Consultants' Network Newsletter
Published by the IEEE CONSULTANTS' NETWORK, P.O. Box 373, Lexington, MA 02173-0004 (781) 893-8379
Copyright © 1998 IEEE Consultants' Network
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Welcome to the 1998-1999 Season of the IEEE Consultants' Network. I first want to thank our outgoing chairman, Ted Kochanski, for leading the Consultants' Network over the past three years to it current state. During Ted's tenure, the membership has almost doubled from 60 to 103. He has also been responsible for initiating the Consultants' Network web page, and our sponsorship program. Ted is now serving on the Executive Committee of the IEEE Boston Section, as well as starting his own company. Good luck, Ted.
I also would like to take this time introduce our new executive committee. We now have two vice chaiman, Joe de Lellis who is has been serving us as vice chairman, and Ronald Goodstein, who has been producing our newsletter, and has been present at virtually all volunteer activities. John Meyn, another staunch volunteer and source of inspiration continues to serve as our Treasurer. Mark Jones who joined us last season, with a strong interest in marketing, replaces Patrick Everett as Secretary. It has been my pleasure to work with all of them as a volunteer over the past two years. When I look out at people assembled at our meetings, or browse our Directory of Consultants and Services, I see a resource. Our membership is composed of highly educated and experienced professionals. We are an assembly of motivated, if not driven, individualists offering a broad spectrum of technical and managerial expertise. I have had the opportunity, and pleasure of teaming up with other members, not just for volunteer activities, but also for technical work. I feel that, within our organization, we have the capability as individuals and particularly as teams to solve some of the grand challenges facing industry and government today. I would like to work toward having our organization get the visibility and recognition that is clearly warranted by our membership. The key to visibility and recognition is marketing. The problem with marketing is that it costs time and money. We need to develop a marketing plan, and also need to raise money to implement it. I hope to raise the money we need by a traditional IEEE method, staging an event. Also, I hope to raise money and and more importantly increase our visibility through cultivating visible sponsors. This week we received referral voicemail from Fidelity Investments. After members responded, the client was impressed, and asked for more help. I took the opportunity to suggest sponsorship, and here was the response:
Hi Carl,
We can create our own opportunities by asking our other clients if they also would be interested in sponsorship. This gives them visibility in turn. For more information about our sponsorship program please visit our web page at http://www.boston-consult.org/sponsors.htm.
We currently have a stable and growing organization powered by highly motivated volunteers. Unfortunately, we can't rest on our laurels. We have several areas where we need to focus our attention. We are focusing our volunteer efforts on marketing the services of our members, renewing old sponsors and cultivating new ones, organizing and consolidating our databases, and streamlining and automating our web-based membership directory. I am also interested in increasing our revenues by hosting a Consultants' Workshop as an annual event. You can solve the time part of the equation by volunteering. We
have monthly volunteer's meetings at Stone Soup Restaurant in Lexington, and provide a $7.50 subsidy for the meal. Please contact any officer for the date and time of the next volunteer's meeting.
Carl E. Frost, Chairman,
IEEE Consultants' Network, Boston Section
c.frost@ieee.org
http://www.frostech.com/~frostech
1-508-653-5673
FROM THE EDITOR
Ronald Goodstein
Do consultants obtain work through the IEEE Consultant's Network?
That is a big question when you join IEEE CNET. Perhaps that is the main reason why you joined. I, too, have often wondered whether or not I would find work through IEEE CNET. In August of this year, I did get a two week independent contract through IEEE CNET! It paid enough so that one hour of work more than covered my yearly dues for the IEEE CNET. Not a bad deal, eh? In early spring of this year, I sent out an informal questionnaire to all our members via email to find out whether they ever got work through IEEE CNET. Here are the questions I posed: 1. Did you get calls from clients this year, and if so, how many?2. Did you get work from clients this year, and if so, how many hours and how many clients?
3. How did your clients get your name? Was it through the referral service, the directory, or the web page? And if so, how many calls did you receive?
Here are the statistics on the responses from the 97 members to whom I sent the email questionnaire. - 24/97 or %24.7 responded to my questions.- 12/24 or %50 of those who responded got
work due to IEEE CNET.
- 18/24 or %75 of the respondents got calls
due to IEEE CNET.
- 46 calls were made to our respondents for work through IEEE CNET.
