We hired Debra Howard because we needed help with our marketing and promotion. We hadn't had to do much in the past, and were worried we'd lose our competitive advantage if we didn't start taking it more seriously.

The first thing she did for us was to produce what we called at the time an "emergency" brochure. We needed it done quickly, and thought we would have time later to revise it. However, Deb created such a good brochure, even though she had very little time to do it, that we are still using the same one two years later.

Then she helped us explore some new market opportunities and refine our marketing strategy. We were thinking about making some changes big enough to alter our business plan, and asked her to attend some meetings with the partners to help us move forward. She asked insightful questions and encouraged us to do some preliminary research to determine if our gut feel was accurate. She also reviewed the information we obtained and assisted us in interpreting the results. Turned out there wasn't as much of a market out there as we had thought. She helped us avoid sinking a lot of time and resources into a possible dead end.

She's been very valuable to us as a third party—a brutally honest consultant who asks provoking questions and challenges the norm. This is what I look for in a consultant. If I just want my own opinion validated, I can do that in the mirror. In effect, I hired Deb to piss me off. When she does, I go back to my office and say, "Why did I get pissed off? Is she right?" I often learn something I didn't know, and take her advice and work with it.

She also midwifed a revision of our corporate identity, which was an intense process we couldn't have gotten through without her. And she gave us excellent advice for how to tackle public relations. She's always brought in good people to help her—the graphic designer who worked on our brochure and identity was the perfect fit for what we needed. And she's good at representing our interests with the many vendors who work on our projects.

Finally, Deb jumps when jumping needs to be done and something needs to happen quickly. She's very understanding. If it can be done, and she says she'll do it, she does it. She hasn't missed a deadline yet.

John Burton
President
NPI
South Burlington, Vermont