Anti-Piracy Act

Posted on February 15, 2012 by

By Maureen Aylward

Even with the postponement of a vote for the Stop Online Piracy Act in the US Congress, the issue still remains a hot one. Our Zintro experts weigh in with their thoughts and opinions.

Ben Levitan, a cellular expert, says that the internet was designed by the government to assure constant communications. If during a war, a link between headquarters and the front line was blown up, communications would not be interrupted via an Internet where there were hundreds or thousands of alternate routes to the same location. If international links are removed then people who host the internet will simply find alternate routes. It would be easy to route traffic over a private link from Canada to the USA. These types of things will not help the piracy issue,” he says.

Dr. LLau, an expert in IT and IP law, says that while the law allows self-help under certain circumstances, trying to counter an economic tort (loss of excess profits) by hindering a third party (advertiser on the alleged infringing web-site) is not effective. “Apart from the potential for abuse (framing competitors), the use of emotionally laden words such as stop piracy and protect property marks an abuse of the legal concepts. IP can be seen as a head-start; a patent is exhausted after 20 years and the copyright is released into public domain,” Llau says. “What has shifted in this case is the technology has altered the careful balance the courts have evoked. The reality is that the half-life of digital products (when 50% of what you know/experience becomes worthless) has dramatically shortened. So rather than address the core issue of what makes a piece of music or film memorable (and thus extending life-span), corporations are either suing their customers or bullying alternative distribution networks. Copyright infringement is a valid concern, but attempting to blacklist secondary or tertiary participants doesn’t solve the issue.”

Michael Plishka, president of a design consultancy, says that the discussion of controlling online piracy is, at its core, a discussion of business models. “Current models have not anticipated, nor are they adjusting to, current market dynamics that are heavily influenced by social communities that utilize technology in ways that increase the ability of individuals to share and build community in ways that were not possible in the past,” he says. “The typical reaction to new problems is to use methods that were used to deal with old problems, modifying these techniques accordingly.”

Plishka says that the problem is that online piracy is so different in scope, breadth and depth, from the piracy of copyrighted brick and mortar entities that the methods for dealing with this must also be completely different. “Essential to this is the reframing of the challenges at hand: innovative ways of looking at the world and seeing that social networking via the internet is an opportunity, not an enemy to be conquered. This means that typical models of profit-making must be abandoned in favor of alternate methods that work symbiotically with the internet as opposed to current methods which simply use the internet as a means to an end,” he says.

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Knowledge and Usage of the Nutritional Fact Label Among College Students

Posted on February 14, 2012 by

By Scott Carlino

I. Introduction

Throughout the United States many students entering college are not inclined to reading Nutritional Fact labels, whether they understand them or not. The National and Education Label Act was meant to influence students to read and understand nutritional fact labels.  Today students are being made aware of the importance about reading Nutrition Food Labels, but studies have shown that although there are mandates placed upon food companies to supply a clear understanding of the ingredients in packaged foods, many have yet to understand them, let alone read these labels. It is becoming more obvious that college students, specifically, still have limitations in their understanding and acceptance of the nutrition fact label, which directly affects their attitudes and choices for proper nutrition. Even though nutritional information is widely available in the USA, it is still disregarded by up to 55% of Americans. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the student’s comprehension of nutrition fact labels and the pertinence towards their choices in food. In reviewing the literature, we found that many different studies and papers have been conducted on nutrition fact labeling, but fewer on college students specifically. The 1990 National Labeling and Education label has influenced college students through information that is provided to the public about key nutrients that are of public health concerns.

The successes of Label education efforts are also associated with better eating patterns among college students and their need of understanding nutrients rather than merely focusing on fat and caloric contents of foods. In reviewing these articles the relationship between them is not necessarily the lack of their knowledge, but rather the lack of an understanding of the information presented on food labels and college student’s attitude when it comes to food choices. Within the studies, researchers were looking at such things as the impact of nutrition fact labels on college students, in particular, the interest of whether the students think the label is useful or if an education in label-reading is positively or negatively associated with label use or adherence.

There were two significant articles related to this research that used different approaches in gathering their data. Marietta, Welshimer, and Anderson, 1999, used a non experimental research design using a survey, while Misra, 2007, used a model that sought to assess the relationships among different variables such as age, sex, and prior nutrition education.

