Safety Consulting Corner

Working in the Sun

I must admit - my perfect work day is sitting outside at the beach or on my patio working on my laptop. Until today, that has been challenging at times due to the sun. The glare has been so bad that I often had to pack up and move indoors. If I turned the laptop's brightness control all the way up, that would help a bit but then the battery wouldn't last as long. In today's mail, I received a "CompuShade." This neat piece of vinyl attaches to my laptop with velcro and unfolds to form the perfect cover for the sides and top of my  screen. I was doubtful as I was figuring out how to attach it but once I got it in place, it worked beautifully. I am outside typing now without the smallest bit of glare and it's great! Do you need a CompuShade (and a little bit of fresh air)? Visit www.CompUShade.com.

Write Write Write

All consultants know the importance of writing and publishing as a way to demonstrate their expertise as well as to market and brand themselves and their firm. Along these lines, publishing articles can also serve as a publicity tool. Once you have written an article, not necessary something technical or the quality of something that would be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, but a general informational article, you can get a good amount of exposure for it by submitting it to one or more of the many online article submission sites.

Some of the sites you might want to check out include www.articlealley.com, www.articlefactory.com,  www.articleworld.com, www.contentdesk.com, www.ezinearticles.com, www.goarticles.com, www.searchwarp.com and www.niche-content-articles.com. While this is not all inclusive, it will give you a good start if you want to submit your articles online.  You never know who will see them and where that could lead so start writing!

A "Ginormous" Safety Hazard

Merriam-Webster just announced that they have decided to include 100 new words in the 2007 revision of their Collegiate Dictionary. They publish 20 of them on their website. One of the words that caught my eye is "ginormous." I think I first used this words in grade school! To be honest, I was unfamliar with about 1/2 of the 20 words they list. I would like to know what the other 80 are without having to go through the whole revised dictionary.    So how does this relate to safety consulting? When I first entered the safety field, I bought a copy of Dictionary of Terms Used in the Safety Profession. I think I must have had the first edition. ASSE now sells the 4th edition but it was published in 2001. Do you think there may be a few new words related to safety that have evolved since 2001? Most definitely. Better yet - I would like to see this dictionary published online, possibly as part of the ASSE website. One easy way to do that would be with the use of a "wiki" as in wikipedia. If you are unfamiliar with wikis, check out www.wikipedia.org. (More on wikis in a future post). So..what do you think some new words should be in a safety dictionary? How about one just for safety consultants?

Marketing Know How

You may already know that your job as a consultant is basically to be a marketer. No matter how much technical knowledge you have, you still need strong marketing skills - maybe even more so - to have a successful consulting firm.  A great place to start to build your marketing expertise is a website called KnowThis.com. There is a wealth of free information on this site including articles, website links, and current stories in the news. The site also contains tutorials on a variety of topics including principles of marketing, marketing plans, search engine optimization and market research.  Even if you are a pretty savvy marketer, there is probably something on this site that could still help you. Check it out!

Listen Up - Want to Be a Safety Consultant?

One of the most common questions I hear from wannabe consultants is "Where Do I Start?" Deborah Roy of Safetech Consultants teaches "How to Consult" classes for ASSE and other groups and was generous enough to spend some time with me discussing the topic. Debbie shares great advice in this 30 minute audio interview. If you want to get off to a great start, listen to "Getting Started in Safety Consulting" by clicking the link below.

Speaking of Safety...

I just returned from the American Society of Safety Engineer's Professional Development Conference. Although the conference kept me busy for 4 full days, a great deal of the value I received from attending came down to 60 short minutes. These 60 minutes covered the 1 hour presentation I delivered. Speaking to a highly targeted group, in your area of expertise, cannot be overvalued. Yes it's a lot of work and often stressful but it is one of the best ways for a consultant to get their name out there. If you have not spoken at one of the big safety conferences (such as ASSE, AIHce or NSC), I strongly encourage you to do so.  One very inportant thing to keep in mind - you must submit a proposal to speak at these events well ahead of time - usually close to a year in advance. The deadline to speak at ASSE's June 2008 conference in Las Vegas is quickly approaching - July 31st - and will be here before you know it. To submit a proposal, visit http://www.asse.org/speakerpage08/. The deadline to submit a proposal to speak at AIHce's conference next June in Minneapolis is August 15th. To submit a proposal, visit http://www.aiha.org/callforpdcs.htm. The deadline for the NSC isn't posted on their website yet but if I remember right, the deadline is around December or January for the conference held the following October. (If anyone knows the details, please let me know).

If you know you should speak more in public but are still nervous about the idea, consider finding a partner or putting together a panel. Having someone to share the spotlight with can help put you at ease. You also have plenty of time to get some practice and/or instruction. Take advantage of opportunities to speak in front of local chapters and enroll in a course or two on public speaking. A few resources to try include Patricia Fripp at http://www.fripp.com; the National Speaker's Association at http://www.nsaspeaker.org/ (local meetings are usually open to non-members and are great) and the old standby, Toastmasters (http://www.toastmasters.org/).  Whatever you do - take the first step. The ability to speak in public is very important if you are going to suceed as a consultant.

Mail2Web Rocks!

At a recent meeting of the American Society of Safety Engineer's Consultants Practice Specialty, held at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando, I learned about an awesome website courtesy of my friend Bob Coffey. Although I am generally riding with the curve when it comes to technology, I had not heard of www.mail2web.com before Bob recommended it. It sounded too good to be true but I have tried it out and it works exactly as it should. With only an email address and password, you can access any email box anywhere - and for free.  Usually I access my desktop remotely and access my email this way when I am out of town but for some reason, my tried and true method is not working out this time. I would not have been able to access my email at all if I had not learned about mail2web.com from Bob. If you have not tried it, check it out now at www.mail2web.com. It makes keeping on top of emails  - especially the hundreds that you can receive while out of town - much easier. Thanks Bob!