Consulting Practice Advice

The single most counterintuitive thing I've learned in my 4 years as a founder? When you're drowning in work... Take time off. (I know, sounds nuts) When you've got: → 100 fires to put out. → 50 decisions waiting. → Everyone needs you NOW. Your brain screams: "I can't leave! Everything will fall apart!" BUT → Warren Buffett makes 3 good decisions a year. → Bill Gates takes a whole week off to sit in the woods and think about Microsoft's future. Meanwhile... I'm making 50 micro-decisions a day and struggling to justify a day off. Until last week. I forced myself to take some PTO. For the first few days, I had moments of guilt.  And checked Slack 47 times... obviously. Then something crazy happened. Those fires? My team put them out without me. The urgent decisions? They made them without me too. And I had space to think. → Not about today's problems.  → But about next year's opportunities.  → And the vision for the year after that. Here's what no one tells you: You can't see the forest when you're constantly putting out fires in the trees. The ONLY way to think strategically? Emergency eject yourself from the tactical. → Your calendar will never magically clear itself. → Your inbox will never hit zero. → The fires will never stop. But if you want to build something truly sustainable and long-term... You need to step back. The business doesn't need you in it every second. It needs you above it, seeing what others can't. Take the damn time off !! 

Around 6 months ago, Reformed IT joined IT Nation Evolve. I attend quarterly peer group meetings where I'm basically in a room with around 10 of our "competitors", talking openly about how our businesses are doing. Everything is an open book, the people in the room have full detailed accounts information and we talk about personal subjects too, like how our home and family life is going. I've noticed a divide recently in the MSP business community. Some people, and dare I add, the most successful, are open to sharing and collaborating with others in the industry. However, there also seems to be a group of business owners that feel like they know everything there is to know and that other perspectives, experience and ideas are irrelevant. That was very much my mentality, 15 years ago. Back then, in my previous business, I was guarded about what I shared with others and I would often dismiss other ideas and perspectives. On reflection, that stifled my personal and our business growth. Right now, I embrace being around others who have achieved the levels of success I'm striving to achieve. I've seen on plenty of occasions where people say you shouldn't compare yourself to others. I say that's rubbish. There are often limiting beliefs and artificial ceilings we place on ourselves. For me, the best way to overcome those is actually to benchmark and compare yourself to others. Quite often something seems impossible until someone does it. Imagine what the fastest 100m time would be now if nobody ever raced? If anyone is reading this thinking that this type of community and peer group is something they want to get involved with, reach out to Dan Scott. I'll hopefully see you at a future meeting and I'd love to hear your ideas and insights. #msp #itnation #evolve #peergroups

No one talks about how lonely it is to come back from maternity leave. You leave to have a baby. You come back to 1,492 Slack messages and a calendar invite like nothing happened. No re-onboarding. No roadmap. Just you, quietly catching up in the dark while trying to remember how to human. We have onboarding for new hires. Offboarding for exits. Even training for contractors. But for parents returning from birth? Silence. Let’s fix it. Here’s what every company should offer for parents returning from leave: 👋 Reboarding Week 1: • 1:1 with manager to go over what changed • Updated org chart & project priorities • A "Return Roadmap" PDF so they’re not guessing • Re-intro post to the team (yes, like a new hire) 🧠 Emotional & Logistical Support: • Option to ease in: 3-day ramp week • Set up a “parent buddy” for weekly check-ins • Slack channel for working parents • Access to therapy or coaching if possible 🗓️ Workload Reset: • Clean calendar before return, don’t backload meetings • Give space to observe before jumping into strategy • Make re-entry goals collaborative, not performative 💡 Manager Training: Because most of them have no idea how to support a parent returning to work. Let’s fix that too. This isn’t coddling. This is retention strategy. This is how you keep high performers. This is how you show up for real when it matters. HR folks, People teams, CEOs: STEAL THIS PLAN. Better yet, implement it and tell LinkedIn you did. Working parents deserve more than a “Welcome back!” They deserve a re-launch. #WorkingParents #MaternityLeave #Onboarding #Reboarding #PeopleFirst #ParenthoodAtWork #caffeinencareers

Years ago, before Alliance existed, I thought good writing would always win. I thought if you could craft a beautiful sentence… if you could explain an idea clearly… if you could structure a book well… that was enough. I was wrong. I learned it sitting across from a brilliant, high-achieving consultant who was quietly drowning in content. He had the articles. The blogs. The half-finished book draft. What he didn’t have was clarity or positioning. He didn’t have a reason anyone should care enough to keep reading. That day changed everything for me. Because good writing, on its own, doesn’t move industries. Good writing doesn’t open doors. Good writing doesn’t build a legacy. Strategy does. Positioning does. And understanding the audience does. It’s why Alliance isn’t just a ghostwriting or copywriting firm. It’s a strategic partner for thought leaders who know they’re building something bigger than a LinkedIn feed. If your content doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, it’s not because you don’t have something worth sharing. It’s because you’re missing alignment. And fixing that is what we do best.

