Stancliff & Associates / Results-Targeted Consulting
35 Puuikena pl., Honolulu, HI 96821
Richard@Stancliff.com
Cellular: 808-782-4322
About Payment for Services:
I believe that the proper basis for billing for successful consulting services is to ask for a reasonable portion of the added value created by the consulting services rendered. Therefore, unless specific research or other defined services are provided by the Consultant, for which billing by the hour or charges based on expenditures by Consultant are appropriate, Consultant will generally provide the consulting services free of initial charge. Consultant then receives his payment in the form of a percentage of profits which resulted from the consulting.
Consequently, unless otherwise agreed in advance, Consultant’s Clients will not be asked to pay for services before they actually prove to be profitable. This means that all of the Client’s current financial resources can be applied to actualizing the decisions reached on the basis of the consulting. And it also means that if the decisions reached, for some reason, aren’t profitable, the Client won’t be asked to pay.
Consultant believes that this is the most effective way to be responsible towards his Clients and to stand behind his product.
About Clients’ Confidentiality:
Because the product of consulting is frequently an idea or an innovative way of doing something, Consultant needs to assure both himself and his Clients that the concepts Consultant introduces to Clients are, in fact, new and not something already in the Clients’ future plans. Therefore, before specific recommendations are made, Consultant generally conducts inquiries into his Clients’ future plans for: (1) the near term, from the present to about four years (a realistic period for a suggested idea to have returned substantial profits), and (2) the far future (5 years or more out).
In the simplest example, if Consultant suggested an idea, and successfully argued that it would be substantially profitable if effected immediately, and if this idea were something a Client planned on implementing only in 5 years, then Consultant would have created value for the Client for a five-year period that would otherwise not have existed. Given that the idea is also conceived of by the Client, Consultant would be due only a small percentage of such profits by arguing for an earlier implementation.
Consultant realizes that future business plans are often sensitive and proprietary, and not subject to casual inquiry. This can be overcome in the following way: The Client simply has available a copy of his/her own 5-year business plan at the time of our interview. Consultant then makes a case for his major ideas or suggestions for the Client. If one of the suggestions is already in the business plan, the Client simply folds the business plan in such a way that the particular idea can be shown to Consultant, and Consultant accepts that the suggestion already belongs to the Client.
Consultant will sign and completely honor confidentiality agreements regarding Client’s plans and business matters, and sometimes asks Clients to sign a confidentiality agreement concerning the concepts Consultant presents to the Client.