The Business of Facilitation

2006 IAF Conference

Moderator: Judy Jablon John Miller, CPF - ICA Associates Michael Wilkinson, CMF, CPF - Leadership Strategies Jim Troxell, CPF - Millennia Consulting Christopher Whitnall - talkforce

www.ica-associates.ca

www.leadstrat.com

www.consultmillennia.com

www.talkforce.com.au

The Business of Facilitation

ICA Associates 1. What are your major products and services?

(Approximate % break down of revenue)

Leadership Strategies Inc. 55% - Facilitation training 25% - Meeting facilitation (strategy, team, issue) 15% - Other training (consulting skills, leadership) 5% - Products

Millennia Consulting
30% - Program Development 30% - Policy Formation 25% - Org Development 15% - Ldrship Development Millennia helps public service organizations (governments, nonprofits, foundations, & educational institutions) improve their organizational effectiveness by providing a full range of management consulting services. Were like a miniAccenture for public service.

talkforce 45% - Training (presentation, facilitation, creativity, negotiation) 35% - Facilitation 10% - Consulting

50% Facilitation training 40% Process facilitation 10% Products, coaching, consulting

2. What is the Employees: 6 FTE business size? Associate trainers: 7 Revenue Range Course sponsors: 5
A: > US$3,000,000 B: $1.6-3M C: $0.75-1.5M D: < US$750,000

Employees: 10.5 FTE Contractors: 26 utilized in last 12 months, 9 with over 100 hours Revenue range: B

Employees: 9 FTE Contractors: In the last 18

months, we utilized about 20 sub-contractors, of which about half were professional facilitators

Employees: 14.5 FTE Contractors: 5-6 Revenue range: B

Revenue range: C

Revenue range: C Toronto-based, with course sponsors in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, & Ontario. Employees: 4.5 facilitators / trainers, 1.5 administration, network of associates in 3 categories: course sponsors, approved Technology of Participation trainers, general associates. Atlanta-based, with public class operations in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, DC, Denver, LA, Sydney Employees: 2 facilitators 4.5 client relationship managers (CRMs) 4 support personnel Contractors: 15 core, 200+ facilitators in the National Facilitator Database (NFDB). Chicago Loop office Organized as an LLC (Limited Liability Company) with 6 of the 8 consultants serving as member/owners. 8 Professional Consultants 1 Business Manager Sydney based and all other work we travel to those centres Sydney: 73% Other Australian cities: 16% Asia: 8% Other: NZ and US: 3%

3. How are you currently organized?

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The Business of Facilitation

ICA Associates 4. When and how did the business get started? (What
were you doing prior?)

Leadership Strategies Inc. When: 1992 I was a senior manager in Ernst & Youngs Information Technology Consulting practice using facilitation in requirements analysis and process improvement. Started doing facilitation on weekends for my church and civic associations. Got a request to do a weekend assignment for a trade association, FOR PAY. Learned that you could get paid for this! After a year of weekend assignments, left E&Y and launched Leadership Strategies with $25K and a business plan focused on five product lines. (My wife thought she was marrying a future E&Y partner. Three months after saying I do, she had an unemployed bum on her hands trying to start a fledgling company!)

Millennia Consulting When: 1996 Three current partners formed the company. One was an independent sole proprietor and the other two were staff members with the Institute of Cultural Affairs. We more or less simply rolled our existing work into launching Millennia and built it from there.

talkforce When: 1993 I was working for a training company running mainly presentation skills and train the trainer workshops. The company started to focus on selling the work at the expense of the quality of the work. I became disenchanted with this focus. In October 1993 I sat on the beach on my honeymoon, read 2 books which inspired me and then came back and resigned. Early focus on presenting skills and then shifted to facilitation and creativity sessions.

When: Late 1950s The Institute of Cultural Affairs emerged as an offshoot of the Ecumenical movement, preferring to focus on human and community development. 1997 ICA incorporated as a non-profit in Canada, closely connected to the international participatory community development movement. 1988 ICA Canada reorganizes with new staff as a fee-for-service NGO offering training, facilitation, publishing Edges Magazine, and hosting conferences. 2000 ICA Canada creates ICA Associates Inc. as a forprofit training and consulting firm. Core team of facilitators and trainers become Principals of the new firm. I became involved in stages from course participant in 1985 & 1990 to employee in 1997. Like most, I was drawn to the values and a desire to help society find new ways to work together cooperatively.

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The Business of Facilitation

ICA Associates 5. What barriers did you face early on and how did you overcome them? ICA has faced many barriers: Facilitating before it was acceptable / commonplace. Attracting people who are mission-driven instead of profit-driven. Using language creatively that others could not relate to. Needing sales professionals but hiring marketing help or people who really wanted to facilitate. Carrying heavy overhead because we are too nice to make tough decisions. Turn around came when principals bit the bullet, laid off staff, found better location, & reduced overcommitments to the larger community.

