Attention: BA Contractors and Consultants

Would you like to develop your business analysis contracting business so that you become even more credible, with a network of supportive peers behind you all the way?

If so, you’re in the right place at the right time. The Outstanding Outsiders programme is starting again. Read on…

Contracting in the business analysis or business change space is tough…

As a BA contractor or consultant, you’re really on your own. You know that it is impossible to be perfect all the time, but you feel you owe it to your clients to do a great job always, making a difference for the organisations you work with. This work is hard.

Which of these apply to you?

First of all, you’re different from the employees around you:

• Isolation and the lack of a team In the old days, as an employee, you had a team to bounce ideas off, to ask about their experiences and to share things with. Now as a contractor, you’re often an outsider and it can feel quiet alienating. Many crave ongoing relationships with colleagues that last longer than contracts.
• Lack of career development As a contractor, it’s easy to get stuck at the same level you entered the market at. With clients wanting people who have worked on precisely the same projects beforehand, it’s easy to become stuck in a ‘ground-hog day’ role, with no progression.
• Personal development? Many contractors focus any training that they do on their specialist areas, but realise that their in-house counterparts have access to all sorts of personal skills development, from personality types to dealing with conflict. They’re missing out on what can make the difference for the most challenging and senior work.

Then there are challenges with skills and keeping ahead:

• Wanting to be perfect to deliver a superb service for their clients. Many of the best BA contractors would like to enhance their skills and knowledge to cover whatever their clients need and feel bad if they can’t do this well. Most contractors feel they have to prove themselves all the time, even though to survive in this field they have shown that they have superb skills.
• Need to hit the ground running There is no six month learning curve for a new contractor. The client expects you to hit the ground running.
• Training It’s hard to find good training that covers what you need when you need it. Much is just too basic for you. If you do find good training, you need to miss out a day’s pay for each day of training. You crave a way to get good technical input just when you need it.
• Paying full prices for courses and conferences If you’re a contractor, you need to pay the full, open prices for courses as you can’t bring training ‘in-house’ as companies can. Conferences such as BA2018 often extend discounts for multiple bookings from one company. Contractors miss out again.

And more…

• I have a Business? Contractors often move from contract to contract with no overarching plan or vision for their business. Yes, a contracting business is a business. Where would you like to be in five or ten years time? If you are clear now, you are more likely to put in place the steps to achieve your goals.
• Insecure While the rate for a contract might be good, it’s always only temporary. What will happen next?
• IR35 For many contractors, with just one client at a time, IR35 and other legislation can make them feel distinctly uncomfortable.

And last, but definitely not least, many of the best project contractors feel:

• Lacking in Confidence Although your friends probably think that you’re really confident to be a contractor in a tough economy, there are times when you wonder just how good you are.

These challenges are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s tough as a contractor out there at the moment!

But contracting and consulting can be a superb career:

Contracting doesn’t have to be all challenges.

While it is tough, there are many compensations. Remember leaving the world of being a full time employee? I bet you don’t miss the office politics? It’s great to be able to be neutral in an office. As a contractor, you are your own boss, ultimately, and you can decide when to work and when not to.

With a network of supportive peers in place, there would always be someone who you can ask for up to the minute advice about any complex situation or technical topic and, of course, you’d be happy to reciprocate if they needed help with your own specialism.

If you had a clear vision of where your business as a contractor was heading, you could gradually specialise, increasing your rates over time and becoming quite selective about who you worked for. Becoming a thought leader in your area could really help this consultancy style work to develop. Perhaps you might only work a few days a month on site, charging a fee which left you enough time to write books, spend time with your family, working pro bono for charities you support or whatever suited you? Perhaps you’d choose to work virtually and get more done. It’s up to you where you’d like to go!

Companies now are looking for far more than BA contractors sitting on seats. They’re asking for more from their contractors and recruitment agencies. Many companies are looking for knowledge transfer from contractors to their own people. They’re looking for contractors who are true business professionals, willing to work not just on day rates. If you can demonstrate that you are an outstanding outsider, with the skills, knowledge and support to be able to transfer knowledge and develop their people on top of getting the job done, you’ll be at the front of the queue. This will help you with IR35 as well, which can’t be a bad thing!

Yes, as a contractor, you have a lot of freedom to choose your own course for the future. Are you going to use this to head where you want to go, or just wander from contract to contract?

If you’re interested, click on the button below to get started. Penny will get in touch and arrange a chat to see if you’re right for the programme and, just as importantly, if the programme is right for you:

Introducing the Outstanding Outsiders Programme

The programme builds a network of contractors and consultants working in business change.

