CAREER CONSULTING CONTRACTS
(November/December 2003 Issue)

When you begin working with a client, you’ll need a contract. Don’t refer to it as a "contract," because that word can scare people; call it a letter or an agreement. Whether you charge by the hour, by the package, or one-fee-for-all, the terms must be written down to avoid misunderstandings – in particular to avoid the "employment agency" misunderstanding: that’s when clients think you’re also an employment agency and that you’ll be sending them out on job interviews; OR that when it comes time to network, you'll set them up with their interviews.

As a private practitioner you won’t have the same intensity or frequency of the employment agency issue that the career firms have because your market is different. The firms' clients come from people who answer an ad it the paper and don't know what career consulting is -- and often think they're an employment agency. Your clients, on the other hand, come from referrals, mostly, and they know going in that you're a consultant, not a placement agency. However, just for good measure, you’ll want to include that distinction in your contract.

If you charge one-fee-for-all, be prepared to answer the "But Bolles Says…" objection. I just "lost" a client recently because he read Dick Bolles’ [generally good] advice in What Color is Your Parachute, to avoid signing a lump-sum contract for career services. My own recommendation, it’s no secret, would be just the opposite – I think the one-fee arrangement is the best and only arrangement that serves both the career advisor and client. [BTW, I put "lost" in quotes, because upon further conversation, it really wasn’t the one-fee that made him skittish. When I offered to make financial arrangements that he (and Bolles) would approve of, it turned out that he just wasn’t committed to the program no matter how the dollars were handled. Lesson: it’s almost never about the money, really.]

I have a sample contract that follows, here, which covers that base as well
as some other important issues:
--you’re working for "more-than-a-job," a career position;
--you’re the coach; they’re the client; you give advice, they follow it.
--the financial arrangements: what it costs; how it’s paid,
--what conditions of fulfillment are,
--what you expect of them in terms of commitment and communication.


DEAR CLIENT
Our goal is to find a "Career Position," a job, promotion, or your own business that has the right satisfaction, growth, location, environment, and compensation for you. We’ll use as many appointments and telephone conversations as needed to accomplish that.

We coach you in developing a solid plan of action, which you implement. Our plan will have you explore and choose your career goals and build your visibility and credibility in your targeted career sector so you not only make a solid career move now, but also have connections for further career advancement. All this will require that you keep in close communication with us. On a separate page we have listed the tasks and goals on which we’ll be consulting together. You probably won’t need all of them.

Here’s how the financial part works. We’ve estimated about how many hours we’ll need to spend with you to accomplish this, and have set a fee (below) accordingly. Some career campaigns take longer than we estimate, some shorter. Having a fixed fee eliminates any concern on your part about time; it won’t cost you more if it takes longer than we estimated--so use us fully! We are not working on an "hourly" basis (even if your payment is spread out over time). One fee for one project.

We do have some time limits to do this, though; we’ve set a term (below) that we think is long enough that we can accomplish a career move (new job, promotion, own business) with several months to spare. If your career-search goes miraculously fast and we get things done in, say, a few days, the fee is still the same; on the other hand, if it takes a long time, even the entire term, don’t worry--the fee is still the same. However, if for some reason it takes us even longer than that, we’ll still be available to you--unless it’s apparent to us that you’d be better served elsewhere; you have the option to extend this agreement on a month by month basis for $200/month.

Finally, we wish we could promise that all will be lightness and joy ahead, but alas, if you're like most clients, there will be dark and discouraging days; times when you feel like you're getting nowhere and you want to give up. The non-refundability of our fee helps you weather those storms because there's no "back door" here--your investment in yourself helps preserve your commitment to your own career.

Consulting Agreement: Consulting Fee: _____ Materials Fee: _____ Total: ______

Then I write the payment terms and dates.

On a separate page I list all the items I provide, and make a point that they won’t need them all -- otherwise clients – even after you help them get a new job! – might say, "well, I only used 1/2 of your services; I should only have to pay 1/2 the fee.

This is my list:

• Appraisal of your qualifications and skills.
  
• Development of a verbal and a written communication of those key skills and abilities.
• Determining types of positions for which you are presently qualified, and establishing immediate objectives.
• Establishing long-range objectives which are realistic and that will afford job satisfaction and income potential…
• Including life-mission if appropriate as part of that goal setting.
• Planning a marketing program which includes resume and/or portfolio development and identification of appropriate markets and industries.
• Development of a marketing program to assist you in establishing appropriate level contacts for exploratory interviews and job interviews.
• Evaluating results of exploratory interviews to decide and clarify career choices.
  
• Preparation for all interviews; handling sensitive issues/concerns.
  
• Development of effective interview techniques to induce job offers.
  
• Reviewing and assessing offers.
  
• Counseling in negotiating salary and benefits.
  
• Follow-up after starting new position to develop a program for intra-company advancement toward long-range objectives.
  
• Consultation concerning organizational, political, and interpersonal skills related to career advancement.
  
• Developing time-defined financial goals, including the goal of achieving financial independence.
  
• Time management (if more in depth training is indicated, we’ll refer you to a Time Management specialist).
  
• Dress and image (if more in depth training is indicated, we’ll refer you to an Image Consultant).
  
  

To make this all work, you must take responsibility to keep in full communication with us. In the course of working together, we’ll always have a "next time" or "next step" scheduled until such time as you make a career move of your choice. If anything should disrupt this continuous communication, we’ll make reasonable efforts to get in communication with you, but the responsibility ultimately is yours to keep us informed and initiate all the meetings and conversations needed to accomplish our goals.

In the course of our work together there may be group meetings for instructional or motivational purposes which we will recommend or instruct you attend. As you choose to participate, this is in addition to, not replacement of, our one-on-one consulting which is the essence of our work together.

Just to be clear: we are not an employment agency or recruiter; we are not hired by companies to fill positions for them.

END OF AGREEMENT LETTER
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Timing of introducing the agreement? I usually wait until the person considering working with me has all the information verbally. We've discussed whether they want to work with me. If they do, then I’ll say, "and here’s a letter that describes what we’ve just talked about in a little more detail." This written agreement will prevent misunderstandings and wrong expectations.

Jack Chapman is author of:
Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute
He is a career consultant in private practice and runs ongoing support and training teleconference sessions for career consultants in private practice.
He can be reached at 847-251-4727 or jkchapman@aol.com