Today this Baby Boomer declares he is OFFICIALLY SEMI-RETIRED… For the past several years, I’ve been grappling with my occupational status. Thanks to the recession, consulting activities have been less than full time, meaning I had more free time. Discovered I rather enjoyed that. But when people assumed I was retired, I’d correct them. Guess […]
When people tell me they are thinking about consulting, I often share this story with them. It helped me on several occasions, including making my own personal JumpToConsulting. In high school, I worked as a “soda jerk” at the drugstore in our small town. Since we were next door to the town doctor, he often […]
From lunch this week at a favorite Chinese restaurant: Joy comes from the adventure today. Time to shake up the world. Really liked this fortune cookie quote. How about you? It captures my feelings about small consulting practices in particular — and micro-businesses in general. PS – Well, as of today our downsizing move is […]
We’ve often been told we’re lucky to have our own business. But luck really has very little to do with it. Here is a response made to a recent guest post at Man vs Debt, an inspiring blog by Adam Baker on his challenges of overcoming a big load of debt acquired at a relatively […]
Warning — Geek Story Ahead! My brother Jim is a retired civil engineer. When we get together, we often share war stories. This one has a good lesson for consultants. “It was Friday afternoon, and it was time to head into town for a cold beer and hot meal,” Jim began. He was working on […]
“Behind every successful man is a woman who is still amazed.” Or so the old joke goes. In reality, success as an entrepreneur is often highly dependent on a supporting spouse. If you don’t have that support, it may never happen. This post was inspired by a Mother’s Day e-mail from Perry Marshall of AdWords […]
When asked about becoming an independent consultant, my business partner and I often share these two observations from our early days: We thought we would work 20 hours a week and get rich. Instead, it often seemed like we worked 20 hours a day just to make a living. We thought we’d find wealth and […]
Here is a recent email exchange that I though some of you might find of interest. I’ve hidden the name for confidentiality, but I’m sure S will recognize himself. Hi Daryl, My name is S. I’m also a follower of your blog. How are you doing with that these days? I’ve noticed you’re an engineer […]
This is what 40 attendees of the recent “Start Your Business Workshop” in Chandler AZ are considering. As an aside, all 40 had recently lost their jobs. But rather than sulk or wait for the government to intervene, these 40 budding entrepreneurs were taking matters into their own hands. On a beautiful spring day in […]
Here is my reply to a recent IEEE article “Are Engineers Really in Demand?” The authors posed this question in response to a recent Washington Post story that discussed unemployment among engineers. Being a geek myself, I was intrigued. What disturbed me, however, were the comments that followed. Way too much griping about how the government, […]
Nor was it Bush’s, or Clinton’s, or anybody else’s. If your business failed, it was YOUR fault. But don’t sulk about it — figure out what you did wrong, fix it, and try again! This rant was precipitated by a recent comment on a business blog. The author whined that his new venture failed because […]
So said a favorite boss, many years BC (before consulting.) His advice that day has stuck with me over the years, and has served me well. I’ll elaborate shortly. The catalyst for this was a recent post by Seth Godin (another bald guy fascinated by small business.) He talks about solving problems, rather than just […]
In 1996, I mentioned to a client that I was toying with a move to Arizona. He commented, “My Dad always wanted to do that. Every year he and Mom would go to Arizona, and look for just the right place to eventually retire.” Excited, I asked, “Wow! Did he finally do it?” My client […]
Like it or not, age often matters in marketing a consulting practice. Age also matters in customer perceptions, as evidenced by the following examples. Real Life Story # 1 – Floyd, a fellow engineer, was going to law school at night. At the time, he was in his mid 40s, and I was in my […]
When I left my last corporate job at Intel (the day the market crashed in 1987), I stopped by the division General Manager’s office to say goodbye. The GM, known as “Rocky”, was a good guy with a sometimes wicked sense of humor. We chatted a bit, and he wished me well in the new […]
Learned this lesson the hard way, at a cost of several thousand dollars. You’re getting it here for free. This story goes back to 1981 and my early days as a part-time consultant. IBM had just introduced the PC. Our major client, a vocational school, asked for an evening class that focused on how to […]
Since I selected an Independence Day motif for my blog, it is only appropriate to offer some Independence Day musings. As stated elsewhere, freedom was a major motivator in my JumpToConsulting. But I didn’t realize it right away. Rather, that epiphany came a few months later. Driving back from a client and listening to the […]
Have some fun… do some good… make some money. The perfect consulting project meets all three criteria. Two out of three is still often OK, and on occasion, I’ve even stooped to one out of three. But these are three criteria by which I judge potential consulting projects. Have some fun… For me, this is […]
Adding a new category to this blog — Encouragement. The original intent of this blog was to provide “nuts and bolts” information for those considering making the JumpToConsulting. You know — if you just knew how to do it (or how others had done it), the rest would be a piece of cake. But recently […]
Looks can be deceiving… My business partner and I were cruising the show floor at a professional symposium, when one of the younger members of our technical community stopped us and asked, “How do you guys do it, anyway? Everything you touch turns to gold…” We both looked at each other, and grinned. I said, […]