The programme will provide the space for deep, trusting relationships to build across the network of Outstanding Outsiders. Unlike other networks, yours will have a professional facilitator focusing on this group each week. Penny will support you and your colleagues to co-create what you need as a group.

The areas covered by the programme are based on what’s worked well for other contractors and consultants from three previous successful programme. These include:

• Introduction: You’ll explore what your strengths are as an individual, building a shared understanding of the goals and dreams of each person. This is where mutual benefit will begin to arise, as you identify what you have to offer each other throughout the programme. You will build up a picture of the interests and challenges facing each individual and decide what are the highest priorities for you to tackle.
• Perfect? No! Networked, Yes! Using the identified strengths of the group and a group forum, you’ll work out the best way that you can support each other to deliver the best for your clients. While Penny is able to train many aspects of project management and business analysis just-in-time, you can expect that the network will provide access to a huge range of support in technical and other areas.
• Your Business… Many contractors lurch from contract to contract, taking whatever is offered. This is not an attractive proposition for Outstanding Outsiders and, as part of the programme, we’ll support you to develop a vision for you and your business. Where would you like to be in five or ten years time? How much will you be working? What areas will you specialise in? Will you still be contracting? I wonder!
• Starting a New Contract We’re expected to hit the ground running, so we’ll draw together the best advice and guidance from the network on how to start a new contract, with tips and tools that can help you get going quickly.
• Business Proposals That Sell Penny doesn’t usually work on day rates but has fixed fees for her projects. You’ll run through the options for pricing your work and how these can work for you and your clients.
• Developing Confidence How can you build confidence as an Outstanding Outsider? Throughout the programme, you’ll develop your confidence, usually from the legs up, through practice. Developing confidence is the biggest benefit reported by Penny’s mentees.
• Building Thought Leadership To become a truly Outstanding Outsider, you’re likely to develop thought leadership in your area. This attracts people and potential clients to your work, raising your profile and probably your rates too. First of all, you’ll need to know who your own ideal clients are, the ones you love to work with. We’ll look at how you can use social media, blogs, articles/books and speaking to raise your profile with them. We’ll look too at other ways you can market your skills without becoming salesy or spending too much time in this area.
• Working with Power and Politics While many contractors enjoy escaping from day-to-day office politics when they become independent, the reality is that understanding how power and politics work within the organisation you’re contracting is key to making an even bigger contribution. We’ll explore the theory and plan how to put it into practice in your projects.
• Influencing and Negotiating Again, both influencing and negotiating are key skills for those who want to become outstanding outsiders. We will look at theory and research, which is often quite counter intuitive, and how to apply these in practice in a project setting for success in your current and future projects.
• Developing a Support Team While the Outstanding Outsider group will become a peer network for you, we’ll look at additional ways that you can move from being a lone ranger doing everything to having a support team as you grow your business. This could mean people to answer your telephone through to virtual assistance.
• Technical Sessions Penny is also an associate Senior Instructor for TwentyEighty Strategy Execution (formerly ESI) and has trained thousands of business analysts and project managers in the UK, the Middle East and mainland Europe on most aspects of project working. Along with the skills of the group, we will be able to run technical sessions on topics as varied as planning, requirements workshops, risk management, business process, finance, enterprise analysis, elicitation and much, much more.
• Soft Skills Sessions Penny is particularly interested in leadership for business analysis and developing soft skills in facilitation, conflict management, negotiation, influencing and has colleagues who specialise in other soft skills areas. Many BA contractors have missed out on training and development in these areas compared with their permanent employee counterparts. Have you? In addition to the monthly content session as listed above, you will receive monthly Q&A sessions covering questions that people need to sort out right now, tapping into the knowledge and wisdom of the group.
• Discounted Rates As a group of contractors, Outstanding Outsiders will be able to gain access to training providers’ ‘in-house’ rates where a group want to cover a particular training course together. You’ll also be able to access group discounts for conferences such as BA2018 and other events. You’ll also receive a very generous rebate on any of Penny’s own open courses and workshops that you decide to attend.

What are the additional benefits for joining this programme?

We’ve designed this programme so that there are additional benefits to you:

You’ll be part of a group

As part of a group of people all committed to becoming outstanding, you’ll find that the group will help you to take action and to keep your commitments. How does this work? We find that participants who commit to doing something to all of the others, tend to take action rather than show up with excuses next time. This group camaraderie and trust will build over time, forming a strong network and removing some of the isolation that comes with being a contractor.

