1 Jun, 2016

Ask Nicole: Did You Ever Leave Your Day Job to Run Your Business Full-Time?

By |2021-08-19T18:53:39-04:00June 1st, 2016|Categories: Consulting|Tags: , |0 Comments

Blog Post

In 2014, I wrote the blog post “Am I On the Right Track? Evaluating Nicole Clark Consulting“.

I received several reactions, summed up in these ways:

“I didn’t know you were working full-time!”

or

“How are you running a business while working full-time?”

Since that time, I’ve been asked about my progress on the goals from that post, primarily on this goal:

Transition into Nicole Clark Consulting full-time by January 2016

Starting today, June 1, 2016, I am running Nicole Clark Consulting full-time. Yes, I’m behind on my goal by 6 months, but better late than never.

I set the wheels in motion on October 1, 2015, and on the morning of January 1, 2016, while overlooking New York City skyline on the observation deck of One World Trade Center, I knew I was ready. Honestly, I had forgotten that January 1, 2016 was my original full-time date, and decided that June 1, 2016 would be the day I would be full-time in my business.

I submitted my resignation letter to my supervisor on March 31, 2016, with my last day being May 31, 2016. I didn’t mind staying in my position for the extra 2 months as it ended up taking 2 months for my replacement to be hired and trained.

Outside of some family members, a few friends, and some colleagues (both entrepreneurs and my office co-workers), the only people who knew about my resignation were my Raise Your Voice newsletter subscribers. I also wanted to make sure that all of my client contracts were finalized before submitting my resignation as well.

Let’s go back over my progress:

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11 May, 2016

What to Do During Your First Days with a New Client

By |2021-08-19T18:53:02-04:00May 11th, 2016|Categories: Consulting|Tags: , |0 Comments

Blog Post Title #2

After reviewing the responses to your potential client questionnaire, meeting either in person, virtually, or by phone, and putting the finishing touches on your contract, you’ve landed a new client.

This is part of the on-boarding process, where you’re brought on as a consultant or contract worker for a new project. And since I do most of my consulting around program design and evaluation work, I’m going to speak within the context of working with a new client who has hired you to either develop a program theory model or to design an evaluation specific to an existing program.

To start, most evaluation projects tend to last for an agreed upon length of time. If you’re hired as an external evaluator, and you’ve never worked with this client before, you’re already at an advantage.  An evaluator works with program directors and executive directors to “tell the story”  of their program through identifying potential outcomes for the program activities, creating a data collection process that aligns most with the program and what questions the organization is expecting to answer, and analyzing the results. As an external evaluator, you’re the ideal person because 1) you’re the expert, 2) they may not have the staff capacity to do what you’re about to do, and 3) you don’t come with “baggage” (i.e. you’re not intimately involved with the goings-on of the program, thus being more objective and impartial.)

Despite this, being an external evaluation can also work against you if you don’t make good use of your first days with a new client.

Before you start discussing qualitative versus quantitive data collection or what to highlight in an executive summary, you need to understand what’s going on with the program you’re evaluating and the environment you’re going into. It’s like your first day on the job as a full-time employee. The more you know, the more ahead of the game you’ll be. (more…)

14 Jan, 2016

How to Manage the Growing Pains of Being an Expert

By |2021-08-19T18:49:29-04:00January 14th, 2016|Categories: Consulting|Tags: , |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…)

17 Jun, 2015

Here’s How to Create Your Potential Client Questionnaire

By |2021-08-19T18:45:07-04:00June 17th, 2015|Categories: Consulting|Tags: , |0 Comments

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Note June 2019: I’ve updated my client questionnaire. Take a peek here.


Starting off on the right footing with a potential client is important. I do this is by using potential client questionnaires: one for potential clients that are interested in my program evaluation consulting services and one for people who want to invite me to be a speaker for their event. Today, I’m going to focus on the questionnaire I’ve developed for individuals who are interested in my program evaluation consulting services.

A client questionnaire helps you get a snapshot of where your potential client currently is, what problem they’re hoping you can solve, and how they see themselves using the final product in the future. A client questionnaire also helps you to gain clarity on what the client needs, so as to avoid repeatedly going back to the client throughout the project to for more information.

I use a client questionnaire as a preliminary way of connecting with the client. Some people are good at responding to a request, getting on the phone, and taking it from there. I like to at least know a little about the organization/agency, their experience with working with external evaluators, and what programs or services they want me to assist with before I have contact with them.

I also use the client questionnaire as part of my client connecting phase before I start a project:

  • Client questionnaire
  • Phone conversation
  • Face to face meeting (this can be done in person if the client in located near you, or over Skype, Google Hangout, and the like)
  • If all goes well, review and sign contract
  • Get to work

If you don’t have a client questionnaire, I highly recommend you create one. You don’t need any elaborate software. Mine was created using Google Docs. If you don’t know what questions to ask, here are the questions from my questionnaire. Feel free to use the questions that work best for you, and update it after every couple of clients to address any recurring issues you’re having:

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6 Aug, 2014

Am I On The Right Track?: Evaluating Nicole Clark Consulting

By |2021-08-19T18:16:49-04:00August 6th, 2014|Categories: Consulting|Tags: , |0 Comments

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I started this blog in 2011 as a way for me to share my thoughts and feelings on feminism, women and girls of color, and various aspects of reproductive justice. What I expected was an increase of clarity on my position. What I got instead was the ability to position myself as a thought leader, connect with like-minded individuals and with people who want to know more about my position, the challenge of staying up-to-date on the constant happenings within the reproductive justice movement, and to make a difference in my own way.

Last year, I reflected on how my activism has been the foundation for my roles as a social worker and as a program evaluator, and this has been my main focus for Nicole Clark Consulting. This year, I chose to delve more deeply into finding creative ways to help individuals, communities, and organizations create or improve their communities, programs and services in order to make a lasting impact.

In the spirit of evaluating my own services, I want to share with you what I feel has gone reasonably well with Nicole Clark Consulting, areas that I’ve been struggling with, and where I see myself headed into 2015:

The 9-to-5 struggle: Along with running Nicole Clark Consulting, I’ve been employed as full-time job social worker for a New York City-based HIV organization since 2010. This has been the biggest struggle since I made the transition from being a casual blogger to developing my business. Anyone who is building a business while working full- or even part-time for an employer can attest to this: It’s hard! Hard due to managing your time between your obligations to your employer while putting in even more hours for your own business, hard because there are times where you’d rather be working on your business while at work, and more. At any given time, my weekly schedule consists on waking up, going to the gym, going directly to my job, leaving at 5pm, going home, and working on my business. Or sometimes I get up early, work on my business before getting ready for work and save the gym for after 5pm. I used to get to work a half hour early or even stay later, but I found that this takes away time from working on my business and for taking time out for self care. I also use part of my weekend and some vacation time to work on my business. Whether it’s drafting my blog post for next week, editing my consulting contract template, or responding to business emails, there’s always something that needs to get done. As difficult as this has been, I’m still amazed at how much I get done for my business and for my employer. And through it all, not only am I grateful that my full-time employment provides me with additional income, I’m also grateful that I’ve found a schedule that works for me for now until it’s time to step into my business full-time. I used to be concerned that sharing that I have a full-time job would make me appear as a fraud entrepreneur. Now I realize more how many people are living this experience, and we will all get to where we need to be in time. (And if you’re having problems with finding time for your business in the midst of working a full-time job, check out these tips from entrepreneur Rosetta Thurman.)

(more…)

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