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What if there was a way for you to get your employees truly invested in your company making a profit and achieving your key goals? You just tell them what you’re trying to do and how you’re progressing, and they become rabid fans and supporters. Sound easy? Too good to be true? Well it actually happens in some companies where management has been able to adjust their way of thinking about the employee-employer relationship.

Public companies share their financial results with the world; mostly because they have to in order to freely sell their stock. Privately owned companies don’t share their financial results with anyone unless they have to in order to get a loan, file their tax returns, or sell the company. What both have in common is that they only share when it’s a requirement. What they don’t have in common is that public companies’ information is, well, public. More to the point of this article, financial information is available to every employee of every public company in the land.

Is that a bad thing? You would think so from the pains that most private company CEOs go to in order to keep that information away from their employees. The mutual feelings of mistrust run deep, perhaps stemming from the lack of loyalty that employers and employees perceive from each other. Employees think their employers will lay them off at the drop of a hat (or net income) and employers think their employees focus largely on doing as little work as possible while pocketing office supplies and looking for a better job somewhere else. In management terms that sounds like:

• “If they know we’re making a profit they’re going to demand raises, bonuses and a membership in the local health club” or
• “If they know what our goals are and we don’t reach them, we’ll have to explain why” or
• “If an employee leaves and goes to work for a competitor, there goes our competitive advantage when he tells them all about our plans and strategies” or
• “Explaining this stuff in lay terms is a lot of work, and periods of poor profits can create anxiety that we know how to handle but our employees don’t” or
• “If they find out our customers will find out and we’ll get requests to cut our prices or our suppliers will find out and they’ll want us to pay more for what we buy.”

OK, maybe that’s a bit overstated, but come on, folks. We know that a football team’s goal of winning will fail if all the members of the team don’t work together. That means every player knows the game plan, their evolving role in the game plan, and what the end goal is. And they all know whether they’re making progress at any given time. So here’s where I’m going with this: if teamwork requires mutual trust and mutually well informed team members, and if profit is the “end goal” of the company, then why is it anathema for the team leader to keep the team informed about their progress? In other words, why isn’t Open Book Management, or “OBM,” the rule for private companies, rather than the very rare exception?

In a weird bit of irony, it seems that OBM practices are more visible when a company gets into trouble. The logic goes like this: ‘We’re really hurting, team, and we need you to sacrifice without blaming management so we can find a way to hold the team together and get to the goal.’ Of course once the sacrificing is over, we won’t need to share all that stuff with the team, because they’ll go right back to the raises and bonuses pitch and we’ll have to explain why we’re buying a boat instead.

Am I being too cynical? I tried to find a publication, article or speech that spoke of the problems encountered with OBM – the pros and cons, if you will. No one speaks, writes or teaches against this method of sharing information. To the contrary, there are volumes of information describing the improvements that companies have made in productivity and profits as a result – directly or indirectly – of making the move to share more of their financial and business planning information with their employees.

So why isn’t OBM happening in your company? Could it be that the perceived risk of the bullet list above is greater than the perceived benefit of having your employees invested in your company’s success? Perhaps you don’t believe they really want you to succeed. Or you don’t believe the employees’ feelings about the company’s success will have anything to do with your actual results?

Maybe I’m not the cynical one after all. If everyone who has had exposure to OBM thinks it’s beneficial to the company, but you’ve not been willing to consider it for your company, either you haven’t heard the success stories or you don’t believe them. I’ll go with ‘you haven’t heard them.’

Here are some examples.
• Pool Covers Inc. – the poster child for a recent Wall Street Journal article – has been using OBM since 1994. The CEO credits the practice with helping the company’s value grow an average of 23.8% a year from 1997 to 2007. During the current recession the company had to consider its first ever layoff, and six employees volunteered to be laid off based on the information they had seen, rather than have the company struggle and perhaps not make it.
• Dorian Drake International – when the employees began seeing their company’s financials in 2002 they realized some departments were getting better deals from vendors than they were for similar purchases. The resulting changes in purchasing procedures helped the company go from a $500,000 loss to a $200,000 profit in one year – with no increase in sales.
• Springfield ReManufacturing Corp. (SRC) was an ailing division of International Harvester when a new CEO assumed control as part of an employee-led buyout. The biggest change under his direction was cultural. The company created and embraced an environment of open communication, learning and development, and trust. SRC taught its employees how to read a balance sheet and began sharing key financial information. Employees learned how key performance measurements such as defect rates and order backlogs impacted the bottom line. The result? From 1983 to 2004 the company’s sales grew from $16 million to more than $160 million.

