The Independent Consultant - Issue No. 21, September 2008  (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
•  Project Management Basics: Increase the Success Rate of Your Projects
•  The Success Secret Most of Us Miss
•  Web Site Essentials: Too Often Forgotten!
•  EAS Vendor Spotlight on Jacobson Solutions – Subject Matter Experts
•  Public Speaking: Its Many Benefits Can Grow Your Business

EAS Vendor Spotlight on Jacobson Solutions – Subject Matter Experts

by Charles E. Ritzke

If you have a consulting business—particularly if you work independently or with only a few associates—it can be extremely difficult to manage your workflow. One quarter you may be very busy (with little time to spend on marketing for new clients or projects) and then the next quarter is a little slow (perhaps because you did not spend time doing the marketing in the last quarter). If these scenarios sound familiar, you may be interested in our spotlight vendor for this issue.

This is one of a series of short articles highlighting individual vendors who provide valuable services to our members. The Entrepreneurial Actuaries Section recruits vendors to participate in our Vendor Referral Program. Many participating vendors provide special discounts or other benefits designed specifically for EAS members. See our Vendor Referral Page for a current listing of participating vendors.

Jacobson Solutions – Subject Matter Experts provides insurance, health care and financial services companies access to functional expertise and consultant-level insurance talent for special projects and short-term needs. If you are such an expert and find yourself with workflow issues, Jacobson could be someone you’d want to contact. Just get your name into their Actuarial Subject Matter Expert database.  When they have a project that might fit your expertise, they give you a call. If the fit works out for the client and the timing works for you, you have a project to solve your immediate workflow issue. If not, your name will remain in the database and opportunities for other projects may come your way when the timing is right.

The Vendor Referral Program is one of the benefits that the EAS has developed to provide tangible membership value. As a group, we are an attractive target market, so this can be good for you as well as the vendors. So any time you write a check to a vendor, think about whether you would like to recommend them to other EAS members. If so, contact any section council member or me for details.

  Charles E. Ritzke, FSA, MAAA, is president of Problem Solving Enterprises, Inc. in West Dundee, Ill. and former member of the Entrepreneurial Actuaries Section Council. He can be reached at chuck@myactuary.com.