November, 2021

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Now is the Best Time to Raise Your Billing Rate

Successful Independent Consulting

Photo 50727473 / Piggy Bank © David Franklin | Dreamstime.com. The easiest time to raise your rate is on the cusp of something new — a new year, a new project, a new client. With the new year just around the corner, now is an excellent time to inform your clients. This article offers ideas of how to do this, as well as some sample language. How to determine your new rate Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all formula.

Policies 195
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10 Rules of Pricing for Consulting Firms

David A Fields

Pricing your consulting firm’s projects is tricky. You’re not alone if your heartbeat elevates or your stomach clenches when it comes to talking about your consulting firm’s fees with a prospective client, or when you’re developing the “investment level” for a specific consulting engagement. A few rules and a handful of cookies will soothe your … Continued.

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Timeless Marketing Principles For Consultants (Get More Long-Term Clients) with Larry Robertson: Podcast #213

Consulting Success

Everyone will benefit from having long-term clients who will always return to you and even refer others to work with you. But garnering such individuals is not so easy to accomplish. For Larry Robertson, getting ideal customers boils down to the value you are delivering, not just the profits you are earning. Joining Michael Zipursky, Timeless Marketing Principles For Consultants (Get More Long-Term Clients) with Larry Robertson: Podcast #213 is a post from: Consulting Success.

Marketing 246
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Project Management Best Practices That Can Help You Better Manage a Project

Clarity Consultants

A single failed project can be devastating for a business. While a few poor outcomes may happen due to issues outside of a company’s control, most failures are avoidable. By following various project management best practices, organizations can increase their odds of success. With that in mind, here’s a look at a few project management best practices that can help you better manage a project.

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State of AI in Sales & Marketing 2025

AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.

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3 Tactics to Accelerate a Digital Transformation

Harvard Business

What Singapore’s DBS Bank learned as it moved toward a more distributed workforce.

Banking 254

More Trending

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Building Trust with Hybrid Teams

Effective Managers

The global pandemic has brought us into a world where the unexpected has become common place. The pace of change is increasing and disruption can come from anywhere. Owners, executives and managers face an unprecedented time of turmoil and disruption. These challenging times have forced organizations to adjust quickly. They evolve their workforces, accepting that the “new normal” involves letting go of conventional work locations and being more flexible with “office hours.̶

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5 Easy Questions to Detect Huge Opportunities for Your Consulting Firm

David A Fields

As you think about how to grow your consulting firm, you may want to explore new offerings or new markets for your services. For instance, the opportunity to win doorway advisory projects looks wide open, or you could turn your attention to the booming fireworks market. Whether you’re expanding on a successful service line or … Continued. The post 5 Easy Questions to Detect Huge Opportunities for Your Consulting Firm appeared first on David A.

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How Consultants Can Create & Implement Winning Business Strategies With Christian Stadler: Podcast #214

Consulting Success

The only way to prevail as a small consulting firm is to do something different. In this episode, Christian Stadler talks with host Michael Zipursky about the winning business strategies you can use to grow, adapt, and beat your competition. Christian is the Professor of Strategic Management at Warwick Business School. One exercise is the nightmare.

Exercises 278
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5 Stakeholders You Need to Engage with When Applying Change Within a Company

Clarity Consultants

Change within a company won’t succeed if the only people involved are members of the leadership team. Instead, when you’re preparing to apply change within a company, engaging with the right stakeholders is essential to ensure success. Through stakeholder engagement, you gain powerful insights. Plus, it creates opportunities to address concerns early, leading to faster buy-in.

Company 287
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Less Stress, More Success: Accounting Best Practices & Processes for 2025

Speaker: Duke Heninger, Partner and Fractional CFO at Ampleo & Creator of CFO System

Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Duke Heninger, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.

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The Essential Components of Digital Transformation

Harvard Business

It’s about so much more than your technology.