So, might it be worth a try?

Wall Street Journal, 2/23/2009, page R8.
Wall Street Journal, 2/23/2009, page R8.
Open Book Management, The Coming Business Revolution, John Case, HarperBusiness, 1995.

My close colleague, Gene Siciliano (our “CFO for rent” at www.cfoforrent.com) provides training in finance for non-financial managers, and helps companies develop performance metrics that are the leading indicators of profitability.  His website is filled with resources and articles, and you can sign up for his newsletter. I wanted to share this article with you.

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Of all the characteristics of success for CEOs, the most critical is their domain expertise –whether it is technology, retail, green/clean or bio-tech.  And that domain expertise should be specific to the product being built or the service being offered — software development, social media, SaaS, medical devices, bio fuels, and so on.

If the CEO does not have this precise domain expertise, then a full or nearly-full partner must have it, bound to the Company by significant incentives like stock ownership or vesting, a voting position in decisions, and so on.

I have worked with a CEO recruited into early stage software companies who came from the semi-conductor industry, and found myself educating them on the difference between intellectual property companies vs. chip companies - a difference that goes far beyond the cost of goods required.  These two industries have different and sometimes conflicting world views.

Another time I worked with a highly intelligent and successful attorney, with legal experience in transactions of early stage software companies.  Trouble is, nothing that trains an excellent attorney is the same as training an excellent CEO.  Attorneys live in cooperative and mentoring environments.  Until they are senior partners, they do not hire or fire, sell , market or handle complex budgets.  They manage neither teams nor product development.   They may understand the workings of an early stage company, but as attorneys they are always outside of it.

One client had deep domain experience in the end-to-end management of his industry.  So he decided to accept an offer to fund the development of an enterprise software product that would replicate his experience.  He even had an excellent reputation and a golden rolodex into which to sell the product (and an expertise in deal making).  Trouble was, as he freely admitted, he knew nothing about either software development or the sales cycle of an enterprise product. 

The learning curve for domain expertise is very long, and early stage companies do not have time for many errors. And, to lead, the CEO must be ahead of all learning curves, not catching up.   Before taking the lead position, the CEO should have completed his or her ”10,000 hours” (as referenced by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers, based on a study by Anders Ericsson http://bit.ly/mXUs ).

Operations, sales and marketing excellence can be hired — and of course, expertise in the Company’s niche is necessary here.  But there are more candidates for these positions than for the CEO role.  Even startup expertise can be hired as consultants (as long as they have completed their 10,000 hours).

Some of the CEOs in the descriptions above succeeded, some did not.  The lesson here is that, if you are the CEO, build a product or service business directly in line with what you know.   If you have founded a company, and it is time to add a CEO or replace yourself, look long and hard for the best candidate with the appropriate expertise, and additional experience in the growth stage of your company.  And stay involved.  Many successful startups fail upon this change in the CEO position.

And if you have domain experience but not the technology experience, find a partner with the appropriate expertise.  Do not “hire out” your R&D to consultants, freelancers, or offshore talent in place of a significant partner, fully invested in the Company,  clearly incented to stay for the long haul.  From my years of helping CEOs start technology companies, I find that those CEOs who believe they can build technology without prior experience risk the highest failure rate.

Be careful starting out — early stage companies take longer to succeed (or fail) and more capital than you expect, and your deep domain expertise will keep you on the winning side.

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You are standing over the brownies and strawberries at some networking function, and a likely candidate for interest in buying your product or investing in your company looks across the chocolate chip cookies, smiles, and says, “I’m Ron, CEO of Everything.com. What do you do?”

So, you get one sentence to state your unique value proposition and your first-level differentiation. In simple language. And I mean simple – See Spot Run. See Jane watch Spot. That kind of language. No jargon. No tech-speak. Say it like you would explain it to your sister’s cousin’s grandmother. So you say:

“I’m John, CEO of Startup.com. We make (widgets) that let our customers (replace with your specific target customers) improve their (insert the value of using your widget or service) because our widget (state your differentiation from your competitors – technology, pricing, etc.).

