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To become a software consultant, avoid letting clients pay you for code (2017)
- carlsborg 8y agoI think that provable deep expertise in some niche is a pre-requisite to this kind of positioning. Is there a market for general purpose software consultants? Who is the target audience?
- geekuillaume 8y agoI'm working on a new consultant biz, oriented toward "freelance CTO" for early-stage startups. It's general purpose but provide a non-technical client a better view of the technical aspects of their product. I'm convinced it has a lot of value for this kind of clients.
- nkohari 8y agoI tried this a bit myself. You are right that you can provide tremendous value, but early-stage startups either don't have, or aren't willing to spend, the money that you deserve for the value you'd provide. Maybe there's a niche you can target that I was unaware of. Hopefully you have more success!
- icebraining 8y agoSeems actually a better use case for paying in stock (compared to regular employees). You only work a short time for them, so you can spread your bets more like a VC, and your influence can have a decisive impact on their success, so it's not just a lottery ticket.
- kjksf 8y agoThose days startups take ~10 years to get to IPO. Even if we assume that they are willing to part with stock for consulting engagements, can you afford to wait years to get paid? Can you afford to pay taxes on that income this year? (to you it's paper money that might never to turn into real money; to IRS it's as good as payment in cash).
- sokoloff 8y agoRestricted and illiquid shares are rightly valued at a discount to the same shares with a liquid market, so while you pay taxes on them, it's on their fair market value (which can be low as above).
- dustingetz 8y agoSame, this business model is broken. Tremendous value is relative to the size of the business. Nontech founder = small business = high stakes work for low absolute comp. You make way more as an actual CTO (cash, equity, whatever) because you can grow the size of the pie, often rapidly.
- weliketocode 8y agoI'm not so sure about the lack of funding. A number of startups really start having this issue once they start seeing some traction. Maybe they're actively looking for new or additional senior technical leadership or just scaling the team. Either way the opportunity is certainly there for companies to hire temporary technical leadership.
- acconrad 8y agoI've also done this and can agree with the parent of this comment. The problem here is once they have traction and funding, they likely have a full-time CTO. Fractional CTOs are generally needed at the seed stage when the technical solution hasn't really come together and they don't have this skill-set in house. They also don't have money. It's a slippery slope, and you're better off being a technical advisor (low effort, low equity, low risk) than working underpaid and overworked.
- rorykoehler 8y agoThis is why I decided to offer the same fractional CTO service but to focus on small cap listed companies.
- maxxxxx 8y agoWhat I have seen is that some people/consultants have the ability to talk to C*O or VP level in their own language. Once you get these people to trust you, you can hire people with expertise you need. You can probably also get contracts because of your specific domain expertise but I believe the ability to communicate with high level management is more important for a successful consulting business.
- nness 8y ago> Is there a market for general purpose software consultants? Certainly is, as indicated by the continued success of for Accenture, McKinsey Digital, Deloitte Digital, IBM, EY, KPMG, PwC, Aon Hewitt, and probably a million more smaller consultancies and agencies. Its certainly a suitable career choice if you enjoy a mix of technical solutioning, ideation and development work across a range of clients, geographies and technical domains. The caveats of course being sometimes your skills stagnate or the work-life balance isn't there when comparing service-organisations with product-organisations. But, depending on where you want to build your career, this kind of work for those kinds of places can be quite an accelerator.
- hypnotist 8y agoThese companies/people are paid not for their general purpose skills/consulting. They are paid for trust/brand. """No one got fired for choosing McKinsey/BCG/Deloitte/IBM/MS etc"""
- nsomaru 8y agoExcept in South Africa where Bain etc are under heavy fire for facilitating government corruption on an unprecedented scale during the Zuma years
- nness 8y agoI feel that "no one gets fired for choosing X" is such a pervasive non-sequitur. A brand's goodwill (trust and so forth) is a function of its ability to deliver success for the client. Success establishes that trust. People who run projects internally, and use consultancies or agencies, still have business requirements like any other team (whether internal or external). I can't imagine a team would be immune to scrutiny of a project failure (i.e. from shareholders) simply because they relied on a third-party. The same argument doesn't make sense if Amazon AWS suffered downtime, for instance? I can't imagine a CTO or VP of Engineering turning around to a team that failed to deliver as a result of poor partner selection, and saying "nah, you're all good, we'll blame them." As blaming a third-party doesn't re-coup the millions in lost opportunity, shareholder backlash, press, etc.
