PeakStrategy

About Us

Peak Strategy offers a comprehensive suite of business improvement tools and services for consultants. Our proprietary line of websites gives us a unique insight into the needs of business owners and consultants. We combine this advantage with a product development approach that uses independent consultants who are leaders in their respective fields. This allows us to develop world class consulting products and solutions that drive results.

We also offer comprehensive consultant training programs and strategies for growing your consulting revenues through practice extensions. All of these resources, products and services have been combined in one package called our Instant Consulting Practice.

Naming Your Consulting Practice

You will need to get a ‘domain’ name, if you do not have one already. This is the name of your web site and the ‘address’ your customers will type into their web browser when they want to visit your site. You should be prepared with several options and spin-offs of the name you think you want, since your first choice may not be available. If the name is already registered to another business, you will not be able to use it for your web site. Of course if you have an existing consulting practice the process of finding a domain name is fairly easy, though you may have to use a derivative of the name. For a new business you have much more flexibility.

Here are some things to look for when choosing a domain:

Keep the name short

A short name -- if you can get it -- is important for several reasons. It is easy to fit into logos, makes a better brand, is more easily recognizable, and is harder to misspell.

Make it memorable

You remember generic names, such as consultant.com and advisor.com. But you also remember more unique names such as Amazon.com, Google.com, and FogDog.com. Putting together strange combinations of words is fun and can be very productive. But as a consulting firm marketing to businesses, you should make sure the name conveys the sense of professionalism that you want to bring to your business. Say your prospective domain name out loud to listen to how it sounds. See if your tongue gets twisted around any syllables. Whatever your domain name, it should stick in the mind.

10 Steps in Preparing a Contract - Part 3

Steps 7-10 in preparing a contract

7. Provisions necessary for the protection of the client:

A time schedule for the completion of services by the consultant, or a formula for determining such.
A requirement for adequate insurance coverage. The client should be adequately protected either by insurance or by a hold-harmless agreement, or both.
A provision preventing the consultant (and the client) from assigning the contract or subcontracting a part of it without the written consent of the other.
Although the agreement will normally terminate by provision or implication when the consultant's services are fully performed, the client may be given the right to terminate the agreement if the consultant's performance is unsatisfactory or if the client has no further need of the service provided, or, in some cases, any time at the option of the client. A reasonable arrangement for payment of fees in the event of such termination should be provided for.
By implication and by specific contract provision, where called for, a requirement may be stated that only competent personnel may perform or continue to perform work for the client. It is not unknown for the client to request the assignment of a specific person or persons to perform the services, with identification of same in the contract. The consultant should note that such a contractual clause will limit the consultant's flexibility. Avoidance of such a clause may be in the consultant's interest.
Other provisions include requirements that the consultant obtain any approvals required by government agencies, that the consultant maintain adequate records, that the consultant make periodic reports to the client, and that any fee paid for a preliminary report to the client may be applied to the total fee involved for a completed project.

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Seminar Promotion

Approximately one-half to two-thirds of the total cost of presenting a seminar is spent on the deceptively simple enterprise of generating interest and trying to exercise a positive influence on people’s decisions of whether not to attend. Whether it is advertising in a newspaper, direct mail/email promotion, telephone marketing, online advertising or radio commercials there are techniques that will
increase the effectiveness of your advertising and reduce your expenses.

10 Steps in Preparing a Contract - Part 2

Steps 4-6, in preparing a contract

4. The basic commitment or agreement of the consultant should be set forth.

a. The services to be provided by the consultant should be set forth in sufficient detail to make clear the consultant's undertaking. The services to be performed by the consultant should be spelled out in as much detail as possible. Since care is being taken to develop the contract document, it makes little sense to be terse. The best advice is to leave nothing open to question. Enumerate all of the consultant's tasks and major sub-tasks.

b. Where the services relate to a particular project or line of work, it should be fully described by means of size and location and/or the type of work or project involved.