How many hours do you work as a consultant?
Okay, now, how many of those hours are actually consulting?
Some other kinds of work you may find yourself doing:
- bookkeeping and invoicing
- filing and sorting
- buying supplies, such as stationery
- chasing after late payments
- updating your website or marketing materials
- promoting your business
How much time are you actually spending on just consulting?
And, out of your consulting time, how much of it is stuff you could hand over to a more junior consultant?
Does it make sense for you to be doing all that work yourself? Could you outsource any of it and work on more value-added areas of your business? Can you mark up other people’s work, earning great consulting fees while paying less to others?
In asking these questions, I’m aware that I have a tendency to spend a lot of time working in my business, as opposed to working on my business. Once again, the 2009 tax year found me doing my own taxes. There’s just no good reason for that. I should really hand over all my accounting and bookkeeping to an expert. I know I’d be paying them less than I could make if I applied that time to my business. But coming to this realization has taken a long time. I now outsource work to graphic designers, web developers, writers, marketers and other service providers. It’s been a learning curve — but I’m pleased to say that it has led to business growth and a much happier me!
What work can you move outside your business?
After reading your excellent post I’ve reminded myself to actually look at all the areas I service being a Consultant. I’ll also look at my fee structure and re-assess as I can see that, from your post, I need to either charge more or outsource more .. I think the later would be even better for business. Thanks for writing this .. helped me open my eyes wider.