“College students represent an appropriate portion of the US population to study because they benefit from the lifetime of healthful eating, and since they are usually away from home for the first time and are making more decisions about their diets than ever before, most of their choices in foods are not always the correct one.” Most of the students that were part of the study felt as if the advertising for “low fat” or “high fiber” on a package were not truthful and therefore half of the students (48.3%) used the nutritional facts labels at least sometimes to fit a healthy diet into their lifestyles. Today’s obesity rates are higher than ever with 1/3 of adolescents and 2/3 of adults being obese. The number one killer in America today is heart disease (which directly relates to obesity) and cancer is next, leading to the fact that it is crucial for our college students to understand the significance between nutritionally and non-nutritionally dense foods and nutrient contents. Point-of-Purchase information has become a goal within college campuses, in the hopes to influence and provide nutrition information on foods in order to assist students in making smarter choices. It is believed that through intervention and education, college students would have a better environment and interaction with food label and their food of choice.

It is also important to understand how this understanding of food labels is accepted around the world. This way, we could compare that information with our own domestic research to advance in curing this epidemic of obesity. In Europe, food companies place more general or useful information about a product, for example a “color-coded indicator of nutrient level”, on the front of the package, and leave the more detailed information on the back. This way, the general public could get a basic understanding of how a certain nutrient or vitamin benefits or harms you, without the use of technical words that might confuse the average consumer. Moreover, in Canada, we see how they receive their information from various sources: product labels, print media, friends, relatives, colleagues, electronic media, family physicians and dietitians. This is based upon a “Tracking Trends Survey” conducted in 1989. Although it is a while back, this information is still vital because it helps us understand that there are many ways to educate an individual. In addition, college students have access to all of the options aforementioned, so this would be a great way to educate. Asia, however, is a little further back when it comes to the population’s general knowledge on affects of nutrients and their reading of food labels. This could be, in part, because of some of their “2,000-year-old Asian traditions of consuming specific foods to influence a particular health/disease state” and they don’t know necessarily why they take it, they just know it is good for you. Therefore, based on this research, our hypothesis is that with nutritional education, and the right attitude towards food labeling, would contribute ones understanding of nutrients and food intake among young adults/college students.

II. Methodology

Our selected body of study was steered towards 40 random college students at Montclair State University and our interest on whether or not these students understood how to read a nutritional food label. Our primary focus was to determine what behaviors students have towards the foods they choose to eat and if anything would change that behavior: how often do they look at food labels when choosing foods? And furthermore what particular part of the food label did they focus on that determined their final decision. Our independent variable is the knowledge that the student has in regards to nutrition fact labels and our dependent variable is the relation of that knowledge to food choice and food habits. The survey consisted of several descending and qualitative questions with a nutritional fact label shown along with questions of understanding.

The nutritional fact label was given to see if students understood what daily value (DV %) meant, if they knew how to find out what fat content this particular label had and other operational definition recognition that are commonalities on food labels of everyday products. The assumption of no knowledge base was initially given in order to receive a clear understanding of the student’s understanding of the label. Another assumption given was that students living on campus might differ in their nutritional habits and patterns – such as, cooking meals as opposed eating at restaurants and cafeteria food – as opposed to ones that commute, and of course, we had to assume some students had a general nutritional base due to nutrition having significant importance in our daily lives, and there is a general nutrition elective in the Montclair State University’s curriculum.

Our research design was very simple. First, we used a pretesting method to assess the basic knowledge of the participant by showing them a sample food label and asking questions about that food. Second, we had them answer the seven other non open-ended questions, which gave us an understanding of how they put into practice their nutritional knowledge. Our sample was 40 students at Montclair State University from all walks of life. Some surveys were handed out in dorms, others in the gym, and some even at the work place. This way we could get a more broad range of individuals and, in turn, have more accurate results. This method would be described as simple random sampling, because we chose areas where there were MSU students and all individuals participating in the survey had to be from MSU; an example of the survey handed out can be found in the appendix of this paper after the references. The information, after being collected, was put through an SPSS program and through that, we had charts, graphs and standard deviations detailing the results of our study, which is in the following few pages.

