I’ve always been really intimidated by the idea of cold calling dream clients. It wasn’t quite a cold call, but on Thursday I approached the CEO of a local community regeneration project and let him know I’m here. He asked for my email and said he’ll be in touch in the coming week.

The back story is that I started volunteering for this organization toward the end of last year (in a capacity in no way related to my consulting business), and signed up to participate in a focus group being held last week about the volunteer experience. Except for it turned out to be neither a focus group nor about the volunteer experience. And instead turned out to be more of a free-flowing conversation about the broader project’s need for a strategy (from the CEOs point of view) and all of the things that could improve the visitor experience (from the volunteers’ points of view). It was fascinating, and so similar to the types of issues I work on in my day job that I worked up the gumption to introduce myself as everyone was getting up to leave. I was so nervous, but I’m glad that I did it regardless of what happens.

I’ve done it…As of Monday, I officially have my own business. (Eek!) It still feels really strange, but hopefully I’ll settle into the idea over time. Here’s my starter website. I really need to get new headshots, but I went ahead and published anyway.

Thank you to everyone in this group for your generosity and candor. And HUGE thanks to Stephanie for launching this program and sharing your wisdom and experience. I really don’t think I would have taken the plunge without your support.

Hi Sarah. I like the ring of Blue Ridge Consulting, and I think that your tagline about evaluation capacity building would sufficiently clarify what you do.

After taking much longer agonizing over a name than Stephanie suggests in the module (and realizing that many of my initial ideas were already taken), I eventually landed on Pinfeather Collaborative for my business name in part because I like how it looks graphically.

I just watched Monday’s office hour, and then re-watched the pricing module, and then found this thread. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

My situation seems maybe similar to what Sarah shared in officer hours, where her former full-time employer is about to become her first client and they’re pushing back on price. Over the past 7 years, I have done the same job on the same team under four different types of contracts. As a consultant, I will continue to do the same job on the same team for a limited number of hours/wk, hired this time through a third-party staffing mechanism (the one that is requiring all of the ridiculous timekeeping admin that I asked about in office hours a few weeks ago). They have said that the pay ceiling is $74/hour, which I’m guessing is determined in part by a requirement that they maintain parity with the GS pay scale. Which, honestly, seemed reasonable…until I started to really look into the various overhead costs that come with setting up shop on my own. Now I’m conflicted.

Does anyone else have experience successfully negotiating prices that deviate from established government pay rates? I don’t know how much flexibility this-third party company has – or how much they’re making off of me by playing the middle-man.

And, as another data point, I found this article published a few months ago about consulting rates in international development (my field), suggesting that day rates top out at around $650 unless you’re famous.

Thanks for the Bluchic recommendation, Anne. I’ve been intimidated by setting up a website, and their themes look super straightforward. If anyone else has been dragging their feet website wise, Bluechic is currently having a 20% off sale…

That’s a fantastic cartoon! I agree that the themed exchange sounds interesting, too. I’ll do my best to come; I’ve struggled with the timing of the in-person events more than I anticipated.

Hi Veronica. I’m sorry that you’re having that experience. Ick. I’ve thought about signing up for the free business incubator program offered by the county that I live in, but have held off for the reasons you’re describing. I’ve had enough of that atmosphere in academic and federal workplaces.

I completely agree with Jennifer. And much as I hate to say it, Lesson 2/Module 3 on clothes/hair/language is particularly relevant for dealing with boys-club business folk in my experience. Personally, I struggle with the tension between the social pressure to play their game vs. the desire to defy it. It can be a bit of a tightrope walk if you want to be taken seriously in those circles and still be true to yourself. As long as you’re getting what you need from the program, though, maybe you just try to ignore the culture? Good luck!