Tag Archives: consulting

Are you a contract employee, free agent, consultant? Better read this from NYTimes

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If you're a reader of this blog who is selling services, particularly consulting or other kind of contract work, then — alas — one of the objections you need to be prepared to respond to is this one:  "The IRS (and state tax people) look very closely over our shoulder when we try to work with contractors.  The IRS prefers that we just put people on the regular payroll, so it is easier for the tax people to be sure we've paid all the taxes and such. So, sorry, we just can't risk buying your services."

So, given that objection, how do you respond?  My suggestion: read this article in the New York Times Small Business Guide section. It's by Katherine Reynolds Lewis, and it links to some other comments and related articles. 

Link to the article: "Hiring contractors without getting into trouble"

The article is written to advise the businesses that may take on contractors; that tells you the concerns and hot-button issues, which you can turn around to your own situation.

One comment: I can't find the reference right now, so am relying on memory, but seems to me there was an article not long ago that the IRS was in the process of hiring 6,000 new agents, mainly to police this issue, of firms seeking to take on contract employees as the economy was so weak they couldn't risk taking on payroll employees.

The good news? That's 6,000 new jobs!Great news in the headlines!

The bad news? Let's not  even think about all the contractors, consultants, free agents and free lancers who are not working because of the shadow of a potential IRS audit hanging over the process. 

More bad news? Let's not think about the work and productivity that could flow if businesses didn't need to "invest" so much in fighting and avoiding audits.)

 

Why Self-Employed Consultants Fail — good advice from an article in BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK

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"Why Self-Employed Consultants Fail"  is an article of special interest in the current BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK:    Karen E Klein interviews Alan Weiss of the  Summit Consulting Group.

For starters, the article says that there are around 400,000 consultants in the United States; half working at it as a primary venture, the rest either as a second career, or as part-timers.

A couple of points to whet your interest:

1. Consulting is "really a marketing business. Even if you go into it with a great approach or methodology, that's not nearly sufficient."

2. "Don't arbitrarily use a methodology. Come in and find out what has to be improved. Use observed evidence and create something for that situation.

S"o many consultants have solutions searching for problems. They go in with their methodology and try to find a place to use it. Everybody's fond of telling you what they want: a two-day leadership conference, a person coached for a month. Your value-added is to ask what they want, and discover what they need. That's where you get higher fees."

Link to BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK article

“Losing ‘crappy job’ was author’s ticket to bliss.” Maybe your ticket, as well?

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As I said in another posting today, in setting up this blog, SellingFaceToFace.com, I had in mind two readership poles: at one end people just going off on their own (voluntarily or after losing a steady job), and at the other sales pros looking for the kind of how-to sales tips they could glean from these pieces from the sales training courses I used to develop for big marketing firms.

In today's USA Today (Monday, April 15, 2011) I came on reviews of two books particularly apropos for those just going off on their own, perhaps as free-lancers, consultants, new business entrepreneurs, and the like.  (Both reviews, I just realized, were by Kerry Hannon.)

EVIL PLANS: HAVING FUN ON THE ROAD TO WORLD DOMINATION,  by Hugh MacLeod is about how he redirected his life and career (in multiple directions) after losing his job in advertising. I just saw the review today, haven't seen the actual book yet, so will leave you in the hands of Kerry Hannon and her fun review. 

Link to review

 

Independent contractors, consultants, free agents: article in New York Times

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The nature of work may be changing, suggests Michael Luo in The New York Times, as work may be "becoming more temporary and project-based, with workers increasingly functioning as free agents and no longer being governed by traditional long-term employer-employee relationships."

Michael Sinclair, featured in the article, speaking of his role as an independent contractor in the

Continue reading → Independent contractors, consultants, free agents: article in New York Times

When and when not to begin your sales contact with the training or personnel departments

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Suppose you're a consultant looking to sell your expertise as a trainer in a certain field— perhaps how to comply with new federal regulations, or how to improve the effectiveness of customer care departments.  Since it's about training, you might think that the training department is the place to make your first contact.

Well, maybe.  But, then again, maybe not.

Continue reading → When and when not to begin your sales contact with the training or personnel departments