Are You Saving Your Company Time or Money?

This article is the second in a series of articles on How to Triple Your Income as a Consultant.  You’ve got to think differently if you’re going to move from employee to consultant.  You’ve got to think differently if you’re going to be an entrepreneur for that matter.  You have to look for the needs and problems that people need solving.  Once you identify those problems, you can start to put solutions together to address those needs.

There are two very specific needs that are common to every business.  Every business wants to save time and money or create more time and money.  This applies to people as well.  If you can help a business or an individual solve either one of these problems, you instantly create value.

When I worked in construction as a project engineer, time and money were always the biggest problems.  It was in 2007 that I really started to take notice of this.  I realized that every time I was in a meeting with the company executives, time and money were always the focus of the agenda.

There were of course other problems, but these two problems stood out as priorities to company executives.  As a project engineer it was my responsibility to solve these problems by delivering construction projects on time and under budget.

Time Costs Money

You’ve probably heard of the expression that time is money.

In construction we often had to meet tight deadlines to complete projects on time.  To meet the deadline we would brainstorm solutions.  In some cases we would hire extra labor or bring on a night shift to get the work done in the evenings.

This usually helped to condense the schedule, but at the end of the day it also cost the company more money; we were either adding manpower to the construction site or paying a premium for the night shift.   This cost money and brought the project over budget.  The bigger the project, the bigger this problem became.

There were also situations where the schedule was flexible and we had more than enough time to complete the project.  Sometimes this worked out to a disadvantage because the workers would have more time to complete the job and therefore put more hours on the construction site.  More hours meant spending more money.  Another big no-no.

Finding Solutions

After being a project engineer for a couple of years I started to understand the game of construction.  I began to see the relationship between time and money.  If I could properly manage activities and keep the project objective focused, this would ultimately save everyone time.  And if the project took less time, it would save the company money and everyone would be happy.

Through trial and error I developed my own system to manage activities and keep objectives focused.  It didn’t always work exactly as I planned, but I started to produce more consistent results and build a reputation for myself.

There was one project where the company had a budget of $5,000,000.  The project was completed over a year and a half and was on time and under budget.  It was under budget by about 10% or $500,000.  If you told a company that you were going to save them half a million dollars on a $5,000,000 budget, do you think they would be interested in how you did that?

Getting Into Consulting

It was at this point that I knew I was getting good at my job.  I was getting consistent results.

I was clear on the problems that needed solving: the company wanted to save time and money.  I also new that these problems were mere symptoms.  The real problems were hidden in mismanaged activities and unclear project objectives.

It was at this point that I had considered going part time as a consultant to free up my time and pursue my passion for coaching.

Before I moved into Consulting I had to earn the right – I had to demonstrate my results and therefore the value I was offering to the people where it mattered most.  To continue reading this series of articles see: Get Paid More: Earn The Right.