August, 2018

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Start a Consulting Business: A Proven and Practical Guide

Consulting Success

If you’ve looked into how to start a consulting business, there’s no doubt you’ve come across countless articles or videos that make it look like a no-brainer to “get rich quick.” “Make six figures your first month!” “You don’t need any experience to be successful” There’s a lot of misinformation out there. In today’s digital age, it’s relatively easy for anyone to write an article or record a video on starting your own consulting business.

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Why Most Online Marketing is a Waste of Time – What Works Instead

The Fearless Marketer

When it comes to growing your business these days, all you hear about is online marketing. After all, if more prospective clients simply found your website online, you’d get more business, right? Well, it’s not so simple. After engaging in online marketing for more than 20 years, I’ve learned a lot of things. And one of those things is that online marketing can be a complete waste of your time and resources.

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Close Bigger Consulting Projects Faster With This One Phrase

David A Fields

There’s a phrase that will help your consulting firm close more, larger projects, faster. You’ll use this phrase when you submit your consulting proposal (not in the proposal itself) and omitting this phrase is like forgetting to dip strawberries in chocolate. The oversight yields results that aren’t as reliably tasty or rewarding.

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Why I Was Wrong About 2 Second Lean

Markovitz Consulting

It’s time to admit that one of my consulting approaches has failed. I’m a huge fan of Paul Akers’ 2 Second Lean philosophy. It’s simple, easy to understand, and has an intrinsic appeal: “fix what bugs you.” “Figure out how to do your job two seconds faster each day.” Who wouldn’t sign on to a lean program that promotes that mindset? So off I went to my clients, with Paul’s videos embedded in my PowerPoint presentation, ready to show them how 2 Second Lean is the answer to their productivity prob

Energy 229
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PowerPoint Best Practices for Creating Stellar Presentations

Mastering data visualization in PowerPoint will help accelerate your career because it positions you as someone who can present data that drives business decisions forward. think-cell's PowerPoint Best Practices eBook was created specifically for professionals aiming to master the art and science of data-driven storytelling. What’s inside: Practical Insights: Uncover valuable tips for crafting engaging and persuasive presentations.

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#8: 5 Reasons Why EVERY Consultant Needs Systems Thinking

Consulting Matters

Download Episode Transcript. I have two children. When they were small, they used to go to daycare. What this meant in practicality to me was: two kids + daycare = many fevers and visits to the doctor’s office. As the parent, I was able detect and even treat the fever. However, in order to get rid of the fever, I had to rely on my doctor to discern whether the fever was caused by a bacteria or a virus and, if so, what part of the body the bacteria or virus was infecting.

System 216

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4 Steps to Scale Your Consulting Business

Consulting Success

Let’s look at how you can scale your consulting business. You’re in the position where you want to grow your consulting business. You want to create a lot more leverage. More freedom. More flexibility. So much so that your business can run to without your direct day-to-day involvement. Most consultants find they hold on to the stuff that they don’t need to be doing for far too long because they think that they can do. 4 Steps to Scale Your Consulting Business is a post from: Consulti

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The Five Pillars of Marketing Success

The Fearless Marketer

Does the following give a pretty good picture of your current marketing activity? You have a website but you’re not really satisfied with it. You go to networking events once in a while. If someone asks you to give a talk, you’re happy to do it. You post on Facebook and/or LinkedIn semi-regularly. When you find the time, you send an article to those on your relatively small email list.

Marketing 110
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How to Combat Scope Creep While Delighting Your Consulting Clients

David A Fields

Picture yourself presenting your final results from a project to your client. The meeting is swimming along smoothly and you’re basking in the warm glow of another happy client. Then, your client asks, “Buddyboy, could you slice the data one more way so we can see impact by geographic area?

How To 225
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The Greatest Business Branding Strategy In The World

Henry DeVries

“When it comes to branding, don’t overthink it,” says branding expert Yali Saar. Branding is about creating a positive image for the company in the consumer’s minds.

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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#11: How to Position Yourself as a Credible Consultant

Consulting Matters

Download Episode Transcript. Do you know the ONE thing that will have the biggest impact on your ability to provide amazing consulting solutions to highly influential senior leaders? Is it your technique abilities and unique certifications? Is it your business acumen and ability to speak the language of business? Is it your aggressiveness to convince a senior leader to include you in their strategic work?

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Regulatory challenges faced by technology companies

Tom Spencer

As tech firms play larger roles in more peoples’ lives, they attract the attention of regulators. Around the world, enquiries and court cases are underway, scrutinising everything from data protection to anti-competitive behaviour, and even – most notably – the role of tech firms in election interference. In my last post, I disaggregated the ‘tech’ industry into four clusters of business, based on a loose framework.

Company 68
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Guide to Become a Consultant: How to Start a Consulting Business

Consulting Success

If you’ve looked into how to become a consultant and start a consulting business, there’s no doubt you’ve come across countless articles or videos that make it look like a no-brainer to “get rich quick.” “Make six figures your first month!” “You don’t need any experience to be successful” There’s a lot of misinformation out there. In today’s digital age, it’s relatively easy for anyone to write an article or record a video on starting.

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What do you need in your eLearning portfolio?

Clarity Consultants

Your portfolio is one of the most important elements of your job search materials. And even if you are not actively looking for a new opportunity, it's key to keep your resume and your portfolio up to date and current so that it's ready when you need it. But if you are building a career in learning and development, your portfolio looks nothing like a design portfolio.

