Are you considering either personal or professional development, but are not sure which to choose? We understand. On one hand, you want to advance your career. On the other, you want to nurture your personal life, self-esteem and relationships. 

The answer to this is actually fairly simple, invest in a development programme that does both.

Here at Leap into Consulting™ we offer a wealth of professional advice that will inevitably boost your personal circumstances too. The lines overlap, and in using our professional development tools and techniques, we’re sure you’ll find that your personal life benefits too.

Yes, our training programmes are designed to boost your career and your income, but with us it’s personal. Our unique blend of intuition, empathy and humour will help you see results - in all areas of your life. 

Here are just some of the ways that our professional development tools and mentoring will help you reap benefits in your personal life, too:

 

It will help with decision making: 

 

Our coaching sessions are designed to help you define what you want out of your career. We structure this in a way that guides you to understand yourself and what is important to YOU. In our sessions, this may mean critically assessing your current clients or aspects of your role to discuss which are working for you and importantly - which are not. Often, this critical thinking will extend into other aspects of your life too. Once you’ve found a clear path to making professional decisions, you’ll be able to make personal decisions more easily too - leading to a more effective life, outside of the office. 

 

You’ll build a professional network: 

 

By the very nature of what we do, you’ll build your professional network with us. We hold webinars attended by groups of career-minded professionals, as well as some face-to-face events with focussed and driven attendees. As a consultant who may often work alone, it’s important to build these networks with like-minded people. You may find peers who can help you achieve your career goals, or you may find someone who wants to talk holidays over a glass of wine one evening. As a consultant or a business leader - both are important in creating a well-rounded lifestyle. 

 

It will bring back your self esteem: 

Consultants often work alone, perhaps from home or perhaps jumping from office-to-office on an ever-changing basis. This way of working can be tough on even the strongest of us. Without an annual review or fixed line manager to sing your praises, it can sometimes be tough to see just what you’re worth. Investing in professional development will highlight your skills, assets and accomplishments, in turn bringing back any lost self-esteem. And navigating the world with a sense of self-esteem will do wonders for both your professional and personal life. 

 

You’ll rediscover your creativity:  

Having someone on hand to help you decide what you really want to do with you career will bring back your creativity. Perhaps you’re currently employed full-time and find yourself filling your days with tasks you’d rather not do, were you given the choice. Or perhaps you’re a long-time consultant who started with dreams and aspirations but have found yourself stuck in a rut in order to ‘get by’. Think again. Professional coaching will help you think outside of the box once more, allowing you to inject some creativity into your professional life. It will help you to discover what you want to do with your life rather than what an employer wants you to do. And there’s nothing better for your sense of well-being than following your own path. 

 

It will offer a sense of direction: 

Any professional coaching takes place with one ultimate goal in mind, helping you achieve your career goals. Our professional coaching methods combine this with elements of life-skill coaching: clear decision making, elevated self-esteem and sense of worth, rediscovery of creativity and network building - giving you a rounded yet clear focus that will seep into other areas of your life too. 

 

You’ll regain a work/life balance:

Knowing what you want will inevitably lead you to a more balanced work/life view, and one that works for you. If you want to work 70+ hour weeks, you’ll have the tools to find enough clients to keep you busy. If you want to chop your working week in half in order to spend more time with loved ones, you’ll discover how to price yourself in a way that allows you to make it happen. If you want to simply cut the work that isn’t giving you fulfilment, you’ll find the confidence to do so. Whichever way you look at it, understanding your ideal work/life balance and knowing how to get there is priceless. 

 

It will improve your relationships (with yourself and others): 

 
Professional development will change the way you see yourself. It will help you to recognise your achievements, to understand what is important to you both professionally and personally, and allow you to make impactful changes in your life and career. And in elevating the relationship you have with yourself, you’ll elevate your relationships with others too. 

 

It will make you happier!  

If it’s not clear by now, let us spell it out for you - professional development will make you happier! Yes, it will make you happier at work, but it will also make you happier outside of the office, too. It will build your self-esteem, equip you to make better decisions, help you find the confidence to chase a life you dream of, and bestow you with a sense of all your achievements; past, present and future. 

The benefits this will have on your personal life are numerous. We can’t name them all but we can say, a person who is happy, confident and knows what they want in life becomes inspirational and unstoppable!

- Are you ready to make the Leap into Consulting™?

- Find out how we can help you make the leap this leap year.  

Thousands of consultants across the country will gain an extra day’s pay in 2020. 

Why? 

2020 is a leap year; 366 days make up the calendar year rather than the usual 365. If you want to get really specific, this means 254 working days rather than the usual 253.

Consultants will charge for this extra working day while those in full-time employment will usually work the extra day without any additional financial benefit. 

But pay is just one reason to make the Leap into Consulting™ this leap year. Working as a consultant has many benefits. Here are just a few to consider: 

You can choose your projects:

Have you ever been pulled into a job by your manager that you really didn’t want to do, but had to because ‘it’s work’. Think again. As a consultant you can choose which jobs you wish to take on and - perhaps more importantly - which ones you don’t. Love organisational design? Choose projects focussing on this and go to work happy every day. Don’t enjoy recruitment? You’ll never have to look at a CV again. 

You can choose who you work for:

The choice of who you work for as a consultant is up to you. Entirely up to you. Your CV will become a running list of the people you have chosen to include, not those who have chosen you. So if you prefer working with smaller start-ups, you can dedicate your time to them. If you’re looking for big corporate names, you’ll rack up a few in no time at all. And the best thing? If you want to work with a combination of both, you absolutely can. 

