You are traveling through multiple time zones and need the calendar to display the local time for each appointment. For example, imagine you are in New York and have a breakfast meeting at 8:00 A.M., then fly to Chicago for a 1:00 P.M. meeting, and then fly to Las Vegas and have a dinner reservation at 6:00 P.M. Outlook displays all these appointments relative to the time zone you were in when you created the calendar entries. This means that in New York when you look at the Calendar, breakfast is at 8:00 A.M., the Chicago meeting is at 1:00 P.M., and the Las Vegas dinner is at 6:00 P.M., but when you look at the Calendar in Chicago, the breakfast is at 9:00 A.M., the local (Chicago) meeting is at 2:00 P.M., and the dinner is at 7:00 P.M.

(Adapted from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA010565301033.aspx)

My Palm Pre does the same.  I think I have fixex for both.  We'll see after my trip this week.

For Outlook, the fix is to disable automated time sync in Windows (I know this fix works).  To do this in Windows 7, click on the clock, click Change Date and Time Settings, click the Internet Time tab, click Change Settings, and uncheck Synchronize with an Internet Time Server.  (I undo this when I get home.)  Then change the clock manually when you get to your destination.  This will keep your time zone from changing.  In my case, this means that the dinner I put on my calendar for 7 pm won't move itself to 10 pm.  But it does mean that I need to watch out for web sites that automatically add calendar entries using the local time zone and manually change those to the local time (for instance, Open Table puts a 7:30 pm. EST dinner on the calendar at 4:30 PST).  Fortunately, that's the less frequent problem.

For the Palm Pre the fix is easier: Open the Date and Time app in the Launcher and change Network Time Zone to Off.  The time will change when you travel but the time zone won't.  (At least, that's the theory.  I haven't tried this yet.)

Advice to newbies in nptech consulting:

(1) don't try to be a generalist, or at least don't try to know everything. It's impossible: the field has always been very big, and is now expanding in complexity and scope at an accelerating rate. Rather, define what you do (and what you don't do! an ongoing process...), find your peers, including those who do the things you don't, and affiliate. The tech underground model (loose yet organized affiliation of npo techs who share skills and back each other up) is one of the good models out there. They/we may soon have an operations manual to share on how to do it.

(2) Get a wiki. Use it not only to advertise your services, but also to share files with clients, point to resources, clarify your working style/methods/contract, etc. It's easy and cheap, accessible from anywhere, and will help you define your work.

(3) Find resources to build your skills, and give them time every week: webinars, listservs, online classes, books, etc. Attend conferences. Build this into your time and budget plans. Your clients expect you to know about new technologies, or at least know enough to be able to research something and inform them about it. Try out new technologies on your own when you get a chance. Even having 'touched' a system is a lot more than not knowing what it is. Be ahead of the curve.

