6 Personality Traits for Successful Consultants
6 Personality Traits for Successful Consultants
Sometimes we are in love with the "ideal," not the real. This is true about being a consultant or freelancer. With all the self-employment hype "Set your own hours," "Work in your pajamas," and "Make $1,000 a day from your home office" freelance wannabees are often imagining the ideal.
Here are six must- have traits for individuals working on their own. Consider each one very carefully, and see if it describes you.
Promoting Yourself. Even before marketing your services, you have to sell you. With all the other "dime-a-dozen" consultants out there, why are you the best? Sometimes it is much easier to sell what you do rather than who you are. You could lose a job that does not fall into your prescribed "here are my services" routine. By selling yourself, potential clients will ask, "Can you do such and such?" Of course, you will answer, "Sure I can," even if you have to do some studying or find someone with the skills to help you out. Unless a client wants a brain surgeon, you need the self-confidence to say, "I know I can do this."
Patience Is a Virtue. Money does not grow on trees, nor can you become a success over night. Part of your strategy is determining the realistic time it will take to sign up your first accounts and build your business. If you do not meet these milestones, then it will be necessary to revisit your situation. For good or bad, we live in a "we want it now" society. This does not work with establishing a personal business.
Perseverance Is Paramount. This trait goes hand-in-hand with patience. Every day you have to motivate yourself to wake up, go to your office, pick up and the phone and make calls, or get in your car and knock on doors. It is too easy when working on one's own to be sidetracked by dirty dishes in the sink, a beautiful day to walk the dog or thoughts such as, "They are just going to say no' again." If you cannot stick to it, you need to think twice about being a freelancer or consultant.
Problem Solving 101. Unless you have a partner, you will be brainstorming with yourself. Whether it is figuring out how to get your printer working, finding a vendor with a lower price for video work, or helping your client eliminate a human resource issue, you will be facing challenges all day long, and you often are not given much time to choose door number one or door number two. You have to go with your gut and think on your feet.
Personable Persona. Regardless of what your client does or says, "the customer is always right." (Well, almost, almost always.) In this line of business, you are everyone's friend. You will listen to your client's personal problems, work in totally different company cultures, and answer calls on the weekend and late at night. "Of course it is not a problem that you called so late," you say brightly while counting to ten several times.
Personal Parameters. All this being said, you still have to watch out for number oneyou. It is not productive to procrastinate by washing dishes or taking the dog for a walk, but it is also not productive to compulsively work 24/7 and leave no time for yourself, family, and friends. Your business will come tumbling down if you are emotionally or physically ill or burned out. Returning to that strategy mentioned earlier, you need to set specific days and hours you will work and not work. There are always exceptions, such as a last-minute deadline. Yet, you cannot expect to think about work and nothing but work. Home offices can snare people like this. They can be very magnetic and draw you in on at all hours if you are not careful.
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