Starting a new job can be exciting, but also overwhelming. There’s so much to learn and do, and you want to make a good impression from day one. While many companies have formal onboarding processes to help integrate new hires, the reality is that these programs are often lacking, especially in smaller or rapidly growing organizations.
Whether you’re coming onboard as an employee, on-demand consultant, or fractional executive, you can take charge and ensure a smooth transition by onboarding yourself.
Here’s how:
1. Do your research
Before your first day, learn as much as you can about your new company. Learn about their mission, values, culture, products, services, and industry. Familiarize yourself with their social media accounts, blog, and website. This will give you a head start on understanding the company’s priorities and how you can contribute. Look up your new employer in the news – find out if there have been any recent developments about the company.
2. Take charge of the process
Don’t wait for information to fall into your lap – go out and proactively seek what you need to start contributing meaningfully. Ask questions to understand priorities, gather essential resources, and identify quick wins you can achieve in your first 30-60-90 days. Taking control shows initiative and positions you to have an immediate positive impact. No one is more invested in your success than you are.
3. Develop your own perspective
As a fresh set of eyes, one of the most valuable things you bring to the table is a new perspective. Observe, analyze, and form your own opinions about the organization – what’s working well, what could be improved, key opportunities and challenges. Don’t be afraid to respectfully share your thoughts, hunches and ideas, even if they diverge from the status quo. Fresh viewpoints, grounded in curiosity and good faith, can spark productive discussions.
4. Dive in and add value
New hires often get bombarded with information – documents, decks, demos, org charts. Don’t get bogged down. Do make time to absorb the material, but look for ways to add value immediately, even in small ways. High-performing teams expect you to quickly translate knowledge into action. Volunteer for projects, share relevant articles, offer to take meeting notes. Active engagement shows you’re there to contribute, not just learn.
5. Identify priorities and early wins
While there’s a lot to learn, focus on the most critical areas first – certain information will be more important than others, depending on upcoming projects and decisions. Identify knowledge gaps and areas where your skills can have the biggest impact. What knowledge gaps need to be filled most urgently? Where can your skills move the needle? Aim for some early quick wins to build credibility and momentum. Having a prioritized learning plan creates structure and accelerates your ability to make meaningful contributions.
6. Embrace a leadership mindset
Even as a new hire, approach your role with a leadership mindset. Imagine yourself running meetings, making decisions, and driving projects forward. This proactive attitude empowers you to shape your experience and contribute more from the beginning.
7. Understand decision-making frameworks
Understand how decisions are made at your new company. What are the key metrics, priorities and frameworks used? Knowing how and when important decisions get made allows you to focus your onboarding on the most relevant information and stakeholders.
8. Build key relationships
Relationships are key. Invest time in getting to know your manager, colleagues, and collaborators. Schedule one-on-one meetings, ask about their roles, and seek feedback. Building strong connections helps you navigate the organization, feel included, and collaborate more effectively. Growing your network internally provides a web of support as you get up to speed.
9. Embrace continuous learning
Learning is continuous. Embrace an attitude of constant growth. Ask questions, seek feedback, and be open to new ideas. Adopt a mindset of humility and curiosity. A commitment to lifelong learning keeps you nimble and adaptable as the company evolves.
By following these nine strategies, you’ll take control of your onboarding and quickly become a valuable asset. You’ll demonstrate the very qualities that make you a great fit for the long haul – initiative, curiosity, humility, and a willingness to take action. By proactively onboarding yourself, you’ll gain a running start, become a high-value team member faster, and showcase the skills that make you a perfect fit for the company’s culture.
Yolanda Lau is an experienced entrepreneurship consultant, advisor, and Forbes Contributor. She is also an educator, speaker, writer, and non-profit fundraiser.
Since 2010, she has been focused on preparing knowledge workers, educators, and students for the future of work.
Whether you’re just venturing out in your new self-employed career track or just starting to explore project-based work, the key to your success will be finding and landing clients. Fundamentally, this begins with thinking of yourself as a business and learning how to promote and grow your business.
Whatever services you’re offering, you’ll have to be your own marketing and sales team. You’ll have to learn to market your expertise and services, build your credibility, articulate your value to clients, and sell yourself and your service offerings.
1. Get comfortable selling yourself
When you start a small business — and yes your own creative or consulting business is a small business — selling certainly can be of the most daunting tasks at hand. If you’re a natural salesperson, consider yourself lucky. For the rest of us, it can be the most frustrating and challenging part of being self-employed as an independent consultant. Whether it’s because we feel underqualified for the position — hello, imposter syndrome — or simply because we lack experience in sales, we have to get comfortable selling ourselves and our services to get work (and get paid).
2. Determine your rates and convey your value
Use your previous salary to calculate your hourly rate for on-demand consulting, advisory, and creative services. If this is your first consulting gig, be honest — building trust goes a long way — and be prepared to offer a discounted rate to the client to win the business. That said, it’s best to understand the value of your services and the return on investment (ROI) it will provide to your client. If the total projected ROI is higher than what you would likely bill at an hourly rate, then it may be advantageous to sell your services at a flat project fee. Whenever possible, be prepared to reframe conversations on the value that you provide via your services — versus simply what you charge.
Hopefully, before you started your new creative or consulting business, you invested time and energy into establishing yourself as an expert in your industry. Attend conferences (even virtual conferences), and join and contribute to online industry forums. These are valuable opportunities to connect with potential clients. Offer advice when asked, say yes to speaking opportunities when they present themselves, and share your thought leadership.
5. Reach out to your network
Networking is the best way to get work as an independent consultant. Most independent consultants that I’ve spoken to have landed their first client through their personal and extended network. This means you have to be confident enough to tell friends, former colleagues, and acquaintances that you are available for work — practice your pitch often so that your network can pitch others for you. Former colleagues or industry peers often make the best first clients as they are already familiar with your work and understand the value you provide.
6. Learn how to qualify leads
Qualifying leads a critical step in the sales process. Do it efficiently and you’ll waste less time with potential clients they will never pan out — allowing you to spend more time on the prospective clients with more potential. Start by making sure your lead is a decision-maker. Thinking you’ve closed a sale only to find out that your prospect has to check with his or her boss is deflating — and not a great use of your time.
Create a list of qualifying questions to quickly assess whether or not you can meet the client’s needs. If your services don’t align with what they’re looking for at the price point you’re offering, move on.
7. Sell your skills and services
To get ready to sell to your first client, be prepared to speak to your industry experience, previous roles, level of seniority, and your unique and specialized skills. Make it easy for your prospective clients to understand who you are from looking at your LinkedIn profile and reviewing your business website. Then, when you do meet with a qualified lead, work to convey to them that you are the expert with the right problem-solving skills to address their pain points. Be prepared to use the initial meeting to conduct a needs assessment — use this time to evaluate the problem, understand the gaps in the client’s workforce, and start considering possible frameworks for your solution. End the meeting by promising a written proposal, and then follow through. How you evaluate the pain points, approach the solution, and draft a proposal are critical to winning business.