- TamDenholm 8y agoVery true sentiment in this article. Also a corollary to this would be to deliver based on the value you provide the client, not the time it takes you to complete the problem. I've written about this before on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14942561 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14942561
- mrfredward 8y agoI read your linked comment, and it's important to distinguish that you are a consultant in the "not on a W2 sense," rather than a consultant in the "people pay me fat fees just for advice sense." It's great that you are successful at getting contracted to build apps, and I'm envious because I hope to do something similar one day, but I regard it as a different job from the consulting described in the article, where you are paid to advise an existing team, not build something by yourself.
- TamDenholm 8y agoTrue, i also build but its a smaller part of my job since as i have employees etc that do the labour work. But the biggest part of my job is to listen to a problem and come up with a solution, more often than not, my company also delivers that solution, but i get paid for the answer to the problem, not the time taken to build it.
- blunte 8y agoExceptionally well written, and very believable advice. Wish I had understood this concept of positioning long ago...
- lowlevel 8y agoI found it rather enlightening and quite enjoyable to read as well. Gonna go quit my job now ;)
- stevenl42 8y agoAnd that ladies and gentlemen is exactly how American IT became taken over by Indian outsourcing companies and the quasi ones like Deloitte , Accenture. American exceptionalism and a good education system might make you a great consultant but who turns that spec to code and does the grunt work ? Surely you aren't hiring American college grads because they have already been told this work is boring and shitty and they are special and should build domain expertise or salesmanship . Don't get me wrong - it's an excellent article but I think this is targeted towards developers with experience who also understand the big picture (accounting , P&L, systems). However doing implementations , turning spec to code , reusing it are great ways to enter the IT industry with solid pay and something that American college grads encouraged to take up for a solid middle class life . Infact community colleges and colleges should teach those skills similar to how it's done in India. (No I am not a Trump supporter).
- theriddlr 8y agoUndertook a rewrite of grant tracking system for an NGO. The first solution was butchered by one these 'consulting' firms. They had set up fragmented Google Sheets, Trello and MSSQL and lots of repetition. Non-programmers shouldn't undertake this kind of work. The majority of the work was data cleansing to get rid of duplicates and normalising the database to 3NF. The rest is a user-friendly frontend to enter data and some data validation. Our solution worked out cheaper than the 'consulting' firm's and actually increased productivity.
- hyperpape 8y agoI don't think that's true. Both paths he's describing are relatively lucrative. There are plenty of native born developers getting solid pay to do the less prestigious work of implementing specs. It's just moving up the "value chain" is a lot more lucrative. The advice here applies to ambitious people who want to get paid even more.
- fergie 8y agoThat was a surprisingly well written article with a well articulated point.
- jasode 8y ago>Don’t ever let would-be consulting clients pay you for code that you write. A similar piece of advice is in the often-submitted article by Patrick McKenzie.[1] The common idea is that instead of being just a "code monkey", you position yourself higher up the value hierarchy to be more of a "solutions provider". In my observations of programmers that successfully sell consulting vs earning a W-2 salary, both articles leave out the dispositions and natural inclinations of the reader. This affects how easy it is to move up the value hierarchy. To do high-value consulting, one has to take an honest self-assessment: 1) Do you like to be somewhat entrepreneurial and "hustle" for work? (Some programmers would prefer to be given a set of defined tasks and then be left alone rather than scout for new jobs and projects. The act of "selling yourself" to prospective clients is uncomfortable.) 2) Do you accept that there can be cycles of feast or famine because of downtime between freelance contracts? (Some programmers would rather have the predictability of steady paycheck rather than stress over contracts and chasing Accounts Payable for past-due payments.) 3) Do you find "solving business problems" more interesting than programming languages? (E.g. some folks are more interested in Python 3 vs Python 2 differences or studying Lisp macros -- rather than tackling the domain knowledge and complexities of modernizing a hospital billing system, or the code to monitor container ship logistics, etc. The coder views the business stuff as boring but programming languages as interesting.) Once you've done the "know thyself" exercise, you can then analyze how various types of "consulting" is sold in the marketplace and where to position your services. If you're just a generalist programmer in (e.g. C++/Java/Python), it will be difficult to sell that as "consulting" to companies. You have to go up the value chain and sell "solutions". This is easier if you have expertise in a specific business niche that interests you. As for examples of selling general consulting that covers the spectrum from "bodyshop of programmers" to "solutions providers", that would companies like Infosys (India H1B), Pivotal Labs, Thoughtworks, Accenture, IBM Global Solutions. Some exceptions to selling small scale "consulting" without being a being a solutions provider would be web freelancing and maybe cybersecurity auditing. Otherwise, generalist programmers either need to work for the solutions providers above, or become a solution provider themselves, or find contract gigs on marketplaces like Upwork and Dice. However, selling your programming skills on Upwork is the probably the opposite of the advice given in the 2 essays. [1] https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pr...
