Consulting can give you the freedom to do anything you want. Take Fridays off. Be home for your kids. See matinees. Take your aging parent to the doctor’s office. Semi-retire. Travel the world. But are you really staying true to the cause? IT consultant Alex Williams notes that he originally aimed to take Fridays off […]
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Have you ever looked yourself up in Google? More importantly, have your clients ever looked you up in Google? Would they be happy with what they find? If you’ve got a common name, like Tony Wong or Joe Smith, you may not be worried about Google results for your name. However, what if you have
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Via Adverbatims, a real gem of a site, I found this quote:#381– "If I give you approval, what can I still change?"(Client, Marketing Manager) Clients aren’t the only people who say funny things, but the above quote cracked me up. I’ve run into clients who’ve made some pretty interesting demands over the years. Once, when
I jumped into consulting when I was still wet behind the ears. My mom bought me a t-shirt that said, "Fear: the thief of dreams". She saw me as a risk taker. Well, I wouldn’t say I was fearless or that I had nothing to lose. But I was confident in my goals. I’d been
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Do you use LinkedIn, the social networking site for business? If you don’t, you may be missing a valuable opportunity to make connections and increase your visibility. 5 reasons I use LinkedIn: I’ve made a lot of connections — ranging from new clients to people with whom I wanted to do business. The site’s features
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Customer service can make an incredible difference in professional services business, such as consulting. Regular Consultant Journal reader Tony Rose blogged about his experiences with customer service at a major department store. I especially liked Tony’s last paragraph: No matter what business you are in, excellent customer service will help you win and keep loyal
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It’s tax day today in the US. If that’s a surprise to you, you should look at hiring a bookkeeper or accountant next year — or call the tax office and file for an extension! Related: Tax write off list Finance for consultants
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Sparkline. The word stood out when I was reading Tony Rose’s Decision Support Analytics blog recently. I’d never heard of a sparkline before. So I went looking for a definition. Apparently, Edward Tufte invented the sparkline. He defines sparkline on his website as “data-intense, design-simple, word-sized graphics”, but I prefer the explanation over at Wikipedia,
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Via Fast Company’s Innovation blog, I found the top 5 ways to thank your customers.* I’d like to draw your attention to #3: 3. Use your data base for them, not against them. Select a loyal customer at random and surprise them with a free gift or a discount. Refrain from congratulating your customers for
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Where’s Waldo? On a Vancouver roof! You may have run across Waldo, the bespectacled, stripe-shirted guy, at some point in the 80s or 90s. Well, a Vancouver art school student has constructed a giant Where’s Waldo character on a Vancouver roof to make her own Google Earth game. What’s this got to do with business
Where’s Waldo? Creative thinking. Read More »
