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Ask HN: How do I become a consultant?

40 points by justajoe 16y ago

First a little background. I'm a developer working for a near-profitable startup. I'm a high level employee and after building out our initial platform I moved on to recruit a team of developers to scale the business. But I'm not a founder and it is time to move on. Which brings me to HN. I think most businesses have a very particular need that I could help meet as a consultant, but I'm unsure how to get started. I'll call the need "data liberation". A recent project at work showed me the value of this idea. After being given a broad mandate to consolidate some reports, I chose to spend some time trying to make the reports actually "good". That is to say fast, fast, fast, and searchable. I looked at options such as SSRS but ended up going with a custom built solution. In short, I channeled my inner Google and did everything I could to make the reporting app provide instant results with very elegant search interface. Everyone was blown away and the four primary analysts reported saving a combined 10 hours a day over their old methods. One of the higher ups came out and asked me if I had opened up some secret high speed connection to the database. Although flattering, it was just good software design. And then it hit me, I like this type of work. I can do this type of work. And I think I'm good at it. This couldn't be a software play. Not only do I not own the code, but it is too specific to the company. But that specific nature is what makes it good. Solutions from SAS, Cognos, and Microsoft already fill this space and they are flawed for one simple reason: too generic. In order to really liberate a company's data I believe you need a very tailored interface that can make using your data feel like using Gmail or Craigslist. It is all there, easy to find, and only a few key strokes or clicks away. And with the power of data warehouses, open source software, and a JavaScript fronted I believe you can make a custom application cheaper than buying the larger generic tools. So, how would someone even go about providing a service like this? More over: * Where should I look for my first client? * Would I have to link up with an existing consulting firm or can individuals find success in this space? * Is this even a problem that businesses acknowledge? * Do you have similar experience doing or hiring out this kind of work? Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated.