 

You can design your work/life balance:

As a consultant, you get to choose who you want to work for - but you also get to choose when. Do you want to work Monday-Thursday only? Clock-off by 3PM? Take a month off in between jobs? All of this is possible. Yes, even the month off. You’ll decide which hours, days and even months you work. Whats more, even if you do decide to stick to the regular 9-5, Monday-Friday, you can still cut out that pesky commuting time and be finished up with work for the day well in time for dinner.

You’ll build your network: 

Working for a multitude of companies means working side-by-side with many different peers, VPs, board members and CEOs. Aside from the rounded experience this brings it also allows you to build a long, long list of professional contacts from varying specialities. What does this mean? It could mean someone to soundboard off next time you have a tough question from their niche. It will also likely mean a long list of full-time employees with your name on-hand next time they or their boss are looking for a consultant. We call that win win!

 

The growth opportunity:

Growth opportunities as a consultant come quicker and faster in terms of both experience, and pay. It works like this: consulting across many different companies means you’re not stuck doing the exact same job day in, day out. Its a fast-track to wider learning opportunity. You therefore have a far wider scope to learn and understand many different parts of a business and increase your specialist knowledge. This alone makes you incredibly valuable and sought out by businesses, which in turn comes with a higher pay check. 

 

Better compensation (including extra pay for overtime!):

It’s no secret that when a company is looking for a consultant to assist with a project, they’re willing to pay above and beyond market rate than that of a full-time employee. They need someone with specialist knowledge and that’s you, the consultant. You can also charge for an extra day’s work (hello, leap year!) and even more brilliantly - for overtime. If you’ve not yet made the Leap into Consulting™, have a think next time you’re stuck at the laptop past 6PM: you could be charging for this. You’ll never look at overtime the same way again. 

 

Freedom from office politics:

One major advantage of being a consultant is the freedom from office politics that you'll gain. Yes, you may have to deal with some of the day-to-day issues, but on the whole once you clock off from your working day, you’ll leave it behind. Even if not, you'll absolutely leave it behind once you move on to another project. And remember that month off we talked about. There’ll be no dealing with politics then! 

- Are you ready to make the Leap into Consulting™?

- Find out how we can help you make the leap this leap year.  

Everyone’s at it. 

From that top sports player to the award-winning actress. From your favourite musician, to your least favourite soap star. Let’s face it, even your former boss and the business leader you admire are doing it. 

Doing what?

Taking coaching or mentoring sessions to improve their game. Whatever their game is. 

As leaders in their fields, they know they need to stay ahead of the crowd. Coaching helps them to do this, and will help you do the same. 

Here are 7 ways in which coaching will help your career: 

1. Coaching will build your confidence

 

As a business owner, the drive and motivation to make things happen needs to come from you. Building your confidence can work wonders towards achieving this. 

Working with a coach will build both your self confidence and your business confidence in ways you may not have considered; affirming your ideas, helping you visualise where you want to be, and setting you up to win. 

And after all, if you're confident in your ideas and ability - why wouldn’t you want to share them with the world?

 
2. Coaching will give you clarity

 

Sometimes having all the ideas feels somewhat like a spider diagram drawn on paper. Lots of fantastic information but no clear way of making them happen. 

Coaches are trained to look at your business with a different lens; one that cuts through the noise to offer a clear path to reaching your goals. They’ll help you identify priorities, and show you what needs to be done to get there. 

Ideas on paper are nice, but practical application of them is nicer.

3. Coaching will help you set goals (and hold you accountable to them!)

 

Without a team around you to discuss plans and ways of making them happen, it’s easy to say ‘one day’ to many of the great ideas you’re storing in your Excel sheet or mental notes. The best way of making them happen? Set deadlines and be accountable for keeping to them. 

Having a coach by your side gives you someone to guide you towards reasonable goals and time frames, as well as to make sure you action them. 

Sometimes we all need a kick in order to turn our ideas into reality. 

4. Coaching will help you overcome hurdles

 

Not sure how to overcome your next hurdle? Whether it’s the first or 100th time you’ve faced it, a coach will act as an external source of information and knowledge to work through it with you. Find a coach with experience in your field and the chances are they’ve faced similar issues themselves, somewhere along the line. 

Plus, even if not - two brains are always better than one. Right? 

 
5. Coaching will give you access to valuable feedback 

External feedback on ideas, concepts and processes is a critical path to success - but as a business owner it can be hard to come by. Having someone who knows your field of expertise inside out and who is willing to give critical feedback is vital. 

If you’re lucky, friends or employees can do this - but a trained coach offers objective opinions designed to further your career. 

You may not always like what they have to say, but it will always be said with your best interests at heart. 

 
6. Coaching will unlock the tools you need to succeed

So you know your trade inside out - but did you know there are also many valuable tools from outside your industry that can help you succeed, too? Many of these tools can be incorporated into your work life with little to no extra effort - but deliver a large return. Part of the role of a business coach is to identify, showcase and set you on the road to using them.

We don’t think anyone will argue with minimal effort for maximum return. 

 
7. Coaching will help you build connections

We all know that in today’s world, one great connection can change the direction of your business. But if you’re a business owner working from the comfort of your study, how do you find these connections? 

A coach, by the very essence of what they do, will introduce you to mutually beneficial relationships designed to help both parties excel. Often you’ll be invited to related conferences and networking events too. 

As Brene Brown once said, “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen”.  

 - Find out more about about coaching here. 

I have listened to many consultants that worry about the fall in client work throughout the summer months. For me this is something that you should only experience in your first year until you get your business model right. 

• What types of services and products can you offer during the summer months that will continue regardless of holidays?
• Do you offer Summer Specials to generate interest and cashflow opportunities?
• What is the balance between your products and services?
• What % of your income is from the internet?

I'm happy to talk - please don't feel alone with this stressful situation. I have been there and it requires a fresh approach!

Here's the link to my calendar - book in 20 minutes for us to get ideas and some quick wins.

https://calendly.com/sarahhg-ghr