III. Discussion and Conclusion

The survey consisted of 40 Montclair State University students. There were 4 freshmen students (40%); 10 sophomore students (25%); 14 junior students (35%), and 11 senior students (27.5), and one graduate student (2.5%). On reviewing the survey taken by the students they had to answer questions on the information given to them on a nutritional fact label.  As we measured their answers, the mean of incorrect answers was .09, the mode was 0 and midpoint was .5. The standard deviation was 1.333.

We came to find that students who cooked at home, read the nutrition fact labels less compared to students whom lived on campus, thus the commuting students answered correctly on the questions asked on the survey regarding the information on the nutrition fact labels. However, the direct relationship between how many times a student reads a food label and their understanding of the facts given is indirectly proportioned to their understanding of the facts on the nutrition label, ultimately concluding that their understand is still unclear. However, the students that live on campus read nutritional fact labels more often and in result they had more incorrect answers.

The other sector of our survey assessed the student’s importance of the nutritional content of their food. The answer choices were 1. Not at all:  2. moderately serious; 3. Very serious. Nine students answered “not at all” which implied that they didn’t either care or understand the nutritional content of their food. Twenty-four student’s answers were “Moderately Serious,” and the other seven were “Very Serious” about the nutritional content of their food.  Overall most people are aware of the contents of their food and make their food choices based on the macronutrients that are on the nutritional fact labels.

This study needs to be revisited in more depth for the limitations are on the types of food that students eat, if they have any beliefs on the food that they eat due to religion, culture, etc., and if they are economically aware of how food is processed. One’s attitude is a major magnitude on their understanding as well. The findings in this study are based on other studies that have been done previously, and that there is a constant need to educate and have tools available to individuals in order to increase their knowledge and understanding of not only the nutritional fact labels, but also what they choose to eat, and have them think of why they are eating that particular food rather than the primary reason of “it tastes good.” I believe that there should be clearer and concise measure that needs to be taken with individuals from a young age so that they grow up with the understanding of food and nutrition. Just as we are taught our ABC’s in kindergarten, we should be taught the basics of food, and how they rate on a scale of “good to bad;” for better lack of words.

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More Zintro Experts Comment on the Costa Concordia Accident

Posted on February 13, 2012 by

By Maureen Aylward

The Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster has captured headlines around the world. We turned to our Zintro experts for an assessment of the event and how it may affect the industry.

Joe Ferentini, an expert in the travel industry, feels that the impact on the cruise industry from this disaster will not be any more than what we see in the airline industry when there is a plane crash. “The ratio of cruise ship disasters or mishaps to the overall number of cruise ships that sail without incident is quite small,” he says. “That same ratio holds true for the airline industry. Travelers still get on planes, and they will also board cruise ships. What makes this incident unique are the various media reports calling in to question the integrity of the Costa Concordia’s ship captain. Not all cruise ship captains are created equal, and the savvy traveler will realize this.” He thinks that there may be some buzz over better screening for ship captains, but no more so than there has been over airline pilots after a crash.

Ferentini believes that Costa and other cruise lines may suffer from this incident, at least in the short term. “Travelers who have never taken a cruise before or who were undecided as to their travel plans will probably shy away from Costa and perhaps the entire cruise industry in general,” he says. “But this is a small percentage of the cruising public. And this fact is far less important to Costa than its other main concerns right now, which are restitutions to passengers and families who lost loved ones.”

As far as additional regulations are concerned, Ferentini says there may be a push to ensure that safety drills are conducted before or soon after the ship leaves its home port. “The majority of cruise ships do this. As to why the Concordia’s drill was scheduled for the next day is questionable. I can only guess that the ship planned to sail close to land before arriving at its first scheduled port of call and that a safety drill was not deemed necessary. As we have seen, miraculously and despite the chaos, most passengers survived. There definitely needs to be regulation regarding the timing of these drills. In this case, maybe had there been one, all lives would have been saved,” he says.