corin_ 16y ago
The two biggest helpers are networking and past-endorsements, both of which can be helped by sites like LinkedIn. Your quote about saving 10 hours a day - try and get that as a formalised written recomendation, and do so for all future clients as well. Also encourage your current company (assuming they aren't pissed at your decision to leave) as well as future clients to recomend you to business partners that they think you might be of use to you - the majority of the consultancy work I've done (albeit in Marketing rather than IT) has been through word-of-mouth recommendations.
- justajoe 16y ago
  That's true. I'll try and nail down that quote if/when I decide to leave.
yock 16y ago
My friend and former colleague Steve Friedl has something to say on the subject of becoming a consultant. http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html
- justajoe 16y ago
  Very good read. Thank you.
JoeAltmaier 16y ago
Your first client is your current employer. Don't use an "existing consulting firm", they take half the money for providing contacts. Find your own contacts. All your contacts will be personal. Before you quit, find and contact them from your employer's customer/vendor/peer space.
nrj 16y ago
Start advertising yourself as a consultant, get some business cards, go to conferences, reach out to people you've worked with in the past, network! If all else fails, there are always craigslist gigs. I would avoid consulting firms, as in my experience employees of consulting firms generally get the shaft. Especially if you're new to the game and don't realize that clients are paying the firm 250$/hr for your time while they turn around and pay you 40$/hr. You are much better off as a freelancer if you want to get a decent hourly rate.
- kls 16y ago
  I would avoid consulting firms I would not set that as a hard fast rule, if a firm can get you your rate, then by all means use them. I have a network of firms that use me and all pay my rate. They know not to even bother if it is not at my rate. The thing is too, they know my reputation as a top caliber guy in my area and they call me in when they have a discerning client that is looking for a solutions guy. Sure a lot of firms are looking for someone who will take 40hr and that they can charge 250hr for, but almost all of them keep a stable of ringers that they can call on when they need them. What they charge their client is of no relevance to me. I have my rate and if they pay it then I could care less. To discount these firms is to cut out a massive network of well connected people that can get you work with little to no effort on your part. You just have to be very clear that you rate is non-negotiable.
aagha 16y ago
"I think most businesses have a very particular need that I could help meet as a consultant..." Why do you think this? Do you know of the companies that have this need? If so, they're the first on your list for you to network into. Promote yourself: @corin_29 is right. Get LinkedIn endorsements but more than that, consider starting a blog and putting advice on there others can use. If people find and read it and think it's useful, you have a new vehicle to tell people you're available.
- justajoe 16y ago
  True, that is a good place to start. Every company I've had serious contact with has this problem, but the list of companies where I have a good high level contact to pitch this idea is somewhat small. But I agree, people I know is the place to start.
- kevin_morrill 16y ago
  To extend on the idea of starting a blog, you might actually try a minimum viable product type approach to this. Don't just build a blog, build a product page for it, put a price on it, and have a buy button. The buy button just says "This product is still in beta, but if you'd like to be on our beta list click here."
edw519 16y ago
I would ask for help from my current employer. This, of course, requires you to be completely open and honest about your desires and that they're not jerks. They already think you're a superstar, so it really won't be that much of a surprise when you say something like, "I had so much fun 'liberating our data' that I'd like to start my own service business doing the same thing for others." Smart business people like helping others, especially helping others get started. They seem so sense that the karma will eventually come back to them (and I believe they're right). They also understand (even better than you) the business benefits of your work and can really help you focus your new business. Ask them (starting with the top person, of course) for guidance on how to get started. You may be surprised how much you learn from them and how willing they are to help. You may think you know how much your work has helped them, but I bet they have more to share that you don't already know. They probably can be the source for great leads, their vendors, their customers, other companies in the boss's CEO or Tech circle, golf buddies, who knows. For example, if your owner/president/CEO has an associate who would benefit from your services, everyone wins when he recommends you. As long as they don't feel their core business threatened by your service business (helping their competitors), your own employer may be the best source for ideas and leads to starting your own service business. Give it a shot.
- justajoe 16y ago
  Yeah, that is a difficult cat to let out of the bag. I'm high enough in the company that voicing that I think my personal success is going to be found elsewhere is going to be a hard break no matter what. That said, a few weeks later I could probably get some endorsements and maybe recommendations but for now my skills are a competitive advantage (if only because I'm the only one who's actually done this particular work up until now) and they wouldn't be inclined to help anyone else secure them (I think).
ErrantX 16y ago
Honest to god answer? I think this would be hard to sell to most companies as a consultancy. Rarely will you get a broad enough mandate to actually pull it off (based on your description). The other problem is entirely custom solutions put companies off because they then have to rely on your for support (one lucrative area that I do consultancy is supporting such programs for companies silly enough to go that route :) costs 'em a fortune). A custom solution sounds expensive from a companies perspective; both in cost but also in development time. But most importantly the concept of "data liberation" and custom built databases are just not really on the commercial radar at the moment. Selling it to them could be pretty time consuming. To give you an example Im currently working with a company that are doing some pretty cool things - they've asked me to work on expanding their web app and database. It's a total mess and I have suggested a complete redesign which will cost about the same and be a lot easier for the both of us; they are resisting like hell... (this is purely my opinion ofc, YMMV) Not to put you off; but it is worth considering it from this perspective now rather than later. To answer your questions: Where should I look for my first client? People you know. I started contracting through a friend who, via religious connections, had a lot of eager clients/friends with work. However based on your description this is probably a very hard market to sell to. Would I have to link up with an existing consulting firm or can individuals find success in this space? Depends how much success you want - but I would say no. The resources and tools (legal templates, time tracking, invoicing) are now freely available on the web with a little looking. The only real need you may have is getting a foot in the door with large corps (which strike me as your target market). Is this even a problem that businesses acknowledge? See above. I suspect you will have to work pretty hard to sell this as a concept - at least initially.
- kls 16y ago
  I have to agree with the summation here, it will be a hard sell. The only way that I can see that you would be able to sell this service in the 30 second window of open ear time, would be to offer the service for free, with a contract in place that time expenditures will be measured before and after and you will be payed x for the amount of hours you save the company post-results. It is a big risk on your part, but if you can actually provide the service and prove the results, you would never want for clients again. It is just too exotic for the average decision maker to "get" in the 30 second window of interest.
tom_b 16y ago
I think about making a similar move all the time - every company out there has bits of data in different systems that need to be pulled together without a multi-million $$ business intelligence effort. If I was making a change in this direction, here is what I would look for: 1 - contract job listings or small consulting firms that do data warehousing, ETL dev, and reporting. 2 - Mid-size companies in a specific industry that need this type of custom reporting. Financial services companies are immediate targets. One caveat - my personal search has indicated that many companies are tightly (very tightly) bound to using a report solution from a big vendor (Sas, Cognos, MS, or Microstrateg) and will probably NOT deviate from that platform. These types of places view reports using a specific provider as a very good thing seeing how they can hire report devs with that exact skillset when they need new reports or additional data sources added in. This vendor tie-in extends into ETL tools (eg, you'll see lots of job requests for Informatica or AbInitio skills)
- justajoe 16y ago
  Yeah, I think you've hit the nail on the head here. I firmly believe a good platform could be custom built in a short amount of time and allow the business to realize the value of their data months or even years earlier than would happen going the route of a big vendor's solutions...however the bureaucracy within a large organization would always red light such an effort. To put it another way, no one ever get fired for using SAS.
btilly 16y ago
I've done this kind of work, and my first thought is that you're seriously underestimating the difficulty in getting data consolidated in one place at most companies. The barriers aren't technical, they are things like sprawling poorly designed databases, critical information found in disparate systems, and having to work with uncooperative DBAs who want to maintain their private empires. (You may also have smaller data volumes. That definitely helps performance!) Your experience is in a young startup which hasn't accumulated layers of legacy cruft, with a reasonable schema, where you understand the data model, and you have good relations with key players you need to cooperate with. As a result you encountered none of the common problems that are endemic in more established companies. I say this as warning, not discouragement. As you pursue this course, be warned that you will encounter those problems and they will take more time than you think. Be prepared for that, don't over promise, and when you arrive at a company pay attention to those possible roadblocks so that they don't catch you by surprise. Because forewarned is fore armed.
- justajoe 16y ago
  Warning and cold hard reality I'm afraid. Still would be awesome to at least give it a try and see what I learn.
richcollins 16y ago
Why not do a saas product that includes consulting integration?
kevin_morrill 16y ago
Look for customers posting work on the underlying platforms you'd build your interface on top of (e.g. SAS, Cognos, etc.). I'd suggest being willing to take work related to, but potentially outside of your immediate interest in improved interfaces. Otherwise as many people are alluding you will have a very hard time finding work. The benefit of this is that you will learn a ton more about what customers want beyond what you're already imagining and establish credibility with them. I started consulting about 6 months ago. I was very picky about which customers I took on. The ones I did turned out to be amazing sources of problems that could be whole product categories. Now I am getting ready to build my first product and I feel very confident I have my first sale lined up.
- justajoe 16y ago
  Awesome!
mmelin 16y ago
I think you should consider getting into QlikView development. I can't talk about my personal experience, but suffice it to say it is growing like wildfire and the idea is very similar to what you're describing. I think it would be hard to get into this field with completely custom built apps, because maintenance will kill you in the long run.
- ableal 16y ago
  Looks interesting. Demos at http://www.qlikview.com/us/explore/experience http://www.qlikview.com/us/explore/experience
danielrm26 16y ago
http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html

