Best practices for consulting on multiple projects and clients at once.

How do the top pros overload their plates—and hold down the fort?

It’s the classic Superman dilemma: Despite all his formidable powers, the Man of Steel simply can’t disarm a hydrogen bomb in Los Angeles, and catch Lois Lane as she plummets off the Eiffel Tower… at the same time.

How do you solve such Kryptonic conundrums? More importantly, how do the top solopractitioners and boutique firms successfully juggle far more than their own weight in terms of client load, locations, hours, and deliverables? If success is tied to scale, then this ability is an essential prerequisite. And aside from cloning yourself (yet another fantasy movie), your options may seem limited.

Fortunately for you, this code has already been cracked. Here are some best-practice pointers for increasing your billing without increasing your stress—or opening cracks for things to fall through:

Beat the clock(s). This is one of those so-simple-that-too-many-people-miss-it tips. In today’s instantly connected world, clients often span multiple time zones beyond your own. This can really amp up the pressure on you to meet impossible deadlines… only if you let it. Turn the tables—and the clocks—in your favor. Just as easily as different time zones can be your enemy, let them be your friend. Let’s say you’re on the east coast, three hours ahead of your west coast client. They want something by end of day today. You could sweat and work until nine o’clock at night, Eastern time, or you could simply ask them, “How would you like this in your in-box when you walk in in the morning?” The important thing is essentially re-defining “end of day.” If they want something when they’re leaving, it's the same as getting it the next morning. This, naturally buys you another three hours of stress-free time to work, including until noon the next day.

Let’s flip the scenario—and the coasts—and see how it still works: Now you work in L.A., and your client is in New York. Your client—now three hours ahead of you—wants something by his/her end of day. Even if they ask you late in their day—say, noon Eastern time—you’re ahead of the game, because it’s still only 9 a.m. in L.A. Again, the trick is to ask “How would you like this in your in-box when you walk in in the morning?” This way, you can comfortably work until the end of your day (which probably goes until 9 p.m. Eastern time, way after your client has left the office); you still got the extra three hours out of the time zone difference.

Obviously, this same trick works across continents, not just the continental U.S. And it doesn’t take much creativity to see how it applies to actual travel time/time-in-transit (for you or your client), too. But the common thread is how you approach the challenge, and how you couch and re-define the deadline, up front, to your client. It’s the exact opposite of sweating it out or—worse—begging for more time as the deadline looms.

Prioritize. Carve out a little time for yourself and jot down a list of all the things you do in a given day or week. Or simply look at your past week’s calendar, if you’re already keeping track. Which of those to-do’s are ones for which you, yourself, are absolutely indispensable and irreplaceable? Hint: It’s not all of them, that’s for sure. Your highest priorities are your face-time and phone-time (and Skype time/whatever time) with your clients. Also, what are the things that you simply enjoy doing the most? Be selfish; it’s an important part of this exercise. Similarly, your lowest priorities (you mean you haven’t yet found a dry cleaner that offers pickup and delivery?) have no place on your calendar. Cut ‘em.

But once you’ve culled those two extremes, you’re left in a tantalizing middle ground. (Or limbo. Or DMZ!) This is where you can make the leap from Smallville to Metropolis. You need to let go, and entrust someone else to do them. Some things may be pretty obvious: If you’re still trying to do your own taxes with some off-the-shelf software, hire an accountant. But other things—other essential things—may not seem so obvious to you. How much time, for example, do you currently spend on proposals? Presentations? SME interviews? Whitepapers? Session pre-reads?

Let go. All of those deliverables bear your stamp, and your brand. But they don’t necessarily require 100 percent of your time. They do require your ideas. But why play the perfectionist while paying the opportunity cost in terms of both clients and prospects left un-met and un-served?

The world’s top consultants figured this out a long time ago. If they’re big enough (think McKinsey or BCG), they’ve built entire back-office operations to silently support their front-line consultants. But you don’t have to be that big to appear that big. The right combination of your expertise and input, along with a trusted professional who can partner with you, under cover of your NDA, on the deliverables, will pay tremendous dividends in terms of your productivity, profits, and peace of mind. You’d be pleasantly surprised to discover just how much you can offload--while boosting your brand image at the same time.

What’s better, the process gets even faster and more efficient as it goes. Once you forge a partner-like relationship with a trusted resource, you’ll both crest the learning curve of getting to know each other, and details such as your IP, your preferred methods of communicating, your clients’ predilections, etc., will all become second nature. Email and phone makes all of this ridiculously easy to accomplish.

Think of Elvis. Put it this way: When Elvis Presley first started out, he’d lug his own gear and tune his own guitar. When he became a worldwide phenomenon, he didn’t have to do any of that anymore. But he was still Elvis. The same applies to you. Be a rock star. Get the support you need and start building.

A shameless plug. If you’re wondering how we got so many insights on the topics above, it’s because we’ve been part of that exact process for so many top consultants over the years. We bring to the table the unique combination of consulting, marketing, and creative skills which have let us help independent consultants and boutiques to overload their plates for more than 15 years. Best of all, we’re fast, efficient, and surprisingly affordable, given the value we provide. Contact us right now and let’s talk about growing your business as quickly and efficiently as possible. 

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