Business of Consulting « Previous Entries

How to Work With Consultants: RFPs

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Many organizations and companies take comfort in the formalized structure of a Request for Proposals (RFP). There’s nothing inherently wrong with the RFP process, if it’s done right and it’s done for the right reasons. In my opinion, RFPs are a waste of time and energy when the project in question is less than $30,000 [...]

Why Surrounding Yourself With Successful People Is Dumb

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

I see a lot of business gurus telling people that the key to success is to surround yourself with successful people. Horseshit. That’s the key to being a leech. What’s the advantage of surrounding yourself with successful people? They’ll give, give, give to you. Right? Don’t you think that’s pretty transparent to these highly successful [...]

Five Consulting Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

I had the pleasure of talking with a new vendor today - a local web designer named Gwyn Pritchett - who is going to help be design a new website for the Learning Disabilities Association of BC. We met this evening to go over the design specifications for the new site and after we [...]

When Flying is Cheaper

Monday, October 27th, 2008

I had the pleasure of taking the Helijet from downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria today. For those of you not familiar with the trip, it’s about 2.5 hours from downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria if you drive/take the ferry (see map below). If you take the Helijet, it’s only 35 minutes. Sure, it costs five [...]

Why References for Clients are Important

Monday, October 27th, 2008

During hard times (like the ones we’re entering right now), it’s important to make sure that your consulting clients are of the highest calibre. It’s important to have high quality clients all the time but when the money’s rolling in and a few of your clients stiff you on the bill, it’s not the end [...]

Go Bag: The BlackBerry Bold

Monday, October 13th, 2008

In part three of my four-part series of what’s in my “Go Bag”, I want to talk about my first week with the BlackBerry Bold and some common misconceptions about the device. I’ll start by saying that I’ve always been a fan of BlackBerries and if you want to read why I recommend the device [...]

Go Bag: The Sony VAIO FW Laptop Series

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

Back in July, I wrote an in-depth article about what kind of laptops I think are best for the mobile professionals [READ]. At the time of writing that article, my workhorse was a two-year old Toshiba U200 - a very portable, lightweight 12.3″ laptop. When I bought the laptop, I was spending a lot more [...]

Go Bag: 30 Hour Laptop Batteries

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

Like all self-employed professionals, I have a “go bag” with everything I need in it to get through a workday away from my home office. LifeHacker had a great post last year where readers showed off what was in their Go Bags [READ]. This posting is the first in a series of four. The next [...]

How to Scold Professionals Effectively

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

Outside of the school system, calling a peer or a superior on their faults is generally not socially acceptable. For example, you can’t tell a co-worker that their work is not up to the standards of your employer. That’s your boss’ job. Despite the saying “sh*t rolls downhill”, there are some circumstances when it is [...]

Outlook on Optimism in 2008: Not Good

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

No, this isn’t an article about Obama. A recent study has shown that hope, not optimism, is an effective way to combat depression. [READ]. I want to extend this finding to the realm of social isolation - a plague in our society that I believe causes more depression and illness than any other source. If [...]

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