Church Consulting Survey

[cmchamp]

So, if self employed, why not do the first option, for stability, then the church consulting training, being able to be flexible with the fees for those churches or situations where there's a need, but no funds?
Basically, that's what I do.
I had two service calls this past Tuesday. The first to a small, solid, but struggling financially congregation where they just needed to know "This is what we have, can we do X or Y with it?" Had good fellowship with the gentlemen, we'll (Throne Together Ministries) will be singing there in February. They asked how much the owed me. I told them that I wasn't going to bill anything, but the afternoon appointment was being billed $60/hr.
The afternoon is a larger, healthier congregation, have been chasing ghosts in this church's systems for 3 years now. Previous trustee boards have just asked me to "band-aid." The new trustee board wants things fixed. So, they were charged normal rates for the preliminary visit, and each item needing repaired was broken down, each with it's own bid and description of work to be done.
There are quite a number of training organizations and "consultants" out there. (I can't claim to be a true "consultant" because I sell and install product also)
There are very few high quality consultants, so it's going to take some time before your name has the reputation and recognition to deserve the fees associated with it.
C.

[DTV-Engineer]

One recommendation: whatever else you do, don't call yourself a consultant. For one thing, the term has little intrinsic meaning: instead, try to come up with a more concrete description for what you do. Someone looking for assistance in a particular area is more apt to connect with a lighting designer or an audio engineer or a systems integrator or a rigger, than with an amorphous "consultant".

Over the past 40 years as a broadcast engineer, I have seen all too many consultants come into my stations with a great line of talk, and leave behind an unworkable and expensive mess. Even the ones who actually did what they were supposed to do, never have to provide long-term support or deal with the short-term consequences of the changes they make. Consultants don't take calls at 2:47am when the station is off the air. The worst examples were news consultants, who had a wonderfully self-perpetuating scam going: if your ratings rise, they take credit and so they stay on; if your ratings drop it's because you didn't implement their advice properly, so you need to keep them to fix the problem.

Sorry... but I simply will not hire or recommend anybody who doesn't have a more tangible title or credential than "consultant".

-- Jeff