Tap into the knowledge and experience of the group as well as the leaders

There will be a wealth of knowledge and experience in the group. You’ll be able to get feedback and advice from others who have ‘been there’ or are in a similar situation in their own contracts, facing many of the same challenges as you.

Grow your network

Participating in this programme is a great way to expand your network with others in the contracting world. You’re likely to develop relationships that will last long after you finish the programme as well as tapping into other people’s networks, skills and perspectives.

Share and contribute

By taking part in this group, you’ll be able to share your own experiences of what works for you and make a difference to others in the group.

Build your confidence

People keep telling Penny that their confidence has really stepped up during the programme. Their friends and families notice the difference and we’ve even had cases of friends joining the programme the next year as they’d seen big, positive changes!

Something to look forward to…

This programme has been designed to be really effective, but also to be enjoyable and inspiring too, so we trust that you’ll look forward to it! Not least amongst these are the social events. The first group of Outstanding Outsiders met up in London for dinner a few times and were invited to Penny’s book launch as her special guests.

And last, but not least…

You’ll have Dr Penny Pullan as a supporter and adviser. Penny really enjoys seeing the results as other people develop and grow new possibilities for their future. You’ll be able to bounce ideas off her, share your stories and tap into her extensive international network in the BA world.

It sounds great! What’s my investment to join?

There is nothing else like this programme on the market; it is specific to business analysis and project management contractors and consultants. While many contractors crave a deep network like this, the only networks available right now are professional networks: much larger and without the level of connection and support of Outstanding Outsiders. In addition, you’ll be supported directly by a mentor and well-known business analysis author and leader, Dr Penny Pullan.

So how much should it cost? Penny’s individual, intensive VIP mentoring costs £1200 per month plus VAT, and delivers. However, this level of commitment is not practical for many contractors at the moment, so she’s designed a way to deliver many of the benefits in a group programme, where you can also build up your network and enjoy the support of a brilliant group of Outstanding Outsiders!

When you join Outstanding Outsiders this session, you’ll pay £175 (plus VAT if you’re in the EU) per month. Should you prefer to pay in a lump sum, you can purchase six months membership for a fee of £950, a saving of £100 on the monthly fee over six months. This fee is a valid business expense and can be offset against your company’s corporation tax.

What else will you receive?

Penny is the host of the BA summit each November and the Virtual Working Summit each June. All the Outstanding Outsiders who are members at that time will gain an upgrade to VIP attendance, receiving all the recordings so that they don’t have to listen in on the day.

In addition, when you attend a training course put on by Making Projects Work during your membership, you’ll gain a discount equivalent to a whole month’s Outstanding Outsiders.

Understanding your strengths will be key as you build up a plan for your business over the next five to ten years, so when you join the programme, you’ll receive a book and online assessment to do just that at the very start.

Will this work for you?

Penny is well known for her free BA summit and teleseminars, which have been described as engaging, inspiring and helpful. You may have joined in yourself? We’ll build on this to ensure that the sessions to support you are engaging, inspiring and helpful too, and that the modules are useful and really help you as you put what you learn into practice. This programme has run in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 already, proving that it works.

So to sum up:

It’s tough working as a contractor in the world of business change. But there is no need to be alone. This programme will support you to develop a deep network with others who are interested in becoming outstanding outsiders, just as you are.

You’ll be working with others who are just as committed to developing their skills. You’ll be supported throughout by Penny and the group who you’ll meet with every couple of weeks. You’ll have access to modules online and video plus audio recordings, so you can learn in the ways that suit you best. More importantly, you’ll share the journey with others who will hold you to account to make sure you put what you learn into practice.

Join the Outstanding Outsider Programme:

To sign up for the Outstanding Outsider Programme, please register your interest here and Penny will be in touch with you, by e-mail initially to schedule a half-hour session by phone. During this conversation, you will be able to work out whether Outstanding Outsiders is right for you now and Penny will be able to consider whether you would be good fit for the programme and the group as a whole. If, at the end of the conversation, both of you are convinced, then you will be sent your introduction to the programme and initial assessment.

Enter your name, e-mail address and location below to register to receive information by email from me, Penny Pullan, related to the Outstanding Outsider programme:

I promise to protect your privacy. You can find out the details of how I do this by looking at our privacy policy. By signing up, you consent to receiving e-mails from me, Penny Pullan of Making Projects Work Ltd which are related to Outstanding Outsiders and provide resources for you as a project professional and contractor in general. These may include links to open workshops and events which I am putting on as well as to my free, online virtual summits. You can of course unsubscribe at any time.