Here’s a brief intro to the article from Bruno:

"You can’t climb the ladder of success with the dress of failure" - Zig Ziglar

How many times did you feel like everyone didn’t understand how great you are?

You have the skills, the know-how and the will to win… but you’re not making an impact. And if you’re not making an impact… then no one knows who you are.

In the past, a great company also had this issue. It had a great product but it wasn’t making an impact. It’s name? Coca-Cola. It’s impact in history? Legendary.

Let me show you how you can benefit from Coca-Cola’s history, go from being great to be seen as great and change the world!

Bruno Coelho is a Software Engineer with a 360º vision about the software development world. He believes that having strong technical and business skills is critical to stay relevant in today’s competitive business world. He has published and presented both technical and non-technical articles, covering a wide range of subjects: from security to productivity, from performance to marketing and from XML to persuasion.
 

(Incidentally, if you’re looking to improve your credibility, sign up for the Consultant Journal newsletter and get a free report on how to jumpstart your expert status.)

Standard consulting fees - Yes

Yes, in certain consulting fields there may be a standard range of consulting fees for a certain service.

Standard consulting fees - No

However, not all consultants charge based on the same parameters, nor do they necessarily offer the same level of service.

Further, because there are so many types of consultants, there is no standard consulting fee that covers all consultants.

How to set consulting fees

There are a number of ways to set consulting fees, and charging standard fees (charging what everyone else charges) is merely one of the primary consulting fee models.

Indeed, rather than base your rates exclusively on what other consultants are charging, consider what your services are worth. Do you offer standard services or do you offer more than the rest? Do you offer something unique?

Understanding standard consulting fees is just part of the process of setting your consulting fee rate.

When determining your consulting fee rate,  consider your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Who is your ideal client? What do you want to be known for? What do you offer your clients? How are you different from other consultants in your field? All of these questions affect how to set your consulting fee rates.

Want even more info? Get 60 pages on setting consulting fees in my Consulting Fees: A Guide for Independent Consultants

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• Setting consulting fee rates
  
• How do you set consulting fees?
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• Should you negotiate your fees?
• Consulting Fees: A Guide for Independent Consultants

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• Give me one good reason
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My Canadian vocabulary often shows up in the newsletter, too. Subscribe if you’d like a taste of Canuck culture (or tips on jumpstarting your expert status!)

There’s a reason so many people hate cold calls. That’s because, most of the time, it involves calling people you don’t know, interrupting their busy days, and trying to build a relationship with them. And what kind of relationship starts with intimidation, unwelcome interruption and your lack of desire to be involved? Not one most people would want, that’s for sure.

It makes far more sense if you build relationships with people in incremental steps before doing something so bold as calling them. Start by indentifying people you suspect may be in your market. Work on turning them into likely prospects and nurturing them through your pipeline. That way, when you do call them, they’ll know who you are, what you do and why they need you. And they’re much more likely to be receptive and willing to buy.

Put some effort into finding prospects. By building relationships with people who stand a good chance of fitting your criteria for becoming a lead or client, you’re more likely to do business with those people.

In other words, a testimonial can help sell people on the merits of your services. If other people are willing to attach their name to positive feedback about you, it implies that you’re the real deal.

Six tips for getting testimonials

1. When a client says something positive about your company, products or services, ask if you can use those words and their name as a testimonial in your marketing.
2. Get it in writing. Use email or a letter to note the testimonial you want to use and ask the client to reply back with permission.
3. Request feedback. If clients haven’t taken the time to sign your praises, send a short note asking for feedback about your products and services. Tell them you welcome all feedback — heck, it’s a great way to find out where you should improve.
4. Try to get real testimonials. Sometimes, clients may ask you to just write something up and have them sign off on it. But the natural language of a true testimonial will always stand out more than polished marketing terms. Wherever possible, try to get words right from the client.
5. Include details. Note the person’s name, title, company and city (or a mix of these). "John D." sounds less legitimate than "John Doe, CEO, MegaCorp Ltd, Houston".
6. Share your testimonials with your existing clients. It helps reaffirm their decision to buy from you and may spark feedback.

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But there’s one thing you should never, ever do with a check.

In fact, if you do this one thing, the very future of your business may be uncertain, even if you’re commanding high consulting fees and you’ve got a long list of clients lined up. And you could find your business in ruins.

At Consultant Journal, we’re not normally doom and gloomers. We believe in the power of independent consulting. But we do know there’s one thing that can bring your business down.

Never, under any circumstances, cash that entire check. No matter how big or how small any check is, always put some aside.

No matter how successful your business becomes, you’ll always have to pay the Tax Guys come year-end. And you don’t want to be in a situation where your business earned more than ever before…but you haven’t got anything left to pay taxes and social security.

So always put some money aside. Talk to your accountant about how much you need or at least look at prior year’s taxes payable to estimate what you need to save for taxes. (And remember, you should always confer with your accountant or tax authority about taxes. At Consultant Journal, we can only guide you; we’re not accountants.)

And, remember, if you haven’t got an emergency fund to cover six to nine months of expenses, you might also want to throw some money that way.

Related to the one thing you should never do with a check

• How to save when you work freelance

Your existing customers, contacts and fans!

That’s right — the secret to your consulting success is in the relationships you’ve already built, not in some sort of secret lead generation tactic. After all, the clients who’ve already bought into your offering are already on your side. And they’re the people most likely to buy again, buy more or tell their friends and colleagues about the amazing work you do. In fact, even a happy low value client is better than someone who signs on for a one-off project that pays 10 times as much.

Look at it this way. Say you’re doing a $500 job for a very delighted client three or four times a year. Small potatoes, right? And you get a call from a prospective client who’s offering up a one-time $5,000 job. Which is the better job?

Well, if the small potatoes client buys from you over and over, you’ll likely make $7,500 to $10,000 in the next five years — and they may help you land other clients. In fact, if they sell their own contacts on your successes, it may be easier to win those contacts than the ones you turn up yourself. Meanwhile, that $5,000 client isn’t such a hot deal if you never do work for them again.

Of course, in a best case scenario, you make both clients so happy that they buy over and over and rave about you to their networks. So what are you doing to build a network of raving fans?

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