- You can consult as an individual or you can build a team.
Teams can take many forms ranging from
fully employed team members
to a loose network of contractors
you retain to work on your projects.
Team structure will determine the compensation model
you use and force you to look at issues
like utilization for an employed work force.
Compensation can be salary, project-based,
hourly rate or unit-based.
You can combine various compensation models too.
You can pay people for different behaviors,
like selling activities and service delivery.
If you're salary-based, utilization matters.
Utilization looks at the time your people are on projects
versus the total time that you're paying them for.
If they're employed, that has upsides and downsides too.
The upside is, an employed workforce is more stable
and they're more dedicated.
The downside is you carry a large fixed cost.
You have to deal with employment issues
and you have to pay taxes and benefits.
A contractor model has upside
because you're not paying taxes on them
or dealing with employment issues.
The downside is they're less stable and predictable.
Your team structure will also impact
the way you manage projects and develop your staff.
Ask yourself these critical questions.
What will your engagement structure be like?
What's your firm structure going to be?
Will you have salespeople?
Will you have administrative staff?
Will you have specialist who know a lot
about a specific area?
Where are you going to recruit from?
How will you onboard and train your staff?
And, how will you promote your people?
Your business model will tell you
what kind of organization you need to build.
In your early phases, consider building your core business
and outsource all other functions
until you have enough scale to make it make sense
to hire those people.
The better your understanding is
of your staffing model, the more effectively
you're going to manage your economics
and manage the performance of your teams.