Nothing feels more magical than watching a content writing team of one of the enterprise tech companies we’re consulting experiment, transform, and own what they do. Here are just a few things that they are shaping up with during their journey with us, which made me pause with gratitude: - They now always ask - who am I writing for, what stage in their journey, and why, before they think of anything else. - They are shifting their focus from an SEO-focused blog structure to an audience-focused one. - They evaluate each topic by volume, by the purpose of writing, and by its value in the larger strategy, even in AI. - They now experiment extensively with various writing styles, introductions, E-E-A-T elements, SEO best practices, and more, tailored to different audience personas. - They started taking ownership of making every piece of content serve its purpose. - They involve themselves in understanding the content funnel deeply. - They are making their SEO leads and marketing heads feel much more confident and assured. - They become more aligned as a team, not just a group of writers. - They welcome feedback with curiosity, not resistance. - They reflect on every question we ask rather than reacting quickly. - They observe real differences, from page 3 to page 1, because of those changes. - They come back with deeper insights, not just questions. - They are not afraid to unlearn and relearn. - They work on what matters, even if it means reworking things from scratch. They listen. They trust. And we see them evolving with us. Teams like these remind us, as consultants, why we do what we do. Grateful, proud, and honestly... just wow. 🙌 #ContentConsulting #SEOConsulting #Tech

Most MSP owners make this mistake. They hire for what they can afford. Not for what the business actually needs. That decision locks them into years of firefighting. Not because they lack ambition. But because they misunderstood leverage. Your first hire is not just an employee. It is the foundation of your leadership. It determines whether you free yourself to grow… or chain yourself to work you were trying to escape. When you hire cheap, you buy time debt. When you hire capable, you buy compounding growth. So start thinking like a CEO, not a manager. Ask yourself: → Can this person replace 70% of my workload today? → Will they grow with the business in 12 months? → Can I trust them to represent us with clients? If the answer is no, you're not hiring leverage. You are hiring delay. A stronger hire costs more upfront. But it accelerates: → Your capacity to grow revenue → Your ability to spend time with clients → Your focus on strategy instead of firefighting Every month you wait for a cheaper hire to “level up” is growth you never get back. You need to hire for tomorrow’s org chart, not today’s. That means looking six to twelve months ahead. Will this hire unlock new revenue? Will they create capacity for me to lead? Will they still be effective when we are 40% bigger? If not, the hire is a short-term fix. And short-term fixes create long-term ceilings. I hired what I thought I could afford and spent years babysitting, training, and mentoring. It slowed everything down. Once I started hiring people who could solve problems from day one, the growth curve changed. I had time again to work on my business. That single shift helped me build something that could move with or without me. So before you make your next hire, ask yourself: Are you hiring for today’s problems, or tomorrow’s opportunities?

There's an ongoing debate among writers about whether to abandon writing and pivot into strategy work. I’m NOT part of that debate.   Why? Because that framing misses the point entirely. This isn't binary. It's not either/or. Here’s the better question: How do you bundle writing with higher-value thinking and other value-added work? Some writers will add strategic frameworks or other non-writing elements to their SOWs. Others will lead with advisory work and include writing as a deliverable. Many will do a blend of both, depending on the client and situation. The writers who are doing well today are not looking at this as a binary choice. They’re creatively expanding what's possible. They’re keeping an open mind and trying new ideas. Your path will look different from others. And that's exactly how it should be. Don’t fall for that ridiculous false choice. Stop asking which to choose (writing vs. advisory). Start asking how to combine them. And then... start moving forward. The answers will appear as you do. (And they won’t if you don’t.) I will die on this hill.  

