Blog

Engineers As Consultants Pt. 6: How To Turn Down A Client's Job

jamesbenson

When my consulting calendar was busy enough that I not only could say 'no' to a potential client, but I had to say no to a client, I felt like I had 'made it' as a consultant. The hardest part of my biggest challenge, initial sales, was behind me. Th...
- 8 Jun 2014
Checking out the bitJam: Innovation Cube

cstanton

"Will you be a judge for the competition, too?""Yes!" was my reply, I hadn't been working at element14 for long and I was already asked to take some goodies and judge a competition for the opening of the Innovation Cube in Stoke-On-Trent, a place cre...
- 28 May 2014
Engineers as Consultants Pt 5: Finding the Best Client Mix

jamesbenson

The past articles in this series have been largely about making sales, which is the most important aspect of any business. There comes a point, however, where there is enough potential work and the consultant needs to manage the limited amount of tim...
- 22 May 2014
Engineers As Consultants Pt. 4: How To Keep A Client

jamesbenson

The best way to approach any consulting job is trying to work yourself out of it by providing a great solution. The worst consultants, ironically, can make a remarkable amount of money in the short term by becoming entrenched in a project yet never d...
- 19 May 2014
Engineers As Consultants Pt. 3: How To Price Consulting Services?

jamesbenson

Congrats! Someone thinks enough of you and the work to ask how much your services cost. The natural engineering approach would be to quickly quote them an hourly rate that you have already defined as what you need in order to make a living. That'...
- 3 May 2014
Engineers as Consultants Pt 2: How Do Engineers Find Consulting Gigs?

jamesbenson

Let's start with a clarifying definition: You're not a self-employed consultant unless you have clients. It's fine to tell people you're a consultant when searching for your first client, but never forget that until someone hires you ...
- 3 May 2014
Engineers as Consultants Pt 2: How Do Engineers Find Consulting Gigs?

jamesbenson

Let's start with a clarifying definition: You're not a self-employed consultant unless you have clients. It's fine to tell people you're a consultant when searching for your first client, but never forget that until someone hires you the correct job ...
- 3 May 2014
Engineers As Consultants Pt. 1: So You Want To Be A Consultant

jamesbenson

As with any stage of my career since the dreaded Wendy's job (don't eat the chili), people have responded with both envy and disgust when I explain my consulting gig. Envy with, ' You get to make your own hours,' and disgust with &#39...
- 3 May 2014