There are soo many consultants out there - for business development, marketing, website design, website development, PR, etc… Over the past year or so, many of my friends/readers suggested that I do some consulting, but I've decided to stay away from that for several reasons. Here are my thoughts on the good and bad of the consulting world:

Consultants have it made!

Firstly, consultants have pretty awesome jobs and pretty thick pocketbooks. These consultants can choose their projects, work whenever they want and wherever they want, given that they meet any deadlines. They usually get paid more for short term projects than people will the same skills, working fulltime. Because of this short term commitment, they usually have the right to charge more.

Entrepreneurs are not consultants. Sounds like a pretty good life, but being a consultant just isn't an option for the true entrepreneur. The true entrepreneur has several options: create his or her own company from scratch or start a consulting company. (McKinsey and Company, for example.) In order to satisfy a real entrepreneur's needs, s/he needs to be running an actual company.

Consultants = Bad for Companies

Personally, I don't like the idea of consultants. Matter of fact, I hate it. If I was so desperate for advice, I would call up some business friends, ask my parents, or even recruit the help of my customers! (matter of fact, when my last company hit cash flow crisis, we sold out to a wealthy customer of ours!)

According to good old Wikipedia, McKinsey and Company is known to have charged its business clients upwards of $10,000 per day for a consulting team. Even $300 for a single day sounds like a lot! Critics often argue that consulting companies do not completely understand the company or the vision of the founders, compromising long term strategy for short term gains. The values of the founders may not be aligned with the consultant: for example, I personally believe that your team is the most important asset that you have, and investing into long term strategy is of the utmost importance. However, the consultant may suggest the company cut some costs that will compromise both of the above. How would my employees feel if we cut their health care as the result of these random consultants? They'd be pissed!

Real-life examples: Zappos.com and Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

1) Zappos.com is one of the few companies I truly admire because everything they do is for the long haul. According to an old news.ycombinator.com article, they tried hiring consultants but found that it made much more sense to just hire people within the company to do everything from marketing to web development to shipping management and logistics. For example, many shoe companies would outsource customer support to India, but Zappos has all customer support representatives within the company because the goals of true employees are much more likely to align with the values of the company and its founders.

2) In another example, my dad is a supervisor in the radiological engineering department at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital. The hospital is best known for being among the top cancer hospitals in the world, but why? Because the people working there are amazing. My dad's priority is in fixing any x-ray machine on the property without having to bring in an outside consultant for two reasons: 1) Outside consultants would cost the hospital $300/hour - money that should be used towards helping cancer patients, and 2) Outside consultants don't care as much about the hospital's goals. The consultant wants to make the most money possible, and taking a longer time to fix a machine means a thicker pay check. My dad, however, wants the machines fixed ASAP so that doctors and patients could actually use them. It's an inconvenient truth, but insiders are much more likely to work towards their employers' goals and priorities.

The bottom line:

As an entrepreneur, being a consultant is not on my agenda. However, I could possibly see myself starting my own McKinsey and Company. (or not!) - this isn't to say that I wouldn't work at a consulting company or do consulting for a very brief period, but being a consultant is not something I see on my long-term agenda.

As an entrepreneur who ran a botched company, I would not hire consultants unless I absolutely had to. My support team of four was completely internal and they did a way better job than any outsourced person could or would do. If I ever needed to find consultants, I would call up some of my seasoned-entrepreneur-friends and recruit their advice. If I wanted something like graphics or website design advice, I'd recruit the help of my customers. The short story is, as a company, I'd stay away from consultants if any alternatives exist.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early collegeBard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.

As you might have already read, BlogNation really got dicked over today when the US editor Oliver Starr posted a public letter of resignation on the front page of the blog he was resigning from. It talked about how the CEO of BlogNation, Sam Sethi, wasn't paying his people anything.

The validity of his claims are irrelevant. He's gone, the world now thinks that Sam Sethi is a terrible CEO and shady person to do business with. What's Sam Sethi to do?

