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Community Q & A
Question: Bio Makeovers
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I wouldn’t assume they can’t or won’t tell you anything! Let the reference make that decision for themselves. If they are bound by some company NDA policy, they will tell you that. Otherwise, this is a really important part of the process of vetting candidates. So often, the things that references said manifested in reality when I’ve hired – good and bad and neutral. It can be a really big help when I’m down to the last 2 candidates.
Yes, presumably they’ve given you references who they expect will be positive. But that person has insight into the nature of their strengths, weaknesses, and just general style of operating. Even if it’s positive, listening to what they say and how they say it is really informative.
I ask about where and when and how they worked together (factual). I ask about perception of biggest strengths and areas of weakness. (We all have weaknesses.) I ask them to describe the person’s general working style, how they were as a colleague. I usually ask about some need of the position specifically, about how X did with data analysis or public speaking or whatever thing I’m kind of worried about getting right in the hire. And I ask, “If you had the opportunity, would you hire them again?” That one is big. If there’s any hedging, listen carefully and quite possibly take that as a red flag. And I let them tell me anything else I think I should know about the person.
If you’re really worried that people are freaked out about lawsuits, you could reiterate confidentiality of whatever they say, I suppose? But references are such a normal part of hiring that I don’t bother saying that, even though of course I keep it confidential.
Ooh, I’m hiring right now, and this is really good food for thought, Robin! I think I plan to use the same types of assignments that I typically have used. For me, it’s often less about the result than trying to surface their process and how they approach and work through the task. Which means the conversation we have after they do the assignment is where I get a lot more of that information. I ask people to talk me through their process of how they tackled whatever the task was. If they just fed it into AI… they’re going to have to be honest or make up some BS answer.
That said, you’re also making me think a bit more about maybe asking explicitly about if they used AI for this task. And also maybe if they’ve ever used AI for their analysis/writing, and what that looked like. I’m very AI-resistant (particularly for the core of our work), so sussing out perspectives on this could be useful.
I’d love anyone else’s thoughts on this train too!
Thanks, all! I am resolved to start doing it from now on, and I appreciate the suggested language. Why the hell hadn’t I before? 🙂
Good for you, Bionca! (And I like your former colleague a lot, even though I don’t know her.) The early days are a little scary, but you’ve got this.
Thanks to all, it’s helpful with all of these concrete ideas!
Bridget – Can you tell me more about what you have the intern do / what that job/SOW entails? I’d love to farm out as much of it as I can to my assistant or a paid intern/contractor, but I recognize that my voice is important for it sound authentic, so I always struggle with what someone could do in my place. So ideas about how to parse out any of that piece work so that I can minimize the parts I find really awful are helpful.
I’m not 100% sure (not an accountant), but my understanding has been that you can’t deduct the value of pro bono services/time. Cash expenses incurred, sure! But not services/time. I’d be interested if others have found a way though!
I might also think about doing an actual, super-simple contract with these folks? Just to formally outline your SOW, commitment, revisions, timeline, etc. Set some boundaries on what you are donating, to avoid scope creep later. (And it also gives you practice in that module!) I’ll admit, my Spidey Senses started tingling the second they said, “Do it for our business, rather than the non-profit. Oh, and heres’ a big ol’ NDA.”
And (Bianca, apologies in advance, this is me being an Auntie answering questions you 100% did not ask): Is this restaurant a separate for-profit company? Or is it just a branch of the non-profit that happens to make earned revenue? Is it the part of the org that you assessed was in “dire need of systems” when you made your offer? If it’s a separate for-profit company… there are a whole lot of laws and rules that tell for-profits we can’t let people “volunteer”, because we’re not charities. No unpaid interns. No volunteer work. This is a little different, it’s perhaps more spec services from a company, hoping it leads to more. It just all sounds a little squirrelly to me. And I just wondered if you want to do this work for the restaurant – rather than the overarching nonprofit?
So, if you decided that you only wanted to offer free services to non-profit orgs and/or to the part of the non-profit you originally suggested, you can also set that boundary with them now. I’m sure there are loads of non-profit directors who would 100% jump on the offer of free SOP-writing services. If this isn’t right, it’s not your only option.
/Jessica’s rant of unsolicited advice
The other piece of advice I have is finding a local Health Insurance Broker/Agent, who can help you navigate all options — including private, off-Marketplace plans. They are experts in this super messed up system, and know the pros and cons of your region. They get commissions from insurers, so you don’t pay anything to them for their help.
I’ve been working with mine since I went out on my own, and I ended up on private plans that are a slightly better value-price combo than what our Marketplace offers. (Western PA has only two insurers available; from a free market perspective, it’s a mess.) My premium for a Gold HDHP is a little over $350/month. If you want a more traditional plan, I looked back at 2024 rates, in our area, the range for a 45 year old was $375-450 for Gold and Silver plans. I’ve never found my coverage to be lacking when I had to use it. But of course, every region/insurer is different.
(Also, if anyone is approaching 65, a health care broker was a godsend for my parents navigating the insanity of Medicare options. No way my folks would have figured it out on their own.)