8. Be prepared to walk away
I firmly believe in building a business based on trust and honesty. Don’t be afraid to share your qualification process with your clients — and to let the client know if you’re not the right fit. Do this right and the client will come back to you when the right opportunity presents itself. Or a project that isn’t a good fit at a risk to your client relationship. In addition, learn to make peace with firing clients. Your consulting or creative business doesn’t have to be for everyone. If a client isn’t a good fit for your working style, feel free to turn down future projects; though, if possible, I would recommend referring your former client to other consultants who he or she might be able to work with.
Sales doesn’t come naturally to most of us. And it can be even more intimidating when the product you’re selling is essentially yourself. Build confidence in promoting your business and you’ll find success landing clients — and join the future of work while finding work-life fit.
Got questions? Let me know in the comments!
Yolanda Lau is an experienced entrepreneurship consultant, advisor, and Forbes Contributor. She is also an educator, speaker, writer, and non-profit fundraiser.
Since 2010, she has been focused on preparing knowledge workers, educators, and students for the future of work.
If you’re an independent consultant — or considering self-employment or project-based work to find work-life fit — you’ve likely wondered how (and whether to) market your business and your services. Marketing and branding can be a challenging process for many business owners, but this gets even more difficult when your business is you.
Many new consultants are shy about selling themselves — I know I was when I first got started 15+ years ago — so I’ve put together six tips to help you cultivate your brand, market your services, build your business, and join the future of work.
1. Determine what services you will offer
Getting your service offerings right is an important first step. Ideally, you’ll find your niche and become a thought leader in your niche. It’s easy to say you offer IT Strategy, Graphic Design, Financial Analysis, or Strategic Business Services. But you’ll benefit from nailing down the specific project-types that you can offer. Put yourself in your prospective clients’ shoes, think about the problems they face, then put together a list of your services that solve your clients’ pain points. This should be an iterative process — as you grow your business, you may want to add new service offerings or remove unprofitable ones.
Once you’ve determined your services, consider putting together a price list. Whenever possible — when projects can be clearly constrained and carefully scoped — I recommend listing a flat rate for each service you will offer. Calculate this flat service fee by taking your preferred hourly rate and multiplying it by your estimated hours for each project or service type.
2. Work on your personal brand
Now that you have your own business, always keep in mind that you are your own brand. All of your branding efforts should have a consistent feel, theme, and message. Think about the kind of feeling you want your brand to convey as you craft your messaging — and even as you determine your brand colors. In terms of social media, make sure to update your LinkedIn profile as that’s the first place many potential clients will look to get your credentials.
Keep in mind that as an independent professional, your actions in your personal life may impact on your business. Differing messages or actions across your personal and professional social media channels could lead to being perceived as dishonest or untrustworthy. Everything you do, say, or publish online reflects on you and your business — and ultimately affects your success as an independent professional.
3. Work on your pitch
Every business — including your consulting or creative business — needs an elevator pitch. Craft a concise, compelling, easy to understand 30-second statement describing your business and your services. (They call it an elevator pitch because you should be able to give it to a potential client in the time they happen to join you in the elevator to the time they reach their floor.) Working on your elevator pitch will help you hone in on what is unique about your business. A memorable elevator pitch will allow your clients and potential clients to sell your services for you!
4. Build your business website
A professional website is a valuable marketing tool and the backbone of a good brand. Your website is where potential clients will turn when they’re researching your credentials. Make sure your website is professional, modern, and well-written. Get professional help if you need it, but be sure your website is built so that you can maintain it yourself — personally, I prefer building my business websites with WordPress, but there are several other options for easy content management.
Be sure to optimize your website for search (SEO) by writing copy that matches your chosen keywords. Moreover, track your metrics — such as page views, audience insights, acquisition channels — with Google Analytics so you can constantly refine and update your site. Don’t forget to take advantage of your network of fellow freelancers here! If you need help, consider trading your services for help with your website.
5. Establish your credibility with thought leadership
Establishing yourself as a thought leader builds your credibility and is a cost-effective marketing strategy for independent consultants. Join online forums where you can share your expertise. Write blogs on your own website, on LinkedIn, or via Medium — allowing potential clients to stumble upon you organically. Speaking opportunities at conferences and professional organizations are another way to promote yourself. The more you can build your credibility as a thought leader, the easier it will be for potential clients to believe in the value of your services.
6. Leverage your network
Social media has become an effective way for brands to speak directly to their customers and clients. As discussed earlier, start with your LinkedIn profile. Keep it up to date and share content relevant to your business and your industry. Offer advice on posts made by others. Then, depending on your industry, you may also want to cultivate your public Twitter account and/or your Instagram account. You’ll want to find a balance between sharing valuable information and promoting yourself.
Join industry-related forums as well as online groups for freelancers. Leverage your social network properly and it’ll turn in to a steady stream of new clients via word of mouth referrals. In addition to networking via social media, be sure to attend relevant conferences (yes, even virtually) and periodically reach out to past clients as well as potential clients that haven’t panned out yet.
Remember, your consulting or creative business won’t sell itself. Once you’ve established your brand, built your credibility, and cultivated your pitch to match your unique skills and services, it’s up to you to sell with confidence to leverage your network and grow your business — the business of you!
Got questions? Let me know in the comments!
Yolanda Lau is an experienced entrepreneurship consultant, advisor, and Forbes Contributor. She is also an educator, speaker, writer, and non-profit fundraiser.
Since 2010, she has been focused on preparing knowledge workers, educators, and students for the future of work.
The business case for diversity and inclusion is clear — diversity in thought correlates directly to increased economic output. But without a chief diversity officer or chief diversity and inclusion officer, it falls to HR to lead on diversity and inclusion.
The Business Case For Diversity And Inclusion
There are a multitude of known strategies for improving diversity and inclusion, including creating policies and practices that tackle unconscious bias, improving company culture and securing buy-in for D&I strategies. In addition, I recommend engaging on-demand consultants and advisors as part of your D&I strategy.
McKinsey found that companies with diverse executive teams achieved 53% higher returns on equity than less diverse teams, Similarly, Morgan Stanley found that the share price of companies with more women in their workforce (and in senior positions) outperformed companies with fewer women.
McKinsey also discovered that companies with the most gender-diverse executive teams were 21% more likely to have industry-leading profitability, while companies with ethnically/culturally diverse executive teams were 33% more likely to outperform on profitability. More importantly, McKinsey illustrated the penalty for diversity failure: Companies at the bottom for both gender and ethnic/cultural diversity were 29% less likely to achieve above-average profitability.
