Posts Tagged → consulting

The Issue of Scope Creep in Consulting

‘Scope creep’ is a common issue in consulting and one of the big downsides of consulting.  So what exactly is scope creep?

This is where you agree to do a job for someone else for a fixed fee and they try to expand the scope of the original project or change their minds about the details of what they want done AFTER the job is done.  Both scenarios mean that they expect you to commit more time and resources than you originally quoted for.

The reason I mention this is that today I had just such an issue with a job that I finished last Sunday.  It was a job that I took on for some online friends and often these can be the worst type of jobs – I didn’t really want to do it but I relented in order to help them. I did what I thought was a great job very quickly for them and now they are returning to quibble about minor issues where they have clearly had a change of heart.

The core of the job was quite tricky and technical, whereas the details they want changing are really elementary stuff that they could easily amend themselves – things like page names and page order.

The only way to combat this is to ensure that the consulting brief is clearly set out from the outset so that you can refer the client back to it and negotiate an additional fee for any extra work.  It is important to be quite firm about this because the client will keep pushing for more if you allow them to push you around.

In consulting, you are effectively selling your time and expertise and so it is important for your client to respect the fact that your time has a value – a high value that reflects your expertise!

If you do not communicate that your time has a high value to you, how can you expect your client to respect your time?  This is an educational process and also positions you correctly as an expert whose time is in high demand and that they need to optimise the time they have available with you.

Usually it is important to set out the brief in detail, in writing, upfront so you can refer back to it if necessary when a dispute arises.  You may also wish to build in some leeway to your project time and price for these kinds of  issues so that you do not end up out-of-pocket because ‘time is money’ to a consultant.

Of course, when I took on this job, I quoted a low price, because they were friends, and didn’t put it clearly in writing because I was under pressure with other work.  After 13 years in consulting, I’m still learning the lessons that consulting will inevitably pitch at you when you can least afford the time to deal with them.

Thankfully, this was a relatively small job and so not a lot of harm will be done but it would be very different if this were a large project and the scope creep was substantial.

In the meantime, hopefully you can learn from my mistake and be more careful than I have been about the issue of ‘scope creep’ in your consulting jobs!

 

 

My Current Consulting Assignments

My current consulting assignments are moving ahead quite well now.

I have been working with Tsahai de Silva to help her to get her new product ‘Affiliate Income Boost’ ready for launch.

In yesterdays’s consultation on Skype we:

  • added a watermark into all of her videos
  • we created two new eCovers to replace the ones that she had received from Fiverr.com, which were unbranded and uninteresting
  • we added two of my products into the ‘Resources’ section of the site
  • we set the product up on JVZoo
  • we configured Membersonic, her membership plugin, and integrated it with JVZoo

Tsahai de SilvaAfter our consultation, Tsahai was kind enough to say this:

[boxibt style=”success” bordercolor=”red”] “I have admired Mark’s work for sometime and I recently got the opportunity to work with him in a professional capacity. Mark’s knowledge and professionalism is exactly what you need in a consultant. He is patient and has a eye for detail that makes such a difference in the end product. His easy going style immediately puts you at ease and it was such a pleasure to work with him. My product rocks now thanks to Mark and I am eternally grateful. Cheers Mark!”[/boxibt]

Thank you Tsahai.

I also admire Tsahai because she is working on her internet marketing business part-time whilst looking after her young son and holding down a full-time job.  This is not easy to do but she is making good progress now and she is close to launching her first product so look out for ‘Affiliate Income Boost’.

[hr2]

My other client is Emma Breeze, who I featured in an earlier post.

In that post I revealed the first draft of her new website but neither of us was entirely happy with the results of my efforts but, in doing the first draft, she gave more some important clues as to what she wanted. (If you read between the lines on that post you will see that I was feeling frustrated!)

Then Emma dropped something into the conversation about her father’s website, that I had built a couple of years ago, which made me realise exactly what she was looking for.

Subsequent to this conversation, I was sitting in my chair at 9 p.m. watching TV when I had another inspirational moment that told me exactly what I needed to do to please her.   I immediately went to my computer and, by 1.30 a.m. in the morning, I had replaced the WordPress Theme and set up a new design.

I spent the rest of the following day on Photoshop working with the photographs of her clients and resubmitted my design to her.  This is what she said in the email reply:

Emma[boxibt style=”success” bordercolor=”red”] Its fantastic! I love it!
Great slider and feedback page!
Thank you for your time and patience!
Emma[/boxibt]

This is exactly the encouragement I hoped and expected to receive.

Her site is still under construction and I will reveal it shortly because I think it might end up as being my best work yet as far as website design is concerned.

(By the way, I received the assignment on Wednesday, stared work at 4 p.m. and by close of business Friday had created two versions of the website prior to the comment above.)

I am hoping that this project will lead to other projects like it because I have enjoyed creating the images on this site which exactly illustrate what Emma’s business is all about.  They do say that ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ and in this case it is true.

It got me to thinking about how impersonal most websites are.  The true nature of the people and their business are hidden behind a façade that is impossible to penetrate.  This is why images and video have such a vital role to play in online marketing.

Of course, you need some courage to put yourself ‘out there’ but, if you do, I feel that you can differentiate your business and immediately begin to build a relationship with prospects and customers.

It is important to tear down the curtain and give direct access to the people involved in the business.  It is then much easier for the website visitor to decide whether or not to transact business.

So my current consulting assignment are moving ahead well and I’ll reveal the final results shortly!