1) First off, Mr. CEO needs to take a stand. He needs to openly discuss the situation at hand and either make a full blown apology that discusses in detail why he hasn't paid, or deny it in its entirety and possibly provide proof that he did in fact pay and that Oliver Starr is just trying to screw him over. Either way, Mr. CEO needs to say something to the world, or else people will take his silence as a guilty confession.

2) Mr. CEO needs to make sure the other editors are happy. Discuss openly with the other editors what happened and how to assure that such a thing won't happen again. If they too start posting open letters of resignation, BlogNation might as well just pull the plug.

3) Or the best of the solutions... PAY YOUR EMPLOYEES AS YOU PROMISED!!!

On another note, after TechCrunch posted Oliver Starr's letter, an editor from BlogNation China posted a comment:

Ladies and gentlemen –

1. We express our concern about Oliver deciding to air his own concerns on blognation.

2. Readers may wish to note that reports about blognation on TechCrunch may contain bias. It most certainly is not the “neutral point of view” that we expect from the Wikipedia.

3. As part of the blognation team we are experiencing difficultings in launching and in being with a new startup. Our determination to establish the brand and to aim for victory after victory, however, remains unchanged and will remain unchanged.

4. Quite a bit of content on blognation (and blognation China at that) are unique, as we have good roots in our community. We grow with the community.

5. Please rest assured that blognation (and in particular blognation China) will continue to provide you with news every day of the week like we have been doing for the past two months.

I do realize that some of you have different opinions. We will respect each other’s opinions knowing that responsible freedom of speech is a good thing.

Your support is appreciated.

Best regards,
David Feng
Editor, blognation China
http://cn.blognation.com

I'm sure you've already found some flaws in the above comment. This David Feng is giving the absolute lamest excuses for Mr. CEO's problems. TechCrunch readers are definitely biased, but the post itself didn't have so much. Just cause you're a startup doesn't excuse you from paying employees you've promised to pay. If they were under an equity agreement or barter, that's different.

Unfortunately for Oliver, I'm not sure if there's much legal recourse for him. He didn't sign a contract with his employee which leaves him utterly screwed. I'm sure he'll learn for next time. as for Mr. CEO, best of luck.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com. In her free time, she enjoys the prospect of being an underage angel investor.

Who knew that our world's youth would become so internet obsessed to a point where there'd be rehabilitation camps for these nerds?

Simply put, we're becoming so reliant on our computers for everything. Our communication, our finances, our news, our homework, our research, our fun, etc... it just never stops. If you find that your children or significant other(s) are becoming too much geeky for their own good, send them to rehabilitation camp, where they'll be taught to appreciate the REAL world!

Just imagine yourself at such an awesome place:

According to the Post, one clinic in the Beijing suburb of Daxing keeps some of its 12 to 17-year-old patients locked in rooms with barred windows for most of the day, treating them with a combination of counseling, medication, and military-style discipline. At the Daxing clinic, these troubled teens whose "souls are gone to the online world" are housed together on the third floor of the building, where they are subjected to hypnosis and even mild shock therapy in an attempt to rid them of their love of surfing.

Hmm... sounds like summer camp to me! I sense a minor problem with all of this. The people running these camps may not understand the root of the problem. Many 12-17 year old boys become computer obsessed nerds because they find more success and popularity in the virtual world, whether it be via Myspace or World of Warcraft. Matter of fact, one of these geeks just so happens to be a cousin of mine. There's no stopping him from shooting to his computer immediately after school. His social life at school is pathetic, but he's definitely thriving in Warcraft.

The geek rehabilitation camps are trying to treat the symptoms. It's all about punishment without relating actions to a core reason, which definitely isn't sustainable over the entire course of a nerd's life. Chinese people seem to have the problem of punishing and instilling fear in people rather than actually teaching them something. For example, If I went to China and openly admitted my bisexuality, I'd basically be signing myself up for intense shock therapy. (
However, if any of you come across a geek rehabilitation camp that doesn't use isolation and shock therapy for treatment, please let me know! I'll pass it onto my geeky Cousin.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com. In her free time, she enjoys the prospect of being an underage angel investor.