Finally! It’s been a while, but here I am with more blogs on my consultancy experiences over the almost 4 (eek) years since I took the plunge and moved from working in the public sector. I promised to share experiences of being on the other side of public procurement and I will, but today I’m mostly thinking about my many different roles.
I call myself the Managing Director. Sounds grand, doesn’t it? Life has moved on, and Glen Shuraig does now have two directors and a long-suffering part-time Business Manager. We also now have a couple of excellent associate consultants we have worked with on various projects, and others we can call on when the right project comes along. I think that means we are a proper team now.
All the same, I have some other roles I couldn’t fit on the business card. Some that spring to mind are (in decreasing order of competence):
- Finance director
- Payroll administrator
- HR director
- Communications officer
- Sustainability manager
- Head of Marketing
- Web developer
So, of all of these, I’m least competent at web development. I know this, because I have spent far too much of today wrestling with long overdue updates to this website. I have had help with the wording and a supply of patient advice/tea/offers of painkillers (many, many thanks to my Business Manager, Sarah) and I’m using WordPress, which makes life much simpler, but even so…. Anyway, it’s done now, and I’m off for a lie down. I hope you like it. Any suggestions for improvements can be shared below and Sarah will deal with them.
For anyone out there who is thinking of trying the self-employed consultant life, I can highly recommend it. It will help if you are either (a) stubbornly self-reliant to the point of stupidity or (b) good at using your network to find people with relevant expertise who can help you. I know from personal experience that it even works to flip-flop between the two, although that’s probably not your ideal approach. But you will get to work with lots of new people, learn more than you could ever have imagined, broaden your horizons and discover that you have more skills than you think. Even, occasionally, in web development.
Stuff about procurement to follow some other day. Sarah will nag me till I do it!
Short and sweet! Events have conspired to lead me to a career break so your reflections are most interesting!
Maybe we should have a catch up and swap experiences one day, Stephen? Give me a shout if you’re going to be in Edinburgh.