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Established in your field but new to self-employment? How Articulate Consultants can help you to build a business
People like these qualify Norma is a certified management consultant with strength in accounting. She became a junior partner with an established accounting firm after working there for a few years. She then became a full partner in a small, local management consulting firm. After a few more years at that, she decided that her reputation as an individual professional was strong enough, that her expertise was valuable enough, and that her ideas of starting and running her own firm were compelling enough. She went to Articulate Consultants for guidance and support to create a new firm based on her strengths “but distinct from me as a company with its own brand.”
David is a residential interior painter. He worked as a one-man company for nine years, occasionally employing an assistant to help with work that did not require a lot of expertise. Eventually, it became clear that his good reputation was well-enough known that he had to turn down new work often. Also, he was usually too busy at work sites to administer his business properly without sacrificing family time. Despite using an answering service and a bookkeeper, he still found himself stretched to perform well and unable to fulfil his business potential. He decided that he had to create a business that would capitalize on his expertise and reputation but operate as a distinct company. He went to Articulate Consultants, as he says, “for a solid business plan I could implement over time.”
Trudie is a best-selling author. Her books and her blog are widely read, she speaks a few times a year at conferences, and she continues to do media interviews. Even so, she does not consider herself successful. Her income does not adequately reflect the value of her expertise, knowledge, and perspective. Plus, she finds that too much of her success depends on her own direct involvement and she is not certain what direction to take for the future. Trudie brought these problems to Articulate Consultants seeking clarity of direction as well as guidance on how to make a company out of her work, as she says “so that it wouldn’t always have to be me or somebody who requires my explicit instructions and supervision” to fulfil her potential.
What they get – process with results
What they get – results with process Anybody might ask, “Are all of these points applicable to companies that start out, for example, like David the one-man painting operation?” The answer is twofold.
On one hand, yes; more applicable than one might think. Indeed, David’s company is doing well partly because of the hiring practices, dress code, and code of conduct that Articulate Consultants recommended. Plus, he has more time for his family and his doctor is less concerned about career stress affecting his health – especially after he started following the new sales and estimating process written into his business plan.
On the other hand, not really. In addition to herself, Trudie only needed a virtual assistant and a protégé researcher as human resources. With a focus on systems and processes, her business plan left her in control without the feeling that there would always be too much demand for her hands-on involvement. Her website has become a net revenue generator, and she has the comfort of knowing where she’s headed on her career path – not as an actual entrepreneur, but as a more self-responsible independent business person whose income is up. Trudie need not concern herself with a sales and estimating process, though she happily follows Articulate advice on how to answer the question, “What do you charge as a speaker?” Accustomed to thinking in terms of business processes, Norma comfortably went through a proven process of discovering her brand with Articulate's Glenn R Harrington. Once already-established perceptions of her work, her strengths, and her value-add had become clear, she then participated in defining what her new firm's brand promise would be. With Articulate support, she chose a business name and motto, got coaching on a compelling elevator spech and how to use it effectively while networking, and put into succinct words the mission and vision of her new firm. Once her new business name was registered, the design of a visual identity followed. A new website, too. All came from authentic market intelligence, with Norma's involvement, and led to the fulfilment of Norma's business start-up aspirations. She works hard and puts in long hours but she does so easily because she feels like "captain of my own ship, sailing my own course" - a course plotted with expert support from Articulate.
Note: The stories of Norma, David, and Trudie as told here are realistic composites of the stories of real individuals with names changed.
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