Consulting: Your Most Likely Clients

Let’s talk about who is most likely to hire you as a consultant. The answer isn’t a surprise, it’s simply people you have worked with before.

Here is the great news: You have already worked with people before. And no doubt successfully, at least the majority of them.

Who are they? Where are they now?

This includes people at your current organization, people at previous organizations where you worked, and absolutely people who have moved to new organizations.

These people don’t need to think you are a Rock Star, they don’t even need to like you. They simply need to respect you. If you are professional and get the job done, the vast majority of people will respect you whether you have become friends with them or not.Think about who these people are.

You may even want to start jotting down a list. They are the most likely people to come to you with work, the easiest to approach for work, and the most likely to provide referrals and more.

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January 16, 2025

Consulting on the Side to Fulltime: A Case Study

Kenneth G Hartman began his career as an electrical engineer working for food manufacturers like Kraft. After about a decade, shortly after 9/11, he joined his brother in a small #startup in the health care space, where he got interested in transitioning into security. We met shortly afterwards in Madison, Wisconsin and we hit it off.Ken has since gone on to work in infosec for internet giants in Silicon Valley, started consulting on the side, and eventually has become a full time consultant.

January 3, 2025

How much does a Great Idea matter ?

How important is a great idea when you are doing something new, whether it's a startup or something else significant?

Most people think the "great idea" is essential, and if you have a truly great idea, life will be easy: it'll be easy to get people to join you, get momentum, get funding if you need it and more.

I will argue that a great idea, although "great," is not as important as people think. We will ignore right now that an idea, regardless of how good, is useless unless someone takes action.

Even with a smashingly great idea, and enormous success, that idea will have changed during implementation, it will have morphed.

It did for Android (they were originally making a camera operating system well before Google bought them), Nintendo (paper playing cards), Nokia (started as a paper mill), YouTube (a dating site), and many more.

My opinion: Don't worry about a great idea; go for the Big Execution!

December 22, 2024

Positive Procrastination

We normally think of procrastination as negative, but procrastination can be positive.If you procrastinate on the right things, you might never need to do some of them!

December 22, 2024

Why Get Involved with a Startup ?

Why would anyone get involved with a startup, leaving the relative safety of a corporate job?
First, let's define a startup: An endeavor with has high growth potential and is potentially innovative or disruptive in some way.
There are several reasons, and three big ones at least in my mind . . .