Well it's been a little over a month now since I started my consultation call service. So far I have had 3 calls, and have two more lined up. It's been a great start!
I am pleased to say that so far the outcome of the calls has been fantastic! Each client I spoke to so far was extremely pleased with our call, and it gave me a really good feeling to provide very useful advice over the phone to them, to help with their move planning.
I have to say, I was a little nervous at first. Offering this kind of a service is totally new for me, so a little apprehension was to be expected. However, with almost 3 years of interactions with people via email/forum/blog-posts/etc on a multitude of topics related to moving to Ireland, I am more than well-equipped to provide useful planning information to people looking for it.

Summary of the calls so far
The first call I took was from a young couple from Australia who are planning on spending one to 2 years in Ireland starting this summer. Due to the luxury of dual citizenship, they will not need visas or work sponsorship, so most of their questions were about regular day-to-day practicalities. We spoke about the logistics of renting in Ireland, where best to find rentals, renters rights etc. We also spoke about money transfers, car buying, insurance, shipping and more.
This may seem like a lot to talk about on one 30 minute phone call, but what I am finding is that people are coming prepared to our call, with a few very targeted questions, and we can quickly move through the topics they wish to talk about. Additionally, my intake form, asks that the client provided me with a summary of what they would like to talk about during the call. This gives me some advance preparation time which allows me to do some research ahead of time, and it really does allow for the best use of our time together.

The second client (actually it was 2 people together) who I spoke with had a wide array of questions. The primary discussion points focused on the Stamp 0 and home buying processes, however we also talked quite a bit about employment opportunities as one of them is looking for employment and not taking the retirement route. We spoke at length about those topics, but still had time to cover questions they had related to grocery shopping, cellphone & internet services, driving resources, and more. It was a very productive call, and my followup email had plenty of resources for them to research further.
As I have done with each call so far, I reached out for feedback afterwards. I want to hear from my clients to ensure they are getting value from these consultations, and to get any ideas for how I can improve the service. Any feedback good or bad is appreciated, but so far the response has been overwhelmingly positive. As those reviews start to trickle in, I will post them on this page. 

The third call was with a gentleman in the US who is also hoping to take the Stamp 0 immigration route, but not for another couple of years or so. This man was very prepared for our call, and outlined many of the factors that he is hoping will be to his benefit when he ultimately makes his application.
As many of you are aware, the Irish Department of Justice is performing a review of the Stamp 0 process currently. They took feedback from the public in late 2016, and many of the changes they are proposing to this immigration path are very positive. You can find out more about that here if you'd like. Due to the very strong possibility that changes will be in place ahead of my client's move to Ireland, much of what we spoke about was hypothetical, however we still had a very productive conversation..

What's next...
I haven't received any feedback as of yet to indicate that I need to change anything about this service. I am more than willing to adapt when the time comes, but so far nothing is telling me I need to. If you have any suggestions for improvements I would be thrilled to hear from you.

For now, I am going to continue with a maximum of 2 time slots per week. This gives me plenty of time to ensure I can prepare for each call, and not to become overwhelmed with too many clients. With that in mind I need to ensure that once an appointment is booked, that the client is committed to it.
If you do reserve a time please ensure you follow the instructions to confirm your time slot, after submitting your information. This allows me to plan for our time together and it puts me in a great position to give you all the answers you need.

Thanks for taking the time to read this today. If you're interested in reserving a time you can do so by popping over to this page - Let's Talk!.

photo credit:Flickr/smemon