The Independent Consultants Network has recently been established in the UK to bring freelance consultants and those with contract work requiring consultants together.
The Network offers free registration and a range of advice pages of interest to HR, training and IT freelancers. There are facilities for posting work opportunities, but you need to be a registered affiliate in order to search the contracts directory.
We haven't been able to discover how many contracts there are available in Inconet's directory. It will also be interesting to see how the service aims to generate revenue to cover its costs. The real test of such services for independent consultants is their ability to attract a significant number of contract opportunities.
4 Responses
How can I find the new network?
It was a bit frustrating to have no information about where or how to contact this new network. However, I’ve now searched for it through (the ever-brilliant) Google, and find some confusion.
There is a network with this name — possibly related? — purely for Organisational Research people, and run from within the OR Society. This would make it irrelevant for many of us who aren’t into that area.
There is a similarly-named body based in Ottawa.
And finally… I found it! At
http://www.inconet.com/index.asp
Thanks Cecilia !
Thanks Cecilia for quenching my immediate frustration – which was, yes, so tell me more, where is it and how ??
technical problem!
Thanks both for your comments. We had a technical problem which resulted in the hyperlinks in this story being left out. I’ve now added them back in, so hopefully this will provide a bit more further information!
More about INCONET
INCONET has been established for 4 years as an offline network of independents and we launched our new beta version web site last month to make our services accessible to more clients and independents. I established INCONET.com so freelancers could use it to develop their careers (with courses, coaching, advice and resources), connect with high quality freelance colleagues and find exciting and well-paid training and consulting projects to add to their portfolios. The response has been overwhelming, with many very highly qualified and experienced freelance HR, training and management professionals applying to become INCONET Associates (quality-assured independents suitable for matching to client projects). We don’t charge people to become Associates but take a commission on project fees, as we have done for the past 4 years. Our new web site enables us to reduce costs and therefore our commission; it’s only fair to pass our savings on to our Associates. There aren’t a huge number of projects on our site yet, but they are high quality and high value. We’ve never had a problem attracting business – because our Associates are the best! Many of our existing clients projects are still matched offline, although they can use the new service if they wish. We like to get to know our Associates personally so that when a project comes in ‘offsite’, we know the right trainers or consultants to contact – we are, after all, a people business! I’ve been a very successful freelance HR and management consultant myself for the past 7 years, so I understand the highs and lows that independents face – from the day you start to the day you can afford to relax! I hope you find our new site useful and look forward to meeting you – we’re on stand Q74 at the CIPD exhibition in Harrogate and I’m running a ‘Going Freelance’ seminar on Thursday in the CIPD fringe programme. If you’d like to know more, please do contact me by email [email protected], or call me on 01761 463306.