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"That said, there are a few consulting companies that have called me with offers so low that I've actually laughed."
OK. My most laughable was when a state agency in my state asked me to drive 500 miles round trip to the state capital to deliver a one-hour training for state employees dealing with writing grant applications. The agency had initially contemplated either no fee or $150 for this commitment. As I remember it, the initial offer was no money, followed by the $150 offer after the agency rep had checked with his manager.
When I pointed out that $150 wasn't enough to cover my mileage expense, much less my training fee, the state agency representative was surprised, as though such a consideration had never occurred to him!
Trying not to be insulting, I offered two alternatives. First, find an expert in the state capital for whom travel would not be a consideration. Second, I gave him the URL for the free video of a one-hour grants training session I had done in the past year or two. I invited him to share that video with his attendees or just play it for them at their meeting.
Michael L. Wyland
Sumption & Wyland
818 South Hawthorne Avenue
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57104-4537
(605) 336-0244 or (888) 4-SUMPTION
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend." - Thomas Jefferson to William Hamilton, April 22, 1800
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