When I started my consulting business and began to sell my services, one thing that became imminently clear when you’re on short-term projects and are paid for your time is: quickly add value.
You’d be surprised how many people start contracts or gigs with the whole ‘I’m going to talk to people on the team to understand how we work BLAH BLAH BLAH.’
NO! Don’t do busy work when you can start doing meaningful work.
Some thoughts on how to get started with the right momentum:
- Quickly understand the problems you are meant to own/solve. Document it and share to ensure you’re on the same page with others.
- On Day 1 begin shipping the most straightforward solutions to the problems in your court.
- There’s no positioning written? Write the first draft.
- There’s no sense of what competitors are doing? Make a competitive landscape report.
- Ship and advocate for your solutions immediately
- Market your work internally to your stakeholders
- NEVER assume that even the person who hired you understands the value you provide, continually message the value you’re providing by contextualizing what you’re shipping and how it can be used.
Basically, the most impressive people don’t ask permission to start, they just start. Ship things fast and you’ll see results.
Marketing, tech, and web 3 