BUILDING YOUR BRAND AS A CONSULTANT BY UTILIZING THE “KEYS TO SUCCESS” (Part Four)

“I am a Consultant.” This declaration is probably heard more these days than the question “What is your name?” More than at any other time in history, this economy has compelled educated highly skilled professionals to seek to earn a living by attempting to ply their trade as consultants. So how does the “standout” consultant rise above the masses of tenderfoot claimants who are just temporarily between jobs? Or, even if you are one of the freshly minted masses, how do you stand on the shoulders of giants to pick the fruitful opportunities that the old guys have been neglecting.

There are “Six Keys to Success” that are essential to building any winning success plan. These attributes are integral to building your brand as a consultant as well. These concepts have been adapted to meet the complex demands of modern day enterprise building.

1. Information: Become known as a trustworthy subject matter expert in your field.
2. Image: Go out into the world every day and look, sound and act the way you wish to be perceived.
3. Initiative: Always act on the basis of sound planning and good research, which leads to the pursuit of effective strategy.
4. Confidence: Through dedicating your self to winning small victories, you will be emboldened with the confidence that you've done your best; this will be the basis of the momentum that propels you to success.
5. Capital: The greatest source of future revenue and profits for your business will be determined by the purchasing and cost decisions you make today.
6. Contacts: You must assemble a winning team. You alone will never possess all of the skills and abilities required for perfection, nor will you ever be able to earn every certification or degree needed to answer every question.

Every successful entrepreneur needs to gain a general mastery of the “Keys to Success”. However, there are four specific tactical applications of these concepts that you can use to help carve out a niche for your consulting brand. You can immediately incorporate these four strategies into your practice in order to gain a leg up on the “competition”.

4) Building Your Brand by Optimizing Purchase and Cost Decisions

It has been said that the number one reason for business failure is under-capitalization. Yet stories abound of legendary business successes that lacked adequate resources in their formative stages. Conversely, well capitalized businesses often fail miserably. What ultimately proves to be the key reason for the success or failure of most businesses is passionate entrepreneurial leadership and visionary strategic planning.

Yet when it comes to business success, money certainly matters. However, in many cases it isn’t how much cash you have access to that determines viable cash flow. More importantly, spending the cash that you have efficiently has the greater impact on long-term business success or failure. The greatest source of future revenue and profits for your business will be determined by the purchasing and cost decisions you make today.

In fact, many well capitalized businesses tend to purchase things outright with their cash rather than pursue other more optimal ways of acquiring the things they need. Some well capitalized businesses often tend to try to find a reason to buy everything; instead of finding a way to avoid buying anything. In many instances, having the money to buy something often creates the false perception that the company can “afford” acquisitions that are often ill-advised or more appropriate at a later date. Should the business ultimately fail, they are then stuck with a lot of illiquid assets on their balance sheet and defaulted loans or angry investors.

It is important that you look at each cost and purchase decision you make as a link in your “value-chain”. In other words, does the associated price and terms of making this acquisition add long term value to my business? Does making this expenditure enable me to offer a higher quality product or service to my customer? Making purchasing and cost decisions in this way also puts you in the habit of thinking about your business strategically at all times.

Making good purchase decisions doesn’t always mean getting the lowest price. Spending a few dollars more for a higher quality product or with a better established supplier can often lead to more satisfied customers, quicker delivery times and even gaining referral business from the supplier. Also, it may be possible through negotiation to convert a prospective vendor into a business partner instead. Sometimes this can be done without having to pay anything.

For instance, it may be worth more to the local sandwich shop to cater your roundtable meeting of local Executives for free or reduced costs in order to market their business to the purchasing managers and decision-makers attending the conference. You should always be looking to cut deals that benefit your bottom line, rather than being a free spender of your company’s scarce resources. Other ways to cut costs may be to share office space with strategic companies, bartering your goods and services in exchange for the things you need and buying used office equipment and furniture rather than buying these things new.

It may not always be easy to weigh every factor of each individual purchase. However, failing to examine the key factors of buying may prove to be disastrous. As the fictional character Gordon Gekko stated in “Wall Street”, the classic Hollywood film “A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place." As difficult as it is to find the money to start and grow a successful business, surely the last thing you want to do is make the avoidable cost and purchasing decisions that often lead to ultimate business failure.

In summary: You and you alone are responsible for controlling the quality of your brand. The image you present and the information you transfer to the public are signs of your dedication to quality and the soundness of your ideas. There are many vital aspects that contribute to successfully building a powerful brand for your consulting practice. Whether you are a long time practicing consultant or a novice to the field, utilizing these helpful brand building tactics, as well as a general application of the Six Keys to Success should definitely help you stand out from the crowd in this economic environment.

