INDEPENDENT CONSULTING IS JUST ANOTHER FORM OF EMPLOYMENT
Many ICs consider themselves business-people running their own
business, but for most, that’s a stretch. Yes, they’ve incorporated
and they’ve given their company a name and themselves a title, but
what MOST of them have done is to merely trade one form of employment
for another.
- They’ve traded the benefits that a company might have provided for
them, for the extra money necessary in order to provide those same
benefits to themselves.
- If they’re good, and well-utilized, then they’ll make even more
money over and above that, but for that additional compensation they
have to hustle more, and accept higher levels of risk and stress.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with this form of employment, and ICs are
to be admired for the courage required to take this higher level of
responsibility for, and ownership of their careers. The point is made
to distinguish this specific form of employment from actually owning,
running, and growing a business. Yes, technically, an IC who has
incorporated and is making a living in this way IS running a business,
but it is asserted here that their occupation is more appropriately
defined by the word, "employee" (or the word, "consultant"), than the
words, "businessman" or "businesswoman" (or the word, "president").
Consider the following:
A BUSINESS…
- has a defined market
- has a value proposition to that market
- has a long-term strategy for increasing that value proposition, the
market, and/or its penetration of that market
- grows value and equity for its shareholder(s)
Occasionally, an IC will "pick some low hanging fruit". By this, I
mean that sometimes an independent will seize upon an opportunity at
their customer site to place another consultant or two that they’ve
known from wherever. Is this the start of a business? Perhaps. If
the company begins to think and act, plan and strategize like a
business (Vision!), then yes! If the strategy is purely to exploit
the specific opportunity at hand, then perhaps no; when this
contract’s gone, so goes the business.
Even those few Independent Consultants who focus on developing a true
business face challenges that eventually defeat most of them:
- LINE OF CREDIT - No bank is going to give a new small consulting
business the line of credit necessary to grow rapidly. In fact, they
won’t be able to get any kind of business loan until after they’ve
actually been in business for a year or two. When one considers that
the business may need to float anywhere from $20,000 to $35,000 for
EACH additional person they supply (employee or subcontractor), before
they even begin to get paid from their customers, this becomes a very
significant challenge.
- BILLABLE VS MARKETING VS ADMINISTRATION - At the start of a business
such as a consulting practice, the principal must remain almost 100%
billable in order sustain their quality of life, and fund the growth
of the practice. However, that’s only one part of the challenge
facing them. They must:
- Create and execute a business plan and strategy
- Develop new business
- Recruit, hire and / or develop resource channels
- Fully administer the financial aspects of the business, including
invoicing and collections, accounts payable and receivable, payroll
and withholding, taxes, accounting records, and so forth
- Create a cash flow analysis and constantly monitor / maintain it
- Create marketing materials and collateral
- Negotiate and execute contracts (including appropriate pricing)
- And other activities, such as the development of alliances, human
resource policies, checking potential customers’ credit and payment
history, and the like.
It’s no wonder that 9 out of every 10 small business fail.
BUT WHAT IF the principal had a partner who:
- Provided the line of credit necessary in order to grow as
opportunities presented themselves, right from the beginning
- Provided the entire business infrastructure; All the administrative,
financial, contracting, human resources, and all other business
services, even printing of business cards
- Provided products and services, experts in the same or in other
technical disciplines, which the principal could sell and deliver with
great confidence
- Provided a robust and progressive business strategy whose value
proposition uniquely differentiated the practice from other providers,
and offered competitive advantage
- Provided a PROFITABLE way for a practice to diversify and expand its
areas of expertise
- Provided a group of OTHER companies, all connected in this way, who
would be selling the services of said practice to THEIR customers
- Provided many of the benefits of a larger company (diverse
skillsets, resources to enable full leveraging of opportunities,
diverse locations, larger customer base, group discounts, name
recognition, economies of scale, and so on) COUPLED with the benefits
of a small company (tightly knit group of highly focused, expert
resources, high quality and accountability, single point of contact,
direct access to decision makers, and so on) to the practice’s
CUSTOMERS, EMPLOYEES, and to the MANAGING PARTNER (the Principal)
- ……and basically, turned what might have been an independent
consulting gig into a real business; one in which the Managing Partner
held true equity, not shares or points which only had real value when
and if the business went public or was sold for a zillion dollars,
which returned a significant part of every dollar of profit to the
partner, even if he or she decided to do something else, or go
fishing.
Creating this kind of partnership with certain special consultants,
people who are at the top of their profession and who are passionately
committed to customer success, and who’d prefer that the 60, 70, 80
hours they work each week be for THEMSELVES rather than purely for
others, is what WE DO FOR A LIVING.
We are the CorTechs Family of Companies, and we’re NOT trying to sell
you anything. We will never ask you for a single dime, and if you’re
one of the few consultants we choose to join us as the Managing
Partner of one of our Member Companies, we will absorb the cost and
risk of incorporation.
We are looking for SPECIAL PEOPLE. People who:
- Are among the very best within their technical discipline
- Share the dream of ownership
- Have superior customer management and relationship skills
- Want to work for themselves, and run a business
- Consistently evidence the highest levels of integrity
People who would become our partners, and with whom we would create a
new company.
If you can answer "Yes" to ALL the criteria above, then consider
emailing CorTechs at
ktwn_at_erols.com
or snail-mail us at CorTechs, Inc., 6531 Megills Court, Clifton, VA
20124, Attention / New Ventures
Please include information about your career history and goals (a
resume is preferred). Please highlight publications, patents,
disclosures, and presentations, and include contact information.
This is a serious opportunity. CorTechs will make significant
investments into setting up and ensuring the success of each Member
Company; in other words, IN YOU.
IF YOU KNOW of someone who you believe meets this criteria, and you
introduce them to CorTechs and we put them in business, then we will
pay you 10% OF THE PROFIT THEIR COMPANY MAKES FOR THE FIRST 4 YEARS IN
BUSINESS out of CorTechs’ interest in the company.
Good luck.
J. S. Wiener
President, CorTechs, Inc.
ktwn_at_erols.com
Received on Fri Mar 07 1997 - 00:00:00 CST