Complexity Of Implementing D&I Strategies: Tackling Systemic And Structural Issues
Improving diversity and inclusion clearly leads to improved business and economic performance. What’s not as obvious is how to improve diversity and inclusion.
Unconscious Bias Training Isn’t Enough
Diversity and inclusion is complex. Start by objectively defining and measuring diversity and inclusion goals. Given the business case for D&I, all executives should work to increase diversity and foster a culture and environment where every employee feels welcome. Authentically incorporating D&I into your corporate culture is necessary to ensure that your D&I strategy is embraced and successful. This, in turn, helps HR create a recruitment strategy for attracting a more diverse pool of candidates — and build a robust talent pipeline to attract, develop, mentor, retain and sponsor diverse leaders and workers at all levels.
Unconscious bias training makes individuals aware of how stereotypes and biases impact behaviors and decision-making. Training executives and employees to overcome racism, prejudice, bias and discrimination is a start, but it’s not enough. D&I strategies must also tackle systemic and structural issues (SSI) — complex issues that allow biases to persist in the workplace and throughout society.
Sponsorship Programs Are Better Than Mentorship Programs
HR professionals need to ensure that evaluations for hiring and promotions are done by multiple leaders using objective variables, lessening the effects of the systemic bias of preferring to hire people who look similar to themselves. Diverse search and evaluation committees can be helpful, if truly diverse — one token woman, trans, black or brown person doesn’t count.
Sponsorship programs are an effective way to overcome network gaps, another systemic and structural issue that further increases inequality. CNBC reported that up to 80% of jobs are secured by networking. Most people leverage their network (“who they know”) to secure even a first-round interview — and diverse candidates usually have smaller, less powerful networks to leverage.
While mentors serve as advisors who help mentees shape their ambitions and plans, sponsors take a direct role in sponsee advancement. Sponsors are senior-level leaders who advocate for sponsees, helping them earn promotions and raises and get credit for their successes. Sponsors put skin in the game, using their network and connections to advance sponsees via guidance and, crucially, endorsement.
Sponsorship or advocacy programs should contain elements to support the roles and development of both sponsors and sponsees. For example, create structured leadership programs for sponsees and formulate a thoughtful selection process for sponsors, positioning sponsors as agents of D&I change to lead to economic gains. Lastly, build in strategic touchpoints and guidance for sponsor-sponsee interaction.
On-Demand Consultants And Advisors As A Short-Term D&I Strategy
These are just a few D&I strategies that every company should implement today. As Ellen Pao says, we also need more radical solutions to tackle D&I. But these strategies move slowly, and economic gains will take time to manifest.
Melinda Gates founded Equality Can’t Wait on the premise that it’ll take 208 years to achieve gender equality at the current rate. We need to do more to tackle diversity and inclusion — and companies who don’t will stagnate as competitors with clear and effective D&I strategies will increase economic output. Working with diverse on-demand consultants and advisors is an unconventional D&I strategy, but an effective one.
Firms like ours (FlexTeam) and Business Talent Group exist to keep women engaged during the mid-career period when many choose to leave the traditional workforce — a decision often driven by caregiving for children or elderly parents. By reengaging women who have left the traditional workforce, you make a direct impact to keep the workplace more diverse.
A Better Future
But beyond that, corporations that need to move quickly to increase diversity are turning to on-demand workers, consultants and advisors as part of their D&I strategy. These on-demand thought leaders from diverse backgrounds — backgrounds that your company lacks — can tackle high-value projects for your company. By engaging diverse thought leaders to assess and react to technology trends and challenges, your company can start to manifest economic gains from diversity of thought while working on longer-term, wide-ranging D&I strategies.
Diversity and inclusion should be an integral component of your management strategy. Today’s executives and HR leaders need to engage diverse on-demand consultants and advisors as part of a multiprong strategy to tackle the complex, systemic, structural problems at the root of D&I issues.
Are you heading toward stagnating business performance or are you leading your organization toward a better future and improved economic performance?
Yolanda Lau is an experienced entrepreneurship consultant, advisor, and Forbes Contributor. She is also an educator, speaker, writer, and non-profit fundraiser.
Since 2010, she has been focused on preparing knowledge workers, educators, and students for the future of work.
FlexTeam is a mission-based micro-consulting firm, co-founded by Yolanda Lau in 2015, that matches talented mid-career women with meaningful, challenging, temporally flexible, remote project-based work opportunities. FlexTeam’s clients are businesses of all sizes across all industries and sectors. FlexTeam’s most requested projects are competitor / market research, financial models, and investor decks. FlexTeam is also the team behind Liquid.
The future of work is the liquid workforce. Companies that expect to maintain their competitive edge must engage and activate the liquid workforce, often by hiring on-demand advisors and consultants, along with other skilled freelance workers.
Whether you’re already a consultant or a former executive looking for new challenges, it’s a great time to start your new consulting business. I speak from decades of experience consulting on my own and starting my firm when I say that for people like us, there’s nothing more rewarding than running your own business.
On-Demand Consulting When You Have A Full-Time Job
Even if you have a full-time job, you can still start a part-time consulting business by working at nights and on weekends. It’s a great way to learn new skills, make contacts with potential employers and give your resume a boost — plus, add some extra money to your bank account. Just be sure to check with your employer to see what restrictions are in place regarding outside compensation.
Starting Your Consulting Business
It’s pretty simple to start your consulting business. Just order some business cards, and create a simple website on Squarespace or WordPress, and you’re pretty much ready to go.
You can use your Social Security number (SSN), but with the increased focus on freelance workers’ rights, I highly recommend incorporating your consulting business and applying for an IRS employer identification number (EIN). Talk to an attorney and an accountant to figure out which structure is best for you. The advice I’ve received is that incorporating helps to substantiate the claim that you are indeed an independent contractor — and this allows companies to be more confident in engaging your services. With increased focus and regulations on freelancer rights, be prepared for clients to ask about your incorporation status. Personally, my own consulting firm is incorporated as a limited liability company (LLC).
Some people choose to start their consulting business with their name. Others choose names that convey the services they offer. Others choose more abstract names. Regardless of how you choose your business name, be sure to have business cards to give out to potential clients.
How To Set Your Hourly Consulting Rate
It’s best for new consultants to start by setting their hourly consulting rate, which can be used to calculate a monthly retainer and as a guideline for project-based fees. Most fledgling consultants struggle with setting their consulting rates, but it doesn’t have to be difficult to calculate based on your current or most recent annual salary.
Imagine your most recent annual salary is $100,000. Begin by converting that figure to a basic hourly rate. Full-time employees typically work 2,000 hours per year after holidays, so divide 100,000 by 2,000 to get 50 — or $50 per hour as a starting point.
