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I'm curious about why you think that earning money professionally, or as a business, is a problem. Say that I with a couple of friends could, in 9 months or so

by ci5er 10y ago

I'm curious about why you think that earning money professionally, or as a business, is a problem. Say that I with a couple of friends could, in 9 months or so, develop a system that would, for JC Penneys (say), save $10M or raise their sales by 1% (I think they are between $10B~$15B in annual revenue, so this would be around $100M+ revenue and at 5% margin (for example) worth about $5M to their bottom line...) I think it would be reasonable to charge them $1M+ for this work. One might argue (they would argue!) that 3 guys for 9 months should NOT be $1M+ -- that we were being greedy. But, I would argue that we are creating significant positive value after our fees. Would you agree with their reasoning and disagree with mine? If so, that's fine - but I am curious as to why.

HillRat 10y ago
I don't think you're interpreting the parent post properly -- he or she is simply saying that, for some people, maximizing income is a primary goal; for others, income is just a tool for achieving other goals (family, hobbies, travel, etc). Nothing wrong with either one as such. Also, you're not charging enough for your hypothetical services. What you really want to do is discount your pricing to, say, $500K but collect on revenue as part of a fee-at-risk deal, assuming you're that hypothetically confident of your hypothetical value-add.
- gedrap 10y ago
  Yes, this. Some people will look for careers in industries that are known to pay more (e.g. finance), even though they don't like or even hate the industry. For others, they just prefer a job that they actually enjoy and just enough income to support their life style and have a good level of financial safety. None of them is unethical or wrong, just different personal preferences.
  - ci5er 10y ago
    That makes sense. Parent was correct - I was not reading you correctly. Thanks.
- ci5er 10y ago
  Thank you. Apparently you are right - I was not reading parent correctly. To your 2nd point, I constructed my hypothetical badly, but regardless, I've learned that I (personally) don't like to depend on the client for accurate monthly or quarterly reports, and then have to do some anti "Hollywood accounting" measures on it, or deal with the inevitable re-org's required re-calculation. I completely understand what you are saying, but if possible, I like to make sure that the client is getting somewhere in the ballpark of at least 10:1 (pro forma, reviewed and agreed to by client) and call it a day. If I had a slightly different personality, your way can be a very (!) good way.

by ci5er 10y ago

HillRat 10y ago

I don't think you're interpreting the parent post properly -- he or she is simply saying that, for some people, maximizing income is a primary goal; for others, income is just a tool for achieving other goals (family, hobbies, travel, etc). Nothing wrong with either one as such. Also, you're not charging enough for your hypothetical services. What you really want to do is discount your pricing to, say, $500K but collect on revenue as part of a fee-at-risk deal, assuming you're that hypothetically confident of your hypothetical value-add.

gedrap 10y ago
Yes, this. Some people will look for careers in industries that are known to pay more (e.g. finance), even though they don't like or even hate the industry. For others, they just prefer a job that they actually enjoy and just enough income to support their life style and have a good level of financial safety. None of them is unethical or wrong, just different personal preferences.
- ci5er 10y ago
  That makes sense. Parent was correct - I was not reading you correctly. Thanks.
ci5er 10y ago
Thank you. Apparently you are right - I was not reading parent correctly. To your 2nd point, I constructed my hypothetical badly, but regardless, I've learned that I (personally) don't like to depend on the client for accurate monthly or quarterly reports, and then have to do some anti "Hollywood accounting" measures on it, or deal with the inevitable re-org's required re-calculation. I completely understand what you are saying, but if possible, I like to make sure that the client is getting somewhere in the ballpark of at least 10:1 (pro forma, reviewed and agreed to by client) and call it a day. If I had a slightly different personality, your way can be a very (!) good way.