Resumes 77
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Savings Consultants Are Needed in Today's Market More Than Ever

Savings Consultants are needed in today’s market more than ever. With an increase in expenses, businesses are looking for opportunities to save. Often unknown to businesses are savings in expense reduction, specialized tax savings, specialized savings including medical underpayments, health benefits cost reduction, zero cost processing, and more. Blue Coast Savings, with over 20 years in business, assists Savings Consultants in helping these companies move toward more profitable businesses.

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Five Emotions that Stall Your Consulting Firm’s Business Development Efforts

David A Fields

Consulting is an emotion-driven purchase. If you don’t understand your consulting prospects’ desires and fears, their sources of happiness and anxiety, your business development efforts will hit hard ceilings. But what about your emotions? Could they be undermining your success? Dolls. Miniature people that kids play with.

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The Eight Best Marketing Podcasts

Henry DeVries

“Podcasts are fantastic resources to gain further insight and optimize your social media content,” says social marketing expert Rachel Pisani.

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#12: Who Else Wants To Make Marketing Effortless and Fun?

Consulting Matters

Download Episode Transcript. Here's a common conundrum. Smart and values-driven consultants typically don't like marketing. Yet they hate being the world's best kept secret. Same goes for internal consultants. Just because you have an official role in the organization to support leaders through change and transition doesn't mean that they are aware of who you are and how to best leverage your expertise.

Marketing 215
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A framework for understanding technology companies

Tom Spencer

The technology industry is booming: in 2008, Microsoft was the only tech firm ranked in the world’s top 10 public companies by market capitalisation. In 2018, tech firms take seven of the top ten spots (Financial Times Global 500). Top graduates are more interested in joining Google than Goldman Sachs. Start-up ecosystems are exploding as entrepreneurs seek scalable fortunes.

Company 68
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TOOLS and METHODOLOGIES for developing DECISION SUPPORT PACKAGES

This White Paper targets opportunities for Management to develop proficiency in the Decision Framing and Analyses element of input to Decision, & Risk Analyses for Major Project Funding Decisions.

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Michael Zipursky on The Daily Grind Podcast

Consulting Success

Michael was recently featured on The Daily Grind Podcast, which you can listen to here: The Daily Grind with Michael Zipursky One of the biggest challenges early on in my career was working in Japan. I was in my early 20s, fresh out of college, wasn’t fluent in Japanese — yet I was working and living among this culture that was so different from my own.

Culture 162
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Employee Retention Series: Lay The Groundwork To Retain Your Top Talent With Strategic Onboarding

Clarity Consultants

Employee retention is a much sought-after goal for any growth-minded business. To drive those high retention rates, you need to invest in the strategic talent development and processes that develop high performing employees. Onboarding is a surprisingly important part of that strategy in part because those first couple months are critical in retaining new employees.

Talent 74
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What’s the Right Amount of Repeat Consulting Business?

David A Fields

The roofer spiffying up my Connecticut abode should be done in a day or two, then I’ll see him again, uhm, never? Roofing seems like a tough business. Always hustling for completely new customers because the repeat cycle is a few decades.

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Tolerating the Truth

CaseInterview.com

You have an enormous advantage in life when you have the capacity to tolerate the truth. Anyone can tolerate the truth when it’s positive and favorable. It’s much more difficult when the truth isn’t what you want to hear. Just because you wish something wasn’t true doesn’t make it any less valid. For example, it’s difficult to tolerate the truth that your skills just aren’t good enough (yet) to tackle a particular project.

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Why You Need to Use Case Studies in Sales and Marketing (and How to Start Now)

Case studies are proof of successful client relations and a verifiable product or service. They persuade buyers by highlighting your customers' experiences with your company and its solution. In sales, case studies are crucial pieces of content that can be tailored to prospects' pain points and used throughout the buyer's journey. In marketing, case studies are versatile assets for generating business, providing reusable elements for ad and social media content, website material, and marketing c

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#5: What Everybody Ought to Know About The 3 Types of Organizational Change

Consulting Matters

Download Episode Transcript. When it comes to consulting to change, your first task it to identify what kind of change your client is embarking on. There are actually three types of change, requiring different types of change leadership and consulting support. To ensure that your client's change doesn't become another dreaded "flavor of the month," you need to provide them the right tools that are relevant for the type of change they are considering.

Tools 212
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Data Driven Recruiting (Part 2 – Invite-Only Events)

Tom Spencer

Welcome back to the data driven recruiting series! Please refer to the first article in this series for the first five findings and more details on the data sources and methodology behind the analysis. As I mentioned in my first post, the following findings show correlations only and should not be interpreted causally. Now, time for the insights! This post will focus on invite-only events – that is, events to which companies invite a select group of people.

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The Four Stages of Marketing Maturity For Consultants

Consulting Success

Let’s talk about how marketing changes based on the current level of maturity of your consulting business. The first thing that’s really important to understand here is that it’s your marketing will change not just based on the maturity of your business, but really on the maturity of the marketing in your business. What I mean by that is you may be in business for 10 years already, but you’ve received all your business from.

Marketing 147
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Seven Business Presentation Traps To Avoid

Henry DeVries

“Make no mistake, as a speaker, you will be judged more by how you present than what you know,” says Candy Campbell, international speaker, award-winning actor, author, and filmmaker. Here are seven traps to avoid in your presentations.

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The Art of Remote Collaboration: How to Successfully Whiteboard with Remote Teams

Just because we're working with a distributed team doesn't mean we have to abandon time-tested tools and methods like whiteboarding. Digital look-alikes often cramp creativity and all but eliminate the humanity of shared interactions. Hardware solutions are also limiting and, of course, expensive and immobile. In an increasingly digital and remote-first world, it’s important for us to select tools and processes that allow us to mitigate if not eliminate the above problems.