Why You Should Add A Buffer To Your Hourly Consulting Rate
However, on-demand consultants and advisors should also add in a buffer. That’s because consultants pay for their own healthcare and office expenses, along with not being eligible for paid sick time or vacation days. In addition, consultants rarely work 40 hours per week for clients, as they need to spend time on business development (BD) to get their next projects, and they have to spend time invoicing and collecting from clients.
Most consultants I know add a buffer of 30% to 50% to their hourly rate to account for all these expenses. Those same consultants will add a much smaller buffer when using a marketplace or other service that allows them to focus their work hours on billable project hours — versus BD and sales or time spent billing clients.
If you build in a 30% buffer to your rate of $50 per hour, you can charge $65 per hour. If you add a 50% buffer, your hourly rate becomes $75 per hour. More experienced on-demand consultants and advisors with highly specialized skills, pedigreed backgrounds and proven track records of delivering results to clients usually increase their rates beyond that. I’ve worked with on-demand expert advisors who charge as much as $800 per hour, but $65-$75 is a terrific place for a brand-new consultant in search of their first client to start.
Gut Check
After arriving at an hourly rate, be sure to do a gut check. Think about the potential impact your work may have on the client’s business, how urgently the project need is, and how specialized your specific experience and knowledge are. These are just a few reasons you may want to consider adjusting your hourly rate. Don’t sell yourself short!
Now that you’ve calculated your hourly rate for on-demand consulting and advisory services, you’re ready to embark on your new venture. You will be thrilled when you get that first check — but more importantly, congratulations on setting yourself up for an independent and rewarding career path.
Yolanda Lau is an experienced entrepreneurship consultant, advisor, and Forbes Contributor. She is also an educator, speaker, writer, and non-profit fundraiser.
Since 2010, she has been focused on preparing knowledge workers, educators, and students for the future of work.
FlexTeam is a mission-based micro-consulting firm, co-founded by Yolanda Lau in 2015, that matches talented mid-career women with meaningful, challenging, temporally flexible, remote project-based work opportunities. FlexTeam’s clients are businesses of all sizes across all industries and sectors. FlexTeam’s most requested projects are competitor / market research, financial models, and investor decks. FlexTeam is also the team behind Liquid.
My dad is a surgeon. Specializing in transplants, he was always on call and rarely home. As a teenager, I vowed to find work that would allow me to spend time with the family I hoped to one day have.
My journey to find work-life balance led me to MIT where I studied Chemical Engineering and Biology (I took a detour on the pre-med path). During college, I was almost always employed part-time. I worked at a retail shop on Newbury Street; I tutored students enrolled in Introductory Biology; and I supported Women’s Recruitment efforts for MIT Admissions. It was in my role at the Admissions Office, where I was on a team that created MIT’s first online resource for prospective female undergrads, that I saw the advantages of working independently and remotely on project-based work.
Then, graduation came and it was time to get a job. I stayed on campus to start my career at the MIT Technology Licensing Office. Working to commercialize MIT-developed technology through licensing agreements with startups and passionate entrepreneurs (along with the traditional big corporations) opened my eyes to entrepreneurship. And it gave me an intensive education in intellectual property, negotiation, business development, marketing, branding, product development, alternative dispute resolution, trademarks, accounting, communications and public relations, and much more.
So after a two-year stint at the TLO, I went off on my own path. I co-founded a real estate development, investment, and property management firm, where I focused on operations. That led to other business opportunities, which led me to what I’ve been doing for the last decade — helping people start new ventures and helping those small businesses grow.
I’m so thankful that I’ve been able to make a living by doing meaningful work, while also having time for what matters in life — family and friends.
But not everyone is so lucky.
I’ve seen too many friends make the difficult choice between a fulfilling career and time spent with their children. Some have chosen to return to their jobs on a part-time basis, only to find that their responsibilities are closer to full-time at part-time pay. Others have chosen to jump back in head first, relying on loving grandparents or nannies to help with family responsibilities. And some have chosen to stay at home for now and hope to return to a career when their youngest kids reach school-age. Of those in the last group, many are using volunteer roles to keep up their skills or work a few hours a week at hourly jobs that don’t utilize their education or experiences.
A study in 2005 by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce found that 37 percent of highly qualified women have voluntarily left work at some point in their careers, and among mothers, that statistic rises to 43 percent. Pew Research estimated that there were over 370,000 highly educated and affluent stay at home moms in 2014. And it’s been well documented that those who choose to take a break from their traditional career are financially penalized when they return to the workforce (the “motherhood penalty”). According to the Center for Talent Innovation, women lose 16 percent of their earning power when they return to work, and one in four returns to fewer management responsibilities.
But my unusual career has shown me there is another way.
Project-based consulting.
Short-term project-based work with clear milestones and deliverables could allow mothers (and fathers, as well as daughters and sons caring for elderly parents) to find work-life fit. These caregivers could continue to earn an income, keep their skills up-to-date, while retaining time to care for their families. Those who no longer need to worry about the long-term costs of leaving the traditional workforce are happier and more satisfied; and happier caregivers lead to happier families, and a better society.
I’m not the first to espouse the mutually beneficial nature of project-based work. In a 2013 article for the Atlantic, Paulette Light wrote:
Project-based work provides many benefits to both businesses and those re-entering. Freelancers don’t hit the bottom line as hard as because they aren’t paid benefits. With clear project descriptions, deadlines, and compensation, more moms who may be overqualified for a position might decide that they are willing to help out with a project because it meets their needs in the short term. I am sure that many moms will even step up to do a project even at the cost of their family because the timing is only temporary. As the business and the mom work together more, maybe a full-time job will come of it when all parties understand the value.
I think it’s safe to say that the benefits of project-based work are clear, for mothers, families, and businesses.
In 2015, McKinsey Global Institute found that advancing women’s equality in North America and Oceania alone could add $3.1 trillion to $5.3 trillion to the GDP in those regions by 2025. By increasing the number of women in the workforce, reducing the motherhood penalty, and improving gender equality using 12 other outcome-based indicators, the potential increase to GDP in this region is equivalent to the current GDP of Japan or Germany.
A recent study by Danielle Lindemann, Carly Rush, and Steven Tepper found that artistic careers — that is, those in performing arts, design, art history, writing, film, the visual arts, and music — did not have the wage penalty associated with motherhood that is found in most other industries. They theorized that this lack of penalty was due to the flexibility in employment as well as the project-based nature of artistic work. So increasing the number of women engaged in project-based work would surely decrease the motherhood penalty, getting us one step closer to gender wage parity.
