3 ms·

Ask HN: Consulting Projects

8 points by jdavid 16y ago

Right now I have a good consulting project that pays the bills and lets me work on my own projects for the other part of a week. While I am working on that, I am also working on selling my cars and slimming down on my monthly expenses so that I can be really lean with a potential startup while I shop for a co-founder. I was wondering what advice all of you can provide for finding part time consulting projects. Site's like Zendesk seem to be better for hiring cheep developers, but I need to find ~$100/hr gigs. Right now I go to plenty of tech events, and search craigslist. I am also planing on redoing my blog/ website to be more project driven and less blog centric. I basically plan on making more clear of what my last and current projects are. Any other ideas?

mgkimsal 16y ago
Personally, networking in the local area and a bit of craigslist has been what's worked for me the past 3 years. First year (second round of being indie) was rough, but connections made then have blossomed in to new opps over the past two years. Not sure I can stress that enough - work came to me 2 months ago from someone I met 9 months ago during a meeting with someone else I did work 16 months ago met via Craigslist. I met someone at a conference and 8 months later he called asking if I wanted some ongoing part time work. My own experience is that these things take time, but are eventually worth it. Not sure if there's a way to go grab the 3 figure hourly rate gigs without personal referrals (I'm sure it's possible, but not been something I've found much). You may want to aggressively let your immediate circle know you're looking for some extra short term / part-time gigs. Craigslist connections made about 40% of my income in 2008 - it's gone down some since then, but connections made via Craigslist still bring in revenue now and then. Personal advice - do what you're doing - trim living expenses, shed some excess baggage (unnecessary cars, etc), build up a runway of savings (X months, whatever you're comfortable with) for when you go fulltime on the startup idea. Like many out there, I've got a few of my own 'startup' ideas I may pursue, but want to have a comfortable runway to allow me to focus on the idea rather than cave and start having to do project work midway through the project. Also, just to give myself a bit of breathing space - something I haven't had in many years (though do now, a bit). http://indieconf.com http://indieconf.com was set up to bring people together to network and help address these sorts of questions. Virtuality of HN is great, but some face to face to address the realities of freelancing is good too :) Good luck - ping me at mgkimsal@gmail.com if you care to chat directly.
- tocomment 16y ago
  How did you meet clients on Craigslist? Just looking at the "Gigs" section, or did you do something else?
  - mgkimsal 16y ago
    In my area, looking at http://raleigh.craigslist.org/sof/ http://raleigh.craigslist.org/sof/ and http://raleigh.craigslist.org/web/ http://raleigh.craigslist.org/web/ and http://raleigh.craigslist.org/eng/ http://raleigh.craigslist.org/eng/ It wasn't all that hot for me to start with. I probably replied to 80 postings in a month, and only had a couple things pan out, but they panned out all the same.
    - tocomment 16y ago
      But in the jobs section aren't those people looking to hire regular full time employees? What did you say when you contacted them?
      - mgkimsal 16y ago
        Good point. Some people are definitely looking for full time, others are just looking to get work done. Some are explicitly looking for contract/parttime and they indicate that too. F/T is what many want, but not everyone. It rarely hurts to ask - offer part time hours and see if they're open to that.
- jdavid 16y ago
  Yeah, I hear ya. When I was in Milwaukee I had a reputation. Out here I have to start over. Right now I would be happy with zero debt ( even good debt ) a new macbook pro, and about 2 months of savings to cover net 30. Moving just before the worst economy ever was a tough move, but i think it will pay off.
kingofspain 16y ago
It is possible to build up to a fairly decent level on sites like that but you need to be willing to do ridiculous things for practically nothing at the beginning. I started on vWorker of all places in June and did about 7 or 8 soul destroying projects (one was basically a full custom CMS for $15, that I know the agency charged > £3000 for). However, I got my 10/10's and since #8 onwards I haven't had less than $500 per job (each prob 4-5 hours work). I actually totted up my earnings yesterday and it's around $1000/m (I just don't dont have time atm to do many). YMMV, obv. Craigslist sounds good for the US but it's a no-starter where I live so I can't offer anything there. Other than that, hit up people you know, who you've worked with before. You might get lucky. My biggest earnings right now come from somewhere I worked with years ago. I IM'd him out of the blue when I was broke asking if he had spare work. Turns out he'd fired his developer that day and so i had my start! That's obviously not likely to happen often, but it's worth a shot. At the least these people might remember you if something did come up.
turtle4 16y ago
It is risky to pay an unknown person $100 an hour, regardless of job. So employers either give the job to someone they know, or contract from a large firm with the expectation that the firm deals with whatever might come up frequently enough that it reduces their risk. The exceptions to this tend to be when the project is doomed, and the employer is just desperate to get anyone to work on it, which you don't want. So looking at those two cases, your best plans of action are to either subcontract for a larger firm in order to get fed more jobs, or do more networking to lead to those jobs. Sometimes the networking is in the form of doing odd jobs and low value jobs until something larger comes up, and sometimes just a matter of letting friends know you are looking for work. It would be nice if there were an easier method to go about it, but the bottom line is that $100/hr is a fairly valuable wage, and you need to earn trust before someone is going to fork it over.
Rickasaurus 16y ago
If you become well known for something people will beg you to consult for them.

