Event Details

Consulting, Contracting & Freelancing
Be Your Own Boss

Date: Tuesday 29 April 2008
Location: Brisbane
Event Series: SPIN – Special Interest Network

Are you a practising consultant? Are you a potential consultant? Are you a contractor? Are you a freelancer? Or someone who would like to work for themselves?

Specialist consultant trainer and two-time author on the subject, Ian Benjamin, will lead this Forum in identifying what steps potential and practising consultants should address to build viable consultancy practices.

In this interactive forum, participants will consider:

• Why you would consider consulting – what’s in it for you?
  
• What it means to be a consultant, contractor or freelancer
  
• Key competencies for consultants – the skills they need, aside from their technical or professional competence.
  
• What are the pitfalls – common and not so common?
  
• Seven points home based consultants need to address.
  
• The minimum marketing kit for a consultant.
  
• How much to charge?

Speaker Profile

Ian Benjamin
Ian is a specialist trainer of consultants who has run hundreds of workshops for more than 8,000 consultants. In recent years he has conducted a considerable number of in-house engagements for professional consulting firms providing their services in the Pacific Basin / Asia, Australia and NZ.

Allen & Unwin published the second edition of Ian’s book “Consulting, Contracting & Freelancing’ in September 2007. This followed the sell-out of the first edition which was released in 2003.

ABC Radio, the Open University, the National Press Club and Qantas in-flight Talking Business have all included Ian in their programs. Ian has written for or been quoted in BRW, and Your Life and Facilities Management magazines.

Ian is a graduate of Monash University in economics, politics and education. In his immediate career prior to self-employment, Ian was corporate finance manager with a merchant bank. He has also held positions as deputy general manager of a public trustee company, a teacher and a financial journalist.

In October 2006, Ian became the founding convenor of the Brisbane Chapter of the Australian Facilitators’ Network