Getting Started Bootcamp Cohort "Hawk Class"

About the bootcamp:

When you’re just starting out as an independent consultant, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. There’s so much to learn, and even more to do! This eight-week getting started bootcamp will help.

Limited to just eight participants, your "PICA pod" will meet every other week for eight weeks to help you…

• Set up your business (including naming it, if you haven’t already)

• Refine your branding and service offerings

• Figure out your pricing

• Create an online presence for your business

• Do your initial outreach and business development

• And tackle whatever else you may need help with!

Led by PICA Community Lead, Dray Wharton, you’ll get the help you need, and you’ll appreciate the sense of accountability and esprit de corps with your colleagues.

Format:

These are interactive roundtable discussions, not webinars, so be prepared to participate, ideally using your webcam.

Each session will focus on a particular topic, with assignments in between sessions. Assignments may include taking PICA workshop if you haven’t already, and/or creating a first draft of something so we can discuss it in the next session.

Duration: Each session is 90 minutes (450 minutes total)

Timing:

Fridays starting May 21st at 9:00 Pacific. Sessions are every other week.

Syllabus:

When you register for the bootcamp, you will get a confirmation email with the calendar invitation for just the first session. We will manually send you the calendar invitations for the other four sessions.

 

May 21st

Get to know each other and your objectives for next 8 weeks.  

Featured Topic: Laying Your Foundation (infrastructure).

Assignments and prep for next session:

• Complete your foundational steps (e.g. business license, DBA, etc.)
• Take Know Your Niche: Branding to Build Your Business (May 27th) or use PICA articles to help you: Why Personal Branding is Vital and How to Do It* and Know Your Niche* (These articles contain links to worksheets.)
• Take Billing Rates and Pricing Strategies (June 2nd)
• Draft your tagline and we'll fine-tune it in our next session.
• Develop a summary of your service offerings. (What services do you provide and to whom?)

Related Materials:

• Creating a Foundation for Consulting Success
• Getting Started as Your Own Business (with checklist) *
• Registering Your Business and Getting a License *
• Registering Your DBA (Doing Business As) *
• Business Structure: Sole-proprietor, LLC, Corporation, or Other? *
• One Easy Step to a Professional Image (Use an email domain.)

 

June 4th

Check in on your progress on laying your foundation. 

Focus Area: Refining your branding, go-to-market messaging, and service offerings. Group input on your tagline. Share your service offerings. Sanity check your pricing.

Assignments and prep for next session:

• Replicate your tagline on all marketing
• Begin to update your LinkedIn profile (your tagline as your headline)
• Create an email signature with your tagline
  • Is Your Email Signature Helping You Stand Out from the Crowd?
• Take Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for Consulting* (June 10th) or use the PICA reference guide *
• Update your LinkedIn Profile

Related Materials:

• PICA Reference Guide: Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile (download)
• How to Figure Out Your Consulting Bill Rate
• Quote Your Consulting Billing Rate with Confidence

 

June 18th 

Discuss/refine branding and pricing; review LinkedIn profile updates.

Focus Area: Create visibility! Creating a LinkedIn business page and/or website.

Assignments and prep for next session:

• Take How to Build Your Website (TBD) or use PICA's reference guide (download)
• Finish your LinkedIn profile
• Create an outline for your website
• Create a LinkedIn business page
• Bonus points if you get a first draft of your website done, too!

Related Materials:

• Eliminate the Gray Square on Your LinkedIn Profile!
• PICA Reference Guide: How to Build Your Website * (download)

 

July 2nd 

Review/discuss marketing efforts and website outlines (or actual websites)

Focus Area: Preparing for Launch 

Assignments and prep for next session: 

• Export and prioritize contacts
• Draft outreach message(s)
• Draft two stories or case studies
• Prepare samples so you have them ready
• Take Business Development for Independent Consultants (July 8th) or read the five articles in PICA's Resources Library *
• Take Legal Aspects of Solo Consulting (July 14th)

Related Materials:

• Read the five articles in PICA's Business Development Library *
• Use Work Samples to Seal the Deal
• Negotiation Tips for Independent Consultants 

 

July 16th 

Review outreach messages

Develop goals for next quarter

Assignment: Officially launch your business!

* Members-only content

FAQs:

Q: Do I have to participate in every session?
A: No, but like most things you’ll get out of it what you put into it. That said, the first session is mandatory. If you can’t make it to the first session, you’ll need to wait until the next bootcamp or use the course syllabus above as your own “independent study” course.

Q: What if I miss a session?
A: You can watch the recording but you’ll miss the coaching and peer input which may be the most valuable part.

Q: What if I have questions between sessions?
A: Post the question to the cohort using PICA's community app, or send an email to the PICA Advocate.

Q: What is the time commitment?
A: 5 sessions of 90 minutes each, plus other workshops as needed, and of course doing your assignments. (If anyone told you that starting your own consulting business would be fast and easy, they were lying.)

Q: How many people will be in the cohort?
A: A maximum of eight, plus the leader.

About the Bootcamp Leader:

Dray Wharton has been around the consulting world since the mid-90s and has enjoyed the independent lifestyle since 1999 when he founded his first consulting practice. A serial entrepreneur, Dray has started five businesses and sold two of those to giants in the technology and marketing spaces.
 
In 2006, he pivoted his efforts towards a management consulting practice where he could apply his studies in organizational psychology to help individuals, teams, and companies up their game and Wharton & Co. was created. 

PICA is a priority for Dray because he learned too many lessons 'the hard way' and felt that sharing his experiences would help others as they pursued successful transitions to the gig economy.