JK Hossein, a port and maritime consultant, says that the incident of Costa Concordia is a  scenario that happens when a ship voluntarily or involuntarily goes off track over a shallow patch or rock. “Modern cruise ships have all the gadgets to warn them of cross track errors and all the maneuverability to avoid dangers to navigation. The bridge team are trained and certified,” he says. “I think we might conclude the above mentioned advantages created the confidence for the stunt action. That’s how human judgment can use modern safety equipments to put the vessel in an unsafe situation where no other poorly equipped, substandard manned cargo ship can be put.”

Perhaps one precautionary measure for the industry is real time audit of the bridge maneuver, which is already being done by Vessel Traffic Information System (VTIS) at designated sea areas by the port state authorities, reports Hossein. “It is possible to monitor ships and traffic over Internet throughout the world right from a head office. This practice does not hamper the master’s over riding authority, but merely monitors in real time safe execution of the planned voyage. Obviously, vessels depart from their planned routes for various valid reasons, the only difference is the knowledge that they are being monitored by a certified captain in real time,” he says.

Capitan Sergey Kolesov, a master mariner, says that any disaster at sea that creates such high volume of public interest affects future maritime legislation. “The International Maritime Organization and other government and inter-state bodies will have to adjust regulations related to safety at sea. Human behavior is a key factor in most of the emergencies at sea. This particular case brightly highlights the emerging lack of skilled seafarers,” Kolesov points out. “Standards of training are definitely decreasing in many countries, which results in serious gaps among professional seamen available for companies with perfect reputations and financial status. I expect tightening international standards on training and certification for officers and crew.”

Stephen Wohl, a travel industry advisor, says that the recent cruise ship disaster in Italy will take a bite out of the industry for now. “Like all disasters, everyone will be a little skiddish,” he says. “There is a great possibility of seeing tighter regulations and restrictions on board future cruises world-wide. I think we may see better disaster training for crews.”

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Cruise ship disaster industry impact

Posted on February 9, 2012 by

By Maureen Aylward

The Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster has captured headlines around the world. We turned to our Zintro experts for an assessment of the event and how it may affect the industry.

Simon Beechinor, an expert in shipping and logistics, says that it is possible that in the short term the industry might see a few cancelled cruises, as a knee-jerk reaction to the incident. “In the medium term there will be no negative commercial impact. The shipping industry will certainly learn from this incident as it does from all incidents, large and small. There are well established procedures for disseminating information arising from incidents throughout the world’s fleets,” he says. “However, before one can intelligently comment on the regulatory responses that might be made, it will be necessary to examine what happened, how and why. It will be necessary to understand what procedural or technical issues gave rise to the incident and these details will take a little time to be gathered.”

Elements of the incident that are demonstrated to have been caused through human error or negligence will be quickly learned and absorbed by the industry, Beechinor says. If the incident arose largely because individuals deliberately departed from or ignored established operating procedures and existing safe practice, then it is hard to regulate for such a dereliction of duty.

But, Beechinor thinks that procedural regulations might be introduced to mitigate the effect of any design defect on existing vessels, subject to their age and operating circumstances. If the incident is attributed to structural or design issues, then any new regulations required will be included in the design and fabrication of future new vessels. It is unlikely that significant design issues will or can be absorbed by existing vessels and the industry may well need older vessels reach the end of their operational lives before risks associated with those designs are eliminated.”

Eric Ingrand, a social media expert in the travel industry, thinks that that the entire cruise industry will be impacted by the Costa disaster, especially in Europe, but what this means in terms bookings number by region, by brands, is hard to predict. “Consumers can easily forget the images of the cruise ship on its side and go back to taking cruises, just like people do when there is a plane crash,” Ingrand says.

“If cruise lines were regularly condemned for getting too close to shore, they would probably abandoned theses maneuvers. I live on the French Riviera, and I have seen cruise ships closer than the 300 meter limit. Countries may be forced to make collaborative decisions to force cruise lines to be stricter with navigation rules,” Ingrand says.

Ingrand says that safety procedures need to be updated because cruise ships are like small floating cities. “I believe this accident will impact all the European cruise line business in 2012. Cruise lines will need to communicate changes and security procedure updates to reassure families and seniors who represents the vast majority of European customers,” he says.

However even with this accident, cruise ships are still a secure way to travel. “It will be a challenge for the cruise industry to promote this idea. Costa management needs to go online and apologize and provide an explanation. It will be interesting to watch the post crisis management in the press, on social media, and online,” says Ingrand. “Costa and the Carnival Group should now think about how to get back in control and reassure all the customers that have booked a cruise after the accident. If they do not, the consumer will tackle this subject online and then it will be out there.

