- You'll need to decide if you offer
implementation services.
Some clients want you to stay on the project
and help them implement your recommendations.
With this approach comes accountability for those results.
The upside is you'll have a larger project,
be involved in its success, and generate additional revenue.
The downside is you won't be serving other clients,
and if implementation goes poorly,
you might be the one who's blamed.
Things to consider when offering
implementation services are:
What authority will you have?
Will you be allowed to make decisions?
What approval do you need?
It's a bad situation to have responsibility
without authority to make things happen.
How long will the services last?
Is it time bound or milestone bound?
If you can't leave until the recommendation
is fully implemented, remember that plans always run long
and you could be doing implementation
much longer than you expect.
How will you be paid for your services?
Is it project based or hourly based?
Is this the kind of work you want to do?
Many people turn to consulting because they want
to work on the fun parts of a project and avoid
the day-to-day grind of execution.
Be clear on the kind of work you do or don't want to do.
If you're not clear about it,
you might find work is miserable.
Understand the opportunity cost for doing implementation
work, especially if it's at an hourly rate.
While you're implementing, you're not selling,
and you're possibly missing higher margin
consulting types of work.
You could find you're doing so much implementation,
you may as well be at a full-time corporate job.
Implementation services can be satisfying,
fun, and lucrative.
They're satisfying because you get
to see your work executed.
They're fun if the project and client team members
are enjoyable.
And they're lucrative because you can build
long projects that pay decently.
Just be sure that you get into the implementation business
deliberately, and understand the trade-offs you're making
when offering those services.