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Do what you can, with what you have, where you are
 
Institute of IT Trainers - Freelance Trainer of the Year 2006 & 2009
Liverpool Business Connect Member
  Maximum Impact Solutions Limited - Reporting Solutions, Creating Answers
Reporting Solutions - Creating Answers, Crystal Reports, Dashboarding (Xcelsius) & SQL Reporting Services

The Maximum Impact Solutions Blog Feed ME!!!!

12
January

A - Z of a Successful Freelance IT Trainer: B is for Business

In the second part of this series we will be looking at the business side of becoming a freelance IT trainer.

B is for Business

So you have now decided to become a freelance IT trainer, which means that you are in business sellling training solutions.

Running a business is a great opportunity, full of challenges, that makes life very exciting to say the least.

For me it has given m the freedom, to lead the life I want with a great work-life balance, and the chance to give something back to the community, which in turn had lead me to some very interesting places, and talking to a myriad of fascinating people.

The most important thing to do is Tell Everyone!!!!  

You are the cheapest and most effective tool to sell your vision, your passion and your business.

"People buy people. before they buy products and/or services"

Network and build relationships, as you never know who they know.

There are a few things that you will need to ask yourself with regards how you are going to run your business.

So lets start off with the simple questions:

  • What's the name of your business?
  • What is your brand?
  • What is the legal entity of the business, sole-trader or limited?
  • What training business model are you going to use, Associate, Direct and/or mixture?
  • What is your service offering?
  • Who and where are your clients?
  • What is your minimum daily rate?
  • What are your terms and conditions?
  • What is your value added proposition?


Other things you will have to consider:

  • What is your marketing and/or sales strategy?
  • What is your on-line presence?
  • Who and What is your support group/network?
  • How are you going to develop yourself?
  • What qualifications, if any, do you need?
  • What is your chasing payment strategy?


Some things you maybe should not do:

  • Try to do everything yourself, concentrate on what you do best, pay someone else to do the other things
  • Deliver every course under the sun, it is not possible to be everything to everyone
  • Blag, if you cannot do it say so and/or say no.
  • Rely heavily on one source of income
  • Get seduced by long-term training assignment at low daily rates.

If you are using the associate model, you may find this blog post useful.

I liken running my business as a roller-coaster ride, it's full of opportunities and challenges, which makes it both exhilerating and exciting.

I set up Maximum Impact Solutions to give me the control to design and deliver high quality, relevant and fun training and consultancy solutions to my clients, creating a win-win situation for everyone.

I have found over the years that not everyone has the same idea when it comes to business, but i remember not to take anything personally.

I would like to hear your comments, experience, opinions and thoughts about this subject, please drop me a line or two below:

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