Douglas Scattergood, master mariner in command of the Nautical Institute, thinks that the failures in this case will result in huge financial losses for Costa Cruises in cancelled bookings, and this may also affect other cruise Lines. “Carnival Corporation, the owner of Costa and nine other cruise lines, has already started a review of practices and procedures for all of its cruise lines. Apart from damage control, this review is long overdue as safety procedures might sometimes suffer due to complacency and enthusiasm among the crew,” says Scattergood. “The facts may show in the Costa case that safeguards such as Bridge Team Management (BTM) were not being practiced. BTM is a procedure where the master and watch-keeping officers manage the safe navigation of the vessel. It was instituted to prevent just such occasions and minimize such drastic failure of judgment. The loss of life here is concerning, and should be a warning to all seafarers of the results that complacency can have.”

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More on health care shifts

Posted on February 8, 2012 by

By Maureen Aylward

It seems the healthcare system is shifting again to address reductions in costs and maintaining quality. We asked our Zintro experts to comment on these shifts, changes, and new trends, such as hospital mergers, insurer moves to purchase provider practices, and employers’ greater interest in employee care.

Laurie Gelb, a health care strategy and research consultant, says that it is not business as usual, but survival. “Mergers and acquisitions, which first made tentative inroads into healthcare in the 80s, is back with a vengeance because the fee for service outpatient/inpatient continuum no longer fares well under an increasingly regulated, standardized, constrained clinical practice model,” she says. “No clearly improved model has yet emerged. Integration in the medical home is a hedge toward a favorable cost and efficiency position when comparative effectiveness research, process improvement, and electronic medical records consolidation finally begin to bear fruit or when their failure to converge costs and outcomes will point to a better way entirely.”

Gelb says that we may yet see a backlash against cookbook medicine as it is now being written, paving the way for more technology-based solutions. “But those solutions will have be funded from the private sector, probably from outside the health care system. One area to look at is DME innovation. CMS and other payors are leasing and buying mediocre equipment under an archaic contracting system at tremendous expense,” says Gelb.

StrategicConsultant, an expert in managed care and HMOs, thinks that these health care shifts are related to the Affordable Care Act. “The Affordable Care Act is putting in requirements that health plans must maintain an 85% loss ratio except for small individual plans. This is driving consolidation among small plans that cannot continue to operate without member volume,” he says. “The larger plans are merging/acquiring smaller plans for a similar reason. The start-up costs for a new market make it difficult to hit targets. Instead, the strategy is to acquire a plan with established membership and physician networks. Other factors in the Affordable Care Act that are affecting the need to consolidate are the lowering of reimbursement by CMS. If you look at a market like Houston (where Health Spring had a presence), revenue is dropping from 118% of Medicare fee for service to 95%.”

StrategicConsultant thinks that the provider consolidation is also being driven by the Affordable Care Act but for different reasons. “The provider consolidation is being driven by changes in reimbursement models. CMS is looking to move toward a case rate payment for diseases. Individual doctors could be left out in the cold. Thus, we are seeing new physician groups being created and acquisition of physicians by hospitals. The hospital moves the physician to a salary payment instead of per visit, to a fixed cost instead of variable,” he says.

Anthony Cirillo, an expert in healthcare marketing and patient experience, says that these shifts are neither business as usual nor a sign of the economy. “It is more that the healthcare system will implode if left unchecked as it is. Costs are out of control, and a system of fee for services has contributed to that,” he says. “With accountable care organizations and bundled payments, healthcare providers now have to work together in a continuum of care to care for patients per-hospital, in-hospital, and post-hospital. Some are choosing to buy the components in the continuum to control it. For example, Highmark Blue Cross bought a hospital. Quality has economic repercussions. Value-based purchasing will take one percent of Medicare dollars from hospitals that they might earn back through clinical and patient experience performance. Likewise, hospital readmissions and hospital acquired infections all have economic repercussions.”