8 points by jdavid 16y ago

mgkimsal 16y ago

Personally, networking in the local area and a bit of craigslist has been what's worked for me the past 3 years. First year (second round of being indie) was rough, but connections made then have blossomed in to new opps over the past two years. Not sure I can stress that enough - work came to me 2 months ago from someone I met 9 months ago during a meeting with someone else I did work 16 months ago met via Craigslist. I met someone at a conference and 8 months later he called asking if I wanted some ongoing part time work. My own experience is that these things take time, but are eventually worth it. Not sure if there's a way to go grab the 3 figure hourly rate gigs without personal referrals (I'm sure it's possible, but not been something I've found much). You may want to aggressively let your immediate circle know you're looking for some extra short term / part-time gigs. Craigslist connections made about 40% of my income in 2008 - it's gone down some since then, but connections made via Craigslist still bring in revenue now and then. Personal advice - do what you're doing - trim living expenses, shed some excess baggage (unnecessary cars, etc), build up a runway of savings (X months, whatever you're comfortable with) for when you go fulltime on the startup idea. Like many out there, I've got a few of my own 'startup' ideas I may pursue, but want to have a comfortable runway to allow me to focus on the idea rather than cave and start having to do project work midway through the project. Also, just to give myself a bit of breathing space - something I haven't had in many years (though do now, a bit). http://indieconf.com http://indieconf.com was set up to bring people together to network and help address these sorts of questions. Virtuality of HN is great, but some face to face to address the realities of freelancing is good too :) Good luck - ping me at mgkimsal@gmail.com if you care to chat directly.

tocomment 16y ago
How did you meet clients on Craigslist? Just looking at the "Gigs" section, or did you do something else?
- mgkimsal 16y ago
  In my area, looking at http://raleigh.craigslist.org/sof/ http://raleigh.craigslist.org/sof/ and http://raleigh.craigslist.org/web/ http://raleigh.craigslist.org/web/ and http://raleigh.craigslist.org/eng/ http://raleigh.craigslist.org/eng/ It wasn't all that hot for me to start with. I probably replied to 80 postings in a month, and only had a couple things pan out, but they panned out all the same.
  - tocomment 16y ago
    But in the jobs section aren't those people looking to hire regular full time employees? What did you say when you contacted them?
    - mgkimsal 16y ago
      Good point. Some people are definitely looking for full time, others are just looking to get work done. Some are explicitly looking for contract/parttime and they indicate that too. F/T is what many want, but not everyone. It rarely hurts to ask - offer part time hours and see if they're open to that.
jdavid 16y ago
Yeah, I hear ya. When I was in Milwaukee I had a reputation. Out here I have to start over. Right now I would be happy with zero debt ( even good debt ) a new macbook pro, and about 2 months of savings to cover net 30. Moving just before the worst economy ever was a tough move, but i think it will pay off.

kingofspain 16y ago

It is possible to build up to a fairly decent level on sites like that but you need to be willing to do ridiculous things for practically nothing at the beginning. I started on vWorker of all places in June and did about 7 or 8 soul destroying projects (one was basically a full custom CMS for $15, that I know the agency charged > £3000 for). However, I got my 10/10's and since #8 onwards I haven't had less than $500 per job (each prob 4-5 hours work). I actually totted up my earnings yesterday and it's around $1000/m (I just don't dont have time atm to do many). YMMV, obv. Craigslist sounds good for the US but it's a no-starter where I live so I can't offer anything there. Other than that, hit up people you know, who you've worked with before. You might get lucky. My biggest earnings right now come from somewhere I worked with years ago. I IM'd him out of the blue when I was broke asking if he had spare work. Turns out he'd fired his developer that day and so i had my start! That's obviously not likely to happen often, but it's worth a shot. At the least these people might remember you if something did come up.

turtle4 16y ago

It is risky to pay an unknown person $100 an hour, regardless of job. So employers either give the job to someone they know, or contract from a large firm with the expectation that the firm deals with whatever might come up frequently enough that it reduces their risk. The exceptions to this tend to be when the project is doomed, and the employer is just desperate to get anyone to work on it, which you don't want. So looking at those two cases, your best plans of action are to either subcontract for a larger firm in order to get fed more jobs, or do more networking to lead to those jobs. Sometimes the networking is in the form of doing odd jobs and low value jobs until something larger comes up, and sometimes just a matter of letting friends know you are looking for work. It would be nice if there were an easier method to go about it, but the bottom line is that $100/hr is a fairly valuable wage, and you need to earn trust before someone is going to fork it over.

Rickasaurus 16y ago

If you become well known for something people will beg you to consult for them.