I attended Harvard Business School a couple of years ago with the express plan of establishing myself as a ‘consultant.’ I felt there were too many people trying to ‘pick my brain’ and, because I wasn’t an established business consultant (or a doctor or a lawyer), I was unable to charge by the hour.

I wasted hours and hours having ‘quick coffees’ with people, sharing my expertise and connecting them to my network for zero reward. I considered invoicing for my time but, because I’m not a doctor or a lawyer, that would be deemed rude. Oh, but they insisted on paying for the coffee. Great. But what about the value of my time?

IP theft masquerading as a friendly coffee

So I went off to Harvard Business School and, on the flight home, I started to work on the new website I was building – to present myself as a business consultant. The Harvard badge would be the cherry on top and would set me apart from the other local business consultants. Half way through that little episode, I realised I was trying to shoehorn a modern day offering into an archaic and dying system.

That’s when I realised the consultancy model is completely flawed in today’s fast-paced environment.

Take a lawyer, for example. In the old days a one-off client might need a contract or lease drawn up, but these days those templates are available online. What if you just want to change the wording of a clause, or need to know what a particular clause actually means, or just want a legal opinion on something you’re dealing with?

If you call a lawyer for their opinion on something, they’ll insist you come in “for a consultation” and “might have a slot on Wednesday”. Wednesday comes and, once the obligatory tea and rusks have been consumed, you’ll be stung for one hour’s billing.

What you need is a quick answer – via phone or text. But you need (and are more than happy) to pay accordingly. That’s exactly what the new TIMON app does. Finally, I have an app that people can contact me on whenever they want, ‘on-demand’, as they say. It’s basically WhatsApp for the gig economy.

Lawyers on TIMON handle quick legal questions, on the move

I set my own rate, which is charged per three minutes of voice or six minutes of text chat. I have chosen a rate that I think is fair for my time and offsets the inconvenience of a random phone call. My phone number is not stored in the app and users only have to enter their credit card details once – stored securely with a third party, like they do at Uber.

If I can’t take a TIMON call because I’m busy, then I can request a delay. A countdown timer starts and, once it hits zero, the call starts.

At the end of the call, the user rates me and I rate the user. So if someone needs a lawyer, they can compare the ratings and rate charged for the various available lawyers on the system.

Everyone should be charging by the hour. You could give a promo code to your friends – they obviously get ‘mates rates’ if they want to speak to you.

That was a joke.

But I’m slightly serious.

Although I probably wouldn’t charge my wife.

Check out the list of experts available on TIMON – they’ve got doctors, lawyers, scientists, business leaders, tech investors, household names like Jack Parow, Ard Matthews, Simon Dingle, Thando Thabethe, John Smit, Euphonik, Tracy McGregor and more.