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Community Q & A
Question: Bio Makeovers
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When I started out, I bought a book from Nolo Press called The Small Business Start-Up Kit for California (I’m guessing they have them for other states), which I found helpful. I might check out what they have available that seems relevant to you.
Just FYI, there was some conversation about insurance in this earlier thread: https://theevergreenempire.com/communityqanda/question/msa-terms-with-large-orgs-esg-cdp-etc/
I have my business insurance through The Hartford (but I just have general commercial liability, not professional).
Sure! I am trying to actually create a form where I fill in the methods I plan to use and expected n for each and it would actually pull from some behind-the-scenes formulas and tell me what to charge. I’m not that far along though. Anyway, if you want to set up a time to chat, can you e-mail me at maia@mwainsights.com.
This is something I’ve been working on too. I’m curious if you would be willing to share more details about how you grouped and priced things.
I should preface by saying that, based on Stephanie’s recommendations, I’m not charging enough. Also, I only work with non-profits (museums).
I had a client for whom I developed and delivered a series of workshops (4.5 days/27 hours total) and was paid $10,000 (including travel expenses for 3 trips). I spent about 55 hours developing the workshop.
I have been trying to offer the same workshop (that I already developed for this prior client) to new clients and have been offering it for $5,000 for a 3.5 day version (split into multiple separate days) and $1,500 for a one day version, plus travel expenses. So far, I haven’t had any takers though.
I have definitely asked for feedback. I usually just say something like “If you are able to share any feedback on my proposal, I would appreciate it.”
I’m definitely no expert because I have almost never posted on LinkedIn, but my first thought is maybe a little shorter and lead with a question that you are hoping to get people to respond to. Maybe repost something or share a link and ask a question about it. This question in one of your posts is good, I think, but maybe have it a little higher in the post: What about you? What pairs or points of tension are you navigating in the process of some transformation in your work or field?
I spoke about my recent experience subcontracting at the office hours on March 5, so you could check the recording on that. Lots of people had good tips. The positive for me has been getting to work on a large, long-term project with a client that I would not otherwise have been able to get on my own. There have been a lot of challenges though around aligning our work styles and priorities. I’ve also ended up working a ton more hours than I estimated because they took things out of my scope, but I ended up redoing their work anyway (struggling with my own perfectionism). I’ve learned a lot for our next round of work, which I will renegotiate to have more ownership over my part of the project and I will add time for reviewing their part of the project (which I did not have in my scope for this round). Some things I took away from the March 5 discussion included:
- Negotiating the contract to have a specific carved out scope of work that I am responsible for (and not letting them cut things out of my scope that I’m going to end up having to do anyway).
- Interviewing any potential company that you are going to subcontract for as much as they interview you. Make sure that you are aligned on the standards for the work.
- Consider this a learning opportunity (chance to see how your competitors work).
I don’t really have any advice on how to find subcontracting work (they found me on LinkedIn).
I have general commercial liability (required by almost all my clients), but not professional liability.
Often for me, I balk at insurance requirements (especially things like very high auto insurance liability limits when I’m not even driving anywhere for the project). I always ask if they can change the requirement and I have never had anyone say no.
I have some clients that allow me to retain IP and some that don’t. If I am writing the contract, then I put the following into it: All intellectual property and related materials (the “Intellectual Property”) including any related work in progress that is developed or produced under this agreement shall be jointly and severally owned by the Contractor and the Client, to the extent that Contractor and the Client have full, independent, and complete ownership rights.
I have almost all repeat clients. I’ve been in business for almost 7 years, and I’ve worked with fewer than 20 organizations. I have one client who I have 4 separate contracts with for this year (will make up about half of my income for the year). I think this is less than ideal because if something were to happen with one of my clients (let’s say that one client who makes up 50% of my income decided to hire an in-house evaluator), that would have a really big impact on my work. So far, having almost all repeat clients has worked out ok (I always have enough work) but also it may be preventing my ability to grow (I never have enough work that I feel confident hiring someone to help me). More diversity in terms of repeat and new clients would be better, I think.
