Tuesday, 24 September 2013
How To Turn Down A Consulting Assignment - Advice From the Trenches
If you're new in the business of consulting, you probably need the income, so why in the world would you consider turning down business?
There are, of course, a number of legitimate reasons for not engaging with a particular business. The most common: having moral or ethical questions with what the business is selling. Second: the owner's personality or obvious biases. Third: you're not confident you'll get paid.
How do you "gracefully" decline?
Saying "No" to a Prospective Client is Tricky.
Whatever the reason, how you bow out can be a delicate matter. I was referred once to a potential client who (in my mind) turned out to be a megalomaniac. Even though he seemed to have a legitimate business that could be helped by our direct marketing expertise, neither I nor my partner felt we could work with him.
He was so over the top that, after two tactful attempts failed, I had to resort to an honest answer, "I don't feel we can work with you!"
Being Direct Isn't Always The Best Answer.
Wow, was that ever a huge mistake. He then went into a rage and actually refused to return the portfolio of samples we had loaned him. (I ultimately got it back by threatening legal action!) This experience forced me to re-think about how to say "no" to prospective clients so that we could part ways on a civilized if not a friendly basis.
If you find yourself in an uncomfortable position with a prospective client, here are some ways you might dodge a potential bullet:
- "Unfortunately, my prior commitments preclude taking this kind of assignment on at this time."
- "I find this type of assignment very interesting, but I would be learning on your nickel. It might be more cost-effective for you to work with someone who has more direct experience. Let me check with a couple of colleagues and get back to you."
- "I have a couple of proposals out right now that are going to complicate my schedule and could represent a conflict in my time commitments. I wouldn't want to jeopardize your project. Let me check with a couple of colleagues to see if I can't find an appropriate referral for you."
While these may not be completely truthful, chances are your prospect isn't fully comfortable either and will be grateful that you have given him an easy way out. The point here is that potential clients - especially small business owners - often don't take criticism or rejection well. Avoid direct rejections wherever possible.
Turning Down Business Can Be a Good Marketing Strategy.
Since one of your marketing activities is maintaining relationships with other consultants, referring business to them wherever possible will likely enhance those relationships. Just be sure to be candid about why you're declining the opportunity.
Looking for more from the trenches of consulting? Joseph A. Krueger of The Marketing Machine® shares regular stories and tips - mostly marketing related -- for new and expert consultants at http://www.ConsultantsMarketingMachine.com.
Sunday, 22 September 2013
Consulting Is All About Marketing - You!
I debated about the title of this article. Originally, it was: "Consulting is All About Finding Clients." From there it morphed into: "Consulting is All About Marketing Your Services." And then, after musing over what I did in building my practice over the years and what it was that clients actually purchased, I realized that what most clients actually buy is "you" the person.
Business Owners Are Really Buying "You" as Much as Your Expertise.
This is particularly true for small business owners. In a very real sense the small business entrepreneur IS her (or his) business. Every decision is a personal one and often they come to the decision to seek help only after anguishing over the fact that they can't do it alone. (Most entrepreneurs embody at least some characteristics of the superman complex.) That opens up the possibility that they feel vulnerable.
Your Sales Process Does Not Include "Cold Calling."
It stands to reason that they will be cautious - even suspicious - of you and your expertise. So how do you break through the barriers to engagement?
You certainly don't want to stand on a street corner with a sign that says "expert consulting services for sale." Nor do you want to go door-to-door offering your services. Neither of these approaches would instill confidence in a prospective client's eyes.
How clients actually "find" you is usually through referral, by reading your words of wisdom or by investigating sources of expertise in a specific area that they "think" they need assistance with.
Your Sales Process thus begins by gaining a reputation for being a problem solver. You do this in several ways, too many to list in this article. But all of them, to one degree or another, must enhance your problem-solving reputation. And that usually means that you find ways to "demonstrate" your knowledge.
Sampling The Inventory in Your Professional Brain
When you write a white paper, give a talk, appear on a panel or get quoted by some other authority -- sharing provocative bits and pieces of your knowledge -- you are indirectly marketing yourself. It's admittedly an oblique approach, but all the things you do today will impact your sales tomorrow.
Everything You Do Publicly is Marketing!
From your business cards, stationery, phone answering to your wardrobe and the car you drive, look at yourself through the eyes of your prospective clients. How will they judge you? If, for example, you drive a Maserati, will they resent "paying a premium" (in their mind) for your services or will they assume that your services are really valuable? If your phone is answered by a machine that sounds like a relic from the 1950s, will they worry that you aren't up to date on business issues? If you admit to not knowing how to Tweet, will they think you are "an old dog unable to learn new tricks?"