Watch the structure. “I’m John, CEO of PhoneCoupons.com. We provide internet supermarket coupons that let shoppers find our 10% better-discount coupons on their smart phone in real time while shopping and use them at the checkout – no research, no clipping, no forgetting.”

Notice no tech speak. Grandma could get it if she understands how smart phones work.

Ron says, “Interesting. Tell me more.”

This is your chance to extend your value proposition and dig more deeply into your differentiation and success. You say:

“PhoneCoupons.com is in partnership with 70% of the major product brands and 80% of the regional supermarket chains, our technology is in use today, and sales are growing at 40% per month. We take a 2% fee from the product brands for each transaction, and will be profitable within the year. We are looking for strategic partners and capital investors for our growth phase.”

Ron says, “Can you send me some information on this to share with my Board?”

You send your pitch deck (for the product or the investment, as appropriate – these are separate decks). Each deck, no more than 10 slides in each, positions the unique value proposition, the differentiation and the return on investment to the customer or the investor. And it can be a 2-page pitch piece, not a PPT deck, if you prefer.

The response you want from the pitch piece is: “Can you come in and show us a demo and tell us more?”

At this point, you have a qualified prospect (you have determined if you are talking to a customer or investor or both), and can go in with your demo and full pitch for closing.

Notice that all you want in a response is 1) Tell me more, then 2) Can you send some information and 3) can you come in for a meeting. If you push for a faster response than these measured requests, you blow the deal. This is why each sentence from you must be crafted to speak to value and not technical detail, and to speak to differentiation and ROI, not product specifics.

The secret is to not tell too much too soon in too-technical language.

My key work in this area received an immediately $2.1M equity commitment on a 2-page pitch piece in See Spot Run language on a complex software product, and allowed another company looking for its 1st professional equity investment to sell itself to a strategic partner within months.

Knowing how much not to say when, how to position value and differentiation in a sentence or two, and how to use simple language to explain technology is the secret to successful pitching. Good luck.

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During my 25 years working with early stage technology CEOs, I have found myself referring to the make it- or break-it characteristics that lead a CEO to succeed or fail, separate from market conditions, capital conditions and other external factors, many of which cannot be controlled. 

So, rather than keep them to myself as an internal checklist, I thought to explore them here in a series of postings, digging deeper than I have done before.  Comments are welcome. 

Note that these are not tactical considerations, but strategic skill sets that can be applied to any venture.  This list doesn’t look like other lists or chapter headings I have seen — it seems adjacent to the usual business school outline.  

These skill sets create successful serial entrepreneurs who can fail at one venture and still succeed at several others.  My experience has shown me that at least one of these characteristics was missing in any failed company I witnessed or evaluated, even if the other 9 characteristics were in play, despite market conditions. 

To begin, here is the list of 10 characteristics:

1. Domain expertise (technology or other)
2. Leadership & personal power
3. Financial savvy
4. Ability to pitch and close
5. Honor
6. Realism
7. Perseverance
8. Patience
9. Perspective on the larger scheme of things
10. Courage to move forward, or stop, and to know when to do either one.   

 Please join me in this exploration as I post these upcoming 10 blogs over the coming weeks.  I’d appreciate your thoughts as this conversation evolves.

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Since I own a communications agency, you may question whether or not I condone such a practice. Believe it or not, I do. I have seen many small, entrepreneurial companies implement their own public relations programs initially. Then, as they grew, expanded, and sometimes went public, they required the outside assistance of an agency. So it is really to my long-term advantage to suggest how a company not using public relations consultants can best handle its own public relations.

The fact is, in today’s highly competitive business environment, no firm can afford not to communicate. And, in the start-up phase, handling your own public relations can help keep the costs down. Then too, potentially negative media situations can be diffused by preparing in advance. This, however, does require that all issues be thoroughly and honestly addressed and the media strategy adhered to.

In strategizing effective communications, what you say is as important as what you don’t say. The message must be strategically planned to achieve the purpose you desire, to target the markets you want to saturate. What you communicate is the most important. Your approach is more valuable than your contacts in achieving positive results.

Every solid public relations campaign is based on the conclusions of market research and management’s objectives.