(4) Learn the basic business skills that are essential to success and sanity:
- communication (timely, clear, complete, appropriate method: sometimes a phone call, sometimes an email, sometimes a memo, sometimes a meeting. paper trails matter.)
- learn how to say no. If you don't have time, or don't have the skills, or just really don't want to do it, don't. Learn to listen to your gut. If you feel pressured or uncomfortable, it's OK to say "I'm not sure; let me think about that and get back to you."
- get a good contract, customize it for your needs, and make sure to sign one with every client. Nolo Press has some good boilerplate contracts. Be prepared to spend some time negotiating terms (use Track Changes in Word for this purpose). Don't negotiate away things that feel critical or risky to you: this may not be the client for you. With experience, you will learn what matters to you. Put those critical things in the contract (customize your boilerplate). A complete contract is an important way to make sure expectations are clear and agreed upon from the start.
- every contract should have a scope of work, the more specific the better. SOWs can be made as attachments to contracts, with terms for amending them as things change.
- every contract should have an exit clause.
- every contract should have your hourly rate in it.
- every contract should consider liability. If you don't carry liability insurance, add a limited liability clause.
- push for a single point of contact with clients. You might even want to put this in your contract.
- make sure the client "owns" the project. If they can't designate a single point of contact and commit to meetings with you, they may not be ready to work with you.
- find out what role the client wants you to play on the scale of "just do it and let me know when it's done" to "show me every step you're doing." Check in on this periodically; it may change.
- document your work (for yourself, and the client): configurations/settings, inventories, assessments, options, recommendations, decisions, plans, budgets, meeting minutes.
- be clear ahead of time how you charge for phone calls and emails, especially from people who are not your point of contact, and/or in emergencies
- be clear who you are and are not supporting ("not" might include board members, organizations down the hall who stop by, sponsored projects, employees' home computers) and ask the client to communicate and hold the line on this. Otherwise, people will learn they can ask you for 'favors,' which may end up eating up a good deal of otherwise billable time. If you want to donate time to people (or work for pay), make it clearly outside the arrangement of the contract with the client (unless of course the client agrees specifically to pay for this).
- likewise, be clear with yourself (and clients, if it comes up) how you handle 'chat' time. If you're friendly and nice, people will want to talk with you, especially if you only visit now and then. You may have to 'manage' people's desire to stop by and talk (some staff people really don't get it about your time being billable, and you just have to set limits with them). My policy is, I say hello to people, and might chat for a minute or so. If there are 15 people in the office, I say 'hi' as I pass down the hall, chat for a minute with one person or maybe two, and get into my office to work. Including bathroom visits and making a cup of tea, it might all add up to 15 minutes within 4 hours' work. I think of it as the equivalent of a coffee break, and I bill for 4 hours. If I bend someone's ear for 20 minutes while onsite, though, I don't bill for that time: I initiated a conversation. Likewise if I have to do emergency support for client #2 while on site for client #1, I dock my hours with client #1 (and bill client #2 instead). However, if I'm on site working, and an ED interrupts my work to bend my ear about office politics or "howdja think that meeting went?" I bill for that. That's the client's decision about how to use my time.
- be clear what your availability is (hours during the day/night, weekends, turnaround time, vacations, etc.)
- push back with clients who want to rush forward into a new technology without a clear goal, an assessment or a plan. You're doing them a favor: in the long run it will save them both money and time. Assessment and planning should be part of the SOW. If they don't want to do this, you may not want to work with them. Bad planning, or no planning, can leave you holding the ball for a system that doesn't work, wasn't needed, isn't used, or doesn't do what the client expected.
- Likewise with training: almost all new technologies require training someone, either to use it, to maintain it, or both (unless it's only going to be you). Make sure this is agreed to.
- get a good time tracking system. Even a word doc you update every time you're on site for a client is better than notes scribbled on post-its. Even if you're not going to bill for all the time you were on-site, write down both the actual time spent, and the time you plan to bill for (and why). I write the major tasks I did, both to explain the time spent, and as a record of what was changed when (sometimes useful for technical reasons).
- get an expense tracking system: a mileage log for driving can include parking fees, tolls, equipment/supplies, and even function as a backup log of your hours worked onsite.
- get receipts for everything, whether a purchase for yourself or a client. Don't turn over original receipts to clients without keeping a copy.
- get a separate credit card (and preferably bank account) for your business.
- pay your taxes quarterly. Don't worry if it's not the exact amount; just get in the habit of sending a chunk of money to the state and federal (and possibly local) government a few times a year. It will save you from not only penalties and interest, but also from a cash-flow crunch in April.
- use Turbo Tax. It enormously simplifies doing self-employed taxes.
- get your files organized: both electronically and paper. Get files to hold all your new categories of information (esp. for taxes): invoices, business receipts, paystubs, supplies, etc.
- get a good mobile system to take tools and critical documents with you: a USB drive, ipod, or MMC or SD card in your smartphone, etc. I also have a remote connection to my home (business) laptop available at all times.
- keep good todo lists (to make sure you follow through on commitments to clients)
- build in time for billing, organizing files, reading the trade press, watching webinars, etc. There's a lot of overhead to consulting, even if you don't do a lot of networking or advertising.
- whatever you need to do, whether it's filing, going over meeting notes to take out 'todo' items, billing, etc.: do it ASAP. While onsite, I put reminders on my smartphone calendar to make sure I do critical things during my next 'free time,' or I send myself an email to do it at home that night.
- network. Get to know other techs. Find out how other people handle difficult situations you'll inevitably encounter. Find people you can complain to; it takes the pressure off.
- be nice to your clients. They're people, too. Their feelings about you are very important to your success. Technology causes aversion (fear, etc.) in the majority of the population. If you can laugh with them at the madness of computers, or show that you understand their frustrations, you will have more success in solving problems and getting cooperation.
- do what you tell your clients to do: back up your work. If you keep your work logs on the client site, send them to yourself periodically, or take copies on USB.
- bill regularly.

