PICA Member Spotlights
Q&A with independent consultants who successfully “made the leap” and created the consulting career of their dreams
Q: Please introduce yourself and your area of expertise.
A: I am Chris Pating and I am a consultant specializing in facilitation. I do a lot of strategic planning and group work. But I can also help organizations with anything process related.
Q: Do you focus on a particular industry or segment of the market?
A: I'm doing a lot of nonprofit and education work. My background is in education consulting and I was the head of Arthur Anderson’s K-12 Education Practice out of Los Angeles. I have a lot of education clients, but I’ve also done a lot of public sector and nonprofit work, which I really enjoy, especially now that I’m later in my career.
Q: You started your career with Arthur Anderson. That's going back a long way. How long have you been independent and why did you decide to go independent?
A: I left my last firm and I went independent in 2015. Getting our boys through college was sort of our big accomplishment. We traveled for the next year and I thought I was going to retire, but at that point, I was really too young to retire and there was too much going on around town. I just felt like I could still help and add value.
But I wanted to do it on my terms, so I guess I am part-time self-employed. When I got back into it, I was thinking, ‘How do I do this? What are my goals and targets going to be?’ So I came up with a figure of how much money I'd like to earn a year and I thought that if I could earn that amount in half a year or less, then that would be great and I’d just take the rest of the year off.
Q: So how did that first year play out? Did you hit the number?
A: I hit the number and passed it. When you’re consulting it's all about selling work, so it’s hard to get out of that mode. Once you get your first project, then you’re teeing up your next project and before you know it, you're indispensable and have a ton of work lined up. But based on where I was in my career that wasn’t really my goal. I wanted to do meaningful work with great people, make some great things happen, and not necessarily stay with the same clients for a long, long time.
Q: What has your client load been like during the last seven years?
A: I’ve had several on and off again, especially around strategic planning. After we do our initial strategic planning and then work with the board I also help them put together implementation plans. I help them implement the actual comeback. Then I check in with them from time to time, there’s always work to be done or more help they need.
Q: Have you ever had any clients that you knew it was time to step away from? If so, how did you do that?
A: It's always hard because as an independent, sometimes you just have to get it while the getting is good. It’s hard to fire a client in case you need work. Usually they have a need that’s pretty immediate and I think everybody knows I’m pretty busy, so if the timing doesn't work out, I just say I can't do it. People I work with know that I have many other clients and that I’m trying to squeeze them in, so it becomes a matter of bandwidth.
Q: What’s been the biggest challenge of trying to do this as a part-time job?
A: Probably having the network and the support structure to do the work. As an independent, you have the tools, technology, and methodology to do the work yourself. But I really don't like to do the writing anymore, so having a network of available administrative support that can take notes or do write-ups when I need them has been key.
Q: What are your tips for that?
A: I think everyone has their network and you need to plug into other people’s networks, too. Writers tend to know other writers and you can always ask for referrals. It's always difficult using somebody you haven't worked with before because you don't really know their quality or working style. Sometimes you just have to risk it. Investing a little bit of time to get to know them helps, too. Go out to coffee, have lunch, maybe look at some of their past deliverables. But having a good network has been really helpful.
Q: It sounds like you've had to teach yourself to delegate certain things.
A: It’s hard to delegate because as an independent, it's really you that the client is buying. Whenever you have somebody else get involved, you run the risk of their work being mistaken for your work. So it adds a layer of scrutiny that you just have to do quality control.
Q: So when you hire somebody to help you, let's say in this case to do a write-up, do you tell the client that you're bringing in this other person to help or are they truly behind the scenes?
A: I usually tell the client. I don't like to mislead the client in terms of who is doing the deliverables or the work. I will tell them upfront, ‘You want to do a strategic plan, that's great. I'll help facilitate and talk you through it and help you prioritize. But I'm not going to be the person that pulls together the big document you're looking for. But I can have you work with one of my colleagues to do that.’ Or you just scale back the deliverables and tell them, ‘I can’t deliver that, but I will help you prioritize. Then the deliverable will be a robust outline that you or someone on your team can flesh out.’
Q: Have you ever had a client balk at that?
A: Not particularly. I think if they want to work with you and if they're comfortable with the fact that that’s how you do it, and how you’ve done it in the past, then they'll have to trust you that it should work.
Q: In this case, is a subcontractor paid by your company or do they bill the client directly?
A: I have done both. As an independent contractor myself, I think the cleanest way for me is to just ask the client if they can take this person on as part of this project. I would put it in the overall pricing, but it would be as two separate contracts.
Q: Does the subcontractor pay you a referral fee or anything?
A: No. The market that I'm in is not very big in terms of both geography and industry. Everybody kind of knows everybody, so it's a matter of trust. And I think what goes around comes around, so I get my fair share of referrals from people doing that work.
Q: If I may say so, I think part of the key to your success is that you began with the end in mind. You said, ‘I'm going to go into this to make a certain amount of money and to work part time so I have time to do other things.’ I think that's part of the reason you made it work for you.
A: I think so too, now that you mention it. What's been nice is that when I set that figure that first year I also said once I hit that number I am kind of done for the year, which is kind of motivating. But it also kept me motivated throughout the year as I’m reaching for that figure. It’s easy to let the work fill the days, but I’m motivated to do it sooner so I have more time to play.
Q: Do you have any pieces of advice for somebody who is thinking of independent consulting as their second act or part-time career?
A: I'm super fortunate. I've worked with many folks who have gotten into consulting. It's kind of a scary venture to kind of step off and do your own thing. I was fortunate that I was doing consulting before my last full-time position and now I'm doing it again, so I'm completely comfortable creating my own statements of work, scoping work, planning projects, and managing the deliverables. It's just sort of second nature. But for many people, they don’t have a background in consulting. They had a desk job doing different things, but they have a lot of skills they can bring as independent consultants to help companies.
PICA’s online resource library can be really helpful for templates like statements of work and invoices, and articles on how to figure out your billing rate, and how to create a website. Having a quality boilerplate example that you know will protect you and has the right verbiage is important because you really just need one good example and then you're off and running and never have to think about it again. That can just make you feel a lot better and make the whole thing less daunting.
Q: If anybody would like to get in touch with you and learn more about how to break into strategic planning or anything else you've talked about, what would be the best place to reach you?
A: Sure, they can send me an email at chris@pating.com.
~ ~ ~ Additional PICA Resources ~ ~ ~
Online resources for…
