Jim Cochran

I Thought This Was Mine! – The Crazy World of Works for Hire Intellectual Property Rights

Just because you write a piece of software, design a website, or develop a graphic doesn’t mean that you own it. Sure, your name might be on it as the author, creator, artist, etc. but if a company hired you to do that work, it belongs to them and not to ... Read >

It’s a Dog eat Dog World and Your Staffing Firm is Wearing Bacon Flavored Pants

Staffing agencies have a unique set of risks, especially in the world of professional liability. Even with the most stringent of screening methods, it is still very possible that your IT staffing agency can place an incompetent worker in a very important ... Read >

Protecting Yourself from Your New Clients

When small businesses think about protection, many owners think of the basics – locks on the doors, secure email & data, trustworthy employees. Very rarely, if ever, do they think about their clients and customers and this can wind up being a costly mista... Read >

IT Business Insurance Should be As Niche as Your Company

The word “IT" covers a broad spectrum of services ranging from network managers to software developers and graphic designers. The same can be said about the phrase “Business Insurance." It is a broad term that covers many different risks, some of which ma... Read >

You Wouldn’t Think that Independent Contractors Need Workers Compensation Insurance – But they Do

You’ve got pen in hand, ready to sign a new client contract, and then you glance at the fine print. It says that to get the work, your IT business needs to carry five different kinds of insurance. That can’t be right! Or can it? If you’ve already got E... Read >

Are Customized IT Contracts Worth the Trouble? Absolutely!

So you’ve got a new client, contractor, or employee, and you need a contract to protect your business interests. But how to create an IT contract? Do you hire an attorney to craft a contract from scratch? Often this can prove to be too costly, especially ... Read >

Managing Marketing Clients’ Expectations: It’s About Trust

Working as a marketing consultant is as much about finessing the client relationship as it is about developing effective marketing campaigns. Your business's survival depends on customer satisfaction, so earning and keeping your client's trust is a big pa... Read >

Lessons Learned: Building on Success with Marketing Post-Project Reviews

In business as in life, learning from our mistakes and successes is the best way to improve. As marketing consultants, the most informative feedback comes from our clients. That's why formal project reviews are one of the best ways for marketing consultan... Read >

Management Consulting Project Review: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

As is true with any profession, management consultants get better at their jobs with time and experience. That's particularly true for consultants who make a point of conducting project assessments, gathering their clients' feedback at the end of a projec... Read >

Key Word in Managing Customer Expectations: Communication

As a management consultant, you know that customer satisfaction and your business reputation are closely linked. If your consulting engagement misses the mark - or even if your client just perceives it that way - your future business prospects are on the ... Read >

Ongoing Quality Testing Cuts IT Project Management Risks

Because risk management and IT project management go hand-in-hand, experienced IT project managers never start a project without a risk-management strategy in mind. Often, at the heart of that strategy is a strong focus on quality control.Before the ink o... Read >

With Systems Integration or Programming Projects, an Informed Client Is a Happy Client

When it's your job as the systems integrator or custom programmer to make sure that a project stays on track, your reputation - and future business prospects - are on the line. No client wants to hire a consultant, only to be surprised to learn months lat... Read >

Formal Change-Control Process Helps Keep Complex Projects on Track

With almost any complex information technology project, there are bound to be scope changes along the way. Often, the difference between a successful project and one that gets bogged down by "project scope creep" is the way those scope changes are managed... Read >

Use Project Management Tools to Stay Ahead of Marketing Project Scope Creep

When marketing consultants are hired for a project, it's common for both the consultant and client to come up with new ideas along the way. But beware of "scope creep": those little changes to the scope of a project that ultimately add up to a big change ... Read >

Management Consultants: Take Control of Scope Creep

Often management consultants are hired to accomplish a specific goal, but before the engagement is complete, the project's scope has expanded to include more than you or the client bargained for. Because scope creep often happens quietly, it's easy for a ... Read >