justajoe 16y ago

Good thoughts. To answer your main thoughts, maintaining custom reports on a generic platform is itself a major cost. I agree I'd love the repeat business but I think my approach is dead simple enough that I could easily hand it off to existing tech talent within a company. My main thought is that rarely can a company pull either their business or tech people off of "working in" the company to "work on" the company for a few weeks to improve their reporting.

tom_b 16y ago
Don't forget - most companies that are interested in reporting this way probably already have an internal team tasked with this job. You need to market your services to high level decision makers and be adroit at negotiating the murky waters you'll be in (essentially competing with or doing the work of an existing team).
ErrantX 16y ago
I can't disagree with your thoughts; to be honest it could be you occupy a specific but useful niche (just based on language; reporting, data liberation, etc.) but it is hard to say for sure on generalities. I actually have an anecdote about reporting in a piece of software we use. It's a highly customized database which then lets you design reports using Microsoft Report Server. Honestly, it's, really, a complete nightmare to use. But is it cost effective to get a consultant in to make it like, say, Gmail? That would be a dream (and if I had the decision you'd be at work on it tomorrow morning :)) but the truth is that your additions would mean re-auditing the whole thing, hiring other consultants to ensure it met data standards, retrain staff, etc. Essentially what I am saying is that while the trade off of your cost vs. the man-hours saved is probably a net gain. When you get into a largish company lots of additional costs come into effect. In addition (and this is probably a more important factor) habit breeds contempt; or, rather, if I was using this DB for the first time today I would hate it. But after 2 years it doesn't bother me any more. If you came to us with a knowledge of the software, our requirements and a proposal of how to beat it then that would probably be considered - making a pitch like that can be hard though (because how do you know what we use and how). Something with before/after figures dressed up in the kind of language managers like. Turning up with a "vague" (If you follow me) proposal to liberate databases is nice, but unlikely to hook anyone in the few minutes pitch window. Again; not to put you off. But you may well need to use a different approach to "normal" consultants to get companies involved (I really wanted to give you a suggestion here but I am struggling, sorry).
- justajoe 16y ago
  Depressing but true. My experience is that a company would rather assemble a team of low level business people to power through raw data or cobbled together observations for weeks rather than pull a developer off of doing CSS tweaks on the company's about page to actually solve the problem once in for all. Using good tools can be a religious experience and make a company much leaner, meaner, and effective. However building good tools is high risk and rarely something company's want to work on (hence the problem with enterprise software in general).