I rely on the following commercial sites for tech support and advice

0) above and beyond all, google rules. It's all a matter of using the right keywords. How did we ever do tech support before google?
1) eventid.net: to look up error messages on Windows servers. Google searches on problems often come up with good answers on this site.
2) experts-exchange.com: to post questions on many technical issues. Google searches on problems often come up with good answers on this site.
3) techrepublic.com: I use a lot of their webinars and white papers, and subscribe to several of their e-newsletters.
4) computerworld.com: I subscribe to many of their e-newsletters
5) network world: I subscribe to their e-newsletter

More and more I rely on webcasts to educate myself in new technology trends. I also buy a lot of books. O'Reilly's good for a lot of tech topics.

I buy my software (for clients) at techsoup.org and ccb nonprofits (the latter sell Adobe products and hardware).

I attend user group meetings, especially where applications of software I use is demo'd. Sometimes vendors provide free demos. I watch a lot of demos.

I also use many national nptech lists, most of which this community will know about (Riders, NPO-Techies, various NPO Groups lists, Techsoup's "by the cup", etc.). One which they may not is LS-TECH, the tech listserv for legal services, which is quite a large slice of the national nonprofit sector. I'm not sure whether they're open to a broader community, but I think they have archives online.

Then of course there's the nptech tag, which people should be familiar with.

HTH

Karen Nyhus
San Francisco
karennyhus.wikispaces.com

It really does take two years to generate steady income. Other things to expect:

1. Income will fluctuate wildly from month to month.

2. You have arrange for your own benefits (insurance, retirement, etc).

3. You will have to make at least three personal presentations and proposals for every contract you get.

4. NPOs are usually very slow decision-makers, so you have to show them the "cost of waiting."

5. NPOs tend to see the fee you charge as an expense, rather than an investment, so you have to show the return-on-investment of your services.

6. One of the best ways to generate inquiries is by public speaking, so get good at it.

7. Plan on working every waking moment.

8. Get used to the idea that some of your competitors are "part-timers" who moonlight at consulting, but who have also have a day job that provides them with benefits and financial security. They are not really much competition. They are not building a business like you are.

9. During those first two years you have to spend every available dollar of marketing.

10. Do not be afraid to take on debt to get your business properly started. You just have to do it. Undercapitalization is the biggest reason for business failure.

11. You have to follow-up with your prospects, religiously.

12. Clients will not beat a path to your door. Forget about that.

John Elbare, MBA, CFP
Your Planned Giving Coach
Florida Philanthropic Advisors, LLC
813-949-2979 or 888-396-8781
email: JElbare at pgcoach.com
www.pgcoach.com

John's advice was right on target. Thanks, John.

I'd love to hear from other consultants.  How's business?

Presenters:
Robert L. Weiner
John Kenyon, John Kenyon Technology Consulting
Michael Stein, Michael Stein, Inc.
Eric Leland, Five Paths
Michelle Murrain, Open Issue

Burning Issues:
Getting the word out about my new consulting practice
Scope-creep
Pricing, fixed or hourly -- why choose one or another?
Need for contract?
Communicating what my specialities are.
Valuing my services for the marketplace
How to size up clients if they're a good fit? what are the red flags? how to set boundaries, say no, share bad news?
Pricing structures
Starting out on my own
Trying to re-learn how to work on a team? As partners, as a collective, without creating toxic/un-needed structure?
Employer -- human resources management in hardware consulting
Managing client expecations -- workflow, documentation, contact len
Growing - capitalization and hiring needs
Struggling with letting go of hard-care contracts into a more agile environment.
Should I pull off onto my own practice?
Separation of strategy work and managing vendor neutrality. Client management expectations.
Looking at growth, through partnership, subcontractor, off-load work on to others and still get paid.
Which path should I take, vendor or "soft" consulting?
Used to be independent and no longer am, so how do I handle more of the administration of a multi-person office? And needs new bathrobe to wear at work?
Has always been the accidental techie in arts organizations, starting as a volunteer, so how can can I transition and set a dollar value for my skills?
Juggling different projects efficiently without adding overhead, and working with others with different skills as sub- or co-contractors?
Managing longer and larger-budget projects, with more stakeholders.
Managing a transition from being an employee in an organization to being a consultant in the same organization.
Struggling to communicate what I do to prospective clients and telling them what they need to know. Confidentiality of sharing case studies.
What about franchising consultancies, to make a network of 'train the trainers.'
How do you fight burn-out as a technology consultant given the churn of new technology?

