Boostrapping for Consultants

Starting a consultancy today is far easier than it has been in the past. Particularly with the incredible range of free or low cost tools that are available for managing business infrastructure, low cost marketing or PR.

Bootstrapping is the art of pulling one’s self up by the bootstraps, or the art of going it alone, with little to no funds, and hopefully making it.

Most of the skills associated with Bootstrapping revolve around guts, determination, the willingness to take risks, and being innovative.

But… there are a lot of tools out there that make parts of this a lot easier, and there is a well worn path by those who have gone before you to show you the way through some of the common problems.

5 Must Use Tools for Bootstrapping Consultants

1) LinkedIn - I am a big fan of this networking tool and I recommend it to anybody who needs to get their name out there. Answer questions, publicize your profile, get your name seen and make sure your details draw attention to what you are doing.

2) GoDaddy - Great, easy to use, cheap and has features that can have you with a published corporate presence website within the hour. Love it and use it a lot!

3) Google Apps – Another feature of the modern Internet that I would be lost without. I use Google Mail as my corporate email account and have linked it to my emails from my other websites and companies. I also use Google Pages a lot for holding files, the Calendar for scheduling between myself and others I work with, and this Blog is published via Blogger.

4) Zoho – This is where most of my blogs are written, and where most of my files are kept. I have found the word processor to be an excellent tool and as yet I have not had the need to use any of the additional items there. I also use this for writing my articles, and I am using it to hold the manuscript of my next book.

5) Salesforce.com – For those of you that read this blog regularly you will notice that I am a bit of a fan of this product and company. In fact, I own shares! I started using this when I was working as a Business Development Manager some years ago and found ti to be a fantastic view into how business software could/should be. Cheap, functional, intuitive and useful.

I use this still today where needed to manage my customer relationships, and to drive through the statistics needed for success in sales, regardless of what you are selling.

But even with these tools the only thing that will separate you from certain failure is your core idea, the value for it in the market place, and your ability to not give up and keep driving towards your goals.

Isn’t it strange how we can’t find a way, there seems to be no path to take… then we find a way! And we’re of to the next step in our careers!

LinkedIn or Left Out?

Just as professionals prefer the Blackberry to the iPhone, they are also increasingly choosing LinkedIn over Facebook and MySpace as part of their online global networking tool set.

So what does LinkedIn offer that others do not? While the fluff and fun of social networking sites is undoubtedly good to pass a few hours, LinkedIn has a more serious edge to it. Filled with experts, corporate leaders, and industry mavens, it is a place where you can find strong contacts, leading edge candidates, job opportunities and consulting offers, as well as the ability to perform some pretty in-depth research in almost any field.

Reference Collecting

One of the more useful aspects of LinkedIn is as a place for you to detail your professional track record for all to see. Recruiters, prospects and potential partners can use this to check on your history, the sorts of people who are willing to refer you, and they can use the information to see if somebody in their own network is somehow connected to you.

Those who use the site tend to collect references, comments and endorsements that enable people to get a strong first opinion of who you are and what you are capable of.

Recruiting

Many companies that are actively looking for consultants, or candidates of all flavors, make this site their first stop today. This gives them two distinct benefits;

1) They get to speak to people who are self selected and are already engaged with the networking and job markets in one way or another and

2) They get to speak to candidates who had not considered moving previously, therefore giving them a “first mover” advantage on resources not yet in play in the job market.

For the people in the network, there are job site also. With the ability to quickly scan through the job postings.

However, more than anything else there are a range of real high flyer networks. These are pay to join networks such as ExecSuite, which I subscribe to.

ExecSuite actually holds a range of jobs in the $150K plus range and boasts an impressive level of CEO’s, VP’s and other senior business executives. This has been one of the best investments I have made personally in networking.

Research

A lot of the research I do for this blog comes from LinkedIn and the network I have created there. The Question and Answer section is well divided into relevant areas and all the questions I have posted have drawn answers from people who I could only describe as experts within their chosen fields.

I am sure there si a lot more that could be done there, like announcing your availability, testing the waters for Interim management work or even looking for consulting or contract work.

Staying in Touch

Like most of us the vast majority of my life as a consultant is either at work, traveling to work, or returning from work. So most of my contacts, either social or professional, have arisen out of my business dealings.

Like me, they are also very busy people with more work than time to do it, so LinkedIn provides an easy way for me to get in touch with them again. Through this tool I have touched base with people I had lost contact with long ago – great stuff! (Seeing as we are all a bit older and a little swollen looking these days)

This is only the tip of the iceberg, I am pretty new to this so I am sure there is a lot there that I have only just begun to discover. Have a look for yourself, and feel free to link to me if you do!