Full-time worker, new father, and he still managed to start a new business
By Vickie Elmer
Monday, August 16, 2010; 30

When Nicholas Hartigan started his company, he also was working full time as a contract employee for the Justice Department and spent 10 hours a week commuting to work. His wife, Amanda, was a teacher who had started work on her Ph.D.

Their company, Off Peak Training, was created around the idea that many people want to earn professional certifications but can’t prepare for tests or learn about the work during the day. Many of Off Peak’s workshops and boot camps are scheduled after 5 p.m. and on weekends.

Anyone who’s ever dreamed of starting a company under the boss’s nose could learn a few things from Hartigan and his partners, all of who kept their day jobs while contributing to the training start-up. One of the first things they did was to gain support from the top management where they worked.

“If you don’t get buy-in there, you’re going to get pushed down” by a mid-level manager, said Hartigan. So he assured his employer’s chief executive: “I want to be upfront with you. … It’s not going to conflict with your company and it’s not going to conflict with the client.”

Most co-workers had no idea he was growing a business in his off-work hours. “They knew me as the person who left at 4 o’clock to try to beat traffic,” he recalled.

He returned business calls after 4 p.m. and spent a couple of hours a night developing the company’s brand and goals. He gave up most Saturdays and Sundays, too, working 25 to 30 hours a week on Off Peak Training.

“I’m a scheduler. I schedule everything,” said Hartigan, a habit he picked up while interning and working for a scheduling software company.

He even scheduled the heaviest dual workload, while his wife was pregnant and in the baby’s first year. “My goal was by the time my son’s 1 year old, I’m going to be on my way to running this business full time from Reston,” he said.

His son is now 16 months old and Hartigan relishes working from home — after quitting his job in May.

Christopher Talmont, a close friend of Hartigan and a business partner since early summer, has worked since 2007 to help establish Off Peak. When Talmont was laid off, he spent about three months developing the curriculum and manual for their project management course and boot camp.

These days, Talmont works full time as a project manager for a government contractor working on an Army Corp of Engineers project. He was recruited to work for the contractor while teaching a boot camp — and took the job when the chief executive gave him the flexibility to spend a week or so each quarter teaching full time.

The contractor’s job gave him the financial footing to teach for Off Peak Training free and earn equity in the company instead of pay, Talmont said.

In another year or so when the government contract expires, Talmont figures he will join Off Peak full time. But he might continue with some overlap: His day job contractor is interested in using their business on some projects.

“The biggest constraint that we run into is time,” said Talmont. “Great ideas are flowing.”

Off Peak Training’s classes now include information technology security and IT auditing certification preparation and classes on the nuances of Microsoft SharePoint and project management programs. About half of them are scheduled after business hours, Hartigan said.

The first classes were held in 2008 in his living room, when he admits he kicked his wife and young baby out so he could train friends and friends of friends. Now they’re held in organizations’ conference rooms and in hotel conference space, mainly in Reston, where Hartigan lives, and in Sterling and Herndon.

Since devoting himself full time to Off Peak, Hartigan works 50 hours a week now instead of 80, though many of them are still evenings and weekends — since that’s when his partners are free to collaborate. He spends more time connecting in the business community, though he finds sales challenging. Last month he took a sales training course and sees himself getting comfortable with promoting his company — especially since his livelihood now depends on it. “I like being an information resource,” he said.

Communication is the most important part of project management. One of the most effective strategies in communication, however, is how you establish and manage limits on it. Completely open and unmanaged communication quickly becomes a nightmare for a project manager. Everyone has access to everyone else, information is flying everywhere, commitments are made without referencing the project management plan (PMP), and pretty soon things are happening that aren’t being tracked and you’re into one of the most dangerous areas of a project at risk: scope creep. I have personally seen customers engage technicians in order to get them to promise something outside of the scope—no one wants to be on either side of that situation.

How do we prevent this from occurring? Establishing approved lines of communication and proper representatives is key. By providing conduits through which information can be forwarded to the appropriate destinations, we are able to not only monitor communications but also maintain organization and control. One must carefully balance limits on communication. It is just as easy to create a bottleneck as it is to create a deluge of communication channels. Often, the project manager will employ a traffic manager for this very purpose. If not a dedicated person, then well-established and documented lines of communication between appropriate parties can be just as effective. Good communication is controlled communication—don’t let your channels get away from you.

Harris Eisenberg, MBA
Harris has worked in a project management role within both the marketing and music industries. Most recently, as Strategy and Business Lead for a small marketing agency in Virginia, Harris managed dozens of projects from individual brochure development to enterprise software development for the Federal government. If you wish to contact Harris, you may email him at harris.eisenberg@gmail.com.

Off Peak Training, a Reston, VA based company, offers public and private training classes to help prepare business professionals for professional certifications like the PMP®, CAPM®, PMI-SP®, CISSP®, CAPM®, CISA®, and is a Registered Education Provider for the Project Management Institute.

The demand for professionals with IT security and project management certifications has never grown faster. Off Peak Training has expanded its ownership and its course offerings. This month Chris Talmont and Chris Schulz, were added as principals to the business.

