FN-FORUM: This collective/cooperative/consortium thing

date posted 11th September 2007 15:15

Hi all,

I hope no-one minds me reviving this discussion. It's something that
has been on my mind for a while, and maybe others on the list are in
a similar position. I keep seeing opportunities for projects that are
are enough out of my reach that I can't bid for them in my own right.
When I say out of my reach, I mean in terms of scale rather than
capability: the work really needs a team of people bigger than my
little man-and-wife company. When projects like this have come up I
have tended to try to pull together people from my network of
contacts, but this has been hit-and-miss so far. I don't want to take
on staff (one reason I work for myself in the first place) but I do
want a better way to be able to combine forces with other
professionals to pitch for business.

I belong to Skillfair and keep seeing great-looking projects (two
just today) and realising that they are beyond my reach as an
individual. Very frustrating.

I was interested when I saw the discussion thread recently about
gr0w, the agency in Bristol that is run along cooperative/collective
lines. That seemed to me like a model that could work well. I
contacted them with the idea of talking to them about how they make
it work but sadly no-one has come back to me.

So my next port of call is here. Someone else must have been in a
similar position, and maybe others are interested in exploring ways
of putting together cooperatives, consortia or project teams. Has
anyone experience that they would like to share (preferably on-list,
but off-list by email if you prefer)?


Ian.
--
Ian Piper
Tellura Information Services - the web, document and information people
Registered in England and Wales: 5076715, VAT Number: 874 2060 29
http://www.tellura.co.uk/
01926 811574 | 07973 156616
--