- chrisbennet 8y agoOne way to get clients to respect your input is to charge a lot.
- MickerNews 8y agoVeblen services.
- acconrad 8y agoEasier said than done. They may respect you but they'll also likely not hire you. They have to respect you AND know you. It's hard to justify paying someone a lot if they are an unknown quantity. I checked out your HN profile: do you think you can hire more because you specialize in Computer Vision/Graphics? I'd also imagine your clientele is highly-targeted as well?
- chrisbennet 8y agoAs long as someone hires you, you are much better off. The clients that want "cheap" are generally not great clients. It's counter intuitive but charging more gets you better clients and more respect (in addition to more money).
- acconrad 8y agoI should have asked what you believe is more. $75-100 is definitely in the "cheap" range, $100-150 I see for senior generalists, and $150-300 I see for the principal/architect/specialist rates. At some point the number isn't sustainable unless you're like a brand-name entity (e.g. John Carmack, Jeff Atwood, John Resig, and I'm just guessing here).
- chrisbennet 8y agoGood point. For context, I'm outside of Boston, not a web developer and I charge a very reasonable $150-$200 hour. This weeds out the clients that expect something to "take a couple of weeks" but have no idea what is involved and then don't appreciate/value the work once it's done. ("My kid cousin could have done this.") Many contract shops would be happy to tell you that "no one will pay that", pay you $65 hour and then turn around and charge $130+.
- mlthoughts2018 8y agoBy the time a business believes that a “solution provider” is not the same type of person hired for the technical implementation, the battle is already lost and you should leave. The idea of wanting to work in these situations as consultant or software engineer is all pretty crazy. For example, Scrum is a pretty stupid and horrible thing, at least as stupid and horrible as Waterfall and often quite worse. Anybody who thinks it’s important to give consulting advice about whether to adopt Scrum is someone to run away from. It’s like a daisycutter of common sense. There are great, small places to work where you can be paid well _and_ have your technical opinion respected and considered as an implementer. You can’t do that in places that are brainfucked with politics and bureaucracy, and the willingness to hire outside “solutions” consultants is a pretty big indicator that a place is brainfucked with bureaucracy and politics.
- adrianN 8y agoSome people work to make money. If providing solutions to bureaucracies pays well, why not do it?
- mlthoughts2018 8y agoI was already assuming that was the goal here. Not talking about seeking creative control, idealism about a job, etc.
- saiya-jin 8y agoMost people work to make money, even in IT, even in software development. If you don't believe this, stop paying them and lets see who comes next day. Working in bureaucracy is great indicator/training ground for patience, and not really caring about meaningless things in life and instead focusing on those with true meaning. Yes, it wouldn't be work in that case. 'All we need is just a little patience...' music in the background
- rumok 8y agoI'm genuinely curious, why do you believe scrum to be "stupid and horrible"?
- PeterStuer 8y agoHaving seen all type of consultants over the year: - The strategic consultant you describe manages to have a higher tariff, but the sales cycle is long and the downtime between gigs significant - the 'software consultant' has an on average lower tariff (depending on the specialization), but little downtime and faster sales. Pick your poison and do what you feel most comfortable with.
- warent 8y agoWhen you say tariff do you mean price?
- abainbridge 8y agoI think this is a British-ism. I'm British. The parent's post used tariff in a way I found normal. Google tells me: tariff - noun: BRITISH a list of the fixed charges made by a business, especially for use of gas, electricity, or a mobile phone.
- dboreham 8y agoFwiw US telco-speak still uses tariff to mean price.
- civilian 8y agoIn American english tariff is usually used as "tax". Especially in the context of import & export taxes on goods and services. (E.g. The American colonies revolted over the tea tariff.)
- datavirtue 8y agoIndeed. Tariff is a dirty word in American English.
- PeterStuer 8y agoSorry for the confusion, I think the correct term is 'hourly rate', what you charge as a consultant for your time.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y agoReminds me of the art of value podcast that talks all about positioning yourself to provide value, not services. As a UX designer who has positioned himself as consultant, I now have fewer projects but charge for value provider. There is more downtime in between projects but I actually end up making more money. If I get 2 or 3 projects at once, it's really nice. Of course, I have to decline 98% of requests coming my way but it's well worth it. The businesses I partner with realize a good ROI and everyone is happy. Just so happens this process filters out a lot of the undesirable qualities in businesses I don't want to work with. I had to eliminate every mention of client, freelancing and rates from every piece of content I have put out, because I think the moment you position yourself as subservient to your "client" the game is over. I see it more as a business parntership.