Official Press Release:

www.offpeaktraining.com/press

Additional Courses:

Additional PMP Certification courses and CISSP Certification courses.
www.offpeaktraining.com/pmp
www.offpeaktraining.com/cissp

According to the PMI website, “this premier educational conference gathers thought leaders in project management to share new research findings and shape future directions for the profession. Participation in the event is limited to 500 scholars, senior practitioners and students of project management. It will feature upwards of 60 sessions and, in addition to traditional paper presentations, will include new interactive session formats, symposia and student poster sessions. Attendees will also use the latest in social media networking to further their participation and enhance their experience.”

PMI is the world’s leading professional membership organization for project managers and is the only project management association with an established academic research program. In order to become a Registered Education Provider, Off Peak Training’s course materials went through a rigorous review by PMI education experts to ensure that our course material is of high quality and in-line with PMI standards.

Sign up today for PMP Certification training in Tyson’s Corner Virginia August 23-27th, 2010. Full schedule available at www.offpeaktraining.com/pmp

Read testimonials at: http://www.offpeaktraining.com/category/testimonials/

Off Peak Training, a Reston, VA based company, offers public and private classes to help prepare business professionals for the PMP®, CAPM®, PMI-SP®, CISSP®, CAPM®, CISA®, and is a Registered Education Provider for the Project Management Institute.

Sign up today for PMP Certification training in Tyson’s Corner Virginia August 23-27th, 2010. Full schedule available at www.offpeaktraining.com/pmp

Read more testimonials at: http://www.offpeaktraining.com/category/testimonials/

Off Peak Training, a Reston, VA based company, offers public and private classes to help prepare business professionals for the PMP®, CAPM®, PMI-SP®, CISSP®, CAPM®, CISA®, and is a Registered Education Provider for the Project Management Institute.

Off Peak Training is excited to announce our participation in this year’s DC Urban Dare! Urban Dare is like a one-day Amazing Race with teams of two racing around the city using a list of clues to lead them to various locations. At each location, the teams must complete a “dare” (a challenge) in order to proceed to the next area. Off Peak Training has assembled a series of teams that will be competing on April 17 for the chance to proceed to the Super Dare and compete in a 3-day race on a cruise ship for a $5,000 prize.

The proceeds from this year’s Urban Dare will be going towards the fight against breast cancer. Off Peak Training understands that breast cancer awareness and research is vital to women everywhere and is thrilled to be a part of an event that will not only raise money and spread awareness, but is an opportunity to have fun while doing it. We care deeply for our friends, family, and followers and encourage everyone to help support the cause.

Off Peak Training would especially like to thank the IT Security and Project Management Professional community for their support. Please be sure to check out photos from Urban Dare following the event on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/offpeaktraining

Reap the financial and professional rewards of becoming a more effective leader in 2010. Prepare for your future with a PMP certification! The PMP® certification validates demonstrated leadership skills and expertise in directing project teams across budget, resources and time constraints in diverse industries ranging from IT, telecommunications and finance, to health care, education and construction.

Off Peak Training’s Project Management Prep course prepares practitioners and organizations for the PMP® exam, strengthening their core competencies which helps further develop and advance career prospects. Our project management courses are recognized by the Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s leading not-for-profit membership organization serving the Project Management profession. We serve one of it’s largest and fastest growing chapters, the Washington DC Chapter (PMIWDC).

Off Peak’s PMP certified training professionals have delivered hands-on and online project management expertise to clients globally and across numerous diverse industries and sectors and will prepare you with real world situational and scenario-based questions.

Our commitment to quality, along with an expert knowledge of leading edge Project Management and best practices, ensures our clients have the tools needed to meet any and all regulatory requirements. 100% of our students have passed the PMP Exam. Off Peak Training is a PMI registered education provider.

Join the nearly 300,000 certified Project Management Professionals worldwide. Sign up for a week long PMP Boot Camp or a 12 day PMP evening course today!

Testimonials

Attendees of our PMP training classes write positive reviews…

• “…without the Off Peak Training Boot camp training there is no way I would have been able to successfully pass the PMP certification test after 5 days of prep-time” — Paul F. Steinhauer, PMP
• “…the course was well organized, the instructor knew and presented the material well and the physical setup was great…” –Dennis Leister, PMP
• More Testimonials on our blog

PMP Exam Requirements

The exam is composed of 200 questions and takes approximately 4 hours to complete. Applicants must meet the following requirements to qualify for the PMP exam:

• Applicants must have 35 hours of specific project management education.
• With a Bachelor’s Degree (or the global equivalent): Applicants must have a minimum three years’ professional project management experience, during which 4,500 hours are spent leading and directing project tasks, up to eight years from the time of application.
• Without a Bachelor’s Degree (or the global equivalent): Applicants must have a minimum five years’ professional project management experience, during which at least 7,500 hours are spent leading and directing project tasks, up to eight years from the time of application.

Thanks!

Paul F. Steinhauer, PMP
Vangent, Inc.
Off Peak Training Student

Off Peak Training, a Reston, VA based company, offers public and private classes to help prepare business professionals for the PMP®, CAPM®, PMI-SP®, CISSP®, CAPM®, CISA®, and is a Registered Education Provider for the Project Management Institute.