where they know they finally don’t have to touch their savings between projects.

Still thinking about going into consulting? Is it rewarding? Absolutely. Can you get experience and opportunities others don’t get? Yep. Will you have to work harder than you ever realized to get there? Without a doubt.

But you know what?

I wouldn’t change a thing.

Interested in doing consulting/project work in internal audit, SOX, accounting or IT? Looking for consultants that actually communicate and aren’t constantly selling you other services? thomas@r-vmc.com is the best way to reach us.