If you aren’t living in a show or in outer space, you already know that things have gone awry in our economy.  I am sure some people have used other words to describe the state of the economy, but don’t fret.  This is the time as a consultant, or for other professionals, or anyone that has a job and wants to keep it, to improve your skill-sets.

Become an Expert

If you are living off a trust fund or your parent’s house, maybe you don’t ever have to worry, but with the sense of urgency, this is a great time to light a fire on your behind and start to learn something new or become an expert at what you do.  Reading Seven Years to Seven Figures by Michael Masterson, he outlines some great guideline and some activities that can help you in becoming an Expert or Master in your specialization, a new one, or whatever you want to learn.  He describes that you should be doing and studying the subject you want to specialize in  for 1000 hours, and you should be doing it for  5000 hours in order to master it.  The way you can track it is by having a sheet with 1000 squares, and once you complete an hour, you cross out a box. The same to master the subject of choice but using 5000 squares.  I have started this for my golf game, but I have a long ways to go.  I have a template so I will post it in the next week or two.

Dog Eat Dog World

As most of you hard-working, over-achieving people know, this is a very competitive world.  We should always be on top of things in our field, or even learn something new to branch out.  Who said that Doctors were the only ones that had to keep studying and keeping current.  I know that keeping current and ahead of the curve in the Tech field has helped me a great deal, and I have gotten to the place I am at because of that.  Let’s keep evolving and keep ahead and learn more things.  Get off the couch and do something!

I am not a 7 figure consultant yet, but I will be posting several things that I have done in order to get to my goal, which is to get to 7 figure profits per year as a consultant.  I welcome comments and questions on the subject.

Your Daily/Weekly/Monthly Goal Action List

I agree with Michael Masterson in the subject of planning ahead daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.  In Seven Years to Seven Figures, Masterson goes over making a daily, weekly, and monthly to-do type of list.  I have also done Tony Robbins coaching, and he also has a similar philosophy in planning ahead, but it is more in terms of goal setting.  Making these to-do lists are more like a Goal Settings Action list. I call it a “Goal Action list.”

15 Minutes Daily

Putting ideas to paper is far more effective than just daydreaming. If you wake up 15 minutes earlier each day to write down your to-do list, your day can be far more effective.  You do this every day first thing in the morning, and then you plan for your weekly list for 15 minutes on Sunday afternoon. The weekly list are more general and will be used as a guide for your daily lists.  The monthly list can be created in 15 min during the weekend prior to the month ending. This list will contain high level goals that you will accomplish weekly/daily.  I have templates for jotting down your daily, weekly, and monthly actions.  I will be posting them on this blog very soon.

Taking Actions

Creating these Daily/Weekly/Monthly Goal Action lists are not just for jotting down what you have to do or think you are obligated to do.  You want to have at least 10 - 25% of your action items be things that will be getting you ahead or to the next level.  For example: If you want to be on your way to being a millionaire consultant, you want to put aside time to learn new things, get referrals, or prospect for new business.

Evaluating Your Lists

It is a good idea to put each Goal Action list’s paper in a notebook and evaluate them each week/month.  You should start to see trends pretty quickly. Basically, what you want to do is to see how much of a percentage of the action items you write down are being done.  If you see that only 25% are being done, find a way to be more productive, or jot down actions that you think will inspire you more.  You can also be creating a wish list instead of an action list. Do not focus on too many items. You might want to start with just 8-10 items a day.

The next post should have templates for you, and I will explain what system I use to make sure I prioritize and finish these Goal Action items.

Most of us are consultants, because we love to do whatever we specialize in very well.  As per technology consultants, a lot of us (from my opinion and the friends I have in the field) we like the extra money, the freedom, and the adventure of having shorter term projects in many times different companies and locations.  I am one of those that looks at the future, and not only wants to be a consultant, but I want to head a practice or have my own company whether it is just me or having some employees.

I have 2 books that I have been reading that have excellent ideas to get toward a goal of that nature.  They are “Getting Started in Consulting” and “Million Dollar Consulting” by Alan Weiss.  I won’t go into many details in this post, but there are a lot of good nuggets in these books about the marketing and business aspect, which some of us don’t usually get into and are very essential.  Other topics that thought were important revolved around relationships with clients, your office space, and setting your rates.  I think these are comprehensive guides, and if I had to choose one, I think the Getting Started in Consulting gives the best bang for the buck.

Until next time.