Discussion:

Ideas about telling the story about "what do I do as a consultant?"
You may be a specialist, but come off as a specialist -- focus on benefits of a few things in your elevator speech.
Finding the match between market needs and skills -- try informational interviewing with other consultants.
Be able to articulate what you help orgs do and accomplish, not necessarily the technical products/skills?
In the mid-nineties one could be more of a generalist. A lot of this is trial and error -- what is your experience, what do you like, but you have to weigh if anyone would buy it.
Kept doing actual job interviews and learned about what their needs are, what the core needs are, and then package their plan around that.
You might make mistakes and say you are able to do a project when it is, in fact, out of your skill set -- admit it and give the client a refund if it isn't gonna happen.
Sometimes a niche helps you define clearly.

Understand your proficiency, maybe defined on a likert scale,What up with what to charge? How to decide to do pro bono?
Don't be afraid to ask for what you're worth, and decide by market analysis
Different price structures are ok for different projects
Don't start ask with, how much can you afford? In a relationship building, they will likely understand that certain tasks will cost a certain amount.
There's risk in hourly, if you miss something in the scope of the project -- try to be specific about the functionality. Hourly billing -- it's always in our interests to spend more time, so we could easily spend too much time.
Value-based pricing - what is the project worth, including me, the client, and the market (book: Million Dollar Consulting) -- you get pragmatic -- what is the ROI, what are the metrics and quantification of success?
Models:
Create a capped-rate, a retainer + hourly for tech support, project-based
An option in fixed project cost, Figure out what it's gonna take (time, resources, product), then double it because things will go wrong (recommends quickforms.com)

Contract length can vary by length of project -- put a protection "woe" clause in case other things get out of control or change in a way that will affect the time and resources needed. At the 70% mark of your budget, you'll have these functionalities. After that the 30% we can re-examine additional need and maybe renegotiate.

Clients don't have an understanding about what time things take -- they may think something is hard that we think is easy, and vice versa -- so communicate why something is harder or easier. The client trusts you that you will be worth the investment that way.

During the dialogue for proposal and contract, there is a real opportunity to observe each other, so time spent can have an effect on the relationship.

Teaming up with other consultants
Sharing knowledge was very beneficial -- NTEN and Tech Underground were founded so people could have a collection of trusted consultants to assist, or cover vacations, or handle additional expertise. There has to be agreement on philosophy, of style. A partnership or trusted advisor in a formal relationship can provide necessary balance to assure that workload is reasonable, tasks are managed in a coordinated way. This can be done per project to add expertise, as long as you really know that the subcontractor can do factually (not by reputation).
NPTechConsult is on the NTEN (look for great comments from Karen Nyhus) -- it's got great archives and interesting discussions
http://groups.nten.org/group.htm?mode=home&igid=23747

You can read all of the conference blogs at http://nten.org/ntc-live

So You Want to Be a Consultant?

Presenters:
Guru Master Robert Weiner
Michael Stein
Michelle Murrain
Sarah Granger
Eric Leland

Important tip: The zip/thumb drive that came in the conference packet has a nice hand-out full of consulting-specific links, so be sure to open that zip!

Sarah's list of necessary skills for consultants:
Product management
patience
customer service
organizational
speaking and presentation

Michelle:
Came from a college-level academic background but a side project in grant-writing was very satisfying.
Recommends a book called "Consultants Calling" -- Geoffrey Bellman (it's on Amazon)
Need to meet client where they are in terms of skill level. She's sees her self primarily as an educator in this role.

Michael:
Becoming a consultant seemed natural - he felt compelled to keep coming back to it.
Good consulting Qualities:
Self-motivation
Discipline for processes and organization -- clients appreciate this
Be extremely flexible

"Scope Creep" - your client goes off the framework of the contract, i.e. "and by the way, will you help us with..." Some consultants are ok with it, but it's good to learn how to say no gracefully (it's not in the contract and I can't fit it in yet/now...). Eric didn't refuse clients and learned to work with sub-contractors, but he trained them to work with the clients in a quality control role too.

