Jill’s Consultant List – Online Network of Industry Professionals

I am a wife and mother, working out of the home. September 1, 2006 I found myself faced with a job offer and 2 children who said they would rather sell our new house than lose me to another job. I compromised by starting a consulting business and revisiting becoming more active in my kid’s activities. I could arrange my schedule around the 2 youngest kid's sports, social, and school activities schedule. Their dad lives in Boston, so for the basics of day to day life, it is all me. I also am the Brownie Girl Scout Leader, occasional team mom, and the house where all the kids love to play. We have 2 yellow labs and 3 orphaned kittens. My oldest son is 25 years old and lives in Seattle. We are all happier with this new life balance.

Back to the beginning, I grew up in Ann Arbor Michigan. My stepdad was a Professor of Business at University of Michigan and our Sunday dinners and holidays were always full of visiting professors and graduate students. When I babysat, it was for professor’s families. When I served food at cocktail parties,
it was to the most brilliant people I ever met – to this day. Ann Arbor is often referred to as the Midwest’s version of Cambridge and Berkeley and with that comes a sense of self well mixed with exposure to the world.

After high school, I attended several different colleges, had my 1st child at 21, lived in many states around the country and fit a lot of life in before I was 25. During this time, I worked at several banks, bookstores and Merrill Lynch before
I settled into the career that would define me at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. I started as a broker and went on to manage branches in Michigan and Boston.
The peak of my career was as the Regional Director for New England. Finally, in January of 1997 I retired. I went to Simmons College School of Management in Boston and earned my MBA. For the next 10 years I focused on my family, stock trading and various remodeling and construction projects and ultimately building my current home.

My stepdad, an incredibly brilliant and accomplished man who along with his position as Professor of Business University of Michigan, also spent time teaching at Stanford, Yale, University of Virginia and other places. He has 3 degrees from Harvard and I am privileged to have constant access to him as my key career advisor. With his assistance, I created my consulting practice, MBA Moms Consulting.

I found that there are lots of wonderful moms working diligently in their kids schools and still have energy left over to help more people. I sent an email out to everyone I know announcing that this was my new endeavor. The response was overwhelming. Many responded that they wanted to join the practice but weren’t moms, weren’t women or their Masters was in a different area. With this feedback, I created Jill’s Consultant List.

After spending a few weeks reviewing the options out there, I found that there were many directories available for specific areas of expertise but nowhere was the one stop shopping for help. In addition, I was reading many articles on starting businesses. But, I didn’t feel that the authors had invited me to contact them directly for more individualized help. I searched out a programming company that understood what I was trying to achieve and Byte Technology has become my partner in this dream.

We started programming in October and making changes all along the way. Whenever one of us comes up with something we like in another site from resources to navigation, we incorporate it into our site. Now, we are all proud of what we have created.

As people join up, I realize the wonderful difference we can make in people’s lives. People are joining who are settled in their field and can energize themselves by helping others. People who want to go out on their own but don’t have the marketing resources can find customers. People who have successful careers but want more balance can test the waters. If you are looking for a change, join us and start small or start big.

I also realized along the way, that I had excluded many types of wonderful consultants whose practices were already established and people who had longer contract type businesses as well as high, but well earned fees schedules. I recently altered the original goals of the site to be more inclusive of all experts, regardless of billing and contract conditions. I realized it is up to the customers to find the consultant who is right for them.

I cannot describe to you the feeling of inner peace and satisfaction that comes from helping these people. Some consulting work I do now, I do for free just because I listen to people’s dreams and cannot resist helping them even if they do not have the resources. It turns into the old “pay forward” concept, as I help them, they help others.

Now all we need is you. Please consider joining us on this adventure. Please recommend us to a friend by sending this site to others that would enjoy and reap the benefits of this project too. Without you, we cannot succeed. With you, we can change the world!