Chris Spafford

Building a business plan for a product marketing consultancy involves several key steps to ensure clarity, viability, and strategic direction. Create an executive summary. This section provides an overview of your consultancy, including its mission, goals, target market, unique value proposition, and a summary of financial projections. Build this last. Detail the nature of your consultancy, its history (if applicable), legal structure, location, and any unique advantages or partnerships. Focus on your unique value proposition. Describe the day-to-day operations of your consultancy, including staffing requirements, office space, technology infrastructure, and any other resources required. Review often and change as needed.

As you progress in your career and meet with success in your current role, senior leaders may take notice and may offer you opportunities for advancement in areas they need assistance in. These may not be areas which advance your career in a desired direction - so it's important to be prepared. To know whether these are the right opportunities for you, there should be a clear strategy as to what you want in your career for responsibility, stability, work function, etc. Once this strategy has been mapped out and WRITTEN DOWN (I am a huge fan of memorializing this type of information) you will be able to assess more clearly whether the opportunity advances your career in a positive direction.

The first rule of a negotiation is to have all the facts to support your position. Market research on a particular position will get you to a range you should expect to see in a compensation package. The second thing to consider is your overall value to the organization. What do you bring to the table? Can it be quantified? Ultimately you are selling yourself. If the company isn't going to meet your "price", one of the potential reasons why is you haven't done a good job with your value proposition. If the company believes they will get a multiple of the investment they are making in you in return, there should be minimal objections in the negotiation.

Sometimes your work life balance comes apart and you didn't see it coming. How do climb out of the grind and get back to a healthier cadence? Take a weekend (I know - the balance problem. Sometimes you need to take a step back to move it forwards) and WRITE DOWN all the things you absolutely need to do, and those things you are doing which can be delegated or outsourced. Develop a timeline to shed all of those items which can be delegated or outsourced and manage to the timeline. You will not only be freeing up actual time, you will be clearing headspace which will allow you to be present with the significant others in your life.

Not only communication, but over-communication is required. People do not like change - it makes many uncomfortable. In the absence of information, employees will create their own dialog, so it's important to fill the void. There are a couple main strategies which will go a long way to ease the transformation. First is to get the buy-in of your senior team and make sure each is a champion. If they believe in it, your messaging will be fully supported and better received. Second - your messaging must contain "what's in it for me" information. This is the question employees will be asking, so if you answer it up front you will already be ahead of the curve.

Rule #1 - stop multitasking! It is counterproductive. The ability to stop and focus on one thing you want to excel at is a learned skill for most people. Mindfulness is simply being able to put everything else to the side and provide 100% of your attention to strategic development. That means no emails, texts, etc. We have all become accustomed to responding immediately to the phone"ding". Try turning it off. You need a clear mind to think through the pros and cons of various strategies and how you will share your results with others. Be intentional.