(Photo from Pittsburgh Professional Women networking event at the Dollar Bank Corporate Headquarters in Downtown Pittsburgh)
Should you start your own business?
I'm often asked by executive clients whether it's wise to pursue consulting or fractional projects while they are looking for their next opportunity. They wonder whether they'll be seen as "less serious" about taking a full-time role because of their project work.
Today, it's expected that you'll do consulting work while you search for jobs. The "gig economy" is in full swing and there really are no downsides here. With the job search process taking longer than ever, you get to stay current and make a few bucks while growing your skill base.
As you build your own consulting business, I'd like you to present yourself in the most polished way possible. Luckily, there are a lot of quick and cost-effective ways to do this. Here's my blueprint for getting started:
First, you're going to set up a LinkedIn Business Page for your business. If you have a company name, that's great. If you don't, you can call it something like "Jane Doe Consulting." As part of setting up your business page, I'd like you to add a business logo. You can generate an image in Canva (I have a premium Canva account, but you can create images that look great through the free account). You should also set yourself up as part of the LinkedIn Services Marketplace so that clients can find you more easily on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Business page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/setup/new/
LinkedIn Services Marketplace: https://www.linkedin.com/services
Canva: https://www.canva.com/
Next, you are going to establish yourself as a thought leader. Reporters and writers are always looking for experts to weigh in on a variety of topics. I've been quoted in Fast Company, Yahoo! Finance, Forbes, and more using these resources:
Qwoted: https://www.qwoted.com/
Featured: https://featured.com/
Help a Reporter Out: https://www.helpareporter.com/
Finally, I'm often asked about how to get on a board. I'm an Advisor for The ABplatform, a service matching advisors with boards. Unlike many of these services, we don't charge advisors to register, so check it out if you aspire to land a board seat.
The ABplatform: https://theabplatform.com/advisors/
Question of the week
One thing that trips me up: as a long-time creative ad/marketing professional, some of your advice does not apply, and I'm not sure the way around it.
In your cover letter and resumé examples, quantitative points are always included. But for us creative directors, copywriters, designers, these metrics just don't exist. Yes, I can say I worked on X# of pitches for Fortune 100 companies. Or managed X# of staff. But any marketer who claims to have "helped Company Z reach $X million in new sales" is full of it. Such results are never attributable to just one factor like marketing.
Sadly, I have come to realize that my expertise in a highly specialized discipline is now irrelevant. And if someone by chance is looking for what I offer, they offer rates that I was making in 2002.
I get where you are coming from - group results are tricky.
I've talked about this somewhat on LinkedIn (here's a post outlining how I typically handle group results for my clients).
In your case above, I think it's OK to say one of the following:
Instrumental member of team helping Company Z reach $X million in new sales
Contributed to Company Z reach $X million in new sales, developing key creative campaigns
These types of statements help to deliver context around the size of your projects/products - agreed that one piece of the team (like marketing) can't take credit for the total result, but I do think you should give yourself more credit than you are currently doing.
Also, as an aside, I know that finding work in marketing and advertising has been particularly hard lately - I've seen statistics that marketing job openings fell 56% last year. I'm hopeful that things will pick up a bit in September after vacations are over - I'll keep you posted as I hear more about industry trends.
How can I help you?
Want to up your game on LinkedIn?
Need a new resume or executive bio?
I deliver resumes, executive bios, LinkedIn profile optimization, and 1-hour strategy calls.
Learn more about 1:1 Coaching & Services
Question of the Week: Do you have a question that you would to have answered in the Question of the Week? If so, reply to this email and let me know what's on your mind.
Corporate Partnerships: I deliver customized webinars and in-person presentations for businesses and universities across topics including ageism, resume best practices, LinkedIn optimization, job search, and more.
Hiring Help: Reach out if you have any open roles that you would like to share with this community.
Sponsorships: Reach Gen X and Baby Boomer executives by sponsoring this newsletter (we're currently at 5,000+ subscribers for the email newsletter, 30,000+ subscribers for the LinkedIn newsletter, and 79,000+ followers on LinkedIn).
|
Take care of yourself and have a wonderful weekend!
Colleen