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Health care shifts again: Part 2

Posted on February 7, 2012 by

By Maureen Aylward

It seems the healthcare system is shifting again to address reductions in costs and maintaining quality. We asked our Zintro experts to comment on these shifts, changes, and new trends, such as hospital mergers, insurer moves to purchase provider practices, and employers’ greater interest in employee care.

Craig Howell, an expert in the sales and marketing area of the clinical molecular diagnostics industry, says that increasing consolidation in health insurers puts negative pressure on overall healthcare costs and will tend to stifle innovations in care. “We should anticipate more restrictive coverage policy from fewer insurers as they attempt to control cost and extract value from their new businesses. This will inevitably lead to fewer opportunities for innovative care and the payments for delivering improved care,” says Howell. “Increases in control over coverage policy will dovetail with implications of Affordable Care Act assuming it into existence. We may see a continuation on lowering payments, more difficulty to get appropriate reimbursement for innovative and valuable care, and more difficulty to enter new care into practice.”

Howell says these shifts will tend to negatively affect consumers and smaller businesses that will not have buying power to minimize care costs. “They will continue to pay more and get increasingly average care unless they pay out of pocket. The diagnostics area, which is long seen as a cost center, will also lose, especially the large manufacturers as they provide the lions share of routine diagnostics, They do not influence the overall healthcare system effectively to preserve a valuable position in the environment going forward,” he says. “The winners? Innovators who are smart enough to build medical evidence into the development areas and so can influence coverage policy and reimbursement access in comparative effectiveness and influencing medical practice effectively.”

Cardiac Rhythm Doc, a cardiac electrophysiologist and healthcare IT consultant, says that consolidation and contraction among hospitals and mass purchasing of medical practices (72% of physicians are now hospital owned) are occurring due to several factors:

“The increases were put in place by CMS to orchestrate the purchasing, putting all the players in the same sandbox before total cuts come through,” he says. “All these shifts will be accompanied by drastic changes in purchasing of drugs and devices. The government (and possibly ACOs) will purchase directly, drastically lowering prices, as has been done in Europe. These shifts are occurring at a time of physician shortages, which will, I think, spur the wireless health technology industry.”

Nicole Bradberry, a VP of Healthcare Operations, says that it is definitely not business as usual. “The healthcare system is fundamentally changing. Healthcare costs have increased at unprecedented levels for the past 10 – 15 years as HMO plans lost favor. These costs are unsustainable even without adding the 33 million new members to the rosters due to health reform legislation,” she says.

Bradberry says that this fundamental change can be seen in these shifts:

  • Accountable Care and Patient Centered Medical Homes are the current buzz words.
  • Primary care is getting a much needed focus as the true managers of cost.
  • CMS and HHS are fostering innovation with grants and the never before release of government owned healthcare data.
  • Payors are re-thinking traditional payor-based case, disease, and wellness management. This is spurring hospitals and payors to partner or buy primary care.
  • Primary care groups are either signing up or trying to consolidate on their own.
  • Employers seem to be the last group at the table but the most important one outside of primary care itself.
  • The patients and the health care system will win if the employers and primary care join forces to be the leaders behind the next truly accountable care model.

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Getting Paid For Your Expertise – Using Your Brain to Profit In Any Economy

Posted on February 6, 2012 by

Do you think of yourself as an expert?

Perhaps your expertise is already very clear to you and those you work with. You may incorporate your expertise daily in your career as a doctor, business consultant, lawyer, or teacher.

Or perhaps you use your skills daily at your job but your real expertise shines when friends come to you for help fixing their computer, or if you tutor students in algebra, or when you’re educating others on nutrition after your own successes with health and fitness.

You may be an astrophysics guru, or you may have several areas of expertise and are struggling to find a way to help them all work together for you.

Whether you are a deep-rooted expert in one field or your expertise spans many industries, there is great news:

You can make money from your expertise online, and you can do it in your spare time.

This guide will show you how you can make money in any economic climate using the knowledge and resources you currently have, and will help you to:

  • Establish your area(s) of expertise
  • Determine your hourly rate
  • Market yourself effectively to generate leads
  • Get started making money from your expertise right away as an independent consultant

By the time you have finished reading this guide, you will be able to put your knowledge and experience to work for you and begin turning a profit as an expert consultant with very little investment.

