From CIO to Consultant: Where did all this work come from?

The biggest challenge in starting up a consultancy is getting some clients. Mike Barrett explains how he got his first paying jobs.

One of the best things about writing online, whether here or on my blog, is the feedback from readers.

I've been amazed at the responses I've received either through Reader Comments on silicon.com, related links on my own site, direct email and even one reader in the US who contacted me via Facebook.

It's interesting to hear how other people have tackled the task of going solo and great to know my experiences are helping others get started.

So when I read this comment on my last column asking how much of my work was as a result of having worked for CNET (the publisher of silicon.com), it made me wonder.

Did the company I worked for have any impact on my success or were there other factors? To find out I went back and looked at all the meetings I've had since January, where the leads came from and which ultimately ended up with me acquiring a client. The results were pretty surprising and offer some interesting pointers to anybody thinking of taking on the challenge of starting a consultancy.

I was amazed to see that in six months I've had nearly a hundred meetings with potential clients. I started out with a list of people that knew and trusted me and gradually worked out from there. So who did I meet with?

Colleagues - current and ex

Depending on the reason for your departure, there is always the possibility of consulting for your old company. It's easy work as you already know the culture and people involved. The question is, didn't you leave to get away from your old role? From a client perspective, your old company doesn't hold that much sway as a reference in the consulting world.

Most businesses are pretty incestuous, none more so that the online world as it's a young industry with an ongoing shortage of workers. This means your colleagues soon become ex-colleagues as they move on to other, similar businesses where they discover problems that you can help them solve.

It's important to keep in touch with your ex-colleagues to ensure they know what you are doing. Thankfully, this is pretty easy for me as I've got some great friends at CNET who I'll always be in touch with.

Ex-suppliers

Another group of people I targeted were suppliers I'd worked with at CNET and in previous roles. At CNET we had a large proportion of our product development team in-house so the list was quite short but I always ensured we had good relationships with key suppliers.

If you think about it, your suppliers know you, have a long term relationship with you, understand your business and, most importantly for me, have other clients that face similar challenges to the area I was looking to consult in - online publishing.

Ex-clients

One reason you may go into consultancy in the first place is because you see possibilities in the market you operate in. In this case, you could target your old company's client base. This is obviously fraught with difficulties in that you are going head-to-head with your old company, effectively burning your bridges and reducing your pool of trusted referrers, so it's only to be undertaken if you are really confident of succeeding.

This didn't really apply to me although I'm now finding myself working with a lot of the digital agencies that are CNET clients. This is one area where having worked for a recognised industry-leader has helped enormously in terms of my credibility, as many people outside the online arena don't necessarily know CNET.

Networking

The dreaded N-word. The idea of walking into a room full of strangers to 'network' is pretty intimidating but now I must do it because it's a valuable source of potential clients.

I've found some of the most interesting events I've attended have been ones where I don't know the subject matter very well. This puts me in the position of being able to ask other attendees about topics they know more about than I do. If I can get a delegate list in advance, it helps to draw up a list of four or five people I want to talk to and do some research on their business before the event.

Networking for me is a bit like going to the dentist - I know it's essential but I can't look forward to it. And it's never as bad as I imagine and I always feel quite virtuous afterwards.

So where did the work come from?

Some came from the places you would expect. I've been back to help CNET with a small project which has been great in terms of keeping in touch with my former colleagues.

More than 80 per cent of my revenues, though, can be traced back to one person. Four and a half years ago, when I first started at CNET, I brought our email delivery system in-house, purchasing a US product from their UK distributor. I got on well with the distributor and we kept in touch on and off over the intervening years when I needed support or upgrades.

Then, just before Christmas last year, we met up for the first time since that original purchase at one of the dreaded networking events and got chatting about what I was planning to do.

The ensuing sequence of events from then went something like this:

1. My contact recommended me to a friend who had taken on a big project and was looking for somebody with online publishing experience.
2. I did an initial project with this client which has so far led to two further projects with a major retailer.
3. One of the businesses I worked with on the first project was also looking for help taking one of their client's magazines online.
4. This has now led to two further projects, one for a large telecoms company and one for a major charity.

Given that all this work came from one contact I made nearly five years ago, it's obviously good business practice to maintain good supplier relations - and to look beyond the immediate desire to secure a good deal. What would have happened if I'd beaten him down on price five years ago to a point where he made no money, or we hadn't remained friendly?

So, to answer the original reader question, I don't think working for CNET was the sole reason I've been successful so far. It certainly helped that a big part of my role was to select and manage supplier relationships but that's part of most managers' roles, especially in technology. It also helped that in the online world, the technology is the business so the output of my role is very visible.

The biggest factor in getting business so far has been good old-fashioned relationships. People recommend people if they are competent and always do what they say they are going to do - and if they like you. So thanks Sam, I owe you a beer (or two)!

Mike Barrett was formerly COO for CNET Networks UK, the publisher of silicon.com and other online publications. He now consults on strategy and development for the online publishing industry and assists tech start-ups in building products for the web 2.0 world. You can read his blog at www.compoundmedia.co.uk.