The Saw-Tooth Dilemma

Anyone in sales, self-employed, or responsible for both business development and project delivery, will be familiar with the saw-tooth dilemma. You get large peaks and dips in income because you can't be generating new business and delivering the work you've already won at the same time. It could be as extreme as feast and famine.

This unstable income profile affects freelance consultants especially, because it's harder to look for your next assignment while you're doing the current piece of work and you are often living with a degree of uncertainty over whether the current assignment will be renewed, or how long it will last.

I have lived with this uncertainty for over 10 years, but generally been able to ensure a consistent pipeline of opportunity, that enabled me to walk seamlessly from one contract into the next. However, I stopped doing the business generation and keeping the pipeline healthy and I paid the price with months of no work.

Having analysed what I was doing right for so long and where I went wrong, I wanted to share the lessons I've learned and the tips and tricks that have worked so well for me over the years, allowing me to earn a healthy, reliable income for many years.

This book is for anyone who:
- Is out of work and seriously looking for a new role
- Is in work but is seeking a change
- Is self-employed and needs a more stable income
- Wants to permanently escape the cycle of feast and famine
- Is looking to make a major change of direction (e.g. leaving the Forces)

The book examines, what I did right, where it went wrong, the lessons I learned and then explains how to approach short-term job-hunting for those out of work, or needing to get a new job in the next few weeks and then shows you how to build your networks of contacts and create a pipeline of opportunity that, if fed and nurtured, should mean you never have to worry about where the money will come from ever again!

With a wife and two kids at home and one at university, I fully understand the burden of responsibility that comes with being primary (or sole) bread-winner and this book talks about how to create reliable income in a way that will, over time, reduce or completely remove this source of stress and allow you to do work you love, without having to worry about what's around the corner, so you can provide for yourself and your family.

If you enjoy this book and it helps you, please do me and your contacts a big favour and recommend it to them.