Service for Equity Formula

By Tim Berry

Say you are a service provider – consultant, designer, coder – and somebody offers you startup equity in exchange for professional service. I pondered this question after seeing it on Quora. I turned back to decades as a consultant, and decades dealing with startups, to come up with this sure-proof service for equity formula. Try... Read More »

Going Into Consulting? Prepare for Scope Creep

By Tim Berry

Are you new to consulting? Planning to start soon? Beware of scope creep. It’s a real problem in a lot of professional services. I ran into it in my years of consulting related to high-end planning and market research. Scope creep is what happens when you’ve done the consulting (or programming, design, engineering, etc.) you promised but... Read More »

10 Tips for Starting a Consulting Business

By Tim Berry

Are you thinking of starting a consulting business? Let’s say consulting, engineering, graphic design, SEO or marketing help, something you can do yourself? Here are some tips I’ve garnished from several decades of it. I took my business from high-end professional service to software products, but I’ve never stopped watching the service businesses, and I’m actively involved in... Read More »

Just Turned Down a Consulting Job and I’m Glad

By Tim Berry

I just answered a social media consulting inquiry with this… No, I’m sorry, that’s not what we really do well. We’re a business, so we’d have to charge you; and we wouldn’t be giving you your money’s worth. … and I went on to recommend somebody else. The person I recommended as a consultant does... Read More »

Why Would Any Business Ever Hire A Consultant?

By Tim Berry

True story: Charles Steinmetz. They called him the wizard of Schenectady. I’m quoting Smithsonian Magazine here: Before long, the greatest scientific minds of the time were traveling to Schenectady to meet with the prolific “little giant”; anecdotal tales of these meetings are still told in engineering classes today. One appeared on the letters page of Life... Read More »

Read This Before Hiring a Coach or Consultant

By Tim Berry

May I call it the expert business? It’s kind of like a zoo (no offense intended). There are coaches of all varieties, from business to life to style, to executive and leadership and others. And management consultants, planning consultants, strategy consultants, marketing consultants, public relations consultants, etc. And designers and programmers, project managers, event planners,... Read More »