Monthly Public Health Consultant Spotlight: Brad Krueger, MPH

Each month, I will introduce you to a public health consultant or entrepreneur and they will share their path to self-employment and outline key pieces of advice for aspiring business owners.

Today we welcome Brad Krueger from Chicago, IL (USA)!

1. Please share your educational background and business title/name.

I am an Evaluation Consultant with Krueger Consulting.

Degree: Master of Public Health (MPH)

2. Tell us how you entered the field of public health and what your education and work experience was prior to consulting or starting your own business.

While I was pursuing my MPH through Des Moines University, I worked in several public health settings that solidified my interest in the field. The first was for a public health department conducting home inspections and ensuring health standards were being followed and the second was with a small external evaluation consulting firm. Both shaped my view of the public health landscape and left me encouraged that my love of people and science had a place to land. As I worked at the consulting agency, I was able to learn about both the field of evaluation and the practice of consulting. These lessons assisted in guiding the work I do now, acknowledging what I wanted to replicate and what I hoped to change.

3. When did you start your business and what were your motivations for pursuing self-employment?

I started my business in January 2020. While I was working for the consulting firm, I realized I was hitting my ceiling for growth and advancement and was ready for a change. I felt there was more I could offer if I had the freedom to structure my work and contracts in line with my skill sets and interest rather than that of the firm’s. The change came a bit more chaotic than anticipated but it was the push I needed to step away from a comfortable (consistent) salary and into the discomfort of starting a business.

I am motivated daily by doing things that I believe align with the change that is due in our world and our consulting industry. I firmly believe the skills and resources given to me through education, mentors, and experience are not mine to profit from but to offer as tools for communities to use in advancing the work they are doing. At Krueger Consulting (KC), we humbly offer our expertise in evaluation with open hands to be used and guided by strong agency leaders.

4. Who is your ideal client? What services do you offer?

My ideal client is small to mid-sized nonprofit organizations with a mission to address health disparities. Our partnership often begins by addressing a need to bring structure and organization to their information/data systems in response to a funder’s or stakeholders’ request. Frequently, this is an organization with 5-20 staff, all operating at their capacity and a collective sense that information and data are a burden rather than an asset. KC helps bring clarity to the design, implementation, and use of their evaluation.

5. Do you have a particular product or service that you’d like to highlight? Tell us all about it!

Over the past few months, we have been brainstorming about how to make evaluation services accessible to organizations that may not have grant funding to focus on evaluation or an internal budget that allows for this expense. We have carefully crafted two new services we are excited to launch in 2021. Namely, an Organizational Data Review and an Evaluation Audit. The two services are 4 and 6-week sprints, respectively, with lower prices than custom evaluation services. We hope to break down the cost and fear barriers to evaluation by providing low-cost and easily understood roadmaps to advance evaluation at smaller nonprofits.

6. How has your consulting business been impacted by COVID-19? What adjustments have you made in order to continue to be successful?

I started my business only months before COVID-19 up-ended our communities. As with many, the initial months were difficult, navigating projects and contracts that needed to be altered, paused, or canceled. Once we all began to adapt, the work restarted and conversations continued. The work of business development has been more emails and zooms and the projects have been more virtual data collection and training, but, the core of building evaluation within dynamic organizations has stayed consistent.

7. Many of our readers are considering a career as a self-employed public health consultant or entrepreneur. What is your best piece of advice for those considering or just starting out?

I’ve shared this in various places, but, I think it remains true. People are generous. It continues to amaze me how kind, thoughtful and sincere others are, even in awkward zoom cold ‘calls’. I believe if we come from a place of abundance rather than scarcity and view others as partners rather than competitors, our networks grow and our impact is greater.

The second piece of advice, that I am still learning, is knowing what you want. In my first year, I managed to pay my bills and set my own schedule, which is a huge accomplishment. There are inherent trade-offs and my business is nowhere near its final form, but I think there is an important step that many, including myself, skip over. While many consultants are strategy-oriented and skilled planners, we often forget to apply those skills to our own business structures. So, as we all know, but less often apply; Begin with the end in mind.

8. How can readers connect with you? Please share links to relevant websites and social media accounts:

Readers can connect with me via my website, blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, newsletter, or email.