Vince Rogers is the Principal Change Agent at Vince Rogers & Associates www.vincerogers.biz

Vince Rogers & Associates works with businesses, non-profits and high achieving individuals to formulate winning “Success Plans”.

The foundation for each success plan is tailored around optimizing the management and mastery of the “Six Keys to Success”: Confidence; Capital; Contacts; Initiative; Information and Image.

His books "The Very Best of Disguised Limits" book are available to buy or download free @ www.lulu.com

The complete article Building Your Brand as a Consultant by Utilizing the “Keys to Success” Is featured as the †Cutting Edge Topic in the 2013 Pfeiffer Annual: Consulting 

(ISBN: 978-1-1182-7379-1) Edited by Elaine Biech

BUILDING YOUR BRAND AS A CONSULTANT BY UTILIZING THE “KEYS TO SUCCESS” (Part Three)

“I am a Consultant.” This declaration is probably heard more these days than the question “What is your name?” More than at any other time in history, this economy has compelled educated highly skilled professionals to seek to earn a living by attempting to ply their trade as consultants. So how does the “standout” consultant rise above the masses of tenderfoot claimants who are just temporarily between jobs? Or, even if you are one of the freshly minted masses, how do you stand on the shoulders of giants to pick the fruitful opportunities that the old guys have been neglecting.

There are “Six Keys to Success” that are essential to building any winning success plan. These attributes are integral to building your brand as a consultant as well. These concepts have been adapted to meet the complex demands of modern day enterprise building.

1. Information: Become known as a trustworthy subject matter expert in your field.
2. Image: Go out into the world every day and look, sound and act the way you wish to be perceived.
3. Initiative: Always act on the basis of sound planning and good research, which leads to the pursuit of effective strategy.
4. Confidence: Through dedicating your self to winning small victories, you will be emboldened with the confidence that you've done your best; this will be the basis of the momentum that propels you to success.
5. Capital: The greatest source of future revenue and profits for your business will be determined by the purchasing and cost decisions you make today.
6. Contacts: You must assemble a winning team. You alone will never possess all of the skills and abilities required for perfection, nor will you ever be able to earn every certification or degree needed to answer every question.

Every successful entrepreneur needs to gain a general mastery of the “Keys to Success”. However, there are four specific tactical applications of these concepts that you can use to help carve out a niche for your consulting brand. You can immediately incorporate these four strategies into your practice in order to gain a leg up on the “competition”.

3) Using Professional Photography to Build Your Brand

There is an old adage that says “A picture is worth a thousand words.” To state it another way, a bad picture makes zero impact. These days it may be possible to take good pictures and create effective headshots yourself. However, you may want to consider using a professional photographer to gain the maximum impact for your brand. 

Cost effective and easy to use digital cameras have given the masses access to tools that were once only accessible to professionals. While technology has somewhat leveled the playing field, the techniques employed by a professional photographer may be what your branding efforts really require. The strategic usage of the right photo of you receiving a big award, making an important public appearance or achieving a significant career milestone can pay big dividends. You may not want to trust the responsibility of capturing that big moment to your significant other or next door neighbor.   

There is a reason that celebrities and high profile people continue to utilize professional photographers. A good photographer will provide a unique expertise in the way of composition, lighting and other key technical aspects of taking a great photo. Even though a photo is just a still image, it should tell a great story. The background, foreground, subject placement and framing of a photo are the elements of a shoot that good professional photographers are paid to combine to make a winning photograph.

The subject of a photo is just one element of a good shot. To make the subject into a verb, the person looking at it has to turn a single image into a complete sentence. The story that sentence tells to your audience will determine how they will remember your brand.

In summary: You and you alone are responsible for controlling the quality of your brand. The image you present and the information you transfer to the public are signs of your dedication to quality and the soundness of your ideas. There are many vital aspects that contribute to successfully building a powerful brand for your consulting practice. Whether you are a long time practicing consultant or a novice to the field, utilizing these helpful brand building tactics, as well as a general application of the Six Keys to Success should definitely help you stand out from the crowd in this economic environment.

Vince Rogers is the Principal Change Agent at Vince Rogers & Associates www.vincerogers.biz

Vince Rogers & Associates works with businesses, non-profits and high achieving individuals to formulate winning “Success Plans”.

The foundation for each success plan is tailored around optimizing the management and mastery of the “Six Keys to Success”: Confidence; Capital; Contacts; Initiative; Information and Image.