- 19 work assignments came to our respon dents due to IEEE CNET.
- 8/24 or %33 of clients got respondent names from our IEEE CNET paper directory.
- 6/24 or %25 of clients got respondent names from our IEEE CNET web page.
- 4/24 or %16.6 of clients got respondent
names from the IEEE CNET referral line.
- 1/24 or %4 got their client contact from the IEEE CNET meetings.
These work assignments were obtained over the past year. So, judging from the data I have collected, it seems that IEEE CNET does find work for our members! As a result, I've dedicated this issue to help answer whether and how IEEE CNET comes through in finding consulting assignments. This issue includes not only the above statistics but an IEEE success story from one of our long time members, Larry Nelson of Nelson Research. I hope that Nelson's story will inspire you to network more with the IEEE CNET. Read and enjoy the rest of this issue. This newsletter also welcomes fresh new articles and ideas from all of you. Here is a chance to contribute your thoughts, ideas and experiences for all to see and read. To contribute to the newsletter, call me at (781)-444-2226 or by email to rongood@world.std.com Opinions expressed in the Consultant's Network Newsletter are those of the authors and not necessarily reflect those of the editor.CONSULTANTS NETWORK
SUCCESS STORY
New members of the Network sometimes expect an immediate flow of business leads. While this may happen in some cases, it is not the norm. Over the years, I have received a few direct referrals from the Consultants Network which have more than offset the dues that I have paid. Direct referrals, however, are only a very small percentage of what I consider the success I have achieved with the Network's help.
As a direct result of being listed on the Consultants Network web site and in its directory, I have gotten calls with requests for proposals. I've also received calls from other members whom I've come to know over the years. To me, these slightly indirect referrals are much more important. This is because the particular opportunity has already been screened by another professional consultant. One such contact alone produced a contract with an end client that proved to be very profitable. Perhaps the most important benefit of being a member is the added level of competency that membership implies. I quite often receive calls requesting that I give a proposal on a new project. The caller may have gotten my name from some other directory listing but called me over others listed in the source because I was listed within the IEEE consultants network as well.
My advice to those of you who are members of the IEEE Consultants Network is to be involved. If you attend meetings and participate with other members you'll soon become known. If you can help someone by providing a referral, do it. The time and effort invested will be paid back many times over. To give a specific example, I had offered advice and referral information at several consultant network meetings. Subsequently, I received a call from a member who had an ongoing consulting relationship with one of his clients. This client needed some additional design work in an area that was not of interest to the consultant. Rather than tell his client he was not interested in doing the additional work, he called me and asked if I would be interested. When I agreed to do this work, we discussed the way to do the hand off and the client was given my name and contact information. I then took on the new portion of the contract and was paid directly by the client. The referring consultant continues to get new business from his client because he was the one who ultimately solved the client's problem. I have also now obtained a new client for the types of services which I provide.
Larry G. Nelson, Sr., President
Nelson Research
LNelson@ieee.org
http://www.ultranet.com/~nr
THE CONSULTANT'S NETWORK
Officers/Committee
Chairman Carl Frost (508) 653-5673
Vice Chairman Joseph de Lellis (508) 668-4625
Vice Chairman Ron Goodstein (781) 444-2226
Secretary Mark Jones (781) 488-3305
Treasurer John Meyn (978) 369-1095
Past Chairman Ted Kochanski (781) 861-6167
Referral Service Carl Frost (508) 653-5673
Database Bruce Andrews (603) 888-0915
Public Relations Dale Worley (617) 899-7949
Newsletter Ron Goodstein (781) 444-2226
Literature/Mailing Jim Littlefield (617) 666-4615
WWW Phil Martel (781) 938-0875
C-Net Web page
http://www.boston-consult.org
Other e-mail addresses
cn_meetings@qualware.com -- e-mail to this address to quickly receive info on CNet, announcement of
meetings and directions.
cn_membership@qualware.com -- Address to directly request membership and directory information
cn_application@qualware.com -- Address used when submitting a membership application through e-mail to membership server.
cn_requests@qualware.com -- Address used to notify CNet of a change in membership data. Also used to request adding/deleting one's name from job posting list or any other cn_... e-mail list.
For Further Information on IEEE Consultants' Network Boston Section, write to
P.O. Box 373, Lexington, MA 02420-0004
or call (781) 893-8379
or e-mail cn_info@qualware.com