How to be a consultant?

Dear readers,

I have to pick up the pace, I know.

However, I've been caught up in figuring out how to be a consultant.

I never realized how much work it is...it seems like everything that involves being 'independent' is for the super talented.

You need to be part lawyer, all businessman, an accountant, figure out insurance, health stuff, make sure no one can sue you, you have a good reputation, they have a good reputation, etc and so on.

You also need to make sure that. you. get. PAID!

I've been spending tons of time, trying to figure out contracts, tax language, legal documentation, figuring layers of relationships and more.

Have you been a consultant? Worked for yourself? Tell me how you pulled it off without losing track of something important!

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Best,
Alena

Send in the drones! Happy 2010!

Well, I was advised to write a new years blog, and here it is:

First, some issues I've been wanting to tackle, at least initially. I'm assuming most of you read the articles showing that AQ and insurgents in both Iraq and Afghanistan have tapped our unmanned spy drones that we use to spy on them. DoD has known about this weakness for a decade, but did nothing about it because they 'assumed adversaries would not be able to exploit it.' Wrong, obviously. But what is worse, is the assumption.

The 'enemy' is smart. Terrorists are smart. Criminals are smart. Sure, one side of terrorist groups and criminal organizations is just the 'grunts' and may not have a lot of sophisticated training, but assuming your enemy is not as smart as yourself is...less than smart. Terrorists have proven over and over that they are adaptive and proactive. In fact, we're almost always at a disadvantage, because the government is big, slow, bad at sharing information and so we are always reactive.

I'm going to continue in another blog post, just to keep things simple.

Best,
Alena