We're having another live meeting on Wednesday this week, starting at 5PM Eastern and lasting for approximately an hour. One of our members suggested the topic of "Landing Contracts" so I'll have some insights you can consider and decide if they're ideas you'd like to use. If you're already consulting and would like to share what you've done, this is a great opportunity to help others! Hope to see you all there! The link is in the Calendar (at top of the screen). See you soon!

If you're wondering how to find and secure a contract, you're not alone. Finding contracts can be one of the most challenging aspects of consulting. Finding one or more that are enough to pay all your bills and do consulting full time can be an even greater challenge. There are a variety of sources you can leverage to find contracts including online resources. There are Agencies that specialize in securing clients and matching them to consultants. Many of these offer one-hour consultations. There are also Agencies that have pools of consultants who are available "on the bench" so that when a large client comes along with a large need, the resources are matched up with the client's list of required skills and expertise. Arrangements will vary with companies like these. And of course, you can always land a contract through your own consulting business with no intermediary. The source of the contract often depends on the type of work you'll be doing in your own business so there's really not a cookie-cutter answer to the question about where to find and secure contracts. It may take several contracts to add up to enough income to cover your previous salaried role if there was one you're comparing against. It could be that one contract is more than you've ever made in your entire career. Results will vary. The encouraging part about being your own boss is that you can pursue as large or small a contract as you'd like. You'll need to be sure to market yourself based on what you're looking for and be sure to turn down anything that's too small of a contract (and potentially too big a distraction) that might prevent you from landing a significant contract. For more insights, let's bring this into one of our live calls in the near future. Be sure to respond to this message so I can gauge interest!

I'll share my experience regarding how I landed my first contract. If you have a story to share as well, please do! It was April 2020 when I started my first consulting business called Capricorn Project Management Services, LLC. I had no idea what I was doing, but was learning as I was taking steps, one by one through the process. First step was to find out what it would take to establish a legal entity. In one of our upcoming live sessions, I'll walk you through a live demo with web links where to go to set yours up and what pitfalls to watch out for along the way. After my legal entity was established, I struggled to narrow the scope of my offerings and since we were experiencing Covid lockdowns here in Michigan, I spent a lot of time meditating on the concept while floating around in my swimming pool. Having inner debates was, let's say, entertaining. Once I settled on Project Management operations (versus managing actual projects), an area I've been told I'm very good at, I started talking to people about what I was setting out to do. I wasn't in a rush because I had financial means to take my time and "do it right". I had lunch with an ex-boss of mine that summer as we've been keeping in touch since we had worked together. He asked me what I was doing so I told him I had set up a Consulting business. He immediately told me he was talking with someone at work and they were looking for a person to create a Design Review Process. He wanted to know if that's something I'd be interested in and of course I said yes! Project Management Operations often led me to designing and developing processes for other functions which support Projects, including many processes for Engineering. One thing led to another and within a very short time, I met and had landed my first contract! It wasn't huge but it took about 10-20 hours per week and was enough to get my feet wet with consulting. While working with that client, another came along which resulted in a month-long consulting contract for more money than I could have ever imagined possible. I threw a large figure out because I didn't have anything to lose and the client didn't bother negotiating. They said yes.