Data 254
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Invisible Women as Part of Security Questions

Johanna Rothman

The good news is most sites realize we, the users, need nudges to create strong passwords. The bad news is too many of those nudges reject strong passwords from password managers. (I use and am happy with 1Password.). Worse, too many sites still ask horrible , terrible security questions instead of asking for two-factor authentication. Your first house, your first dog, your mother's maiden name.

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Color-Coded Persuasion

The Fearless Marketer

Persuasion is a language art. That is, words and ideas are what persuade, more than anything else. The problem is, we communicate without noticing if we are expressing features or benefits in our messages. Features are what WE DO. Benefits are what THEY GET. Typically, we are mostly talking about features – our process, the steps, the concept. But when we add a benefit to the feature, our communication suddenly (and almost magically) becomes more persuasive.

Marketing 118
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3 Winning, Foot-in-the-Door Projects for Your Consulting Firm

David A Fields

A small project with a new client could pave the way to a long-term, lucrative relationship with your consulting firm. Alternatively, it could waste your time with a low-margin, low fee engagement. Let’s say your consulting firm has forged a connection with Esther Bunnie, CEO of Cad’s Berries, a multi-national player in the chocolate novelties … Continued.

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PowerPoint Best Practices for Creating Stellar Presentations

Mastering data visualization in PowerPoint will help accelerate your career because it positions you as someone who can present data that drives business decisions forward. think-cell's PowerPoint Best Practices eBook was created specifically for professionals aiming to master the art and science of data-driven storytelling. What’s inside: Practical Insights: Uncover valuable tips for crafting engaging and persuasive presentations.

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How to Design a Consulting Business You and Your Clients Love with Jonathan Fields: Podcast #212

Consulting Success

While business success and happiness seem exclusive, it is possible to design a successful consulting business that you and your clients will be happy about. Best-selling author and founder of the Good Life Project Jonathan Fields sits down with host Michael Zipursky as they talk about the fundamental nature of work, transforming yourself, self-awareness, and.

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The Science of Learning: What Do We Know About How Adults Learn Best?

Clarity Consultants

While it’s easy to assume that learning works the same regardless of a person’s age, that isn’t the case. Adults have far different needs in comparison to children and teens. As a result, educational approaches designed for younger people may not be ideal for adult learners. Luckily, quite a bit is known about how adults learn best. If you want to make sure that you’re using the right approach in your training, here’s what you need to know about learning in adulthood.

Training 249
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How NFTs Create Value

Harvard Business

Understanding this new — and often confusing — asset class.

Strategy& 254
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Excellent Execution: 4 Leadership Pillars

Rick Conlow

Most managers lack excellent execution skills. “Execution is the great unaddressed issue in the business world today. Its absence is the single biggest obstacle to success. Furthermore, it creates most of the disappointments that are mistakenly attributed to other causes.” Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan declared this in their book, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done.

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Savings Consultants Are Needed in Today's Market More Than Ever

Savings Consultants are needed in today’s market more than ever. With an increase in expenses, businesses are looking for opportunities to save. Often unknown to businesses are savings in expense reduction, specialized tax savings, specialized savings including medical underpayments, health benefits cost reduction, zero cost processing, and more. Blue Coast Savings, with over 20 years in business, assists Savings Consultants in helping these companies move toward more profitable businesses.

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Leadership Tip 16: Decide When to Choose Power-With or Power-Over

Johanna Rothman

All decisions are a form of power. We exercise our personal power (power within) in many ways: when we decide where to live, what to wear, and what to eat. Not only that, we also choose our jobs, who we vote for, and where to go on vacation. We have a ton of personal power. Healthy teams often need to decide together. They use power-with, where people decide what to do as collaborators.

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How to Ask for a Fee Increase [Consulting Firm Skills]

David A Fields

Over the past three years, your consulting firm charged your client Fru Gal Corp. (FGC) roughly half a bajillion dollars for each of the two “big progress” projects they hired you to lead. Next year you’d like to charge FGC higher fees for the same type of projects. How (and why) do you ask FGC … Continued. The post How to Ask for a Fee Increase [Consulting Firm Skills] appeared first on David A.