Before you commit to a communications campaign, conduct market research. Yes, it is costly. However, it is even more costly to do the research the other way, through trial and error campaigns. All companies do market research, one way or another. It’s better to plan that research and spend less money up front to ensure that your first campaign is on target. It can be the business decision that keeps you in business.

These are competitive times. A good reputation and an extensive product line or a long list of services are no longer enough to ensure that business finds its way to your door. You must understand your position and image in the marketplace. Find out how your competition, your clients, and the general marketplace view you. If yours is a new company, you must create an image.

Once you have made a commitment to an ongoing public relations campaign, compile a list of all the techniques available and avenues open to your type of business. Then prioritize them. They may include:

1. Active participation in trade associations, Chambers of Commerce, or other business organizations;

2. Exhibition at conventions and trade shows;

3. Speaking engagements;

4. Sponsorship of major events or planning your own;

5. Press conferences and press previews;

6. Placement of by-lined articles in key publications;

7. Preparation of new product and/or personnel releases for trade publications;

8. Capitalizing on a trend or newsworthy occurrence (or creating one) to target major business or general interest magazines as well as major metropolitan daily and local weekly suburban newspapers, and radio and television news and talk shows;

9. Submitting PSAs to radio and television to garner “free” air time;

10. Design and implementation of a financial and investor relations program;

11. Development of a direct mail campaign and other collateral
(brochures, website, etc.) materials; and

12. Government relations, i.e. lobbying.

Once you’ve planned your work, work your plan.

My close colleague, Devon Blaine, is the CEO of the Blaine Group, an award-winning total communications agency with a broad range of services and a master rolodex. I want to share some of her expertise in these pages. Check out www.blainegroupinc.com

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I stepped into another world the other day – a place where there are no words for numbers higher than 3 or 4, a world with a simple god but no religion, with time but no calendars, a tribe with customs but no laws, a world of primitive peace, singing, dancing, storytelling and rational priorities. And it was so removed from the life I live (and my life is very simple compared to others’) that I was stopped in my mind, and then began to laugh.

Here is that world, and you can visit it here: http://bit.ly/2oMIqi
This is the Hazda tribe of Onwas (named for their elder) living in the bush in Tanzania. Leave some quiet time for a long read and longer think.

Some excerpts that made me laugh:

“I asked Ngaola if he’d waited a long time for me. “No,” he said, “Only a few days.”

“No Onwas I met…seemed prone to worry….Why grow food or rear animals when it’s being done for you, naturally, in the bush? When they want berries, they walk to a berry shrub. When they desire baobab fruit, they visit a baobab tree. Honey waits for them in wild hives. And they keep their meat in the biggest storehouse in the world –their land. All that’s required is a bit of stalking and a well-shot arrow.”

“The school-age kids I spoke with…had no interest in sitting in a classroom….It’s far better, they said, to be free and fed in the bush than destitute and hungry in the city.”

“A significant number of Hazda women who marry out of the group soon return, unwilling to accept bullying treatment…. Woe to the man who proves himself an incompetent hunter or treats his wife poorly.”

“Onwas was interested in a picture of my cat. ‘How does it taste?’ he asked.”

Please visit this other world, and let your reflections take you where they will. My thanks to author Michael Finkel for the journey (and the abuse to his body during the trip) and to National Geographic for sponsoring this adventure. We are the richer for it.

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Behaving with impeccable manners is one of your strongest strategies. It builds and sustains your reputation, which as an entrepreneur or a consultant is your most valued asset. Your reputation precedes you in all new introductions, with prospective clients, and with existing clients and colleagues who speak of you.

There is great power in excellent manners. It allows folks to trust you. Those extra gestures of politeness are respected and welcomed in our too-fast world of 140 character communication. Sometimes a colleague won’t specifically understand why he or she thinks so highly of you, but will always hold you in high esteem, and say so.

