Manage Consulting engagement better

Combined User Plan
(Consultant and Buyer)

The Combined User Plan allows a Ready Consultant Member to participate as both a Buyer and a Seller of Consulting services.  This can be particularly useful for consultants that need to identify resources for projects they have been engaged to perform.  This plan type incorporates all capabilities of both Consultant and Buyer, as well as all terms related to both user types.

Fees are calculated in the same manner, no fees for Buyer activity and a percentage of approved Service Invoices amounts for Consultant projects.

see fee grid

Buyer User Plan

Ready Consultant members that sign up for a Buyer User Plan are able to perform a wide range of tasks, including:

• Developing project plans
• Identifying resources
• Engaging a resource
• Managing a project
• Tracking & approving consultant invoices.

There are No Fees associated with being a Buyer user.  Ready Consultant receives its fees from the Consultants that a Buyer engages for a Project.  This is calculated from the Buyer's approval of Service Invoices related to a project (project expenses have no associated fees) and based on the cummulative invoice activity for that project.

Buyers are able to engage a Consultant through the Ready Consultant RFP Bidding System, or through a direct consultant invitation.

Consultant User Plan

Ready Consultant members that sign up for a Consultant User Plan are able to perform a wide range of activities, including:

• Promotion of their services and skills
  • Expanded Consultant Profile: references, experience, white papers, etc. 
  • Publishing site articles as an Author
  • Creation of Sample Project Plans
• Participation in RFP bidding
• Inviting client engagements directly
• Agreeing to Project Engagements with Buyers
• Managing a project with a Buyer through collaborative tools
• Submit and track project invoices.

Risk Free
Don't pay until you've been engaged and invoices approved

Consultants will not pay any fees until they have been awarded and engaged in performing a consulting project.  In fact Ready Consultant does not charge its first amount until the consultant's first service invoice is approved by the Buyer.  The Ready Consultant fee is a percentage of each service invoice approved by the buyer.  This percentage decreases as a project's total cumulative 12 month service invoice amount increases (see grid below).  Expense invoices are not subject to this fee and are not included in the cumulative 12 month amount.

see fee grid

Selecting Your Company

Why Does the Ready Consultant sign up process start with the Company selection?

Every Ready Consultant User Plan must be associated with a Company.  In this way we are able to verify company information and facilitate the flow of information.

I am not with a company but operate as an individual?

If you are operating as an individual, Ready Consultant views you as the company.  Simply use the Add Company process and add yourself as the company.  This may feel duplicative, however Member and Compay information will often appear in different places so it is important to have both sets of detail as complete as possible.

Site Review and Approval Process

Ready Consultant uses the website information you provide and the domain name associated with the email you used on registration as a verification process.  If these do not match, or if you did not provide a website, Ready Consultant may follow up with you via email to gather additional information.

If your company already has an Member with an Admin role, then they have the ability to approve you directly.

Once your Plan Sign Up has been approved, you will receive an automated email with a Confirmation Link.  You activate your User Plan by going to this link and clicking the "Go To Log In" button.

Ready Consultant Fees
Consultants Only

Risk Free
Don't pay until you've been engaged and invoices approved

Consultants will not pay any fees until they have been awarded and engaged in performing a consulting project.  In fact Ready Consultant does not charge its first amount until the consultant's first service invoice is approved by the Buyer.  The Ready Consultant fee is a percentage of each service invoice approved by the buyer.  This percentage decreases as a project's total cummulative 12 month service invoice amount increases (see grid below).  Expense invoices are not subject to this fee and are not included in the cummulative 12 month amount.

Ready Consultant does not charge any fees unless a consultant has been engaged in a consulting project, an invoice has been submitted and the buyer has approved the invoice.

Ready Consultant's goal is to create a positive environment for Buyers and Consultants to build strong project plans, find each other, agree on engagements and manage projects successfully.  To align our goals with our fee struture, we felt it was appropriate not to ask for any fees until the project has been agreed to and is underway.

No Fees:

• All Buyer activity
• Exploring the site's tools and information
• Building an extensive profile to promote yourself, your company and your sevices
• Becoming a Site Author and post articles on your area of expertise
• Viewing and bidding on RFPs
• Creating and Posting RFPs
• Creating an Engagement Agreement
• Initiating the project management's exeucution phase
• Submitingt your first consultant invoice

Fees Apply when:

• The Buyer reviews and approves your first invoice
  
• At this point the Consultant's credit card is charged based on the fee schedule
  
• Buyer is never charged a fee

Expense Invoices are never charged a fee

• Invoices submitted for expense reimbursement are never subject to the Ready Consultant fee and are not used to calculate the cumulative 12 month total for the project.
• Consultants and Buyers agree in the Site Service Agreement to not use Expense invoicing or any other means to circumvent the Ready Consultant fees.

Your public profile will be accessible to others after signing in, however there are only a few ways people can get to your profile:

• If you interact with other users in the bidding process your "Display Name" will be shown.  Often there is a link to your public profile.
• If you send Messages via the Ready Consultant messaging system your Display Name will appear with a link to your public profile.
• If a user views your Company's public page and clicks on your name
  • Your Company may be accessible through the Consultant listing search (see more below)
• If you have signed up as an Author your Display Name will appear on our list of authors and any articles you submit will provide links to your public profile.

Ready Consultant is meant to facilitate interaction between consultants and buyers so we will continue to work on more effective methods of consultant promotion and connections.

Company Public Page

Ready Consultant determines what companies are on our public consultant listing.  This is solely at Ready Consultant's discretion.  This decision is based on the appropriateness and completeness of a company's profile informaiton.

Your only commitment is to comply with the terms of service and other site agreement documents.  There is no obligation to post project RFPs or bid on RFPs.  Fees do not occur until consulting projects have been awarded and invoices approved, and fees never apply to Buyers.

Signing up to Ready Consultant does NOT obligate you to create projects, RFPs, bidding activities or project management.  Your participation in these activities is always your choice.  You are free to test out the project creation process - and even certain project management tools - without any fees.

During the sign up process we ask you to review the Ready Consultant terms of service and other relevant documents and terms.  Some of the important terms involve Consultant fees and consultant / buyer relationships.

• Consultant Fees:  Only consultants are charged fees after work on projects has begun
  • Project creation                                                  -  Free
  • Bidding on RFPs                                                -  Free
  • Winning Bid and Engagement agreement         -  Free
  • First Invoice approved by Buyer                        -  Fee is charged based on fee scale

• Buyers Fees:    None

• Buyer and Consultant agree to work through Ready Consultant
  • Because we charge no fees until work is performed and approved, we require that both Buyers and Sellers do not do anything to circumvent our fee structure.  This includes:
    • working through Ready Consultant for the first 12 months after you identify the other party through Ready Consultant
    • utilizing the invoicing submission and approval process while working through Ready Consultant