His books "The Very Best of Disguised Limits" book are available to buy or download free @ www.lulu.com

The complete article Building Your Brand as a Consultant by Utilizing the “Keys to Success” Is featured as the †Cutting Edge Topic in the 2013 Pfeiffer Annual: Consulting 

(ISBN: 978-1-1182-7379-1) Edited by Elaine Biech

BUILDING YOUR BRAND AS A CONSULTANT BY UTILIZING THE “KEYS TO SUCCESS” (Part Two)

“I am a Consultant.” This declaration is probably heard more these days than the question “What is your name?” More than at any other time in history, this economy has compelled educated highly skilled professionals to seek to earn a living by attempting to ply their trade as consultants. So how does the “standout” consultant rise above the masses of tenderfoot claimants who are just temporarily between jobs? Or, even if you are one of the freshly minted masses, how do you stand on the shoulders of giants to pick the fruitful opportunities that the old guys have been neglecting.

There are “Six Keys to Success” that are essential to building any winning success plan. These attributes are integral to building your brand as a consultant as well. These concepts have been adapted to meet the complex demands of modern day enterprise building.

1. Information: Become known as a trustworthy subject matter expert in your field.
2. Image: Go out into the world every day and look, sound and act the way you wish to be perceived.
3. Initiative: Always act on the basis of sound planning and good research, which leads to the pursuit of effective strategy.
4. Confidence: Through dedicating your self to winning small victories, you will be emboldened with the confidence that you've done your best; this will be the basis of the momentum that propels you to success.
5. Capital: The greatest source of future revenue and profits for your business will be determined by the purchasing and cost decisions you make today.
6. Contacts: You must assemble a winning team. You alone will never possess all of the skills and abilities required for perfection, nor will you ever be able to earn every certification or degree needed to answer every question.

Every successful entrepreneur needs to gain a general mastery of the “Keys to Success”. However, there are four specific tactical applications of these concepts that you can use to help carve out a niche for your consulting brand. You can immediately incorporate these four strategies into your practice in order to gain a leg up on the “competition”.

2) Building Your Brand by Effectively Using Social Media

In the brave new world of "social networking" websites, it can be difficult to resist the urge to mix business with pleasure. We often hear of anecdotal references to people (especially young people in the early stages of building a career) having negative outcomes because of decision makers "Googling" their FaceBook pages and reading their random Twitter "Tweets".

Potential bosses and co-workers are allowed to bear witness to them engaging in various youthful acts of indiscriminate activities that can hinder their career and professional mobility. Although tailoring the privacy settings of your account should suffice to prevent these intrusions into your online realm, the more purely social sites are not really the proper setting to build your professional brand in the first place. Unless of course you are a burgeoning club promoter, top bikini model or outrageous stand-up comic.

When it comes to career and professional branding and positioning, LinkedIn www.linkedin.com is a more relevant social networking tool. It can be most adequately utilized to establish a well conceived, powerful and consistent personal branding strategy on the World Wide Web. LinkedIn allows you to be proactive with your branding strategy, rather than hoping that the right people see your posts on the other social sites and that after reading the information they somehow "get" your message.

Of course with any successful branding strategy, you must take the time to conceive and execute a plan that addresses your desired outcome. This strategy should achieve the dual goals of positioning you as an expert and networking with the people who you want to make aware of your expertise. There are essentially 3 Keys to Creating a Successful Branding Strategy on LinkedIn:

1) Create a Powerful Profile page.

2) Strategically Build and Regularly Interact with Your Network of Contacts

3) Join the Right Groups.

The keys to personal branding that you will need as you start to use LinkedIn are the same skills you will need as you pursue any personal branding strategy. As you build your profile on LinkedIn, remember that you are attempting to position yourself as a trustworthy subject matter expert in your field. Then as you pursue the task of building your contacts, keep in mind that you must assemble a winning team in order to achieve long-term career and professional success. 

In summary: You and you alone are responsible for controlling the quality of your brand. The image you present and the information you transfer to the public are signs of your dedication to quality and the soundness of your ideas. There are many vital aspects that contribute to successfully building a powerful brand for your consulting practice. Whether you are a long time practicing consultant or a novice to the field, utilizing these helpful brand building tactics, as well as a general application of the Six Keys to Success should definitely help you stand out from the crowd in this economic environment.

Vince Rogers is the Principal Change Agent at Vince Rogers & Associates www.vincerogers.biz

Vince Rogers & Associates works with businesses, non-profits and high achieving individuals to formulate winning “Success Plans”.

The foundation for each success plan is tailored around optimizing the management and mastery of the “Six Keys to Success”: Confidence; Capital; Contacts; Initiative; Information and Image.