Leadership Strategies Inc. Having a good product wasnt enough. People had to know about it. Early on, our classes needed 6 people to break even. But after spending $5000 in direct mail advertising, the first class had 3 people. Learned quickly that a different marketing strategy was required! Went door-to-door calling on clients. The second class had 8 people, the third class had 12. By the fifth class, we were on our way.

Millennia Consulting We are intentionally a life style company and attempt to balance business goals with personal vocations. Weve added about one partner each year, though two have subsequently moved on to other pursuits. Since each partners take home is contingent upon what they sell, then each one of us has to be salespeople. This has created no dependencies, but does require some of us to stretch and hustle outside their comfort zone a bit.

talkforce Belief that I could actually make a living on my own! I utilized all the contacts I had and then focused on doing an outstanding job ever time I was given an opportunity. I also had a few contacts who wrote to their contacts introducing me. Did no advertising or marketing.

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The Business of Facilitation

ICA Associates 6. How do you pursue clients? By far the most business comes from word of mouth referrals and repeats. Semi-annual catalogue seems to generate a bump. Relating training to certification has been valuable recently. Course sponsors attempt to fill courses regionally but it is low return for their efforts. 7. How do you collaborate with other facilitators? ICA has approved a small handful of people to deliver Technology of Participation training after making them jump through flaming hoops. ToP certification is improving the first part of that process. Co-train and co-facilitate with staff from other ICAs worldwide. When we need extra help we subcontract facilitators on an ad hoc basis.

Leadership Strategies Inc. Proactive/reactive referral Internet pay-per-click for the National Facilitator Database (NFDB.com) and our main website leadstrat.com Newsletter (10K subscribers) Speeches E-mailings Direct mail (limited) Most of our work is done through our core contractor team (15) and facilitators on NFDB.com. For training our materials, facilitators receive $700-1000/day. For group facilitation, facilitators receive 50% of the fee paid by the client. We also have a negotiated fee when contractors use their training materials with our clients. Annually we hold NFDB days in Atlanta. Facilitators learn about us, our goals, our financials. Our CRMs see them in action and we video them and place a segment on NFDB.com for clients to see.

Millennia Consulting Word of Mouth. Through our electronic newsletter, we try to drive prospects to our website.

talkforce Our business has always been 95% repeat and referral.

In delivering services to clients, our rule of thumb is to keep all work in-house. However, when the job requires outside subcontractors, we maintain contact with a number of Chicago-area facilitators. For example, for a three-day conference in 2/06, we used four internal and 8 external. We compensate our subcontractors at about 75% of the fee we charge the client. For our Group Facilitation training program with DePaul University, we have a faculty of 6, four of whom are Millennia sub-contractors.

About 25% of our revenue is performed by contractors. They are people who we use regularly and know what we expect. We invite them to our professional development days and we include them in most things we do. As a result the trust factor is very high. We also have a broader network who we refer work we dont do to.

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The Business of Facilitation

ICA Associates 8. The Good: In developing the business, what are the 1 or 2 things you did that you were glad you did? Focusing on competency development enabled us to pursue certification, which has been good for business, good for the profession, and good for the world (mission). Developing the group process methods that work (ToP) gives ICA a brand to identify with.

Leadership Strategies Inc. Having a separate CRM staff has been helpful, along with a compensation plan that pays them more when they FIND a new client versus when they receive a lead resulting from the companys marketing effort. The National Facilitator Database has allowed us to meet needs in areas where we didnt already have a core facilitator and a local facilitator was required. NFDB.com has also allowed us to expand our core team by identifying additional facilitators with the level of expertise and the facilitation style our clients rely on us to deliver.

Millennia Consulting Placing facilitation into a larger set of services while noting our preference and expertise in delivering work in a participatory fashion. Focusing our marketing efforts geographically (Chicagoland) and segmented (public service organizations). We are now considered one of the go to consulting firms in our niche.

talkforce Getting good! Always learning and challenging myself and the team to look for ways to do outstanding work. It not only drives repeat and referral work, it allows us to go back with other services which drives a broader and deeper offering with clients. Putting a real value on what we do and being comfortable sticking to that value. When getting started it is easy to discount to get work, not devaluing what we did/do has kept us in a good spot as we have become busier. Say no occasionally.

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ICA Associates 9. The Bad: In developing the business, what are the 1 or 2 things you did that you wish you hadnt? Much of the work depends on the personal relationship with the client so we have relied on personalities instead of systems. Individual persons can only pedal so fast, and the business cannot grow faster or farther. Hiring sales staff who are nice people or inexpensive, or prefer marketing and not being able to support them well enough.

