| | Graham Thomson made the
leap into contracting in
2003 after a 16 year
career split evenly
between international
sales & marketing and
management consultancy.
“I had always considered
myself a corporate type
of person, enjoying the
status of working for
some blue chip consulting
organisations. They
provided me with
fantastic training and
enabled me to work on
some great projects with
leading multinational
organisations,” he
explains. “However, I
didn’t always feel in
control of my career. I
was a very small cog in a
very big wheel and was
often exposed to factors
a long way outside of my
sphere of influence.”
Joining the firm
Arthur Andersen and then
watching it disintegrate
around the world under
the weight of the Enron
scandal, finally being
taken over in the UK by
rivals Deloitte & Touche,
was an experience that
left Thomson feeling
jaded.
“Following yet another
global restructuring,
this time at Deloitte, I
was offered a redundancy
package and decided the
time was right to take
control of my career and
go it alone,” he
explains. “Rather than
take the easy option and
join another big
consultancy I wanted to
become the master of my
own destiny again.”
In 2004 he founded his
own company, Accelerant,
based in Oxfordshire,
offering consultancy and | |
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| | interim management
services in the fields of
customer relationship
management (CRM) and
programme management.
Thomson is not alone.
According to the National
Statistics Office in the
UK, the number of
self-employed people is
estimated to be 4.2m,
equating to 13% of the
working population
(figures for September
2007). Also recent
research from the
European Commission
revealed that 45% of the
individuals interviewed
from 25 EU member
countries said that they
would prefer to be
self-employed.
The most common
reasons people give for
leaving full-time
employment to set up
their own businesses will
not cause any surprises –
they include feeling
undervalued at work,
tired of office politics
and the poor work/life
balance.
However, working for
yourself is clearly not
for everyone. Anyone
seriously considering
going it alone should
first ask themselves the
following questions:
● Is there really a
market for my services?
● How strong is my
network and can this be
tapped to generate
business opportunities?
● Am I willing to live
with the risk of not
securing contracts for a
period of time?
● Will I be able to
pay the bills until my
business becomes
established?
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● Do I really have the
motivation to make it
happen?
Four years on and
business is progressing
very well for Thomson. “I
felt like I was taking a
real leap into the
unknown but, fortunately,
I managed to secure work
quickly through my own
network and have been on
some great back-to- back
contracts ever since,” he
says.
His diverse work has
included an international
market research project
for a top pharmaceutical
company, a global
software selection
project for an email
security company and the
management of a major
change programme for a
county council.
However, it is his
work with the leading
financial services
company Zurich that has
recently earned him a
national accolade as
“Programme Management -
Interim Manager of the
Year 2007”. Each year
companies from across the
UK are invited to
nominate interim managers
who have made an
outstanding contribution
to their businesses.
Thomson was nominated for
his work on Zurich’s
“Treating Customers
Fairly” programme and was
delighted to win the
award at a ceremony in
London in September 2007.
Simon Godsave, Zurich
director commented:
“Zurich uses various
programme managers, both
employees and
contractors/interim
managers – Graham is one | |
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| | of those who can and do
make a difference.”
Not surprisingly,
Thomson has spent no time
looking back: “I couldn’t
go back to working for
someone else full-time
again now. I enjoy the
flexibility and the
rewards of working for
myself too much. I’m
still often working as
part of teams in large
organisations but I have
much more control now
over the work that I take
on. It’s worked out so
well that my wife Sally
has left her employment
as a director in an
executive search firm to
go it alone as well.”
He offers the
following tips for anyone
thinking about going it
alone:
● Understand your
market and what sets you
apart from others;
● Work your own
network – people who know
and trust you are the
most likely to offer you
rewarding work;
● Get yourself a good
accountant who
understands the freelance
market and can support
you through the early
days of establishing your
company;
● Form a limited
company and invest in
professional indemnity
insurance – these are
often pre-requisites for
gaining consulting or
interim management
contracts;
● Join the
Professional Contractors
Group (PCG), which offers
a great package of
services including
legal/tax advice, guides | |
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| | to freelancing and
standard contract
templates;
● Don’t spend too much
time and money on
developing a fancy
website at the start,
this can wait until you
have established some
contracts and have some
money coming in through
the door;
● Don’t go out of the
house without some
business cards in your
pocket, you never know
when that next business
opportunity will arise.
● Stay optimistic and
believe in yourself!
Graham Thomson can be
contacted through his
website at
www.accelerant.co.uk
Useful links:
● Professional
Contractors Group (
www.pcg.org.uk)
provides a range of
resources and services
for freelance
consultants.
● Business Link (
www.businesslink.gov.uk)
provides advice to new
and recently established
companies.
●
Top-ContractConsultant
www.top-contractconsultan
t.com
provides contract
opportunities and a forum
for exchanging
information with fellow
contractors.
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