by theEmother | Nov 11, 2008 | aCE talentNET, entrepreneurial mothers, so you think you're in business
How can you:
* Bring you more freedom and fulfilment in your consulting life?
* Create new revenue streams and increase your income?
Initially, by being part of the aCE talentNET Global Consultant Study…
For this inaugural annual study, we are inviting all consultants to share how aCE talentNET can continually work on new products and services to help you and your consultancy, that will not only:
* Bring you more freedom and fulfilment in your consulting life
* Create new revenue streams and increase your income
and also:
* Make you a recognized expert (or even celebrity) in your field
* Make growth, marketing and lead generation easy (and even fun)
* Build a large community of loyal fans around your brand
aCE talentNET plan to launch a number of new products and services throughout 2009.
BUT FIRST, we need your input. This will help us continue to develop products and services that will best serve your needs.
There are two reasons why you should take this survey.
1) To have your voice heard and ensure you get what you want from aCE talentNET
2) To save yourself the time and energy of having to do much of what you currently do solo.
We greatly appreciate your feedback. It will directly impact the creation of valuable new products/services for you. It is after all ultimately about increasing your bottomline, and how we can assist you in doing that.
Click here to commence…
It will take 15 minutes max. to complete.
The study will be available for completion until 30 November 2008.
If you, and/or colleagues, are not yet part of the aCE talentNET community, we invite you to do so by registering as a consultant via the web site.
Regards
Denise Hall
aCE talent NET | Executive Director – Business BT&D MIMC
& the entrepreneurial mother
www.acetalentnet.com
by theEmother | Nov 7, 2008 | aCE talentNET, so you think you're in business
“If you are anything like me you’ve been paying close attention to the global financial crisis but still adopting a relaxed attitude that “it couldn’t get that bad in Australia”. Well no longer… as I continue to read articles and watch news stories I have woken up to the fact that we need to adopt an extremely conservative approach to business and managing our finances in what could be troubled times ahead. This is true for both large and small businesses alike.
Contract World has recently posted an extremely sobering review of the facts leading up to the global financial crisis and goes on to explain the impact for large and small businesses, including the potential failure of large US icons like Ford and General Motors. Whilst the Australian economy is supported by a strong export market to China, we rely more heavily on Japanese exports, one market predicted to be hit hard by the global credit crisis. When (if?) this occurs together with an inability of large infrastructure projects to secure finance, rising unemployment, falling property markets and the highest personal debt levels in history the prospect of Australia avoiding a slide in to recession seems unavoidable. Consequently we all need to be vigilant in how we manage our businesses (and household finances). For some very useful tips I strongly recommend that you read the article on Contract World. In short… prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised if it doesn’t get as bad as predicted.
On a more positive note, aCE talentNET is pleased to report that at this stage we have seen no such contraction in projects and opportunities for our Talent Network. We will continue to work closely with our clients to ensure that they have the resources they need (at cost effective market rates!) to deliver the projects committed to in current and future budgets.
So what does this mean for the consulting market? Who knows what the future holds… I’m not really brave enough to make a prediction at this stage. I guess there are two immediate thoughts:
1. that the project/contracting market will downsize as larger organisations adopt conservative attitudes to project initiatives and, as mentioned above, large syndicated finance becomes harder to access thus putting on hold many planned initiatives; versus
2. larger organisations may turn to contract resources to deliver on project initiatives (whilst putting downward pressure on market rates) and avoid replacing and/or taking on new hires in a recession environment. Perhaps it will be a mix of both? Time will tell.
We would also like to say a big THANK YOU to all the Consultants that have taken the time to complete our Inaugural Consultant Survey… the response rate has been extremely pleasing. For those of you yet to complete the Survey we strongly encourage you to do so, as this is your opportunity to tell us how aCE talentNET can support you and your business. The Survey will take no longer than 15mins and completion before 30 November 2008 enters you into a draw to win a Nano iPod – how can you refuse??!! Complete Survey.
Until next month…
Deirdre Gruiters
Corporate Talent Agent
www.acetalentnet.com
by theEmother | Sep 9, 2008 | aCE talentNET, political offerings
I’ve been wanting to update you on this for some time… but you know what? I’ve nothing to update you about because Design VIC have not got back to me since the post entry (10/7/08), and nor are they acknowledging receipt of follow-up emails either…
how very disappointing I must say.
The potential for this exercise to be beneficial all round is enormous, but, given the nature of the beast, I cannot do it on my own. Maybe I’m pushing the envelope by asking for stuff that they are not actually ready to deliver, maybe they can’t access a designer who is capable in this type of Service Design yet and maybe they are therefore at a loss as to what to do… but it would be good if they shared the maybe’s!
My aCE colleague Deirdre Gruiters pointed out to me the other day that “I am ahead of my time” and to be honest, that is an accusation I have quite often had levelled at me over the years. And you know what, I think it’s right!!
So… this little journey will not be continuing for the time being, unless I hear back from Design VIC and we get back on track…
how very disappointing…
by theEmother | Sep 9, 2008 | aCE talentNET
I have been given a great article by the chap running Business Immersions – Gary Haywood. Titled “Service Design” by Bill Hollis, it is part of the Design Council UK’s suite of design offerings.
The article is the first I have seen that seriously starts to look at the marriage of the black art of design and the service industry. Not in terms of what the coating might look like, but more actively at being involved in the design of the business offering. Very exciting stuff indeed…
thanks Gary
by theEmother | Jul 3, 2008 | aCE talentNET
next stakeholder meeting booked 17/7…
A further suggestion has been that we look to “replace” us!
That is, in so far as finding one or more entrepreneurial mothers like us who are ready to use their network/experience and have a go at building a business within the aCE talentNET structure…
This will be discussed further on the 17th no doubt.
Part of that will be, I think, to “document” (mindmap) what an the ideal future business partner will look like (not physically 😉
As part of our marketing strategy…
Yesterday I spoke with Design VIC about the “Business Immersions” program, which I am most interested in. The program, funded by the State Government, is encouraging “business” to marry with “design”. What difference that marriage has made on the business will then be tracked over a 2 year period, with the story to be developed into a case study.
So first steps first…
I have been sent some preliminary reading about “service design”.
I am keen to look at “strategy design” as well. I will look at the material of the next few days.
Why am I interested in the program? for 2 reasons:
1. In both Tom Peters Essentials “Design” and Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind“, they refer to how “the future belongs to those with… A Mind for Design”.
Pink writes “The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind – computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers. But the keys to the kingdom are changing hands. The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognisers and meaning makers. These people – artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big picture thinkers – will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.”
One other zinger that says it all:
“The MFA (Master of Fine Arts) is the new MBA.”
2. What an amazing learning experience this would be. To be able to get a real handle on this, via being part of a live case study, is just too enticing to not want to be a part of.
by theEmother | Jul 3, 2008 | aCE talentNET, so you think you're in business
Yesterday I spent some time reflecting on where aCE talentNET is…
What current revenue streams do we have/use?
What revenue streams are available?
And true to form, as you can see, I mind-mapped both of them.
A useful exercise to do as it became obvious that aCE really does generate approx 90% of its income from the one channel. Not ideal given that I persoanlly aspire to multiple income streams.
Clearly, I’ve identified what we are missing, possible gap fillers and can therefore start investigating ways to turn that around.
This is all in readiness for our first stakeholder meeting that we are having Thursday, specifically around this topic.
excellent start…
