Ask Nicole Archives - Page 7 of 16 - Nicole Clark Consulting

1 Sep, 2021

Ask Nicole: How Do I Avoid Mission Creep?

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-09-01T10:05:29-04:00September 1st, 2021|Categories: Consulting|Tags: Ask Nicole, consulting, Mission Creep|0 Comments

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

I recently took a week off from client and partner consulting work to catch up on some administrative tasks that have been piling up.

One of my tasks was revamping my website, focusing on easier navigation (in some cases, redesigning web pages) and clarifying my overall messaging.

I had a aha moment while redesigning the Blog Archives page. I noticed where I’ve been spending most of my time blogging about, and I’ve decided moving forward to limit the amount of content I create around starting and running a consulting business.

I’m at a place now where I prefer sharing successes and lessons learned in my adventures with clients and partners both in real time and in reflection of past projects. Plus, it makes sense to showcase what I’ve done, from a marketing perspective. Unless something major happens that impacts how I run my business, I prefer to take this approach for now.

So consider this Ask Nicole post to be the last business related content I write publicly for a while. However, I will continue sharing more about my journey in my newsletter.

Another reason for limiting this type of content is the amount of inquiries I’ve gotten regarding helping people with set up their consulting businesses.

Many of these inquiries are from social workers and public health professionals. This is great, and I appreciate the well wishes I’ve gotten for being transparent about my professional journey. And raising your voice for women and girls of color* may look like leaving your day job and doing your own thing so that you can do that.

But coaching people through this process takes me out of my mission. Which brings me to the point of this post.

When a new idea emerges, evaluate whether it keeps you in alignment with your mission or takes you out of it.

The services I currently provide are in alignment with each other. Essentially, they work together to help organizations focus on sustainability, being data driven in their decision making, and ensuring that decision making is culturally and equitable responsive to important stakeholders.

This is how I raise my voice for women and girls of color*, and this is my preference. Fortunately, I have colleagues I’ve admired and followed for a while that I can refer these inquiries to such as Eva Forde, Kyshira Moffett, and Rosetta Thurman, as they focus specifically on building a business and brand and I’ve learned a lot from them.

Ask yourself:

Does this new idea make sense for my mission?

Even if it sounds like profitable, even if many are asking for it, even if it sounds like something you may enjoy doing, still ask yourself this question. Avoid mission creep.

The last thing I would want is having an abundance of opportunities for business coaching that overshadow the work I feel more aligned to do. Without this reflection, creating a new service because people ask you for it can make you feel resentful. Especially if that idea takes off.

Always evaluate a new idea against your mission. If it makes sense, go for it. If it doesn’t, refer out. Reject the notion of taking on people’s ideas of what you should be doing.

And isn’t that the point of moving on and doing your own thing?

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** PS: * “Women and girls of color” refers to gender-expansive adults and youth, including cisgender, transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, gender queer and any girl-identified person)

Raise Your Voice: How do you avoid mission creep? Share below in the comments section.

4 Aug, 2021

Ask Nicole: Hire a Consultant vs. Do it Yourself

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T21:12:50-04:00August 4th, 2021|Categories: Consulting|Tags: Ask Nicole, Capacity Building, consulting|0 Comments

I had a discovery call with a prospective client recently, who wants to build an evaluation framework for their staff to implement. The executive director wanted an evaluation framework that was general enough to cover each program but could be tailored to each program’s specifics.

This organization has the budget to hire a consultant, but once the consultant’s job is over, the organization will have to pick up where the consultant left off. That often includes understanding their capacity to implement evaluation activities.

It’s no surprise that many organizations doing amazing work tend to have a small staff. And just like the larger organizations, they focus on the bigger picture and how to measure their impact. (I’ll touch on how grassroots organizations can be more data driven in next week’s blog post.)

They’re getting funding (via their supporters or from foundations) to help build out their infrastructure and capacity to do this data driven work while also being deep within the communities they serve.

“Who will implement this framework and all of its activities?“, I asked the executive director. In order to build an appropriate evaluation framework, I have to understand staff capacity.

It’s not a waste of time or money to hire someone to help. It is a waste of time if the end product isn’t conducive to where your staff’s capacity currently is, which could lead into finding the money to bring in another consultant to help with implementation.

Should you hire a consultant or should you do it yourself?

As a consultant, while my business thrives on being hired to do stuff, the answer isn’t that simple.

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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

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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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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Ask Nicole: How Do I Avoid Mission Creep?

Ask Nicole: Hire a Consultant vs. Do it Yourself

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

Ask Nicole: Being Honest about Your Capacity

Ask Nicole: Responding to Partnership Requests

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