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How to Build Marketing & Sales Skills as a Technical Consultant with Heather Couture: Podcast #211

Consulting Success

If you are learning something beneficial for you, stick with it. If you have zero experience in sales and marketing while running a business, take time to learn it. Heather Couture is the owner and machine learning consultant of Pixel Scientia Labs, and she learned how to sell. Learn why and how she got into AI machine learning. How to Build Marketing & Sales Skills as a Technical Consultant with Heather Couture: Podcast #211 is a post from: Consulting Success.

Sales 246
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Listen. Stay Engaged. Stay Relevant.

Leadership Planning with Liz Weber CMC

Every one of my clients is experiencing the same thing: It’s almost impossible to recruit and hire strong team members. Because of this, retaining strong team members has become critical to enable on-going operations. So what can a leader do to not only retain, but excite strong team members? Listen to them. What […]. The post Listen. Stay Engaged.

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TOOLS and METHODOLOGIES for developing DECISION SUPPORT PACKAGES

This White Paper targets opportunities for Management to develop proficiency in the Decision Framing and Analyses element of input to Decision, & Risk Analyses for Major Project Funding Decisions.

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How No-Code Platforms Can Bring AI to Small and Midsize Businesses

Harvard Business

Three features to look for as you consider the right tool for your company.

Tools 254
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17 Memorable Quotes about Gratitude and Thanksgiving

Rick Conlow

Gratitude means the quality of being thankful, and the readiness to show appreciation for or to return kindness. In our drive for success, many times we neglect what’s most important and who is most important. We focus more on the “what” and forget about the “how” As one forward thinking CEO told me recently, “The how matters.” In business it is about the numbers, facts, figures, data, metrics, business intelligence, profits, and results.

eBook 109
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Five Tips for Your Successful (Hybrid Remote) Satellite Team

Johanna Rothman

You've spent the better part of two years organizing for all-remote work. Now, your managers want people back in the office. However, your team won't all be back in the same time and space. People get to choose which days (and possibly hours) they come into the office. That means you don't have a collocated team. You also don't have a fully remote (nebula) team.

Agile 109
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Climbing the Competency Ladder

Tom Spencer

4 Stages of Learning to Help your Projects and Career. The difference between knowing a lot of facts and understanding how to use those same facts can be observed from the level of insight obtained. Often the same information is available to many people, yet some can reach greater insights and create more value. This difference can easily be seen if you were to give an industry report to an analyst and a partner in a consulting firm and ask both of them to give a summary and interpret the inform

Research 103
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Why You Need to Use Case Studies in Sales and Marketing (and How to Start Now)

Case studies are proof of successful client relations and a verifiable product or service. They persuade buyers by highlighting your customers' experiences with your company and its solution. In sales, case studies are crucial pieces of content that can be tailored to prospects' pain points and used throughout the buyer's journey. In marketing, case studies are versatile assets for generating business, providing reusable elements for ad and social media content, website material, and marketing c

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Relationship-Building Mastery for Consultants with Martin Stadelmeyer: Podcast #210

Consulting Success

Relationship-building is a fundamental aspect of running a business. So how does one go about it? In this episode, joining Michael Zipursky is Martin Stadelmeyer of AMBE Engineering, LLC. Having previous experience with companies like Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, Martin has the experience and the connection most people in the industry aspire to have.

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It’s Not Rocket Science

CaseInterview.com

There’s an American idiomatic expression that’s used in a somewhat sarcastic way when describing something that should be easy to do but isn’t being done. The expression is: “It’s not rocket science.” Show up to class on time… it’s not rocket science. Answer the phone when customers call… it’s not rocket science. When crossing the street, look both ways first… it’s not rocket science.

Company 98
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Managing AI Decision-Making Tools

Harvard Business

Humans still need to be involved. This framework will help you determine when and how.

Tools 253