Since you raised Adobe Creative Suite, my Other Half (an internal evaluator at an org) transitioned to using Adobe InDesign for reports a few years ago.* He makes beautiful reports, but I think it is a longer, more tedious process of layout. And his experience is that it sucks for creating data viz, relative to other tools (Excel and R, for instance). Basically he creates viz elsewhere and then moves it over as images.
I don’t use any of those tools, so this is entirely secondhand. But I’ve heard Adobe being cursed around the home office a few times. If you have someone already adept with the platform, it may be an entirely different story.
*The reason he has to use Adobe is that the org chose a fancy new font during their rebranding that doesn’t work in Microsoft Suite. Hot tip: Don’t do that. 😉
Totally agree with Karen on insurance. I also recommend General and E&O. My rationale: While it’s a vanishingly small chance, of the two E&O/professional is the most likely one you’d need in a consulting business. General liability covers bodily injury or property damage due to your services. E&O covers a claim because of a mistake in your work product. I think that becomes even more relevant when you expand beyond a one-person shop, because human error.
To me, E&O seemed like it was mitigating the actual risk of a consulting business (especially one dealing in data analysis and reporting). But still a vanishingly small risk of getting sued; I’m just someone with a fairly low risk tolerance.
Just to clarify… Unless I was misled by SBA.gov, you do not need an in-person site visit for the Small Business Administration to certify you as a WOSB. It was a form online, uploading a bunch of documentation, confirming through a bunch of questions that I am a woman and I legitimately control 51%+ of the company and it’s day-to-day operations. And then a 2+ month wait.
I think some of the third-party entities that “help” you get certified require a site visit. I suspect they expedite the process greatly, but you don’t need to use them. The SBA process was pretty easy as I recall.
That said, I don’t know that WOSB gets you a lot of benefit unless you’re in the big government contract game.
This is an analysis I do in my end-of-year wrap-up each year to reflect on our company, so I have data close at hand. Of the projects actively under contract in a year, we’re usually north of 50% of them being with repeat clients; 25-30% new clients who came via referrals from current/prior clients. The rest are new clients who came through some other route (my networking, finding us online, old relationships, etc.).
In terms of new opportunities we considered (whether or not they go to contract), it’s similar, but with fewer than 50% repeat clients. That’s because: 1) I’m more likely to pursue work with a former client, because I know they’re good to work with. 2) We’re more likely to win work with a former client, because they know we’re good to work with.
Big caveat: I am TERRIBLE at marketing. Like, just dismal. I’ve been coasting on my client base and referrals for a long time. I actually need to build up the number of opportunities coming in via new clients. So take my data with a grain of salt.
To your question of building that repeat client base, I have a question for you: Does the service you provide only need to happen once? I re-read your intro, and you improve the communication of complex health data to improve patient care… Um, as a patient, I’m gonna say health systems need you to help them, like, a LOT.
And I ask that because I think that mindset helps cultivate repeat business. Once a new client sees what you are able to do for them that’s transformative in some way, they come back. Not immediately. But the next time they have a similar challenge, they remember how awesome you were and they’re back. That is helped along by all the things Stephanie talks about around marketing, nurturing relationships, etc. Keeping past clients part of that loop helps you be on their radar the next time they have an “oh shit” moment that you are ideal to address.
Hi, Aimee. In one of my prior iterations, I started and ran a consulting group that operated within a larger non-profit organization that did not remotely do consulting work before we arrived. I effectively had to build a new business operation within their infrastructure. (It looks like your parent org might be better aligned with consulting than mine was though! Perhaps that was the cautionary part of my tale.)
All that to say — if there are ever aspects of the business-within-a-business that you need a sounding board about, I’ve been there (or somewhere vaguely similar). (jessica@jsickler.net)
I’m another Squarespace user. I use it for my business site, which I DIY-ed from the start. And I also used it to very rapidly set up and maintain a site for my local running group, which I definitely don’t have a ton of time to maintain.
As others have said, if you’re DIY-ing it and ease of use is your primary goal, it can be a good place to start.
Thanks, Stephanie. This is helpful to see how you think about it. One thing I am noticing is that you’re including the free products in the ladder (as someone else upthread suggested too), while I’d been categorizing them as part of marketing and the sales funnel (and now seeing it can be both).
It’s a whole different topic, but the idea of an evaluability assessment is fascinating to think about. In my years in my niche, I’ve almost never heard it used or proposed to a client as something they would pay for. The dynamic I’ve seen, mostly, is by the time someone is interested in evaluation, they are committed to having one done. So, we all pretty much do some of that assessment work for free as part of the discovery / scoping process or as part of being written into their grant. It’s something for me to think about, for sure.
Thanks for these thoughts. Johanna – I think you hit the nail on the head what I’ve struggled with, and it’s the “how to productize consulting.” In theory, I see the value of a defined purchase that someone can say yes to, off the shelf. But in the reality of working with organizations looking for our types of services, I haven’t landed on any off-the-shelf set of consulting “products” that would give any real value. In most cases, the value is really in someone coming in and both planning and doing the work with expertise they lack.
That said, ALL of these ideas are getting my juices flowing to keep thinking about this problem from different viewpoints and angles. I welcome any other thinking or advice others have come to on this topic!