Now let’s go back to the statistics of highly qualified women — previously defined as those with a graduate degree, a professional degree, or a high-honors undergraduate degree — who have left the traditional workforce. In 1982 to 2013, 44.1 million college degrees were granted to women. Let’s assume that five percent attended the top 40 schools and that 37 percent of women voluntarily leave work; that leaves 815,850 highly educated women between the ages of 24 and 55 who have left the traditional workforce.
Let’s say that project-based consulting could allow these women to work as much as they want to. The average American with a full-time job works 47 hours per week. Let’s assume that the working moms in this country spend 28 hours per week on family responsibilities, as they do across the pond. So if we assume that moms want to work only as many hours as is the difference between normal full-time employment and is needed to fulfill family responsibilities, that means moms would be happy to spend 19 hours per week working. That seems low to me, given an informal survey of friends who are moms. My unscientific survey leads me to believe that mothers would like to generally work from the hours of 9am to 1pm, or approximately 5 hours a day, leaving them time to drop the kids off, pick them up and take them to after school activities, and take care of all other tasks to run a household. So we can guess that moms would like to work 19 to 25 hours per week.
Collectively, that’s$37.6 billion to $49.5 billion worth of paid work that project-based consulting could enable. And that’s just the 815,850 women with degrees from the top 40 colleges who have left the workforce.
Imagine how high that number would be if we did the same calculation for all women with college degrees who have left the workforce; all 16.3 million women. That increases those values to $751 billion to $989 billion.
If you are a caregiver who has left or wants to leave the traditional workforce, update your LinkedIn profile summary to state your interest in project-based work. If you are already doing project-based work, mentor would-be project-based consultants. Those who have a gap in their work history will need help understanding current business practices, coaching to regain their confidence, assistance with resume writing, and support to determine how their skills translate to clearly defined projects.
For business leaders who want to support work-life fit
If you work for a small or medium sized business and are in a position to retain project-based consultants, use your social capital within your company to do so. Then, convince your peers to do the same. Your employer will thank you.
If you own a business, start engaging highly educated and experienced moms (and dads, as well as daughters and sons) who have left the traditional workforce on project-based work. Like me, they could perform strategic analyses, craft a go-to-market strategy or customer acquisition strategy, assess your competition, determine where to cut costs, generate blog posts, manage your social media, guide you through a difficult negotiation, or help you decide whether to enter a new market or create a new product. Others could help you create financial models, craft a marketing or communications strategy, write PR pieces, assist with legal issues, plan events, and help with the hundreds of other things small businesses need help with. Small businesses like yours are the economic engine of our country, driving innovation and growth.
Still not sure how project-based consultants could help you manage and grow your business? Contact me and I’ll be happy to help you brainstorm.
Whatever the project, be clear with your goals and expectations to ensure you will be happy with the results.
Of these, only FlexTeam focuses on moms who have left the traditional workforce. Regardless of the method you use to find workers, helping to make project-based consulting commonplace will help more people find work-life balance, which will surely benefit us all. This is the future of work.
Yolanda Lau is an experienced entrepreneurship consultant, advisor, and Forbes Contributor. She is also an educator, speaker, writer, and non-profit fundraiser.
Since 2010, she has been focused on preparing knowledge workers, educators, and students for the future of work.
We’ve been working on FlexTeam for nearly four years now, and sometimes it still feels like friends don’t understand what FlexTeam is.
Hopefully this will clear things up.
Here’s what FlexTeam is not.
FlexTeam is not a job board.
We are not like a women’s job board like PowerToFly, The Mom Project, Inkwell Talent, or Après. Nor are we like WeWorkRemotely.com (a job board for remote jobs) or like FlexJobs.com (an aggregator of legitimate jobs with some form of flexibility such as telecommuting, part-time or flextime schedules, or freelance contracts). We do have independent consultants, working as 1099 contractors, available for work. However the work is almost always project-based, remote, and flexible. And more importantly, the workers don’t work directly for the companies; our members work as contractors to FlexTeam, on highly specific projects for our clients.
FlexTeam is not a staffing or recruiting agency.
We are not Corps Team (formerly Mom Corps), HireMyMom.com, Prokanga, or The Second Shift (Though like Second Shift, FlexTeam membership approval depends on completing a rigorous onboarding and vetting process.) These are mostly staffing or recruiting agencies for full-time jobs. Some of these sites have some project-based work opportunities but most are still focused on traditional employment. Moreover, FlexTeam members aren’t charged fees to gain access to projects. And again, the difference is also that FlexTeam manages the projects for both the clients and the consultants.
FlexTeam is not a marketplace.
We love marketplaces. We are frequent users of Lyft and Uber. But we are not like Catalant or Graphite (formerly SpareHire). Our consultants don’t bid on projects or write proposals, and our clients rarely scope out their own projects. Clients tell us their needs via email, phone calls, or our mobile app and FlexTeam sends back a clearly defined scope of work with pricing (and when approriate, also, hours estimates). While clients are reviewing the scope, we reach out to FlexTeam members who are a match for the scope so that we can start the project upon client approval. FlexTeam’s matching algorithm select consultants for projects that align with their particular skills and past experiences.
FlexTeam is not a provider of or a connector for returnships.
Returnships are an important path for women returning to full-time work. And we are fans of iRelaunch and Path Forward. And there are more and more companies focusing on matching women to returnships (OnRamp Fellowship, for example).
And oftentimes our consultants work for us for a short period before finding a full-time job in the traditional workforce. We love to see that happen! But we don’t have partnerships with companies to provide a clear path back to the traditional workforce. We are leading the way to create an alternative to working in traditional jobs.
FlexTeam’s focus isn’t covering maternity leaves.
Again, we aren’t a recruiting agency and we certainly aren’t focused on the niche of parental leave coverages. That said, I was disappointed to hear that Emissaries shut down in January. It was a unique business model and I hope someone else can make it financially viable.
FlexTeam’s focus isn’t retraining or reskilling.
It’s true we’ve done some training sessions for our existing consultants. And our consultants gain and refine their skills through our projects. And some consultants specifically choose to work with FlexTeam to gain experience on projects or industries outside of their skillset.
But that isn’t our business model. There are plenty of other options for highly educated women who want retraining / reskilling (reacHIRE and Reboot Accel, for example). And, by the way, there are tons of options for people in general who want to gain new skills (Coursera, EdX, Udemy, Skillcrush, and many others). As an aside, I love taking classes and gaining new skills (and I’ve found that women who are lifelong learners are better suited for working with FlexTeam).
FlexTeam does not teach companies how to provide flexibility for their existing employees.
While this is certainly an example of work that FlexTeam might do (helping a company assess their current policies and making recommendations), this is not the core of work FlexTeam does. Werk “provides flexibility insights and data into the hands of companies to help them work smarter.” That is not our core business.
So we’ve covered what FlexTeam is not.