His books "The Very Best of Disguised Limits" book are available to buy or download free @ www.lulu.com

The complete article Building Your Brand as a Consultant by Utilizing the “Keys to Success” Is featured as the †Cutting Edge Topic in the 2013 Pfeiffer Annual: Consulting 

(ISBN: 978-1-1182-7379-1) Edited by Elaine Biech

BUILDING YOUR BRAND AS A CONSULTANT BY UTILIZING THE “KEYS TO SUCCESS” (Part One)

“I am a Consultant.” This declaration is probably heard more these days than the question “What is your name?” More than at any other time in history, this economy has compelled educated highly skilled professionals to seek to earn a living by attempting to ply their trade as consultants. So how does the “standout” consultant rise above the masses of tenderfoot claimants who are just temporarily between jobs? Or, even if you are one of the freshly minted masses, how do you stand on the shoulders of giants to pick the fruitful opportunities that the old guys have been neglecting.

There are “Six Keys to Success” that are essential to building any winning success plan. These attributes are integral to building your brand as a consultant as well. These concepts have been adapted to meet the complex demands of modern day enterprise building.

1. Information: Become known as a trustworthy subject matter expert in your field.
2. Image: Go out into the world every day and look, sound and act the way you wish to be perceived.
3. Initiative: Always act on the basis of sound planning and good research, which leads to the pursuit of effective strategy.
4. Confidence: Through dedicating your self to winning small victories, you will be emboldened with the confidence that you've done your best; this will be the basis of the momentum that propels you to success.
5. Capital: The greatest source of future revenue and profits for your business will be determined by the purchasing and cost decisions you make today.
6. Contacts: You must assemble a winning team. You alone will never possess all of the skills and abilities required for perfection, nor will you ever be able to earn every certification or degree needed to answer every question.

Every successful entrepreneur needs to gain a general mastery of the “Keys to Success”. However, there are four specific tactical applications of these concepts that you can use to help carve out a niche for your consulting brand. You can immediately incorporate these four strategies into your practice in order to gain a leg up on the “competition”. 

1) Building Your Brand by Becoming an “Infopreneur”

It is often said that content is king when it comes to building an online presence for your brand. One of the most cost effective and high impact ways to generate and distribute the high quality content that you produce is through publishing a blog.  As a subject matter expert in your field, it should not be very difficult to regularly produce high-quality content in order to generate a very informative, well followed blog. The content that you generate and a place to publish it are all that you need to get started on the easy road to “Infopreneurship”.

If you are not already blogging, the process for getting started is fairly simple. There are quite a few popular blog publishing services that can be used to create your own high quality blog. Some of the more popular outlets are TypePad, Blogger (which is owned by Google.com) and WordPress. You can easily determine which of these (or the many others) sites will fit your particular needs. The most common approach to making that decision is through either utilizing trial and error, researching online comparisons, or by soliciting referrals from other bloggers.

Once you start to publish your blog, you should list your blog with blog directories. A Blog directory is a service that lists popular blogs, much like an on-line index or card catalog to assist potential blog followers. Using blog directories enables your blog to gain greater exposure to a wider audience than just relying on being followed by random users of your chosen blog publishing service. 

The most well designed and highly informative blog on the internet is nothing without followers. I cannot emphasize strongly enough that the best way to gain a large captive audience of loyal followers is by regularly generating high quality content that is relevant to your target audience. To promote this content and increase their blog’s following; most bloggers utilize their existing networks on the most popular social media platforms: Twitter; FaceBook; LinkedIn etc. Some other useful tips to growing your blog’s readership and fan base are to:

1)   Use the blog traffic analytics provided by your blog publishing service to determine the readership patterns of your existing followers.

2)   Make widgets or gadgets (apps that link your blog to other websites) available for readers to place on their social media pages, personal websites and personal blogs.

3)   Interact with your blog followers by being responsive to their comments posted on your blog.

4)   Follow as many other blogs as you can and regularly interact with other bloggers.

Now that you’re the publisher of a successful blog with an avid following, what’s next? You are the owner of your blog content and therefore free to publish your articles in other online and print publications. For most bloggers utilizing their blog to grow their business is more than enough payoff for their effort and ingenuity. However, some savvy bloggers may want to take it a step further by using their blog content to enter the realm of information marketing. 

Information marketing is the business of selling Books, e-Books, CDs, DVDs, Webinars Podcasts, etc. to consumers seeking essential knowledge that they can use to enhance their business or professional lives. The most fundamental information products are “inspirational““motivational” “self-help” or “how-to” books. Turning your blog content into a book provides you with the perfect opportunity to enter the domain of legendary “Infopreneurs” such as Robert Kyosaki, Jim Rohn, Les Brown and Dennis Kimbro.