So let’s get started!

Establish Your Area(s) of Expertise

You can’t market yourself effectively if you haven’t clearly established your area(s) of true expertise! This is particularly important when marketing yourself online, because you want your target customers to be able to find you using appropriate keywords. Online marketing and social media make the barrier to entry remarkably low to begin profiting from your expertise.

The following exercise will help you establish not only your area(s) of expertise, but to refine them so that you’re able to target the right customers.

1. Ask yourself the following questions:

What do you do best or know the most about? What do people come to you for help with time and time again? Is there anything that seems second nature to you that others struggle with?

Start by making a list of your answers to these questions, treating each item on the list like you would a tag or keyword on a blog. You may find it helpful to ask friends and coworkers what they see as your areas of expertise as well. It’s not unusual to overlook a valuable skill or area of expertise because it comes so naturally to you that you don’t think of it as being anything extraordinary.

2. Next, look at your list and remove anything that you’re not interested in.

You want to make sure you’re offering your strongest set of skills and expertise, and that these areas of knowledge and experience for you are also areas of interest.

3. Of your remaining list, make any general terms more specific.

For example, if you wrote ‘marketing’, think of more specific aspects of marketing at which you excel. This will help you target the right customers so you don’t have clients needing help developing pay-per-click ad campaigns when your expertise lies in fine art marketing.

Use multiple ways to describe your expertise. For example, you may be a solar energy guru. So your list may include terms like “solar energy” and “solar power”.

4. Create your ‘Elevator Bio’

Taking your list into consideration, along with your career experience and, if applicable, your current job, craft a brief bio for yourself highlighting what makes you a valuable expert to consult with. Your brief profile should be one or two paragraphs. Include only the information that really highlights the most impressive aspects of your CV. This is your chance to get your prospective customer’s attention and convince them that you are qualified to help them.

Determine Your Hourly Rate

If you are an independent consultant, how much should you charge for your time?

If you work for a professional services firm, the answer is very straightforward — the firm sets your rates. But as more and more professionals are consulting full- or part-time, the question “how much should I charge?” is in the forefront of their minds.

There is no one answer that works for everyone, nor is there a secret formula that will give you the ‘right’ answer no matter what. However, there are a couple of methods you can use to help find an hourly rate that will work for you.

Market-Based Hourly Rates: What Is the Market Prepared To Pay For Your Expertise?

The easiest way to estimate a market-based rate is to use the rate set by other consultants with similar skills in the same industry as comparisons. Not all consultants display their rates openly on their independent websites, but there are expert directories with expert profiles that readily offer this information.

Let’s assume you are a next generation Battery Engineer. If you find a directory of battery engineers you can have instant access to rates that others in your field are offering. This can give you a good starting point for comparing your level of experience and expertise and deciding what an appropriate rate might be for you.

You may feel comfortable closer to the median, or depending on your level of expertise, accomplishments or other factors, you may consider yourself an outlier and be comfortable setting your hourly rate at a higher level.

Opportunity Cost-Based Hourly Rates: How Much Would You Make If You Did Something Else?

The second approach to setting your rate is Opportunity Cost-based. A simple way to calculate your opportunity cost per hour is to take your (most recent) annual income and divide it by the number of hours you work in a year (2,000 hour is 40 hrs/week for 50 weeks).

So if you earn $125,000, your opportunity cost is $62.50.

Needless to say, your opportunity cost should not be your consulting rate! You have to take into account additional expenses and effort like marketing, prep work and follow-up for each client. If you are hoping to replace a full-time job with consulting income, you will also need to consider several other expenses that occur with self-employment like health insurance, appropriate taxes, any business supplies you need, etc.

To convert your opportunity cost into a consulting rate, the general recommendation is to double it(in this case $125 per hour) which translates to your annual income divided by 1,000.

Your rate may vary from the example depending on additional anticipated costs, how many hours you expect or hope to work, your current life expenses and desired level of income, etc.

Which hourly rate methodology is best?

There is no method that is ‘best’ for calculating your hourly rate. Ultimately it comes down to your industry, your goals, your current financial situation, and really, what feels ‘right’ to you. While you don’t want to be increasing and decreasing your rate all the time, you may find that making your best judgment given the data you have available and getting started will help you determine what will be successful for you. Once you’ve gotten a few clients you can assess your rate and decide if you need to make adjustments. Just don’t sell yourself short!