So what is FlexTeam and how does FlexTeam work?
FlexTeam is a trusted network of executive-level women working in teams on project-based work to enable business leaders to accomplish more. (Some other phrases we’ve used to describe ourselves include: Brainpower without boundaries; Brainpower beyond your time, knowledge, and resource constraints; and Your time is valuable.)
We are a mission-based micro consulting firm whose most requested projects are competitor / market research; financial models / analysis; and business strategy. We also do investor decks. Our clients are mostly US based companies of all sizes and across all industries and sectors.
Our independent consultants are highly accomplished and highly educated women who have left the traditional workforce for a variety of reasons (often to spend more time with their young children, or to care for their elderly parents, or simply to live life more fully).
We were founded in 2015 by three MIT alumnae (that’s three female MIT alums) on a mission to create a #NewPlayingField for our colleagues and women everywhere. We believe everyone deserves #WorkLifeFit and we are also the team behind Liquid.
How does FlexTeam work?
Good question. FlexTeam provides clients with a scope with clear deliverables and pricing, after understanding clients’ needs. As I mentioned above, clients convey their needs to FlexTeam via email, phone calls, or our mobile app. The scope usually also includes estimates for time and an agreement on when the work product will be delivered to the client.
In parallel with defining the project with the client, our matching algorithm identifies the best FlexTeam member(s) to do the work and we reconfirm their availability (so that we are able to quickly start on the project once the client agrees to the scope). On occasion (when clients have very specific needs), we go out and recruit consultants for projects.
Unlike a marketplace, the client does not select particular consultants, nor are FlexTeam members bidding on projects. (In fact, as a general rule, we don’t share the names or background of our consultants with our clients prior to scope approval.) This allows FlexTeam members to focus on challenging, interesting, and paid work instead of spending time doing business development or writing proposals or bids.
Clients find that working with FlexTeam allows them to focus on higher level tasks that demand their attention, freeing them up to do work that is both personally interesting & socially meaningful. Working with us allows clients to focus on the bigger picture, accelerating growth and impact.
What’s so special about FlexTeam’s consultants?
First of all, our consultants (mostly MIT alums) complete a rigorous onboarding and vetting process before becoming eligible to work on projects. We’ve found that soft skills are highly correlated to success with FlexTeam and our onboarding process reflects that. The onboarding process makes note of each consultant’s core competencies and skills, experience in different industries and company sizes, and experience working in startups. But it also looks for evidence of computational thinking and excellent writing skills. And it looks for evidence of “soft skills” like grit, resilience, persistence, being a good listener, empathy, a desire to learn, a cooperative attitude, resourcefulness, kindness, a “always do your best” attitude, optimism, ability to deal with difficult personalities, and more.
Oftentimes, project-based workers have the ability to see innovation as a part of their working method rather than just a buzzword. This, too, is true of FlexTeam’s consultants. We have honed the ability to make sense of uncertainty and complex ideas, developed flexibility, and are experts in how to communicate new ideas and roll them out quickly. And we find satisfaction in working on challenging projects for companies with compelling stories or business problems.
In short, the insights FlexTeam provides are often worth far more than the hourly, daily, monthly, or project-based rates charged.
Our consultants aren’t just highly educated women with deep expertise in their fields across many industries. We are world travelers. We are mamas. We are philanthropists. We are investors. We are lifelong learners. We are doers. We care about making the world a better place and we’re here to help you make your impact on the world.
What’s the deal with the proprietary software?
As we’ve grown FlexTeam, we built software to manage clients, projects, and consultants (including onboarding, invoicing, receivables, and payments). We also built an iOS app for client productivity that integrates our software and allows clients to turn to do list items into projects to be completed by FlexTeam (by the way, look out for a new website soon!).
We have spun out the software into a separate company Liquid, which (from our own experience) solves a lot of pain points for working with freelancers and agencies. In addition, the original FlexTeam software may be available in a white labeled version soon.
Hope that leaves you with a clear sense of what FlexTeam is. Got questions? Let me know!
Co-founders of FlexTeam celebrating our alma mater — MIT
Yolanda Lau is an experienced entrepreneurship consultant, advisor, and Forbes Contributor. She is also an educator, speaker, writer, and non-profit fundraiser.
Since 2010, she has been focused on preparing knowledge workers, educators, and students for the future of work.
FlexTeam is a mission-based micro-consulting firm, co-founded by Yolanda Lau in 2015, that matches talented mid-career women with meaningful, challenging, temporally flexible, remote project-based work opportunities. FlexTeam’s clients are businesses of all sizes across all industries and sectors. FlexTeam’s most requested projects are competitor / market research, financial models, and investor decks. FlexTeam is also the team behind Liquid.
I strongly believe in the power of project-based work as a means to find work-life fit and as a way for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and “starters” to grow and scale their businesses. Project-based work will be a critical component of the work of the future.
Obviously, I’m biased; I’ve been doing project-based work for 10+ years via my own consulting firm Lau Labs and I’ve been helping others find and complete project-based work via FlexTeam for the last three and a half years. I’ve seen small companies use project-based work to gain a better sense of their business needs via new financial models. I’ve worked with women, who are in the first few months or weeks of motherhood, on projects that have allowed them to still feel connected to their careers. I’ve seen entrepreneurs pursue (or not pursue) new markets or products after getting an outsider’s analysis and report on the competitor landscape.
I’ve seen firsthand the promise of project-based work. But I often get blank stares, initially, when I talk about project-based work.
What exactly is project-based work?
Project-based work are specific projects with clear milestones and deliverables. If needs change, the scope of work can be expanded by mutual agreement. Project-based work can be entirely remote, or have in person requirements.
Project-based workers (contractors) work for a specific number of weeks or months until the project is completed. They may or may not work at the client’s office or equipment. They can’t be told exactly how to perform her job or be told she can only work for you. And project-based workers can’t be called employees.
Why use project-based consultants / workers?
Project-based workers often bring skills and experiences from a range of challenging roles, often across many industries. Oftentimes, project-based workers have the ability to see innovation as a part of their working method rather than just a buzzword. They’ve developed flexibility, the ability to make sense of uncertainty and complex ideas, and an understanding of how to communicate new ideas and roll them out quickly.
In short, the insights they provide are often worth far more than the hourly, daily, monthly, or project-based rates charged.
Let me give you a few short examples of project-based work.
Assessing your competition. It’s not enough for your company to be doing well. If you aren’t taking a look at your competitors on a regular basis, you’re apt to miss the boat on market trends that could drastically change your industry. Project-based consultants can provide you a report of your competitors.
Generate written content. You have ideas you want to communicate. Ideas that set your company or your personal brand apart. Project-based consultants can help take your outlines or bare-boned ideas to help you generate blog content, white papers, press releases, and more!
