Consulting Archives - Page 3 of 12 - Nicole Clark Consulting

15 Jul, 2021

Putting Equity in the RFP Process

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T21:10:56-04:00July 15th, 2021|Categories: Consulting|Tags: consulting, Equity|0 Comments

When I first started doing client work, I responded to a lot of Requests for Proposals (RFPs), spending hours a day on the process (or on the weekends when I was working a 9-to-5.)

At some point, I asked myself, “Is this really what I’ll have to do to get clients?”

More importantly, “Is this a good use of my time?”

I’ve already written about how I feel about the RFP process. In fact, I’ve slowed down on responding to RFPs altogether as a time management tactic and to prioritize current work.

Fortunately, I’m at a point where responding to RFPs is optional. Plus, I see more colleagues choosing not to participate in this process.. One reason being that the majority of my colleagues (and myself) get more work via referrals and networking than RFPs.

I’ll admit I initially didn’t like the RFP process because I grew weary of spending hours putting together what I thought was a good proposal only to not even get a “thanks, but no thanks” back.

However, whether my proposal was selected or not, I still walked away believing that there’s a better way to go about finding people to lead projects.

While I don’t respond to as many RFPs, I still do look at them, and I’ve notice something interesting.

Organizations are becoming increasingly better at recognizing what I’ll refer to as data collection fatigue, being mindful of inundating program participants, grantee partners, and other stakeholders with requests for completing surveys, being in focus groups, etc., while also ensuring that data collection activities aren’t time consuming.

Organizations recognize this now because their stakeholders are complaining about it.

Does this mean that consultants aren’t complaining? We are, yet organizations aren’t shifting towards creating RFP processes that are transparent, less time consuming, and collaborative.

The RFP process may be a standard way to seek out consultants to work with, but it’s not an equitable process. Before your organization sends out the RFP for its next project, evaluate your RFP based on consultant complaints:

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7 Jul, 2021

Ask Nicole: I Have Too Many Clients (!!!)

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T21:10:19-04:00July 7th, 2021|Categories: Consulting|Tags: Ask Nicole, clients, consulting|0 Comments

Have a question you’d like to be featured? Let me know.

This month’s Ask Nicole question comes from Sylvia, a public health professional who recently stepped out into the world of full time consulting as her consulting client roster has started to skyrocket:

What do you do when you find that you have too many clients?? Sounds ridiculous, as I’m sure this is a “problem” many consultants would love to have. I’m a solopreneur and I’m still establishing myself and my business systems. I’ve taken on more projects than I probably should have, and while this will prove to be a lesson learned for the future, I’m curious to hear from you on how you’ve tackled this.

Sylvia’s right.

Complaining about having too many clients does sound weird to someone who wishes they had even one client.

And I’m sure Sylvia did it in order to jump fully into her business so that she could leave her 9-to-5 behind. Building my client portfolio was a primary focus for me too, for both experience and confidence.

So… how many clients is “too many”?

Well, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. However, when your client roster feels overwhelming, consider the following common culprits. I’ve considered for myself when I start questioning my own client roster, and hopefully you can discover which one(s) are causing you to take on more clients than you should:

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1 Jun, 2021

Five Years of Full Time Consulting: My Biggest Lesson Learned

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T21:07:34-04:00June 1st, 2021|Categories: Consulting|Tags: consulting, Reflections|0 Comments

On June 1st, 2016, I woke up, rolled over, opened my laptop, and began working. This was my first day as a full-time consultant, after nearly 3 years of juggling full-time employment with building a consulting business. Today is my five year anniversary.

What started as a Tumblr blog developed in a moment of boredom in 2011 to share my thoughts on Reproductive Justice, feminism, and women and girls of color led to me filing as a Limited Liability Company business in August 2013, with my eventual departure from my employer on May 31, 2016.

I’ve worked with some pretty amazing client organizations and partners along the way. I’m still amazed that I can say, “I worked with this organization?“

In 2017, I shared 10 lessons learned during my first year of full time consulting, and not much has changed with these lessons learned five years later.