- gabriel34 8y agoAll is good and well until 5 years down the road you don't have experience implementing the newnosql.js stuff that is all the rage. You try to conform it to what you already know and end up with a myopic view of the solution. Since you are already respected people listen to you when defining architectures. Coders think you are a moron, impostor syndrome sets in. The doctors prescribe the new and improved treatment, but the new balm doesn't work as well as the goop for some cases. You have to remember what made you a specialist in the first place was coding at challenging projects. Our market changes too fast for you to stop doing that. Studying and trying out new things using a private lab will only get you so far, the real challenges are the ones which push you to really master something.
- gk1 8y agoDo you think the VPs and CTOs know how to implement newnosql.js? The biggest challenges involve more that to get solved.
- gabriel34 8y agoWe are talking about consultants, but CTOs should have this knowledge if they if they are the ones making system architecture decisions. I have been at positions in which I had to explain to hierarchical superiors why a decision was bad or why some architecture was preferable. I was also overruled in some of these occasions, and in these cases we hit obstacles I predicted and had to change on the fly, ended up with delayed deliverables and a sub-optimal solution.
- gk1 8y agoIt's not realistic to expect CTOs to know the intricacies of all the latest widgets and libraries. I'm talking about CTOs of mature companies, not "CTOs" of a 10-person startup.
- coldtea 8y agoOr, you could stick with a higher level consulting role. Or, you could stick with a sane "boring" domain (e.g. C, embedded, etc) that's not changing every 5 years with some new BS "rage" tech.
- acconrad 8y agoI've only been at it a year but I find this to be nearly impossible. 95% of my income this past year was writing software. Whenever someone saw me as a "software consultant" they thought "well why don't we pay him to implement it too?" But I also made more than double what I made when I was full-time. I really would like to know how to not immediately be slotted as someone who is just a coding mercenary.
- acct1771 8y agoDon't take the work, or subcontract it.
- acconrad 8y agoSo the breakdown I saw this past year was: * 5% consulting (e.g. reports, audits, et al) * 10% subcontracting to other devs * 85% direct software development The highest margins were certainly on that 15%, but the volume was not nearly high enough to be able to make it work. Would a scenario be something like: Prospect wants work done. Instead of turning them down because my rate is too, subcontract that to someone who is maybe less experienced and can do it at less than the advertised rate and bake in a margin there?
- toyg 8y agoThis is how body-shops make the big bucks: squeeze production prices down so you can carve more profit. The alternative, I believe, is to find niches with higher margins or that scale better (white-label products, saas, and so on). Facebook makes $640k for each worker they employ, and they certainly don’t skimp on salaries.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- pwaivers 8y agoThis article suffers from too many analogies. After the long DaVinci analogy, he goes into a medicine analogy. Please just say your point clear and up front. I don't think analogies are necessary to explain each point.
- noxToken 8y agoAgreed. I think I understand what he was getting at, but when I read the analogies, I start to second guess whether I really understand the message.
- cestith 8y agoWhat I got out of it can be summarized pretty succinctly. Freelance programming is not the same thing as software solution consulting. If you want to do more consulting, don't write code for the same clients for whom you're designing high-level solutions.
- reubenswartz 8y agoAnother way of looking at this is to focus on the what the client is buying, rather than what you are selling. We all lives in our own worlds, so by default we tend to think the client is buying what we are selling. If you can switch it around, then you can sell (and deliver) what they are buying.
- andy_adams 8y agoFor any devs worried they're missing out because they're not in the "strategic" role described here: There's still a boatload of money to be made just doing the coding. Yes, strategic work can be the way to big buck$, but there's also a shortage of reliable implementers of moderately-technical projects who don't disappear and communicate reasonably well. Sure, you might not get to a $20k/week bill rate, but for many of us $4k/week isn't a bad start.
- acconrad 8y agoI was able to stay this route. Started at $4k/week and worked my way up to $6k/week and still rising. If you can manage a project/have technical lead skills/have a hyper specialty (e.g. AR/VR, cryptography/security, AI/ML) I've seen rates anywhere from $150-300/hr.
- oldboyFX 8y agoThere's another important point to make: Im generalizing a bit here but if you write code it's relatively easy to find full-time long-term engagements. On the other hand if you're a strategic consultant you're going to spend most of your time blogging, networking, searching for leads, and selling. $20k/week rate is nice but if you only bill 1 week per month you're still making the same annual income as a $5k/week software contractor. The only difference is that you spend most of your time selling while the contractor spends most of their time engineering. Like someone else in this thread said — pick your poison.