🔔 New Corporate Governance Guidelines for PSPs – What You Need to Know The Bank of Ghana has issued comprehensive guidelines to enhance trust, transparency, and oversight within the digital financial services sector. These apply to all Payment Serive Providers (PSPs) licensed under Act 987, including Dedicated Electronic Money Issuers (DEMIs,) Enhanced Payment Service Providers (EPSPs) and others. The objective of this directive is to foster a strong governance culture that safeguards stakeholder interests and boosts public confidence. As a PSP, what do you need to do ensure compliance? 📌 Here are key compliance actions required before 31st December 2025 To ensure full compliance with the guidelines, Payment Service Providers must: ✅ Review and update board composition to ensure the required mix of non-executive and independent directors. ✅ Develop or revise the Board Charter to define governance roles, meeting frequency, appointment terms, and ethical expectations. ✅ Establish or reconstitute required Board Committees (Audit and Risk & Compliance) with clear charters and qualified, independent leadership. ✅ Appoint or confirm qualified key management personnel, and obtain Bank of Ghana’s approval for all appointments. ✅ Implement formal succession plans for directors and senior management positions. ✅ Design or strengthen internal control systems, risk management frameworks, anti-money laundering controls, and cybersecurity policies. ✅ Submit annual declarations to the Bank of Ghana on regulatory compliance and any material deficiencies identified. ✅ Develop or review conflict of interest policies and formal codes of conduct for staff and directors. ✅ Ensure timely and complete disclosures to the Bank of Ghana, especially relating to ownership, governance, and related party transactions. ✅ Schedule and complete director certification training from an approved institution, such as the National Banking College. #corporategovernance #paymentserviceproviders

In-house researchers often operate as embedded consultants… yet many of us haven’t been trained to think like consultants. Here are a few things I’ve learned from working on both sides of that line: - Start by understanding the real need. Stakeholders often come in saying something like, "I need a survey." But that might just be shorthand for "Can you do your … research thing?" Pause and explore the underlying problem before jumping to methods. - When developing a research plan, offer structured choices. Presenting tradeoffs between different approaches helps stakeholders feel informed and included. You give people more chances to say yes when they’re choosing from a thoughtful menu, not reacting to a single proposal. - Define the scope clearly—and revisit it when things shift. Misalignment on expectations can quickly erode trust and leave everyone feeling frustrated or stuck. Whether you’re in-house or client-facing, a consultant mindset is about clarity, partnership, and delivering value. The more we adopt it, the better positioned we are to build credibility and influence across our organizations. Have you worked both in-house and as a consultant? What lessons stuck with you?

🤖On 10 July 2025, the European Commission officially published the long-anticipated General-Purpose #AI Code of Practice—a non-binding yet influential document that aims to guide providers of general-purpose AI (GPAI) models in demonstrating compliance with the AI Act. Developed over the course of ten months by independent experts and informed by over 1,000 stakeholders, the Code provides a structured pathway to legal alignment in three critical areas: safety and security, copyright, and transparency. It arrives just weeks before the first legal obligations on GPAI models under the AI Act come into effect in August 2025. Although voluntary, adherence to the Code may offer providers a “clear, collaborative route to compliance,” as the Commission puts it, along with reduced administrative burden and potentially lower fines in case of enforcement proceedings. Yet its publication has not been without controversy. Some EU lawmakers claim that last-minute revisions weakened provisions on public transparency and systemic risk oversight. Industry associations have also voiced concern that the Code is too prescriptive in parts, particularly regarding copyright. Despite this, the Commission stands firm: the rules will apply on time, and this Code is the key instrument for operational readiness. The transparency chapter of the Code is particularly relevant for privacy professionals, as it details how providers can meet the documentation and disclosure obligations set out in Article 53(1)(a) and (b) AI Act and related Annexes XI and XII. These obligations apply broadly to all GPAI model providers unless an open-source exemption applies. The core requirement is the creation and maintenance of a Model Documentation Form that includes technical and operational information about the model—such as its intended purpose, limitations, capabilities, and safety measures. The documentation must be updated over the model lifecycle, and previous versions must be retained for at least ten years. Providers must also publish contact information for requesting access to the documentation and respond within specific timeframes to legally grounded requests from the AI Office or national authorities. Information-sharing obligations also extend to downstream providers—typically developers of AI systems using the GPAI model—who rely on this information to meet their own compliance duties. The Code contains safeguards for confidentiality, requiring that authorities and downstream providers protect trade secrets, intellectual property, and sensitive business information. Providers are further encouraged to publish parts of the documentation voluntarily to promote public transparency and trust in AI technologies. Importantly, while the Code doesn’t create a presumption of compliance, it does carry legal weight: under Article 101 AI Act, the AI Office may consider adherence to the Code when determining sanctions. #aiact #privacy #law