Generate social media content. We all know social media marketing is important, but we don’t all execute on it. There always seems to be other priorities. Project-based consultants can help you do the leg work of creating content.
Create marketing strategy. Speaking of the importance of marketing, we also know it’s not enough to simply post stuff on social media. It’s best to have an overarching strategy that helps you direct your efforts. Project-based consultants can analyze your existing marketing strategy and provide recommendations for best practices in your industry, and craft a strategy tailored to your specific company. What is the right combination of paid and organic marketing across multiple channels? Project-based work can help.
Helping you craft a go-to-market strategy for a new product or service for either an existing company or a new one. For an existing company, the new product could either be an entirely new line of business, a variation of a current product, or something in between. Project-based consultants can help you determine the best strategy to go-to-market, provide a report to help you implement the strategy, and could help you implement the strategy.
Perform data analysis. Any business that neglects data an analysis will be left behind. Every company has some data that can be collected and analyzed to make operations more efficient, or enter new markets, or help make decisions about creating new products or services. Project-based consultants can get this done for you, though data experts usually have higher hourly rates.
Help you with gut checks. Sometimes you just need a quick 1–4 hour call with an expert to help you gut check your current strategy, and project-based consultants are perfect for this kind of work.
Determine where to cut costs. Every company needs a robust and professional financial model that accurately models your business. Project-based consultants can help you create a financial model from scratch, working with your managers on the important assumptions, and help you update existing financial models.
Help you research just about anything. Need a deep dive report on subscription based companies that rent products and an analysis of the differences and opportunity for new entrants? Or a list of potential acquisition targets in a specific city? How about due diligence on a company you’re considering making an angel investment in? On-demand project-based consultants can find research just about anything these days.
Create business plans and investor / fundraising decks. If you are a growing start-up, you need a solid business plan and a fundraising deck to convey your story to potential investors. Whether you have all the underlying information ready to create these documents, or you also need help with all the pieces of a business plan and investor deck, project-based consultants can help! For this kind of work, project-based consultants working in teams are best, as that enables the main consultant to pull together the various skill sets needed (researcher, financial model expert, designer, etc).
Branding and design work. Need brand guidelines for your company? Or help making your website or decks more polished? Design work is a great example of project-based work.
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Project-based consultants can help your business with practically any question or problem.
Ready to get started? I’m partial to FlexTeam for obvious reasons. But if you’d prefer to use a marketplace of consultants, instead of a one-stop-shop, you’ve got plenty of options. And if you’re already working with project-based consultants, may I recommend giving Liquid (brought to you by us at FlexTeam) a try .
Do you have a story of project-based work helping your business grow or overcome challenges? I’d love to hear it!
Yolanda Lau is an experienced entrepreneurship consultant, advisor, and Forbes Contributor. She is also an educator, speaker, writer, and non-profit fundraiser.
Since 2010, she has been focused on preparing knowledge workers, educators, and students for the future of work.
FlexTeam is a mission-based micro-consulting firm, co-founded by Yolanda Lau in 2015, that matches talented mid-career women with meaningful, challenging, temporally flexible, remote project-based work opportunities. FlexTeam’s clients are businesses of all sizes across all industries and sectors. FlexTeam’s most requested projects are competitor / market research, financial models, and investor decks. FlexTeam is also the team behind Liquid.
I started FlexTeam in 2015 with two other MIT alums. In the early days, we all worked on everything: project scoping, operations, operations strategy, people ops, staffing, business development / sales, marketing, customer success, engagement management, project management, community management, content creation, quality control, copyediting, product development, consultant training & education, social media management, invoicing, and all the other things that come with running a startup or small business.
But as we’ve grown, we’ve all narrowed our focus a bit. My focus now lies mostly with our consultants — onboarding, education, training, learning & development, community building, best practices & processes for projects, project placement, etc.
My personal interest in FlexTeam has always been our consultants.
So when we started FlexTeam, I was the one who sent out our first call for consultants. We started with a simple email to our sorority list (yes, I was in a sorority at MIT). The subject line was “remote / work-from-home opportunities,” the body of the email was five sentences long (plus our contact information) and included a link to a google form to sign up to work “as a freelancer remotely for FlexTeam.” That google form got 30+ responses within a few days.
That was 2015.
Today, we have hundreds of independent consultants in our database and a long wait-list of women who want to join us. Our consultants are alums of MIT, HBS, Wharton, Stanford, Princeton, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, Bain, Merrill Lynch, & many more elite organizations, who reclaim their time by working with us on challenging projects for our clients. Our consultants work with FlexTeam to help them create their own work-life fit. And our clients get access to highly experienced, highly educated women that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to hire (whether on a project, part-time, or full-time basis).
So what have I learned about people and career success?
First, computational / algorithmic thinking is fundamentally important to being successful as a management consultant working remotely and independently.
What is computational thinking?
Computational thinking is a term that has been used for decades. The phrase computational thinking popularized by an essay by computer scientist Jeannette Wing. Wing suggested that thinking computationally was a fundamental skill for everyone (not just computer scientists). I think of it as the ability to solve problems algorithmically and logically:
the ability to break down a problem into its component parts;
analyze and organize data;
recognize patterns (within the problem and with past problems);
identifying, analyzing, and implementing potential solutions;
and iterating when feasible.
I think the ability to work with uncertainty is also part of computational thinking.
Why is computational thinking an important skill?
As the world becomes more complex and interconnected, so does the work people do. More importantly, as machine learning and artificial intelligence begin to do more of our work, it will become more important for people to do work that machines find it harder to do.
But for FlexTeam, I’ve found that solving client’s problems requires consultants (or, at the very least the project manager, who supervises other consultants) to be able to think computationally. Our clients expect the work to get done; but they don’t want to spend time telling us how to do the work. That’s why they’re paying us — to get it done without having to expend additional resources or brainpower to it.
A consultant lacking in computational thinking skills is able to get the work done, but requires attention from others to figure out a plan of action. More than that, she needs help with gut checks (does what I’ve produced make sense in real life?), has difficulty coming up with recommendations (a key component of FlexTeam’s offerings), and she sometimes lacks creativity to get the job done.
The computational thinker is more adapatable, agile, and able to manage time and priorities. And as they are self-motivated and curious, they find joy in solving problems.
Communication skills are also important
Since we work remotely (our consultants are all over the United States, with a few spread out across the globe), written communication skills are obviously important to us — our consultants communicate with our clients via chat on project pages, and our consultants communicate internally with each other via Slack. Also, most of our projects require us to deliver a report or memo of some sort to the client, so it’s important to write clearly, effectively, and precisely.
But we think that effective oral and written communication skills are important to succeed in any career these days.
