Overhead

Overhead

Large organizations (and small ones) have bureaucracies, overhead, which eat into profit. Some of it is needed, much of it is not. I believe entire human resource departments, for example, are simply unnecessary overhead.

The problem is that many solo consultants set about creating their own time-draining, profit-eroding overheard. They pay subcontractors too much. They pay for ineffective social media advertising. They pay notoriously shoddy firms to place their intellectual property on online learning platforms—which no one buys, and we know that. They engage in excessive backup systems, waste time at worthless association meetings, and take three times as long as necessary to write a book, a proposal, or a mere letter because they seek perfection instead of simple success.

Reduce your overhead. It will kill you. If you can provide advice to a client who gives you money in return, you really don’t need much more than the clothes on your back.

© Alan Weiss 2016