PICA Member Spotlights

Q&A with independent consultants who successfully “made the leap” and created the consulting career of their dreams

 

Q: Could you please introduce yourself and tell us your consulting specialty? Also, how long have you been independent?

A: My name is Darlene Deane and my business is Divine Quality LLC. I do consulting and interim contract work in Quality, Supplier Quality, and Supply chain in manufacturing operations in the EV, automotive, and manufacturing space. I’ve been independent about five years.

Q: The electric vehicle world is a very unique niche. How did you select that as your target?

A: I worked for a major automotive company for 30 years. When I got a chance to semi-retire with a really lucrative package, I decided that it was a good time to go. Then I got a chance to work for an EV company. At that point I would have told you that I didn’t have interest in electric vehicles and that I don’t understand why people have them. Then I got the clean energy and green energy bug. People were so passionate about it. In fact, I turned around and bought an F-150 Lightning, so now I drive an EV. After that, I got another job working for a company in California that worked in EV space. It's definitely trending and there's a lot of opportunity. I enjoy it and I feel like it's for the betterment of the world. So that's how I got started and what I like to do. I don't turn down jobs that are not in the EV space, but I feel like I have a lot to offer those companies.

Q: Tell me a little more about your background.

A: I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere. It was great, I had horses. Someone representing Kettering University came to college night at my high school looking for people that were good in math and science. He told me I should be an engineer. When I asked what an engineer was, he said, “Well, you can pay for school”. Kettering is a co-op based college that you went to for three months then you were off working for three months. So, I was able to pay for school. To make a long story short, I felt like my time in automotive was such a blessing. I felt like I would have this opportunity to work, and then when I semi-retired I would be able to give back to my community. I support first robotics, women in engineering programs, and I'm a founding member of a Kettering Fund for women helping women. For me it's all about that opportunity to give back and I just feel like I was blessed.

Q: You said you took a retirement package after 30 years, which makes for a very soft landing when it comes to starting your own business. But why not just retire?

A: That's a good question and a lot of people ask me that. One, I retired at 54. At the time I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be awesome’. I found that I'm not a very good volunteer because I like to try to reorganize everything. I just kept feeling like I had this opportunity to give back. The more I got the chance to go into consulting with all these different companies, the more I learned there's a little dearth of experience. When you can go in and talk and relate to people and help build them up and mentor them you can be so immediately successful; that’s a really gratifying feeling. So for me, the one thing that I love about independent consulting is it's completely flexible. If I want to take a summer off, I could. If I need to work between clients, I can do that too. 

Q: I’m assuming after you took the retirement package that you probably took some time off. After that, what did you do to get started? 

A: I took about six months off and that was really good because I left a really crazy job with a lot of hours and high pressure, so it was a great opportunity to take some time off. Where we live in Michigan it’s pretty common for people to have houses up north where there are lakes. So, we were selling our bigger house, downsizing, and moving to the house on the lake. The break gave us a chance to get through all of those transitions. Then I got my LLC started and the calls just started coming in; all of my jobs have been through my network. The first job came in and then the second job came in with the EV company and I started there. And it's just kind of rolled from one job to another. I have some gaps here and there, but I don't mind that, it's good to take a break.

Q: You said that the jobs just started coming in and it was all from your network. But how did your network even know that you were available and what your services were?

A: That's a great question because I was not that savvy on LinkedIn. I had a LinkedIn profile, but then I really got involved in the whole LinkedIn community, which is amazing. I put my LinkedIn profile out there and I started reaching out to my network. But instead of going out to my network and doing a hard sell saying, “Hey, I've got a company, I need a job” I went out to some trusted people and I said, “Hey, I haven't had to do a resumé in years but I've just updated it. I'm going to start a company. What do you think of my resumé?” So that allowed a lot of people to know that I was looking for work without it being like a cold call. I'm not very good at the marketing. Then I found PICA, which was great because you have such a great process to learn about setting up your LLC and you taught me the difference between a 1099 and W2. Thanks to PICA I now know that “Friends Don't Let Friends W2”. 

The legal class that I took and the different workshops you offer were super valuable. I always tell people if you're going to be an independent consultant, join PICA. There are lots of things like your billing rate, that are difficult to decide on, but thankfully PICA has a workshop that helps with all of that. Plus, the people that you get to know through PICA are really helpful, too. I still don't have a company website, but you have that new online course that I can do on my own. When I get some free time, I'm going to do that course and get my company website up. In the meantime, I do have a company page on LinkedIn.

Q: What was one of the hardest things you’ve had to figure out?

A: First, I'm not very good at marketing, and the second is pricing my services. That's hard for me because I start asking myself if I should discount my services if it's remote and things like that. It really helped me when you went through the process and taught me that my pricing should depend on the scope, the duration, and the complexity. I always write those three things down before I have a pricing conversation and walk through that to give me an idea. I was doing all hourly but right now I've got a client that I'm working with that could potentially be more of a weekly gig, which I think may be a little bit easier because then I’m not tracking hours. This would be going to work every week and getting paid a certain amount.

Q: What’s next for Divine Quality?

A: I often wrestle with this. I ask myself if I want to spend a lot of money for a website and other things to really grow this business. For me, I have this awesome opportunity to work with clients I like, to do work I like, to work when I want to, and at a rate that works out for me. So, I don't know. I don't want to get back into those crazy 80-90 hours a week that I was working before.

The whole point was about flexibility and having the time to do the things that I want. I think being independent as a semi-retiree is great because I can do this for years because I can do it at my own pace. I do think that's one thing that people struggle with, though. Like we mentioned earlier, I have a pension, I'm not counting on this for my groceries, which may give me a different perspective. People who go into independent consulting with the thought of replacing all of their income just need to realize that there's a lot of ebbs and flows. I think you talk about that in some of PICA’s workshops because you have to put away for taxes and other things. You've got to realize that you might have a $20,000 month and a $2,000 month and know how to work through that.

Q: If you could go back to 2019, knowing what you know now, what would you tell yourself?

A: Just go for it! That it’s all going to work out, it’s going to be fine, you're going to find a lot of opportunities, and it's really worth it. I tell people today that I like the flexibility, I like the chance to meet new people. There are a lot of positives.

Q:  If somebody wants to learn more about you or Divine Quality, how would they do that?

A: I'm on LinkedIn all the time, so that’s the best place to get in contact with me. My contact information is in there and I also have a company page Divine Quality.


~ ~ ~ Additional PICA Resources ~ ~ ~