These may be subtle things, but you are selling an intangible service. Like it or not, marketing will likely determine your level of success in consulting.
Looking for more on how to break into the world of consulting? Long-time entrepreneur Joseph A. Krueger of The Marketing Machine® shares regular stories and tips - mostly but not all marketing related -- for new and expert consultants at http://www.ConsultantsMarketingMachine.com.
Friday, 20 September 2013
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Credit Repair Tips - Fixing Your Credit Score After Bankruptcy
Tips on How to Improve your Credit Score
So you can't get a loan. It was probably your credit score that clinched the deal to the wastebasket. You see, when you apply for a loan, financial institutions and lending companies look at your credit score for guidance. People with low scoring history are more likely to be rejected for a loan or at best be given a small amount for a loan, with a high interest rate and a shorter time frame to pay the loan.
In contrast, people with high credit ratings are given higher amounts of money for a loan, lower interest rates and longer time frame to pay the loan. This is because people with a good credit score are perceived as less of a risk, more responsible, more able to handle their finances and worthier to be given a loan.
Here are some tips that can help you improve your credit score.
1. Keep a payment schedule
One of the factors that affect credit report is your reputation for paying your bills. Even if you pay them, but always late, it can still affect your credit rating. This is why it is important that you keep a payment schedule if you really want to raise your credit score a notch.
You can do this by keeping track of all your bills especially your credit card statements. This way, you will not only incur additional charges in terms interests, you will also build for yourself a good credit history.
2. Spend only when you need to
Another factor that affects credit scores is your credit card. If you often have credit cards that are maxed out and well and beyond its credit limit, your credit score will become lower. This is because a maxed out credit card reflects a spender who cannot handle finances. This kind of person is a risky candidate for a loan.
3. Borrow from only one
Some people make the mistake of applying for a loan in more than one company all at the same time. Do not do this. Although banks do not actually check with each other, they do have their own ways of finding out if you have also borrowed money from other institutions. If this is the case, your credit score will take a nosedive.
This is because people who borrows from a lot of companies are seen as too desperate for money or is too needful of it. Some see this as a dubious way of acquiring money. So if you are afraid of getting rejected and you just want to make sure that you will get a loan, try waiting for one response before starting an application in another. That way, your credit score will not suffer.
4. Pay your outstanding debts
You may be paying your debts but you have a lot that you are not finished paying yet. This is also not good in your credit history. Although most companies would want to lend you the money because you are a good payer, having too many outstanding debts that you are still paying for may make them think if you can still manage to pay another one.
If you feel that you can pay one debt in full, pay it. That is one less debt for you to worry about. This will not only bring you a step closer to financial independence, it will also improve your credit score.
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Ways to Clean Up a Bad Credit Score - Filing For Bankruptcy
Understanding your score report is important since it may help you determine your chances of being approved on your credit applications. Your credit reports score usually will help lenders and credit institutions to determine if you are good enough for credit that you have applied for. Lenders would need to be ensured that people they lend money to are able to pay back their loans. That is the purpose of a person's credit report.
When a person applies for a personal loan or mortgage on their homes, lenders would usually check upon a person's credit history to see if one is a good borrower in that he or she pays back on credit dues on time.
A person's credit history would help lenders determine the risk of that they put themselves in when approving a person's credit. In a way, credit institutions are trying to protect their own investments (in terms of handing out credit) by checking out a prospective borrower's credit report score.
In essence, a person's credit report is part of the lender's background check. It is a detailed history of a person's borrowing habits. From it, lenders are able to extract the following information about the credit applicant:
• It provides a person's identifying information such as one's complete name, past and current addresses, date of birth as well as a person's employment history
• A record of accounts that previous lenders have submitted to who the individual has loaned from in the past. This record includes the type of credit extended (mortgage, credit card, car loan, etc.), the amount of credit, the date when it was opened and a record of payments already made as well as the remaining balance.
• A record of inquiries made on the credit report for a period of two years. This includes voluntary inquiries made for previous loaning applications as well as involuntary inquiries made by the lender without the knowledge of the credit report holder.
• A collection of information of state and country court records associated with previous loans made. The loaning report also includes recorded information about previous bankruptcies, lawsuits, foreclosure of properties, liens and other judgments that can be attributed to previous loans made.
