During August of this year I was going through my contacts list.  A sort of annual ritual I do every year to renew contacts, clear out the chaff I’ve collected and review opportunities that I may have missed.  Typically, I end up just clearing out about a hundred or so dead contacts of people who’ve moved on and were only interested in staying in touch while I could be of use to their career.  That’s not to say I haven’t been remiss on an occasion or two myself.

This time was a little different.  I spotted a name from my past working at a rather large consulting firm that had been acquired by a large Asian concern just after he and I left.  However, the consulting firm is not the point of this article.

He had been working for another high tech firm for a while and had saved upon last year to try to make a go of his own consulting businesses.  Bravo for him.  What was rather distressing was the predicament he was in.  Having spent most of the year working to get his business established, presenting at trade shows, writing articles, doing all the supposed right things the business books tell you to do to get your business going.  Yet somehow his doors where open, his business full of merchandise so to speak, but, no customers were buying.  He was now down to the last of his investment capital and savings when we met up by email and later phone.

He and I talked on the phone for a good few hours before I had gotten much of these facts from him and understood what he was doing.  Having watched other businesses take the same path down to eventual closure; felt I could assist.  I first offered some friendly encouragement and offered my assistance in discussing the issues he was facing giving him an outsider’s perspective.  I have been fortunate enough to have been given the same from time to time from colleagues and friends throughout my career; it just seem like Karma to me that it was my turn to pass it on.  However, I was in for the shock of my life.

The saying goes “to really learn a subject teach it” and “if you help someone you’ll get back more in return than you give”.  My wife seems to live by these Karmic rules without thinking about them; they’re just part of her being.  Mine too I guess however, I’ve just never sat down and thought what I was getting in return.  It just seem to be the thing to do.

Anyway, he and I met for a Latté at a local book store to discuss actions he could take.  I don’t claim to be a marketing genus, however after reengineering IBM’s market planning process and customizing and deploying it at Samsung, I figured I knew a few things that could help.  As we went through his business and marketing plan it was clear to me that he’d not really considered how he was going to operate the business end of his business as opposed to performing the technical aspects of his practice.  Mind you my friend is no intellectual slouch.  However, after being a corporate employee for most of his life he was not familiar with the business end of operating a business.

As we continue our conversations over the next few weeks, I started giving him homework assignments for planning and managing his business.  At first he was enthusiastic about the free advice, however, he seemed a little slow on execution finding reasons to do other things that didn’t directly contribute to the goals he had for himself.  One night I called him out asking for his homework assignment.  He admitted to me and himself that he’d just been finding other things to do and couldn’t offer a good reason.  Having been there myself I told him I would act as his trainer and get him moving weekly if he really wanted to accomplish these goals.

The next day I called again this time he and I got past much of the market planning theory and objectives and laid out a one week action plan of specific things for him to do and what they would yield and what he’d do with these next, etc.  However, as I was saying the shock of a lifetime came to me as I had spent not only my time coaching him on his “to do’s” but researching how to explain marketing stuff to a non-marketing person.

As I ran him through an abbreviated version of the planning process I had created a half a decade ago, the concepts and insights to running his business and my own came alive.  I could see how the various pieces I put together long ago could operate on a much deeper level.  I could watch as different aspects of strategy decisions integrated into a larger picture.  It was exhilarating to say the least.  As we finished the week out discussing his options and to do list for a conference he was going to speak at.  I felt confident he would come away with more than a nice story about getting applause after his seminar and nothing else.  I was sure he would at the very least be able to capitalize on the contacts he made there and with a little help turn some of them into clients.

As for myself, I felt good helping a friend move his business goals further along; but I also felt grateful for the bonus of renewed enthusiasm, a greater understand of the materials I was consulting to him on, and seeing how I could translate these into my own business practice and product line.