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Hot Summer Newsletter
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Summer is a time for vacations and business slows down. Your potential clients are traveling and hard to reach. So are your current clients. This is the perfect time to put pen to paper, or hands to keyboard. Use downtime to create leverage. Craft a newsletter showing how things are heating up in your business, a perfect theme for summer.

This four-page letter went out when the Internet was new. So it seems a bit anachronistic [that means old, out of date. You probably won't be signing up for Compuserve or AOL any time soon]. But what's new and leading-edge in your business or your world today? If you show yourself as venturing into the future, clients may perceive you as current and "with it," as opposed to past your prime, or outdated.


The Summer is really heating up.  It's getting HOT!  HOT!  HOT!

Come Share the Excitement.
Visit us at http://www.careerlab.com

Although there've been some big changes at CareerLab® over the years—we've moved into larger quarters 15 times, for example—the past changes are small compared to what's just happened. By creating a presence on the Internet, we've undergone the biggest revolution in our company's history—a change from fast to lightspeed, from national to global, from standard business to 24-hour interactive. The purpose:  to serve you and your company better, to make your work with us much easier!  Here's how:

Imagine a 300-page Brochure
In the past when prospective clients called us, we chatted with them and sent a brochure.  Good corporate prospects received a folder with about 10 pages of inserts: our client list, staff biographies, reprints of published articles, and thank you letters, to name just a few. They received the brochure in a day or two, urgent packages went Federal Express. We still send brochures by mail, but . . . 

Now we have about 300 pages of text online 24-hours per day, 7 days per week.  Anyone worldwide with Internet access can log onto our site and see everything instantly.  No waiting, and no missing pieces.  Also, no more "business hours."  If you're awake at 3:00 a.m., there's a good chance you can find the answer you need in the middle of the night.

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William S. Frank, M.A., President/CEO
25 Reasons I love consulting.
by William S. Frank
  1. Brand. You are your own brand, and you can define it any way you want. For many years, I provided outplacement to the ex-employees of Schlumberger, the world's largest oilfield service corporation. When departing employees left the company, they didn't request outplacement in their severance package. They said, "I want Bill Frank."
  2. Demand. The world will always be full of terrible problems that need solving.
  3. White Hat. I can be a helper and get paid for it.
  4. Pay. I can be paid to do things I'd gladly do for nothing.
  5. Variety. Every day is different.
  6. Happiness. At this stage of my career, I only work for people I respect and care about. If a client micromanages me or is otherwise no fun, I complete the assignment and replace them.
  7. Talent. I'm using 110% of my talents and stretching myself to the max.
  8. Change. I can change my focus any day I want. If you're a McDonald's franchisee, you don't say, "Hey, I've got this great idea for a meatball sandwich—let's try it out today." In consulting you can adjust your focus hour-by-hour, as long as your clients still understand and appreciate what you do.
  9. Income. No one else would pay me as much as I pay myself.
  10. FUN. I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing.
  11. Retirement. I can write and consult as long as I am physically and mentally capable. Peter Drucker worked into his 90s, and when asked which book was his best, he said: "My next one."
  12. Job Security. Although clients come and go, no one can come into my office and say, "Pack up your stuff . . . You don't work here anymore." In 29 years, I've only had one employer: ME.
  13. Travel. I don't have to travel unless I decide to. I travel if it's both FUN and profitable—or at least FUN.
  14. Commute. I live five minutes from my office, a corner office in an upscale six-story tower. In winter, I leave a heated garage at home and drive to an underground heated garage at work. There's seldom time to hear even one song on the radio.
  15. Vacation. Consulting is more fun than vacation (except on Wailea Beach in Maui).
  16. Friends. I have developed hundreds of close acquaintances and several lifetime friends.
  17. Time. I can work as much or as little as I like: four-hour days or 18-hour days. (Of course, my income will reflect that.)
  18. Employees. I can work with employees, subcontractors, partners, or alone—I've done it all.
  19. Passive Income. I've developed several products that provide "mailbox money." I earn while I'm sleeping.
  20. Ethics. I've never had to violate my values or personal code of ethics. I've never had to lie, purposely deceive or harm others, or promise things I can't deliver. I go to bed with a clear conscience. That doesn't mean there's never any conflict. But the conflict is conducted according to generally accepted business practices.
  21. Virtual. My career is fairly portable. With the Internet, e-mail, cell phone, and FedEx, I can work nationally, even internationally from my office—or anywhere in the world.
  22. Purpose. I make a difference in peoples' lives every day. I see it in their faces, hear it in their voices, and read it in their thank-yous.
  23. Experience. Every painful or joyful life experience makes me a better consultant. So does every person I meet or book I read. Grey hair can be good in consulting.
  24. Structure. I have to work very hard, and the clients expect superb results—but I get to structure my days, weeks, months, and years.
  25. Boss. Most of the time, I love my boss.
As I was posting these letters online, I realized I want to communicate my love for consulting. It's just a great business. The single letters, taken together, may create a picture of enjoyment, but in a burst of creativity I listed some of the reasons consulting is such a good fit for me—and perhaps for you, too. They are not prioritized; this is just how they came out.