The days where I grew in frustration knowing that I had a fragmented life (doing something I no longer cared for and building my business) seem like a distant memory. I still look back on those days with gratitude because that period was one of the hardest yet rewarding of my life. Starting and running a business became less about being my own boss and more about having an idea and giving myself permission to see it through.

I will be honest and say that I’m not as inspired by what I do.

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8 Apr, 2021

Ask Nicole: Being Honest about Your Capacity

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T21:05:43-04:00April 8th, 2021|Categories: Consulting|Tags: Ask Nicole, consulting|0 Comments

I didn’t put much thought into my capacity to do consulting work in the beginning.

In fact, I had a “quantity” mindset when I started out, taking on multiple projects at once to build my portfolio.

It was a lot, considering I was still working at my full-time job.

My thinking was that, in order to look more attractive to prospective clients and partners, I needed to have a list of organizations I could say I’ve worked with.

While I enjoyed building my skills and my portfolio, I wasn’t mindful of the timing of all these projects. They were mostly short-term (3-6 months) and they all ended at the same time.

At some point, I realized this wasn’t sustainable. Along with the day job, having multiple projects that started and ended around the same time didn’t help me feel financially stable in the long-run. Running out of projects at the same time is panic-inducing.

When I finally left my job, I had more time to devote to my business, yet I still didn’t feel I could sustain this.

Landing my first multi-year client is when everything clicked.

I had a 3-year project client with multiple moving parts. There was always something for me to do, so I never grew bored. Plus, knowing that I could count on a consistent paycheck also helped.

Soon after, I slowly took on more projects, of varying timeframes, based on where I was with the 3-year project. I was able to stagger projects based on the timing of the larger project, so that I wouldn’t be at the same phase with each project (like writing long evaluation reports for 2-3 projects at the same time, for instance).

I kept track of the start and projected end dates for each project, the project-based skillsets I relied heavily on, and the resources needed for each project. This helped me to be more honest with prospective clients and partners (and myself) about my capacity.

Knowing what you can and can’t do and how many projects you can realistically handle is a personal decision. Here are some questions to ask yourself:

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17 Mar, 2021

Ask Nicole: Responding to Partnership Requests

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T21:04:01-04:00March 17th, 2021|Categories: Consulting|Tags: Ask Nicole, Partnerships|0 Comments

I’ve touched on engaging with prospective clients here. Today, let’s focus on responding to partnership requests.

Partnerships looks differently depending on your industry. For me, a partnership is working with someone or an entity to oversee a project for a client.

Being co-investigators on a research study, co-designing and leading a program evaluation, designing or updating a program’s curriculum, or co-facilitating a webinar series are what typically come to mind as partnerships for me.

As I’m approaching the 5th year anniversary of running my business full-time (!!!), I’m taking stock of where I’d like to see my business go in 2021 and in the next 5 years. I’m thinking about my personal goals and the shifts I’m making, and I want my business structure to reflect these changes.

As a result, partnerships have been heavy on my mind.

There are many reasons why you may want to move into a partnership, including:

Having a thought partner (similar to having a co-worker)
Increased capacity to take on larger, more complex projects
The chance to work with someone with a skillset, resources, and expertise you can leverage (and vice versa)

Prospective partnerships come to me similarly to how prospective clients find me, and my reasons for declining a partnership request aren’t far off from how I decline a client request.

What makes my process for agreeing to (or requesting) a partnership differs from a client request based on the prospective partner’s reputation AND if I’ve gotten to know this partner over time. I’m more likely to agree to a partnership when there’s already an established connection and rapport, if the partnership makes sense, and if the opportunity feels like an “absolutely yes!” moment.

Still, building relationships are paramount when accepting or declining a request. Along with what I’ve shared, I have other criteria that are top of mind when accepting or declining a partnership request. Use the questions below to determine whether to consider a partnership or approach a potential partner :

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Putting Equity in the RFP Process

Ask Nicole: I Have Too Many Clients (!!!)

Five Years of Full Time Consulting: My Biggest Lesson Learned

Ask Nicole: Being Honest about Your Capacity

Ask Nicole: Responding to Partnership Requests

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