Leadership Strategies Inc. Early on, the amount we were paying facilitators and CRMs didnt allow for paying people to manage the business. The facilitators and CRMs were only paid when they were responsible for billable work. Time spent managing wasnt compensated. Over time we have had to reduce the rates we paid facilitators and CRMs to allow for paying managers to run the business. In addition, I had a consultant background not a training background. I made some very expensive mistakes early on because I didnt understand training as a business.

Millennia Consulting We have not done as much cross-training as we would have liked. Consequently, only half of us are considered expert facilitators capable of designing and delivering a major soup-to-nuts facilitation engagement. Our rates have remained pretty static; weve not incrementally increased them over the years so we may be under-charging and overworking. Our target market which is our comfort zone pays lower in general than we wish. So we have to work even harder to make a real living. But, frankly, we all enjoy the work because were making a difference.

talkforce Not being firm enough in how we managed the accountability of our people. We have always been a great place for people to work although we didnt make much money even as we got bigger. Now we are still a great place to work (others say that not just me) and we have the balance between fun and accountability working nicely. This took us longer than it should have. Our employment process. We probably employed some people who were not as good as we expected. The process is now more robust and the results are showing right across the business. Fit and function is crucial. (We have a no dickheads policy!)

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ICA Associates 10. The Ugly: In developing the business, what are the 1 or 2 things you are currently facing for which you have not found satisfactory solutions? I call it the need for an incredibly compelling business model. We are currently in the middle of business planning in an effort to discover exactly how we can run the business in a way that attracts the best facilitators to work profitably and ethically. Transcending forceful personalities in favour of solid business systems and processes.

Leadership Strategies Inc. We continue to be hobbled by our IT infrastructure. We use seven VERY loosely coupled computer systems from the time a lead is generated to the time an invoice is paid, including lead tracking, forecasting, class registration, engagement reporting, payroll, invoicing, and marketing analysis. The three major lines of business (public classes, private classes, consulting) have made purchasing an off-theshelf product very difficult. We are evaluating Microsoft CRM to use as the primary engine for a custom system. For the last three years we have been investing heavily in the federal govt. market. We have been very successful once we get in the door. However, to date, we have been able to build strong relationships with only five agencies. It is a person-toperson business and our broad marketing efforts have been basically ineffective.

Millennia Consulting We have been hampered by not bringing along younger consultants. Most of us are a little long in the tooth challenging the long-term viability of the company. We may have raised the bar too high in term of entrance qualifications to join us.

talkforce An on-line or product strategy. We are still limited by the amount of time a person can stand in front of a group. We have looked at a range of options although have not yet found a solution which fits our business and our market. Having content on-line which clients can access after sessions have finished is the path we are investing most heavily in currently.

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The Business of Facilitation

ICA Associates 11. What advice would you pass on to facilitators looking to start their own business? Focus on delivery of what you want to be famous for. I have seen too many people invest time in developing their materials yet depressed about the lack of work. Facilitators LOVE to facilitate and clients like solutions, so do whatever it takes to get in front of the group. Take more courses and develop your nice PR materials later, when you can afford it or hire someone else to do it for you. Then keep asking other people to do what takes you off track. There is a difference between busy-ness and business. As an individual, there is only so much busyness you can tolerate but your tolerance for increasing business is high, so keep track of the business systems and processes that work write them down and improve them so others can join you. Plan for the next phase of development not the current one.

Leadership Strategies Inc. Learn on someone elses dime: I knew consulting, but did not know the training business. Made some expensive mistakes early on. Do what you love and be focused: When I started, I was trying to focus on five things. Once I focused on just one, it was much better. I would still do other work, but I placed all my marketing and development in one area. Nothing happens until something is sold: Early on, be willing to place an inordinate amount of time on sales and marketing. How will the people who need you know about you? MOST IMPORTANTLY, identify your bridge for change: What needs to be in place for you to be willing to jump? For some it will be the business plan and the first client. For me, it was six months of my mortgage in the bank. Figure out what yours is and build the bridge.

Millennia Consulting Do what you love. Do what you know best. Work with people you like. Focus: market, services, geography. Then, grow from there. Ultimately itll be the quality of your work that provides you with credibility. Keep the end in mind what do you want out of this enterprise for yourself in five plus years? Decide what kind of entrepreneur you want to be: life-style, serial, or empire builder.

talkforce
Back yourself. In the early days you will have times of doubt and many hours sitting staring at your computer thinking, what happens next? You need to believe that you can achieve what you set out to achieve Dont wait until you know it all. There comes a time where you need to have a crack at things. Businesses are full of people waiting till they have all the skills before going out on their own. They will be waiting a long time If you dont know, ask. Seek thoughts, ideas, and answers from others. Dont be precious. Coming out of a corporate environment can be a big change for people used to having others to delegate stuff to. Lick your own stamps and make your own coffee. Stay humble. Use your network. You will be amazed how big and broad it is when you really think about it Have fun and dont take it all too seriously. It is after all only a game!

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