Work/Life Balance:
Set time to completely focus on family -- no iPhone, etc. during family time.
It's a fundamental step to choose products, agencies, partners who appreciate your lifestyle values.
Don't let clients or volunteers contact you off hours -- let it roll to voicemail and answer it during your office hours.
Ask for deadlines to keep them, and you, on focus -- and build some padding into the deadline to cover for emergencies.
Always respond and always communicate, to give an answer or to say I'll get back to you. Set an internal policy for how long before you'll return calls -- if you're at a conference or out of the office, let them know in advance or as soon as you know you'll be out.

Organizational Decision making:
Some clients are not good at managing decisions because they are not able to support the process in good faith, or they are challenged at, or unable to complete, decision-making. Robert has been told that consultants are "organizational therapists." If there are hesitancy, sometimes there are dysfunctional, subversive or "dark spots' that you have to overcome, or you just have to walk away.

Things to ask for from the client:
pre-assessment (Eric calls it a "jump-start assessment" with a meeting with the client for a few hours, and he generates a report that says what he can or can't do) and priority; organizational chart; proposal process; listen to discussions about roles of the client staff in the process

Marketing strategies:
Decide or develop a niche based on your interests or skills so your marketing focus can be refined.
Build a presence: Public speaking, a lot of writing of books and articles, blogging, volunteering, client referral, meet fundraising consultants if you're a product consultant and product consultants should meet fundraising consultants, LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, apply for open jobs

If you have a product and you're a consultant, how do you avoid conflict of interest?
It's hard or impossible to be vendor-neutral. Transparency is the most important thing. It may be that you are not the right vendor, and if you've got the client's interest at heart, you might refer another vendor you know.

There are no failures as much as learning for the next client...
Try to avoid drama in an organization - sometimes the project scope has unreasonable structure (not enough time, for example - and don't wait to explain delays or concerns in deliverables.
Trust the client's data to tell you what the problem might be, even if the client doesn't agree with that assesment. Learning together with the client can be a bonding opportunity.
Know who pays the bills, who butters the bread, who pays the consultant - don't try to swim upstream against his or her wishes without serious consideration for the stress.

In addition to the scores of breakout sessions, the networking, camaraderie, and general nptech-related good times, noted author Clay Shirky will be the keynote speaker at the 2009 NTC, coming up in San Francisco, April 26-28. Clay's recent book, Here Comes Everybody, discusses how Web2.0 is revolutionizing the social order. Author Stephen Johnson says, "Clay Shirky may be the finest thinker we have on the Internet revolution, but Here Comes Everybody is more than just a technology book; it's an absorbing guide to the future of society itself. Anyone interested in the vitality and influence of groups of human beings--from knitting circles, to political movements, to multinational corporations--needs to read this book."

read more

Here's what the NTEN folks have to say:

The 2009 NTC will be THE place to engage around the technology issues that face the nonprofit sector. Nearly 1,200 people will come together from across the country and around the world to connect with their peers, learn from their heroes, and change the world. And we'll have a good time doing it.

You can learn more and register at http://nten.org/ntc

There's much more to come, so you'll want to keep up with all the action on our website, where you can already:

* Browse the list of breakout sessions, where you'll hone the knowledge you need to help your organization meet its mission: http://nten.org/ntc-agenda

* See who's exhibiting and learn how to demo your own particular brand of awesomeness: http://nten.org/ntc-science-fair

* Find out more about our upcoming book, Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission. (Oh, the book relates to the NTC -- but you'll have to visit our website to find out how.)

When: April 26-28, 2009

Where: The San Francisco Hilton

Cost: $349 for NTEN Members, $549 for non-members (Until January 31st)

• How do you know when to move from being on staff to being a consultant?
• How does one go about deciding how to charge for consulting services and/or bill clients?
• What have you found to be the best way(s) to find clients?
• What should I consider in bringing in administrative help for my consulting practice?
• What area of fundraising holds the greatest opportunity for consultants?
• What should I watch for in working from home?

It's too late to ask the panel further questions, but you can read the transcript at http://philanthropy.com/live/2008/08/consultant/index.shtml