City of Paris

The economy and resulting downsizing have caused many marketers to reflect on their careers, and a number of my colleagues are thinking about giving up the corporate life to try consulting, either to bridge the gap until they find the right position or to explore a long-term option. Some of my friends ask, “Is this right for me?” Others ponder the risks and rewards of a consultant’s life.

Pay for performance on an accelerated review cycle. Many consultant assignments are relatively short-term—running for weeks and months rather than years—even though we may have a long-term relationship with clients. And as many consultants like to say, we are as good as the last assignment we completed. So, in our world, pay for performance is more accentuated, since there is usually room for renegotiating compensation with every new assignment. And there are always some performance indicators when the assignment is completed—the process and overall sense of whether or not objectives have been accomplished—even though longer-term impact is less evident. So, in many ways, consultants have the benefit of getting faster feedback about their work. And, certainly, the quality of the work impacts their income more quickly than for their corporate counterparts, who generally have to wait for annual reviews and bonuses.

A long-term view in a short-term world. While assignments are often relatively short-term, the consultant’s continued success and ability to generate work (and income) are heavily dependent on credibility and relationships, all of which take time to build. I am sometimes surprised by the “hit and run” mentality of some consultants whose fees are not commensurate with performance or who are not willing to go the extra mile when the situation warrants it—for example, when miscommunication or erroneous information causes inadvertent project overruns and budget is limited.

Overhead in surprising places. By and large, consultants are free from the many meetings and regular reports that are part of corporate life. That “free” time is more than absorbed in time consultants need to spend on building the client base and generating new business, particularly during the start-up phase. By the same token, new consultants realize, suddenly, that they are on their own as far as professional development is concerned. The training courses and industry meetings that used to be funded by corporate budgets now have to come out of our own pockets.

A better lifestyle?  Perhaps. I used to chuckle when people told me how they envied me for being able to set my own hours. In reality, I felt that I had to be accountable to my clients as well as my staff, in many ways. In time, though, I learned to manage time and figured out how to separate my work life from my home life. (In that regard I don’t think we are any different from our corporate counterparts.) In our new world of telecommunications and connectivity, I think the opportunities for lifestyle improvements are available to all of us.

Come on in. The water’s fine.

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