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Why Joining PICA Is a Smart Move

How PICA Can Help

PICA promotes the business of professional independent consulting through our ecosystem of education, partner services, community and advocacy. We’re all about helping you be more efficient and profitable, so you can spend more time helping your clients.

Why join?

Make better use of your time. Stop spending hours looking for answers.

• Learn from PICA’s educational content and webinars created specifically for independent consultants.

• Accelerate your productivity by leveraging PICA’s tools.

• Trust PICA’s pre-vetted partners to understand your needs as a “solopreneur.”

• Learn how to review, negotiate, and use sensible consulting contracts to avoid getting into trouble later.

• Get tips and advice in small, virtual Q&A sessions with experts. These web conferences are limited to 15 members each.

• Have your questions answered during PICA’s Office Hours with our founder and chief advocate. (Office hours are hosted monthly and announced to members via email.)

Make more money and keep more of what you earn. Up your game and be your best!

• Learn how to establish a core business identity that resonates with potential clients. Better marketing leads to more leads, more work, and higher billing rates.

• Save money on things you’re likely to need, like legal forms, templates, and services.

• Get tips and insights about billing rates, billing structures, and business development.

• Learn how to maximize the financial benefits related to being a business paid on a 1099 tax basis.

• Better understand the nuances of business structures, payment options, tax deductions, and retirement plans to lower your effective tax rate.

• Learn how to navigate the vendor compliance minefield when contracting with corporations to maintain your valuable business-owner tax deductions.

• Explore ways to expand your business or reframe your services so you don’t have to rely on billable hours. (We call this “getting off the hamster wheel.”)

Find your people. Being self-employed is great, but it can be a bit lonely. After a while, you’re likely to miss having colleagues. It can also be hard to find fellow, like-minded consultants to share your experiences with and learn from.

• Find peers, subcontractors, and potential business partners through PICA’s member directory, searchable by city, state, industry, areas of expertise, and prior consulting firm experience. (By the way, being listed in the member directory is optional; you can participate in “stealth mode” if you wish.)

• Connect with fellow PICA members at our small, in-person roundtable conversations. (Currently available quarterly in the top 10 U.S. metro areas, although as PICA grows more will be added. See this page for details.)

Be a part of something bigger. Research indicates that people who have meaning and purpose in their lives are happier, feel more in control, and get more out of what they do. They also experience less stress, anxiety, and depression. What’s not to like? Together we can:

• Raise awareness about the advantages of hiring a professional independent consultant instead of using a staffing agency or consulting firm.

• Clarify the distinctions between contractors, freelancers, independent contractors, independent consultants, contingent workers, and interim employees. (Yes, there are differences.)

• Debunk the myths about working with independent professionals, like we need to have employees to be considered a legitimate business, or we need to have a “break in service” to reduce a company’s risk.

• Expose the unnecessarily high cost to corporations when they pay consultants on a W-2 basis, and that sometimes we decline work if they insist on paying that way.

Work Smarter, Build Your Business, and Get Connected

We know that as a professional consultant, you always put your clients first. We also know that it's all too easy to spend your time working in your business and not enough time on your business.

Be your best!

JOIN NOW