"Marketing and Billing Services for Consultants?"

An enthusiastic group of Consultant's Forum members met Thursday, April 8, 1999 to continue and elaborate on a discussion that was started on the email list (swanh-consultants@lists.mv.net). We wanted to examine the feasibility of creating a mechanism that would provide Marketing and/or Billing Services to Consultant's Forum members. 

This was an exploratory meeting with the goals of: 
   1- Defining what the needs of the members are; 
   2- Determining the practicality of bringing a Marketing and/or Billing Services mechanism into reality; 
   3- Determining if there are other entities which can serve the purpose

Organization of This Summary
================================ 
   
With the realization that the Consultant's Forum has a diverse membership, not only from skill sets but also in terms of organization and operation, we first had to "capture" the various Business Needs as defined by the participants. From there, we ranked the Needs according to how common and desirable they were to the group, and began to brainstorm and describe what Mechanisms could be used to satisfy the Need. This summary will be presented in List Format, to conserve space, and keep the thoughts together.

The Business Needs will be in order of most common to least common. The Conclusion of the Group, based on a brief analysis of the results will follow.


1-NEED: Business Leads ("There's a market out there that needs my services. Give me a list and I'll do the rest")
 MECHANISMS:
            entity web page    referring within the group
            reputation         industry services (lists of companies)
            cold calls         PR agency
            advertising        Networking

2-NEED: Legal Tools, Contracts (Successful templates, boilerplates, preformatted contracts, phrases )
  MECHANISMS:
            Group approved templates
            Lawyers
            software tools
            list of bad situations and phrases to avoid
            FAQs (which would list commonly asked legal questions and answers)
3-NEED: Someone to represent me, not them (Seller's Agent)
  MECHANISMS:
              Hire someone to do searches for us
              Convert existing broker/agency
4-NEED: Educating Clients about what the Job is worth
  MECHANISMS:
             Rate schedules              References
             Web Page                    Salary survey
             Access to expert Witnesses  Business justification (RealRates)
5-NEED: Educating Clients what I'm worth
  MECHANISMS:
             Self-image/worth classes ("we get paid what we think we're worth)
             References
             Standards we meet (as member of a group)
6-NEED: Reliable Subcontractors ("I need competent people at a fair price)
  MECHANISMS:
             Networking
             Approved lists of contractors
             references
7-NEED: Cutting expenses (buying power to to negotiate prices for supplies and services, perhaps sharing resources like office space)
  MECHANISMS: 
             Buying cooperative
             SwANH
             list of services cooperatives
             set up web site of approved vendors
             sharing services
             bartering
8-NEED: help me determine what's the job opportunity worth (so I can determine the rate I want to charge)
  MECHANISMS:
            See Educating the Client about what the Job's worth!
            Networking
            Industry standards for type of job
            Database of contract job rates
9-NEED: Approved Broker/Agency list (Are there any good agencies available?)
  MECHANISMS:
            SwANH Survey
		Software Contractor's Guild
            Rating scale from other consultants (must be very careful!)
10-NEED: Rate Clout (we want control over the rates Agencies give us, and want to ensure our rate plus markup doesn't lose opportunities for us)
   MECHANISMS:
             Hire representatives to to go to agencies on our behalf
             determine agency's mark-up
             comparative analysis of rates
11-NEED: Contractor opportunities (Develop a full service umbrella organization, so all I have to do is "go to work")
   MECHANISMS: 
             Form a not for profit entity
             use SwANH
             form a for-profit entity

[CONCLUSIONS]
==============
After looking over these lists, we asked the following questions:
  1- Do we believe providing these services is what the Consultant's Forum wants to do? and if so,
  2- How would we achieve that?

Our answer, especially after reviewing the Mission Statement of the Forum is NO! The Consultant's Forum is charged with assisting consultants in learning about these issues, and is not charged with providing the bulk of these services. (Some mechanisms, such as networking and providing internal referrals, are provided.)

But we do want these services! A possible solution mentioned is to form relationships with entities that will provide these services for us, in a manner which represents us fairly. Some of the possible entities noted were SwANH, IEEE Consultants Network, ISRG, and BPT Consulting Agency (a former guest speaker).

To recap our conclusions:
  1- The Consultant's Forum finds these services desirable
  2- The Consultant's Forum can not provide these services
  3- The best solution is to form symbiotic relationships with organizations that can provide the services we want

The thoughts, ideas and conclusions generated were the results of the participants. But there are many other interested readers out there. It is hoped that this summary will spark additional ideas and conversation (moving forward from the meeting's conclusions) on the e-mail list. Please look to the email list (swanh-consultants@lists.mv.net) and the webpage (www.craftechsoftware.com/cforum) for announcements should we hold another meeting on this provocative topic.