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Here is the gist of what I got from the article. Things that worked: -Blogging -Referrals through blogging -Posting comments on HNs Things that didn't work

Here is the gist of what I got from the article. Things that worked: -Blogging -Referrals through blogging -Posting comments on HNs Things that didn't work -Networking Events -Participate in marketing or consulting communities -Partner with agencies or other consultants -Hound people -Cold outreach -Advertising -Handing out business cards

philbarr 9y ago
Except that networking events definitely DID work because he says that the first gig he got was through someone he met at a networking event. And the rest was basically, "be lucky".
- makk 9y ago
  It's not "be lucky." It's "make your own luck."
- tomashertus 9y ago
  I think that the whole point of that was that the networking didn't scale well.
- jandrese 9y ago
  That gig was a lifeline, but didn't make him successful. It wasn't until he started getting visibility with the actual founders that he started to feel like he could do this as a job. Most of the don'ts are events where founders are too busy to attend or are swamped and it's almost impossible to stand out. Really his takeaway is to make a name for yourself and the offers will roll in. Figure out a way to increase your stature or you'll never make it as a consultant. That's what all of the blog posts and hacker news articles were for, getting people who matter to know his name.
  - ataturk 9y ago
    I have to throw in my $.02 here. The author needs to do a better job of explaining what city he lives in and what the unique sitaution is there. In the US outside of the west coast and maybe some eastern cities, you aren't going to meet "founders" and the whole ballgame is different for indy consultants. I have had success with just going through recruiters who will work with your S-Corp and help find you gigs for an up-front fee. There's plenty of work, in fact, a recruiter whom I know got laid off not because of the lack of work but because of too few candidates to fill the roles. I do think the $$$ that employers are willing to pay also factors in. Not every place wants to hire consultants, either. Many have had bad luck with expensive jerks who promise the world but leave a huge mess in their wake. The blog post advice is iffy--he did get lucky in the sense that his post tracked here on HN. I have a blog with no traffic! My former employer (a consulting firm) has had mixed success with their blog and that's with $200 paid to consultants who write articles for it. We had a very decent corpus of articles there, but the signal to noise ratio on the Internet is not in your favor there.
skmurphy 9y ago
I help firms sell to business (B2B lead generation and sales) which at least rhymes with the author's consulting practice. My experience has been: Things that worked: +offering low cost but useful workshops/seminars +public speaking +referrals from existing clients +blogging / referrals through blogging +networking events +participating in communities of peer consultants +partnering with other consultants +handing out business cards (at the end of a serious networking conversation) +comments on HN and other entrepreneur oriented forums Things that didn't work -hound people (defined as contacting more than three times without a response) -cold outreach -advertising / sponsorship So...your mileage may vary.
erroneousfunk 9y ago
I think it depends on the amount of business that you want. I do freelance as a side job and only have a few clients a year that give me an extra ~10-20k of income. I mostly do web scraping, data science, data management, and teaching (workshops, taught a couple university classes, adult education) Networking events and word of mouth from other clients have been about half of my work, and the rest just sort of email me out of the blue based on either my LinkedIn profile or a book I wrote. I don't blog, I don't have much of a professional website. The book I wrote is fairly popular, but I find that the people who email generally haven't read the book (although they might have bought it... to see that it's real, I guess) but they find me through that. Will agree that cold outreach doesn't work at all unless you're doing it on a massive scale (and then you're just a professional salesperson...). I've done it, but it's literally never worked for me.

philbarr 9y ago

Except that networking events definitely DID work because he says that the first gig he got was through someone he met at a networking event. And the rest was basically, "be lucky".

makk 9y ago
It's not "be lucky." It's "make your own luck."
tomashertus 9y ago
I think that the whole point of that was that the networking didn't scale well.
jandrese 9y ago
That gig was a lifeline, but didn't make him successful. It wasn't until he started getting visibility with the actual founders that he started to feel like he could do this as a job. Most of the don'ts are events where founders are too busy to attend or are swamped and it's almost impossible to stand out. Really his takeaway is to make a name for yourself and the offers will roll in. Figure out a way to increase your stature or you'll never make it as a consultant. That's what all of the blog posts and hacker news articles were for, getting people who matter to know his name.
- ataturk 9y ago
  I have to throw in my $.02 here. The author needs to do a better job of explaining what city he lives in and what the unique sitaution is there. In the US outside of the west coast and maybe some eastern cities, you aren't going to meet "founders" and the whole ballgame is different for indy consultants. I have had success with just going through recruiters who will work with your S-Corp and help find you gigs for an up-front fee. There's plenty of work, in fact, a recruiter whom I know got laid off not because of the lack of work but because of too few candidates to fill the roles. I do think the $$$ that employers are willing to pay also factors in. Not every place wants to hire consultants, either. Many have had bad luck with expensive jerks who promise the world but leave a huge mess in their wake. The blog post advice is iffy--he did get lucky in the sense that his post tracked here on HN. I have a blog with no traffic! My former employer (a consulting firm) has had mixed success with their blog and that's with $200 paid to consultants who write articles for it. We had a very decent corpus of articles there, but the signal to noise ratio on the Internet is not in your favor there.

skmurphy 9y ago

I help firms sell to business (B2B lead generation and sales) which at least rhymes with the author's consulting practice. My experience has been: Things that worked: +offering low cost but useful workshops/seminars +public speaking +referrals from existing clients +blogging / referrals through blogging +networking events +participating in communities of peer consultants +partnering with other consultants +handing out business cards (at the end of a serious networking conversation) +comments on HN and other entrepreneur oriented forums Things that didn't work -hound people (defined as contacting more than three times without a response) -cold outreach -advertising / sponsorship So...your mileage may vary.

erroneousfunk 9y ago

I think it depends on the amount of business that you want. I do freelance as a side job and only have a few clients a year that give me an extra ~10-20k of income. I mostly do web scraping, data science, data management, and teaching (workshops, taught a couple university classes, adult education) Networking events and word of mouth from other clients have been about half of my work, and the rest just sort of email me out of the blue based on either my LinkedIn profile or a book I wrote. I don't blog, I don't have much of a professional website. The book I wrote is fairly popular, but I find that the people who email generally haven't read the book (although they might have bought it... to see that it's real, I guess) but they find me through that. Will agree that cold outreach doesn't work at all unless you're doing it on a massive scale (and then you're just a professional salesperson...). I've done it, but it's literally never worked for me.