Professional Services: What To Pay For

If you are one of the lucky ones with a hiring budget, don't get bogged down in all the skill-set talk. Whether you are hiring an independent contractor or permanent professional in accounting, architecture, banking, design, engineering, health care, law, technology, marketing or other profession, full or part-time, you're still building the team.

You've got to think how would it be to have that person around? Can they get you where you want to go faster? Where could their network take you? In Good to Great, Jim Collins talked about how companies that routinely outperform indexes focus on “getting the right people on the bus”, then determine where to go and seating arrangements.

My analogy is sort of a new, green sport, at lease for those who enjoy it -THE SWAP. Today even the most fashionable are frugal in what fashionistas call dressing “high/low”. One green way to freshen the wardrobe is to swap. The way it works, everyone brings stuff they are ready to donate and then trades. What gets left, goes to Haiti. In my case, it was a huge suitcase. To my surprise, I went home with another one!

Helping Haiti is essential. I like free, it's great. But what really made this game rock was what happened when the most experienced swapper entered the room. To be honest, until she arrived, we didn't do anything, even though we just had to dig in. Then she arrived, organized everything and dug for pearls. She didn't do something someone else couldn't. But unlike the rest of us, she happens to know great things can be found for everyone because she's seen it repeatedly. She shares this vision, cares about fair play and loves to see people get what they like. Pretty soon all the guests, male and female, were in the same room peppering her with styling questions. She's never even worked in retail! Like a magic genie, she made the SWAP happen.

Got a project? Get a genie, get it going, create some magic....

NYCGenies on twitter

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