Should You Offer A ‘Free Consultation’?

This is a tough question that many independent consultants face when building their business online. Is it worth your time to offer a free consultation to prospective clients? While nobody can answer the question for you, here are a few recommendations to keep in mind as you form your decision:

  • If it seems like there is a bigger opportunity behind the initial call, then YES.
  • If the Client is someone who you really want to develop a relationship with, then YES
  • If the full extent of the consult is a market research call (unless the other criteria apply above), then NO.

A healthy compromise if you like the idea of offering a free consultation but fear getting bogged down or taken advantage of might be to look for alternatives to a standard one-hour call:

  • Offering a free half hour consultation to address one question or give a brief introduction (and to help you assess whether the prospect you’re talking to will be worth entering a consulting engagement with).
  • Offering a free email consultation, giving a brief answer to one question with opportunity for paid follow-up.
  • Creating a downloadable white paper or information sheet for interested prospects,  offering a discounted initial call once they’ve submitted valid information for downloading the document with a supporting question or reason for contacting you.

Market Yourself Effectively to Generate Leads and Build Thought Leadership

You could have more expertise than anyone in your field, but it won’t do you any good if nobody knows about you! Thankfully, reaching your target audience can be quite easy when applying the right techniques to social media and Internet marketing.

Don’t worry, if you’re not already an expert at online marketing, you won’t need to become one to see great results from your efforts!

Here are some effective tips for helping to market yourself online, establish greater recognition as an expert and thought leader in your industry, and, ultimately, get your target customers to come to you for consulting.

Contribute to Industry Blogs

If you’re an expert of any kind, there’s pretty much guaranteed to be blogs in your industry. A great way to gain authority as well as links to your website or profile is by contributing to an industry blog as a guest blogger, or allowing a blogger in your area of expertise to interview you and feature you on their blog.

Of course, you could have your very own blog as well! But if you find that you would rather focus your time on serving your clients (or perhaps you are marketing yourself as an independent consultant on a part-time basis and are currently holding a full-time job as well), being a contributor to another blog is a great way to funnel your target customers to you without having to build and maintain a blog.

You may also want to look for opportunities to write more in-depth industry articles for publication, or take on offers to participate in an “experts round-up” with other leaders in similar industries to yours. This presents a great chance for a burst of social media promotion and networking with other experts.

Use Social Media to Your Advantage

In order to put your ‘best face forward’ and begin presenting yourself to your audience as an expert, be sure to include a photo of yourself on your social media profiles. Future customers want to feel confident that they’re approaching a real person, particularly if they’re considering paying you to help them.

Include links to places that you can be found on the Web throughout all of your social media channels. If you have a Facebook page, twitter profile, or a profile on an expert consultant database, be sure to include those links in your profiles, email signature, and blog post bylines. You increase your likelihood of target customers getting in contact with you by offering an assortment of ways to get in touch with you. By having a presence on several social media sites, you allow your client to use whatever method is most comfortable for him or her, and also present yourself as transparent, trustworthy, accessible and approachable.

Remember your keywords

Remember the keyword exercise you did when establishing your area(s) of expertise? Make sure that you use specific keywords to describe what you do anywhere you’re present on the Web. From your professional networking profiles to blog post bios, you want to reinforce the phrases that describe your strengths so that people searching on those terms will find you easily (just don’t go overboard, particularly with things like blog post bios. One or two keywords at a time is just fine).

Don’t Underestimate the Value of a Referral

At times, you may receive inquiries that are related to your areas of expertise, but are not exactly on-point. You won’t likely know the perfect person to refer these in all instances, but sometimes, you may be able to refer the prospect to a colleague or friend.

Why would you want to do this? The next time one of them encounters an opportunity that may be a good fit for you, they’ll be much more likely to send some business your way.

Referring incompatible prospects strengthens your network with other professionals and keeps others aware that you’re open to accepting and giving referrals. You can also develop incentive programs to encourage current and prior clients to send referrals to you, such as offering discounted consulting services to both the client and the referred party, a free hour of consultation, etc.

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