Again, as machine learning and artificial intelligence begin to do more of our work, it will become more important for people to do work that machines find it harder to do — effective communication is one such task. Computers can surely put together pieces of writing, but understanding nuances of communication are best left to humans.
Can a computer take a client’s message, and tease out what the client really means? Can it tailor their message (whether oral or written) to the audience? Can it read the audience to know how best to phrase their message?
I think not.
Our best consultants are able to intuit what a client’s main concerns are, even if they are unspoken. They are able to intuit how frequently a client wants to be updated, and how much detail the client wants. They are able to communicate effectively to other consultants what work needs to get done and when, and knows how to motivate them when necessary.
You can certainly get by without superior oral and written communication skills, but you’ll be more successful if you excel at those skills.
As Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson say in Rework, “Hire the better writer.”
“Soft skills” make all the difference in career success
So far we’ve learned that computational thinking and writing skills are important to career success. Obviously, some core competency in knowledge is also important. But it may surprise you to hear that “soft skills” like grit, resilience, persistence, being a good listener, empathy, a desire to learn, a cooperative attitude, resourcefulness, kindness, a “always do your best” attitude, optimism, ability to deal with difficult personalities, and manage conflict (among many others) are just as important.
In fact, we’ve found that consultants who lack these “soft skills” typically produce work that client’s are less satisfied with. These “soft skills” enable consultants to go above and beyond for our clients. And the truth is that having soft skills like emotional intelligence usually correlates with computational thinking abilities and writing skills. These skills build on each other!
So what?
If you are looking for a job, assess your computational thinking abilities, writing skills, and “soft skills”. Where can you improve? How can you work toward improvement? Where do you excel? How can you highlight those skills in your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile?
If you are hiring, recognize that at some point there is a level of technical capability or job function competence that is sufficient. After that, the person who is the better writer, who is better at computational thinking, and who has better “soft skills” is going to get you more productivity than someone who is simply more technically brilliant. He or she will be more eager to learn, more eager to work, and simply achieve more. She’ll get more done and go above and beyond.
And if you’re a busy business person looking to get more done, think about working with FlexTeam. Our top consultants excel at all of these skills and are ready to help you achieve more.
Let me know what other skills you think are important to career success!
Yolanda Lau is an experienced entrepreneurship consultant, advisor, and Forbes Contributor. She is also an educator, speaker, writer, and non-profit fundraiser.
Since 2010, she has been focused on preparing knowledge workers, educators, and students for the future of work.
FlexTeam is a mission-based micro-consulting firm, co-founded by Yolanda Lau in 2015, that matches talented mid-career women with meaningful, challenging, temporally flexible, remote project-based work opportunities. FlexTeam’s clients are businesses of all sizes across all industries and sectors. FlexTeam’s most requested projects are competitor / market research, financial models, and investor decks. FlexTeam is also the team behind Liquid.
Okay, I didn’t exactly give up my consulting business. I’m still doing some work through my company Lau Labs for friends and friends of friends. But I essentially shelved it to start FlexTeam. Here’s why.
My Solo Consulting Business
I started advising and consulting for entrepreneurs and small business owners more than a decade ago. Business plans, websites, basic financial models, marketing, branding, operations strategy, business development … I pretty much did it all for small companies. And I was pretty successful at it.
Then, I Became a Mother
I’ve always been interested in work-life fit. But during my first pregnancy in 2010, I became increasingly interested in “solving” the “problem” of ambitious, educated, talented women and men “opting out” of the traditional workforce for to spend time with their kids or other personal reasons. I started thinking about how I ought to start a company to get projects for all these smart moms.
Once my daughter was born, I kept working on consulting via Lau Labs but also considered myself a stay-at-home mom (SAHM). And as I became friends with more SAHMs, I started to feel the urgency of creating a company to get projects for all my smart SAHM friends. Women who had once had successful careers, who had begun to discount their self worth after quitting their jobs. Women who transitioned to part-time work, only to quit after finding they were doing full-time work at part-time pay. Women who were throwing themselves passionately into motherhood, parent teacher associations, and fundraising. Highly-educated, highly-experienced women wondering if they’d ever be employable after being at home with their kids.
A Difficult Pregnancy
Long story, the pregnancy with my son was not easy: very frequent doctors’ appointments. And so, while I still thought about creating this mom consulting company, I put working on it on hold for awhile. It didn’t stop me from brainstorming. Talking with other moms, I began to envision providing a whole suite of services to mothers who left the traditional workforce. Services like project-based consulting work, resume services, workshops to help women transition back to work, confidence building exercises, training sessions, networking events with a community of like-minded women, and more. And once my son was born, I began more actively seeking out partners for this endeavor and working on a business plan.
Starting FlexTeam
All this time, I continued to do consulting work via Lau Labs. Working from home and out of coffee shops (and hotel lobbies) and doing pretty well, if I do say so myself. Especially considering the number of actual working weeks I was putting in — which I coordinated around school breaks, school performances, and other personal obligations.
But when the opportunity to start FlexTeam with two other MIT alums (including a former roommate) came up, I put Lau Labs aside. And instead of working just when I wanted to, I began working 25 to 60+ hours a week (still from home or coffee shops or hotel lobbies) to make my mom consulting firm a reality. Why? Because I had seen too many smart moms struggling with motherhood and their career. Women shouldn’t have to choose. Men shouldn’t have to choose either.
So why did I put my consulting business aside to start FlexTeam? Because, as Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson said in Rework, “What you do is your legacy.”
The work we are doing with FlexTeam is important. I’ve seen women regain their confidence after working on a project or two with us. I’ve seen women use FlexTeam’s projects as one of many sources of work, allowing them to work full-time from home. I’ve seen women go through the onboarding process and learn something insightful about themselves and what they want.
Today, FlexTeam’s highly experienced, networked, and intelligent consultants have over 8,000 hours of time each week to spend working together to solve our client’s business challenges. We are generating a better income for women; a tight knit professional community that is fueling our growth of projects; a growing body of knowledge and technology that helps us scale the value of our time; and a long waiting list of others that want to join.
And more importantly, are you doing something to make the world a better place? Are you doing something that matters? What could you be doing to make a better world?
Yolanda Lau is an experienced entrepreneurship consultant, advisor, and Forbes Contributor. She is also an educator, speaker, writer, and non-profit fundraiser.
Since 2010, she has been focused on preparing knowledge workers, educators, and students for the future of work.
FlexTeam is a mission-based micro-consulting firm, co-founded by Yolanda Lau in 2015, that matches talented mid-career women with meaningful, challenging, temporally flexible, remote project-based work opportunities. FlexTeam’s clients are businesses of all sizes across all industries and sectors. FlexTeam’s most requested projects are competitor / market research, financial models, and investor decks. FlexTeam is also the team behind Liquid.
