pick and choose

Job stability has been one of my biggest pain points of working as a consultant. One way I could do this is by taking on more complex, multi-year projects. For instance, a firm may offer teaching or facilitation services to a client for a year or more. Those large projects are hard, if not impossible, to do as a sole proprietor. I needed to learn how successful consulting firms do this kind of work. Over the past year, I've taken on subcontracts with the goal of learning more about how they work from the inside.

Complex projects themselves are a challenge. I only have about 80 billable hours a month available to me. I can't take on every project that comes my way. I may have to budget months or even years of working hours to complete them. Complex projects often also mean complex proposals. I've spent dozens of hours working on a single response to a request for proposals (RFP). Some RFPs ask for detailed proposals about how we'd complete the work, essay questions or even interviews to explain your approach and qualifications. It should be obvious how these unpaid hours can start to add up.

With all that in mind, how do you choose what to work on? There are a lot of projects on the market at any given time. I wanted to know: which RFPs should I devote myself to? Which projects should I write proposals for? Which projects do I want to spend months or years carrying out? Less important to me in this post is how to write a good proposal. I'll address that question in a future post. Here are some of the considerations I've made during my time as a consultant.

project review

The first step is to review the materials the client shared with prospective teams. I'm thinking about how much the client knows about this project. I want to compare the project to any specific deliverables they name. Do the activities they describe lead to the outcomes they want to have? If not, we risk never delivering on exactly what the client wants or needs.

I also study the budget for the project. If we're using my hourly rate for this budget, how many hours are they paying for? For instance, a good strategic plan process can cost tens of thousands of dollars. It may also take several months to complete. If a company is offering $10-15K for a project that will take months to do well, is that a reasonable ask? Very large budgets, especially for a year or two of work, often mean that we'll need a big team to get everything done. From a staffing side, a small budget spent on a consulting team of 5 could burn through their hours in a matter of weeks.

skill fit

I usually have a pretty good sense of a project once I've gone through all the materials. My next step is to ask if this project is right for me. Do I have the skills the client is looking for? Is there a unique advantage or perspective I can bring that make me more capable of doing the work? This is a similar process to a job seeker reading a position description. If I decide to move forward with writing a proposal, I'll need examples of times I did what they're looking for.

Consultants should already be experts in their field. There will be less room to learn on the job than a person might have applying for a position they can grow into. Reviewers often give preference to people who have:

• worked for the client before (they understand the organization and its culture);
• worked for a client of similar size or scope (they understand the industry or demands of an agency of that size);
• completed a similar project elsewhere (they can draw on past experiences).

If I don't have any of those, I need to think about how competitive I'll appear to the RFP's reviewers. I struggle with that, of course. The conditions above give preference to larger or more established consulting firms. Consultants at (or from) huge firms like McKinsey or Deloitte don't offer what I strive to. Same for consultants from all-white firms or those beholden to dominant culture. I may compete with them, but we're not selling the same product. I want the perspectives, methods, and team members in my proposal to reflect that.

team fit

The above considerations should give you an idea of the team you might need. Who could complement my work or add value to the project? Who has skills, experience, or connections that could improve our chance of success? Of the people I have in mind, what's their capacity for new projects? How much time do I need them to contribute?

As the project administrator, I need to decide if the team makes sense as a whole. Every activity the client requests should be assignable to someone on our team. People who bring in impressive skills but don't have a role Some consultants, like the project manager, might have a role from the beginning to the end of the project. Others might only come in to lead a specific workshop or training. For tasks that come up often (like leading a monthly meeting), we will need more than one person with that skill. It also wouldn't make sense to name someone with a specialized or narrow skill as one of the main team members. They probably wouldn't have enough to do to justify such a hefty role on the team.

interest fit

Knowing I can do a project is not the same as knowing I want to do a project. I don't have an infinite amount of time to work on things (or I would've learned glassblowing by now). I also didn't go through the trouble of running my own business so I could take on projects I don't want to do. If the client seems off or the project feels like it would be a slog, that could be my sign to skip it. Other times, the budget is tiny or the work seems to be much larger than the client imagines. Still, if the project thrills me otherwise I may decide to try for it anyway.

Before I apply, I also have to consider if this project is right for me. It might get me in front of new prospective clients or partners. It could be an opportunity to work with consultants I admire or may want to learn from. It could have a big enough budget that I can afford to take on smaller or less-funded passion projects.

what to accept when you're accepting

I got into consulting for the chance to move entire systems. There is a lot we need to fix, especially in these interesting times. I don't take for granted my ability to pick and choose the projects that I work on. I try to put a lot of thought into how I run my business. It hasn't always worked out exactly as I hoped it would. But I have had the chance to work with people on projects I never could've imagined. I've gotten to make real progress on my personal and professional goals. I think that's cool as hell.