The Wright Company Blog

I recently shared a success story on social media about one of my coaching clients who officially gave notice to her employer and launched her own consulting business.

I told the story of how E. joined my coaching program in November to learn how to leverage her skills and experience to launch her own consulting business. She was tired of working for someone else and ready to earn significantly more while working fewer hours.

After completing the coaching program, she established the foundation of her business, started taking on consulting clients on the side, and officially gave her notice to her boss on Friday! This was a huge win, and we celebrated with champagne over zoom.

What I didn't share on social media was E.'s self-professed "freak out" on Thursday night. She sent me a panicked email full of fearful questions along the lines of "Am I ready?" and "What if I fail?". She was concerned because she only had 3 months of client work booked...

I had been hoping that progress made since the #MeToo movement, plus the fact that I'm now in my 40's, would mean I wouldn't have to face ongoing issues with sexual harassment as a woman in consulting. Unfortunately, it seems there are still men out there for whom the message has not yet sunk in.

It can be bad enough to experience sexual harassment as an employee, but the issues are compounded when you're self-employed. There is no Human Resources department to assist you and no one to protect you if a client is misbehaving. Clients will generally protect their own employees rather than protect their consultants.

I've had several bad experiences with male clients, and the sad thing is that it's always been me who paid the price. I'm the one who had to make a decision to leave a project because I no longer wanted to work with the person who had harassed me.

In the most recent instance (pre-COVID days), the offender was the founder of the company. Initially he was charming, showed an...