We are always on the lookout for work, even when we are booked two years in advance. I talk to my partner about possible opportunities, to friends, to colleagues in the same profession and different professions. We are in a kind of different business, with much of our work grant-funded and we are pretty successful grantwriters, so we have people pitching us ideas on a regular basis who are hoping we will want to partner with them.
The secret to a successful business is HARD WORK! I am continually amused by these people who want us to sign a 'non-disclosure agreement' upfront so we won't steal their brilliant idea. Do they think we don't have any ideas in our company? It is not having an idea that makes you money, it is doing the work to make that idea happen. We are constantly tossing around ideas within our company, reading the latest journals, magazines, websites, attending conferences, getting on mailing lists, reading books on every subject, talking to people in diverse fields around the country. We listen. We study. We draw out concept papers. We toss ideas back and forth. We toss ideas out as not being fundable, not being in our area of expertise, not being something we are interested in or for any number of other reasons. While we are doing all of this we are also working on the projects that are paying our bills today.
Why are we succeeding when other consulting companies are staring bankruptcy in the face? I don't think there is a single answer to that, nor that we even know all of the answers. One answer is that we genuinely respect our clients and I think they sense that. Every time we write a web page or design a survey, we try to put ourselves in the place of the person who will use it and see that it meets their needs. As a small company, we feel the freedom to admit it when we make mistakes and try to improve the next time. Still, I know other people in small companies who seem to feel compelled to be always right. I don't get that. If a client thinks a design or a program doesn't meet their needs, then we change it, we don't try to show them how they are wrong and we are right. To me, that is kind of like if I ask you what your favorite color is and you say, "It's blue, " and I respond, "You're wrong! It's brown!"
Some days it seems as if we are really lucky, when someone calls us out of the blue and says,"We are looking for a consultant and we heard about you from John Doe." I have noticed in life, though, that the harder you work, the luckier you get, and when I look back, we met John Doe at a conference we went to in Grand Forks two years ago when we really did not feel like driving 90 miles in the snow, staying at a hotel away from home and working util midnight to meet our deadline on some other project.
If you were looking for the answer to easy money, boy did you come to the wrong place! I think the 'secret' to success is hard work and never being satisfied with where you are today. So, I listen to those people who have 'the next great idea' and how they are going to be their own boss, not take orders from anybody, work their own hours and make a million dollars. Then I go back to my office to work, return calls to clients to make sure they are getting what they need, but not before paying the check on my way out with my company credit card. Somehow, those people who are going to work their own hours and do things without worrying about what anybody else thinks never quite seem to be making money yet. Wonder if there is a connection there? Hmmm - you think!
Maybe we should change our company vision from, "Making life better!" to "Work hard, get lucky!"
Naw, I guess it doesn't have the same ring to it.
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