Before I get into my first post here on CYM, I want to thank Javier for giving me the chance to post here. Javier and I have worked together on a number of interesting projects and it’s great to be able to extend that collaboration onto his blog.
Firstly, a few words about me. I work in London, UK as an IT consultant. My particular interest is in using Free/Open Source software and cheap hardware to provide IT services to local small businesses and charities in London’s East End. A great frustration of mine is seeing organisations, particularly charities, spending precious resources on proprietary software and the correspondingly expensive hardware they need to run it when there are much cheaper alternatives available!
What I’d like to consider for my first post is the value to consultants and entrepreneurs in providing free support, assistance and other services to people in their community. For all of us, our most important resource is our time. What benefit is there in investing that time in a way which doesn’t provide an immediate, tangible return?
An opportunity for personal growth
The purpose of a consultant, at its most basic level, is to provide people with solutions to problems. I’ve found that many of the organisations I’ve worked with present similar problems to me that require very similar solutions. While this is great for me in that I don’t have to conduct hours of research, it quickly becomes mundane and unchallenging. For entrepreneurs who thrive on challenges this can be very dangerous ground! If the work that your clients offer you is starting to look just like the work you finished last week and the week before that, you may well need to seek out sources of different problems to tackle.
One aspect of working with charities and small businesses that I love is that they can provide some fascinating and unique problems. Their staff may be less well trained, they may have tight constraints on their budget or there could be any number of interesting, annoying or just plain unusual aspects to their requirements that I haven’t run into before. For example, I was asked to help out a charity that had just decided to grow from two part-time unpaid workers to three part-time paid workers. For this they needed more computer kit (this is what I was asked to help with) but also had to figure out how to fit three people into a space that had previously only held one or two. I found myself having to deal with issues involving lighting, electricity supply, storage and others - not the usual fare for an IT worker! I was also about to get involved with their fundraising management. When the job was done I had gained experience in some very varied areas that has since come in useful in some paid projects.
A safer environment to make mistakes in
The mistakes we make will be some of our most valuable learning experiences. Of course, they sometimes come with consequences that we would rather avoid. Offering our services for free can give us the chance to try something we haven’t done before but with the understanding that it might not work perfectly first time.
Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.
This doesn’t mean that you can breeze into an unpaid project and abandon your usual professionalism! You will need to be completely honest with your clients about when you’re approaching a problem that is outside your expertise, and realistic if you’re struggling with something. But when you’re not being paid, the expectations are different.
A chance to raise your profile
Word of mouth is the cheapest, most effective and least controllable form of advertising available. Our ability to influence who talks about us and what they say is limited at best. Getting involved in your community is a very effective way of becoming known as someone who is respectable, reliable and who isn’t just out to make as much money as possible.
Depending on who you choose to work with, there is also a chance to become known to someone when they are just beginning to grow. If, for example, you are able to help someone out when they’re just starting a new small business you will most likely be the first person they call when they need some paid work doing later on. Trustworthy people can be hard to find and are invaluable when you do find them. Cultivate a reputation of being honest, hard working and helpful and your investment will repay you many times over.
Cheers!
Tim Vaughan
EastEndit.com
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