Here are some of those gestures of good manners:

• Write a brief note of thanks following every initial meeting, even if you were not the one requesting it. This should be automatic and within 24 hours of the meeting.
• Acknowledge your client/prospect/colleague’s ideas, even if you will not participate in them.
• If you have pursued a prospect several times by follow-up email or voice-mail, but have received no response, send a closing note that acknowledges the conversation or meeting your shared, and say you will be available “whenever the time is best.”
• It is not weakness to be available, but graciousness. If you are not available later, you can say so then, with your kindest regrets.
• Do not expect others to have the good manners that you exhibit – impeccable behavior is more and more rare.
• Do not take others’ rudeness personally (it won’t help your situation nor change anyone’s behavior).
• Be generous with your advice, even if you have not signed on to the work. But don’t do the work itself before you have a contract.
• Be supportive of the idea, even if you doubt its ultimate success. How many times have you mis-judged the next new thing?
• Be polite: if you feel you must issue some warning about an idea, do it in positive terms, as a suggestion to safeguard against the unexpected.
• Take the time to share some bit of news, or an announcement of a potential competitor, or an article that may be useful. Do this with clients, colleagues, vendors, and prospects. This is part of your generosity – that you are thinking of someone and taking the time to show you remember them. Be simple about this – attach the information and just send a brief message with it, “thought of you and hope this is of interest.”
• Spend time with younger folks who seek your advice, even if they can not be clients or prospects. They will grow older and more advanced in their careers, and remember that you were kind to them. This includes teaching as well as one-on-one meetings.
• Listen more than you talk. Much more.

We live in an aggressive get-ahead world, filled with competition. Excellent manners are the inverse of this aggression – the yin, not the yang. There is great power in having so much abundance that you can share a note of thanks, an hour of your time without expectation of gain, a message with a piece of useful information for no reason other than to share it.  You will be remembered for these gestures.

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Building life long loyal customers is difficult and complex. But the measurement of it can be easy. Fred Reichheld says that it comes down to one question - what is your Net-Promoter Score?

A company’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) is based on the fundamental perspective that every company’s customers can be divided into three categories: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. By asking one simple question — How likely is it that you would you recommend [Company X] to a friend or colleague? — you can track these groups and get a clear measure of your company’s performance through its customers’ eyes. Customers respond on a 0-to-10 point rating scale and are categorized as follows:

Promoters (score 9-10) are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth.
Passives (score 7-8) are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings.
Detractors (score 0-6) are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth.

To calculate your company’s NPS, take the percentage of customers who are Promoters and subtract the percentage who are Detractors.

We recommend this program to our clients. To find out more, you should visit Net Promoter http://bit.ly/8a2tAp  . If this is interesting, there is a book about how to implement this practice.

In their book, Answering the Ultimate Question, Richard Owen and Dr. Laura Brooks of Satmetrix describe the Net Promoter Operating Model that captures the elements necessary for a successful program. The operating model provides a best practice framework for how companies collect and act on customer feedback to optimize financial benefits.

Please comment to mail@robertgonsalves.com  and let us know if you have heard about the Ultimate Question and if you have had any experience implementing a customer satisfaction program at your business.

My friend and colleague, Robert Gonsalves built the award-winning, online success of Disney Online and Warner Bros. Online, and now consults to CEOs and senior executives to build loyal life long customers and to drive profitability from their online efforts. Check out his site at www.robertgonsalves.com.

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The Chinese New Year arrived late this year, and fell on our Valentines Day, February 14th 2010. Year of the Metal Tiger, this day heralds, “For all affairs, great good luck!”

I have a long connection to Chinese culture (from early exposure to the iChing to building a company in Shanghai in the 1990s), and have been anticipating the turn of this year and the putting aside of last year, which has been so difficult for so many folks around the world.

In juxtaposition, yesterday I heard an old Paul Simon song (American Tune, © 1973) quite by accident, a blues song that seems relevant for the current times:

And I don’t know a soul that’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered or driven to its knees
But it’s all right, it’s all right
For we’ve lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road
We’re travelling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong.

Even in a blues year, the turning of the new year signifies the putting aside of what has come before, and the looking forward with an optimism to the coming changes.

Traditionally, any New Year’s Day (January or otherwise) celebrates the coming of Spring, even if the ground is covered in snow, because we have passed the Winter equinox on December 21st (the shortest day) and are looking forward to the increasing light and easier living in the coming season.

Preparing for Valentine’s Day, I got to thinking about the cyclical coming of Spring. A native Bostonian once told me that after mid-February, you couldn’t trust the ice in Boston for skating. Another person explained that the increased sunlight re-activated certain hormones in all creatures (us included) that incited us to mating (hence, Valentine’s Day and the Spring re-birth of animals). In semi-tropical California, the Spring flowers arrive in February.