The traditional route to getting a book publishing deal is one that you might consider. However, self publishing is the easiest route to bringing your book and or e-book to the public. As with the process of publishing your blog, several easy to use print-on-demand, self publishing sites exist on the internet. Some of the notable names in the game are Lulu, AuthorHouse, xLibris and iUniverse. These sites provide users with easy to use tools that allow authors to download simple text documents and images from their own computers to create actual hardcover or paperback books. Within a matter of minutes, you can produce a bookstore quality publication or downloadable e-Book that customers can purchase or download from their own computer. 

To market and promote your book; you will utilize many of the same tools that are used to market and promote your blog. Becoming recognized as an Author will allow you to create new business opportunities, expand your number of blog followers and make a few dollars from selling the book as well. By following the steps I have outlined, I am sure that in no time flat you can also elevate the way your brand is perceived. You will rise in stature above other consultants who just blog, into the ranks of published authors who influence a mass audience of readers seeking expert advice.

In summary: You and you alone are responsible for controlling the quality of your brand. The image you present and the information you transfer to the public are signs of your dedication to quality and the soundness of your ideas. There are many vital aspects that contribute to successfully building a powerful brand for your consulting practice. Whether you are a long time practicing consultant or a novice to the field, utilizing these helpful brand building tactics, as well as a general application of the Six Keys to Success should definitely help you stand out from the crowd in this economic environment.

Vince Rogers is the Principal Change Agent at Vince Rogers & Associates www.vincerogers.biz

Vince Rogers & Associates works with businesses, non-profits and high achieving individuals to formulate winning “Success Plans”.

The foundation for each success plan is tailored around optimizing the management and mastery of the “Six Keys to Success”: Confidence; Capital; Contacts; Initiative; Information and Image.

His books "The Very Best of Disguised Limits" book are available to buy or download free @ www.lulu.com

The complete article Building Your Brand as a Consultant by Utilizing the “Keys to Success” Is featured as the †Cutting Edge Topic in the 2013 Pfeiffer Annual: Consulting 

(ISBN: 978-1-1182-7379-1) Edited by Elaine Biech

Featured Follower: Jamez Rogers - Inspired by Beats

Jamez Rogers 

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He is one of the driving forces behind the musical movement known as

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www.facebook.com/TribalAtlanta

Industry Innovator: LeJuano Varnell - Valuation Virtuoso

How much is your business worth?
by LeJuano Varnell

You have invested every cent you have in your business. Do you have any idea what it is worth?
Every business owner should be working hard each day to build as much value into their business as possible.  Instead, we often work so hard managing employees, customers and suppliers; we forget that building value is the ultimate goal.

Complicating matters is the reality that understanding how much the business is worth is not an easy task. Typically we only try doing it when we must. Whether buying and selling a business, seeking investment, or pleasing lenders, determining the value of your business is never a luxury, but is always VERY important.

Finding the value of a company is more art than science. The process will depend on a variety of factors. Some of the more important of these are – the asset value of the business, the cash flow it generates, and the underlying reasons why an interested party cares to buy or sell the business.

Even at a car dealership, buyers and sellers rarely have the same price in mind. The same is true for business buyers and sellers.  Since businesses don’t have sticker prices, a business valuation is the best starting point for negotiating a fair transaction. If both the buyer and seller are truly interested, the valuation will be most helpful in finding common ground. Both parties may wish to adjust the value up or down depending on the specific factors of the transaction.

For example, important factors like location, customer base, and consistency of earnings, have a different “value” to different sellers and buyers. An accurately done valuation will serve as a helpful foundation. The value of your business is also dependent upon the value of comparable businesses available for sale in your market at the same time. If your potential buyer understands their choices, it allows for a greater opportunity to negotiate.

For these reasons, when it is time to have a business valuation, it is best done by a professional who understands your business, your market, and your needs. Just as you have help when buying or selling your largest personal asset, your home, you should afford the same for your largest business asset. A professional can help find the best buyer or seller for your company, at a price that suits the needs of each party.

All things considered, it is important to remember the following words of wisdom from Michael Osanloo, Kraft EVP, when speaking on Kraft’s potential acquisition of Cadbury:

"There has been a lot of talk about what Cadbury is worth. The simple fact is that Cadbury is worth what someone is willing to pay for it – nothing more."

LeJuano Varnell  is a finance professional with 15 years experience working in the debt and private equity finance industry in the United States, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southern Asia. 

Altitude Adjustment

Maintaining your emotional balance 

as you travel the distance between 
the voyage and the victory

~ Vincent L. Rogers

www.vincerogers.biz