Updated: Jul 10, 2019
Hello friends,
It has been a while since we last updated you on our progress in building our CoSolo - peer accountability and coaching community for independent consultants.
We started the beta program with ~20 independent consultants in March, and with their help, we made a lot of progress on designing a program that helps independent consultants build sustainable consulting businesses! More on that below.
Going forward, we plan on sending out newsletters periodically that provide updates on what we are up to in the CoSolo community as well as useful information for independent consultants.
🎉Live Learning Event
Independent consultants often mention that sales is one of toughest skills to master. However, it is likely the most important skill for any consultant because, without sales, you ain’t getting paid!
So I am very excited to share that we are hosting a virtual webinar this coming Thursday on May 23rd at 2:30PM EDT / 11:30AM PDT with Adrian Miller, sales trainer, consultant, speaker and author of “Best Practices for Sales Successs.” We hope to see you there! By the way, if you are not a CoSolo member and want to participate in the event, just reply to this email and let me know that you are interested!
For your reference, below is a full list of CoSolo virtual fireside chats and webinars from April to July 1:
Fireside Chat with Matt Kowalczyk on Business Development - April 18
Webinar with Adrian Miller on Sales - May 23
Fireside Chat with Jess Todfeld on Getting Publicity - June 13
Fireside Chat with Dwight Holcomb on Scaling with virtual resources - July 1
… and more speakers lined-up with expertise on digital marketing, defining service offerings, business development, building a coaching business, speaking, etc.
📢CoSolo Progress Update
What CoSolo Beta program consisted of:
5 virtual teams of 20 members
Consultants in IT, SW Development, Change Management, Digital Transformation, UX, Product Management, HR, Marketing, Sales, and Data Science
11 weekly meetings per team or a total of 55 weekly meetings
Discussions across 10 slack channels
2 community events
The program focused on improving consultants’ "discipline" and access to a "sounding board of trustworthy consultants" who they can talk to and get feedback from. In our research, these were 2 of the most important needs consultants had (9 out of 10 in importance) yet were unsatisfied with (5 out of 10 in satisfaction) in building their businesses.
CoSolo members achieved the following results after going through the program:
100% of members created business plans for building their consulting businesses and all made significant progress on their plans
50%+ of consultants either launched new or updated their website
Members attended and spoke at multiple events shared by members
Multiple consulting opportunities were shared and sold among members
Members were introduced to 40+ time and cost saving tools and resources specifically relevant to consultants
Satisfaction level for “Discipline” improved by 44%
Satisfaction level for “Having a sounding board of trustworthy consultants” improved by 77%
We are super excited with what the members have achieved in such a short period of time, and we are only just getting started!
On that note, we are now opening CoSolo to new members so that they can also benefit from the community and build a sustainable consulting business.
We are still updating our website, but if you are interested in joining us, please click here, and apply so we can hold your spot when we form new teams in June.
Have a wonderful rest of the week, and we will talk to you soon!
SOME QUESTION YOU MAY HAVE
“Remind me again, what is CoSolo?” CoSolo is a virtual peer accountability and coaching community for independent consultants. Check out more on our website: www.CoSolo.co
“How did I sign up for this newsletter?” You likely talked to Tony Lew or Rahul Bhaskar or signed up through the website at some point in the past sharing your interest in CoSolo.