So, in harmony with the Chinese, I have put on a red ribbon to remember the turning to the new, and I am excited about the changes coming to meet us in the re-birth of the year.

The red ribbon is a wish for all of you who follow these meanderings ~
For all affairs, great good luck!

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During this long recession, getting paid can be tricky, especially if you are an outsider, or if you have lost your status as an employee, and have been hired back as a contractor (part time or full time).

Established consultants understand about getting paid (or not), but those new to the game, or employees currently being paid “off-payroll” may find their payments unexpectedly reduced or delayed, with little recourse.

Getting work the employee loses
The advantage of being “off-payroll” is that you may get work that would go to a full time employee, because the “professional services” or “contractors” budget has funds, but there is a freeze on hiring.

Employers carry the financial responsibility of their employees. In tight economic times, hiring freezes can result because employers pay up to a 25% “load” (extra costs) over and above your salary if you are an employee (this is an approximate figure). Also, employees have certain rights controlled by State laws, including receiving their benefits (such as health insurance) and timely reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses. Laws also require that employers pay taxes on employee wages and salaries in a timely manner to the State and Federal governments. Defaulting on these taxes can result in employers being assessed significant penalties and interest.

Enter the consultant
So, there may be consulting funds for your role in the company, but not for your position as an employee. So you may be laid off and someone else hired in to fulfill your role. Or, that someone could be you, paid a fee and not a salary. Or, having been laid off, you may turn to being an “independent” to get paid for your skills anywhere you can.

Being paid a consulting fee (or contractor’s wages as a freelancer) leaves the responsibility for benefits (such a health insurance, travel/car expenses, and so on) and taxes on your shoulders. And as an “independent” you actually pay more tax than your employer!

These are rather obvious results of working “off-payroll” and you can plan for these by speaking with any established consultant or accountant. It is not easy to set aside 30% of your fee income to handle your self-employment taxes, and to pay your full health insurance on your own, but at least you know you have to do it.

Planning ahead
The more subtle effects of being off-payroll in a recession need to be anticipated as well. If there is a core group of employees still on board at your company or at your client-company, but you are off-payroll, the employees will be protected by the law, and paid regularly, usually through the accounting division or through a payroll service. There is not much room to change this compensation without some formal action on the part of the employer.

But as an independent, your fees are more vulnerable than your colleagues’ paychecks. When the cash squeeze comes (and you won’t know when it is on or off), your check will be delayed. Or paid on time but arbitrarily reduced. There may be some explanation (“keeping the company alive” or “catch you up next time”). Even if you have protected yourself in your written agreement, you have little recourse to demand timely payment, a catch up on arrears, or a check for out of pocket reimbursement. The best protection, of course, is to be paid up front for your entire scope of work, or to be paid monthly in advance of work to be done. These are good ideas at all times, if you can do it.

This position of advanced payment at least allows you the option of a “work stoppage” if the check does not arrive.

Choices to make
Of course, how you play your hand at these times will be a decision you will have to weigh carefully. It may be wise to wait out the arrears, if you believe you will be paid in full. This consideration involves how much you know about the company’s finances and how much you trust the integrity of the decision maker who writes the checks, who may not be your direct client. It might be wise to be clear with your client and the decision maker about your expectations for any deferred compensation, and what actions you might take in the face of deferrals in accomplishing your work.

Do not threaten to quit unless you mean to do it. In fact, never threaten to quit. If you are going to quit, tell your client quietly and respectfully that you will stop working now until payment is made, or that you will remain available for a few days while payment is arranged, and will be unavailable if it is not forthcoming.

In all cases, you must carefully consider how much effort (especially extra excellent effort) should be committed to a client which is falling into arrears on your fees. You must protect yourself. You must balance your work responsibility with how much energy you will commit to finding another consulting gig or a position in a more stable company. This is especially difficult for consultants whose identities are connected to excellence in their work and loyalty to their clients. I do not mean you should be less than excellent. I mean you should be loyal to your own (consulting) company and protect it, while you are continuing to support your client. If you are working for a client, give your best, but give that same best to your own company as well. Find the balance.

As I have said too many times to remember, you must be constantly marketing for more work, even if you are overbooked with current client work. You must keep your options for work and revenue constantly open and in play.

Especially in these uncertain times.

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