Business Archives - Nicole Clark Consulting

Ask Nicole: Use Your 9-to-5 to Build Your Consulting Business

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In last month’s Ask Nicole, I shared some quick advice in getting started in consulting. This month, I’m touching on a topic I saw in response to what I shared and more broadly.

One of the main reasons why people want to get into consulting (or to be self employed in general), is to have more freedom over their day. It was one of my reasons. Typically, this is in response to something we’re experiencing in our current employment. Namely, toxic work environments, micromanagement, lack of opportunities for career advancement (or having no desire to advance within the organization), unnecessary meetings, unrealistic expectations from management, inadequate pay and benefits, and not doing the work we really want to do.

While I did experience the above in varying degrees, not doing the work I really wanted to do was the ultimate reason why I started a consulting business. I’ve mentioned here and there over the years the outcome of me leaving my 9-to-5, but never went into detail about the process of working for someone while building a business.

In short:

It’s hard building a business while working a 9-to-5.

“Then just leave”, you’re thinking. While some do quit their jobs to begin a business, most people start their business while still at their 9-to-5 and their reasons vary:

Wanting to save enough money
Leaving can impact quality of life
The decision to leave can impact others (spouse, children, other dependents, etc.)
Not being mentally prepared to leave
Needing more time to confirm your proof of concept that what they want to sell is actually something people will buy
The desire to build a business while having a steady paycheck
Having a business and a 9-to-5 provides structure

The last two, still wanting my biweekly paycheck and my 9-to-5 providing structure, were my main reasons for remaining at my 9-to-5 for nearly 3 years while building my business.

In retrospect, I didn’t realize at the time how much my 9-to-5 gave me the structure I needed to build my business. Here’s a gist of how my time looked:

6 am: Wake up
6 am – 7:30: Business work
7:30 – 8:30: Get ready for 9-to-5
8:30 – 9:00: Travel to 9-to-5
9:00 – 12:00pm: 9-to-5 work (seeing clients, meetings, etc.)
12:00 – 1:00: Doing business work during lunch break
1:00 – 5:00: 9-to-5 work (while also sneaking in some business work)
After 5:00: Maybe go to the gym, but sometimes go directly home. If I went to the gym, I would make it home by 7:00
7:00 – 11:30: Dinner, business work, shower and get ready for the next day

Because my time was so segmented, I had to know exactly what I was doing with my time, and what I needed to prioritize, and how much time I had to do it.

Whether your goal is to go full time into your business or have some extra income on the side, your business and your 9-to-5 will have to find a way to peacefully coexist for a while. Here are some takeaways from my process for you to consider as you build your consulting business while working at your 9-to-5:

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How to Manage the Growing Pains of Being an Expert

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:49:29-04:00January 14th, 2016|Categories: Consulting|Tags: Business, consulting|2 Comments

At the 2015 American Evaluation Association (AEA) conference in Chicago, I attended a session called “Meet the Pros: Intermediate Consulting Skill-Building Self-Help Fair”. It was a 45-minute skills-building session that featured experienced independent evaluation consultants (including Norma Martinez-Rubin of Evaluation-Focused Consulting, Jessica Pugil of The Working Partner, Susan Wolfe of CNM Connect, Laura Keene of Keene Insights, and Stephanie Evergreen of Evergreen Data) who provided insights and advice on lessons-learned on managing a consulting business.

It was a can’t-miss session for me, so much so that I had to get up at 5am, leave my AirBnB near the University of Illinois at Chicago’s campus at 5:45, grab breakfast around 6:15 and wait outside the session room by 6:30. Luckily for me, most people don’t show up for a 7am session, and I was the first one in line.

Set up in the style of speed dating, participants circulated to different topic areas (strategic planning for longevity, managing community dynamics, finding spaces to work outside of the home, how to select projects, and branding). Each facilitator also provided a useful handout that outlined their expertise and recommendations for managing a consulting business.

Compared to attending my first AEA conference in 2014, I strategically chose to attend sessions that centered mostly on independent consulting and business management, program design, and data visualization. I also chose sessions that were more skill-building focused as opposed to panels, listening to research findings, and the like. Starting a business can be rewarding and stressful. Not only are you putting yourself out there as an expert, you have to do everything that comes with managing a business (including paying yourself and employees, reviewing contracts, getting insurance, and the like).

For the longest, I felt more comfortable in my role as an activist, and then eventually a social worker. Given the beginnings of the profession, social work’s ethical principles are in alignment with being an activist. While program evaluation is a requirement in the social work profession, I sometimes look at the practice as being completely separate from social work (and this is in spite of studying it as a graduate social work student. I’ve written several blog posts on how I became a program evaluator and a reproductive justice social worker. It’s an ever-evolving process, and I still strategize on how to integrate my social justice side with my analytical side.

Whether you’re a social worker, evaluator, activist, or occupy another role, there will be times where you feel you don’t measure up. Attending all the sessions, reading all the books, and networking with all the people can’t erase those feelings that you may not know what you’re doing. In reality, you know exactly what you need to know at this moment. How can you leverage the skill sets you have, and managing those icky feelings that come up when you don’t feel as legit as you’d like? Those feelings are merely your inner critic, and that voice will come up no matter what you do. Here are some ways I’ve found to manage it: (more…)

Ask Nicole: Use Your 9-to-5 to Build Your Consulting Business

How to Manage the Growing Pains of Being an Expert

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