When availing of the lending report, the lender or credit institution may also get hold of a person's credit score. A score report is calculated based on the information that is provided by the credit report. This is usually done by credit reporting agencies that consider the information and provide the necessary score to help lenders better assess your future credit risk level.
Your scores is also being more commonly referred to your FICO score. The reason for this is because most of the credit scores are calculated using a software developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation, also known as FICO. Your FICO score can range from 300 to 850. The higher your FICO score figures, the lower your credit risk is perceived by lenders, thereby giving you better chances of being approved for credit.
Understanding your trust reports score makes it also easier for you to determine your own chances of being approved for a particular loan application. If you know that you have a high FICO score, you can then try your best to maintain or even improve on it in order to increase your credit chances with a number of lenders.
Knowing that you have a low FICO score may also do you some good. This knowledge will motivate you to act upon improving your credit score in order to make yourself less of a risks to lenders the next time that you apply for another loan.
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Tuesday, 17 September 2013
6 Reasons to Change Before You Have To
Ever get to a point where you wish everything would just stop because it's perfect? Maybe you've worked hard to get something to where it's at and you feel good about the accomplishment. How about having tried what works and what doesn't and you land on that which works? It works. Leave it alone. Let's not mess with a good thing.
Leaders know that messing with a good thing is precisely what needs to happen if the church is going to grow. If you wait until you have to change, you're too late. Change before you have to and you will chart the course for future growth.
I remember back in the day as a staff pastor I would run around like I knew what I was talking about and invoke that worn out cliché "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I was really using code language for "I don't want to make the effort to change." Rather than applying the unconventional wisdom that came from books like If It Ain't Broke... Break It I unintentionally lobbied for the status quo. Why? Because change can be hard and is often uncomfortable.
A good friend of mine, Rob Ketterling, wrote an outstanding book by the title of Change Before You Have To. You need to read that book. In it he describes what it is like to discover a new life of abundance, passion, and satisfaction. And it doesn't happen by sitting still.
From my work consulting leaders and pastors on navigating change, here are six reasons I have come to believe are the driving force for changing before you have to:
1. No one ever stays the same. You are either moving forward or you are moving backward. You cannot sit still. You may think you can but just the moment you believe that, you have stepped into decline. So don't be deluded. No one ever stays the same. You will always change. Make it good.
2. Change avoids lethargy. Lethargy is a hallmark of the status quo and decline. Personally and professionally you can avoid lethargy by changing things around you. Change what you do and how you react. Not doing so produces lethargy and ultimately death. Doing so produces invigorating life and renewal.
3. Change creates newness and refreshment. On January 1st of each year, we start new. The calendar rolls over. We have to be retrained to write the correct year on the dates we list. If not, we stay in the old year. The refreshing occurs when the cobwebs of "same ol', same ol'" are broken, and newness and change replace them.
4. Change puts you ahead of the curve. If you look at business leaders you see they don't wait to react. They are proactive. They make things happen. I remember a conversation I had with a mentor/friend of mine while living in Iowa. It was about a noted commercial real estate developer in our area. My mentor said, "Bill (the developer) doesn't wait for things to happen. He goes into a corn field and makes things happen." He was ahead of the curve. Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Fast Company... these organizations change first and get ahead of any curve. You should too.
5. Organizations that resist change cease to grow. In the business classic Good to Great, Jim Collins repeatedly shows how multiple-decades-old companies that changed were able to move from being good companies to being great companies. Companies that resisted change were relegated to the also-rans and ultimately died. The mission of the church is too great for us to ever allow the resistance to change to lead it to death.
6. Our God specializes in change. He took your life when it was far from Him and made it new. He took that which was broken and fixed it. He broke your willful disobedience and gave you a submissive, willful desire to serve Him. If He loves to change people, how much more should we want to change ourselves and the church we lead? I say, let's follow His lead.
If you think about it, these six reasons to change can set the stage for some of the greatest life and ministry you've ever experienced. I encourage you to get after it and change before you have to.
Dick Hardy is the Founder and President of The Hardy Group, a Pastoral Leadership Consulting firm for lead pastors. His tag line is, "Everything But Preaching." He notes that pastors love to preach. It's all the other stuff that eats their lunch.
Dick has served as an Administrative Pastor, Chief Operating Officer, Non-Profit Executive Director and College Vice-President. He consults personally with pastors who are tired of the status quo and want to see substantive change and growth in the ministries they serve.
Copyright © 2013 by Dick Hardy. Permission is granted for the free redistribution of this article. You may contact Dick at dhardy@thehardygroup.org or visit the website http://www.thehardygroup.org.
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