- icedchai 8y agoI've worked with some "strategic" consultants. Believe me, these guys did some pretty diagrams and wrote a couple of nice word docs, but they didn't do any real, useful work. It was almost laughable.
- lj3 8y agoAnd yet, they get paid more and treated better than contractors and "consultants" who write code. Is the joke on them? Or us?
- oldboyFX 8y agoAuthor makes a valid point, but what about folks who actually like writing code (among other things)? Here's what worked for me as a remote consultant who lives in a small central european country: My partner and I currently position ourselves as "A high-grade self-managing team of two, specialized in mapping out, designing, and delivering complex custom-built web applications on time". I suppose we might fall under the authors category of predictably positioned "opinionated developers". Our ideal customer is a non-technical entrepreneur who needs someone to help them polish their idea, turn that idea into a high-grade working product, bring that product into the market, and start making traction and revenue. I noticed that many entrepreneurs, especially non-technical folk, have a very difficult time building their first product — especially if it's a relatively complex piece of software. Most contractors are focused on using cool tech or writing clean code instead of helping people build successful businesses. Our selling points are pretty basic: Learn about your client's business, be reliable, communicate effectively, deliver a great product on time. If needed also help with additional hires, validating PM-fit, marketing. It's nothing revolutionary, but the fact that there are so many uninvolved developers on the market makes it very easy for us to find long-term engagements. The clients are happy and we're able to charge San Francisco-like rates. Just last year I put $1XX,XXX into my savings account. We're in our late 20's so there's a long road ahead of us. Who knows, perhaps we'll get bored with programming in a couple of years. But people should know that you CAN make very good money while still writing code most of the day.
- honestlyidk 8y agoI love writing code. Ive gone out of my way to study health of eyes and tendons so I can code as long as possible. I never want to be the manager.
- remify 8y agoI just look at your website and it's amazing ! Just clean UI and good pitch. I love that it's clear that you guys are doing great code just by looking at your website.
- xapata 8y ago
- robterrin 8y agoAs a Deloitte alumnus and a current cofounder of my own cybersecurity services and advisory firm, I hope I am qualified to weigh in here. First, lumping all consulting firms together is a mistake. The main lists here cover the big brands, and I've added a couple more. Each has their strengths, weaknesses and approach to the market: - Pure technology consulting: Accenture, IBM, Cap Gemini, Tata, Cognizant and Infosys These firms usually win because of their reputation for solving large scale technical problems. They can mobilize large teams of relatively qualified people and often have exclusive or at least preferential treatment from software providers who are eager to sell into their distribution channel. - Prestige strategy firms: McKinsey, Bain, BCG Very little technical knowledge. Almost no implementation. Usually bought for political reasons that require "hiring the best." A true Veblen service. Still, they often are the right choice for a question that has an unknowable answer and requires panache and persuasion. - Big Four: Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC Outside of government practices, these firms win because they have a monopoly on the CFO relationship. This entree into board conversations around audit and financials is powerful enough to build a relationship that can lead to strategy, technology, supply chain or myriad other consulting projects (SarbOx made it illegal to sell both audit and consulting at once, but once Deloitte made it clear that some hand waving and compliance measures were sufficient to fend of regulators, as long as services weren't sold at the same time, the rest jumped back into consulting). - Niche players: Aon, WTW, AT Kearney, CapCo, ATT, Verizon, Marsh, Sapient and Booz This heterogenous group often wins because of a specific strength, relationship or reputation. For Aon, Marsh and WTW it is around insurance and the CRO. For ATK, they are known for logistics. Finally, to address the article itself, one of my earliest observations about the corporate world is that the less work one does, the more one gets paid. Partners delegate work and even proposal writing to focus on selling. Those who get promoted most quickly are those who sell the most work. Relationships are what lands deals and working is in conflict with schmoozing, so it is important to do very little actual work. Furthermore, what people are saying about bureaucracy and management being inherent to an organization is correct, although I'm less jaded on this point than I was while working for somebody else. Sclerotic organizations need third parties to make change because inertia is such a powerful force, and a combination of risk aversion and other fallacies can do harm to one's career unless there is somebody else to blame. See Rene Girard on this point to fully understand why scapegoating is a feature, not a bug. The last thing I would say, is that having real expertise and experience is crucial to making a convincing sale. My field, cybersecurity, is still professionalizing so credentials don't mean as much as past work experience. Social proof is everything and competing on price in markets with information asymmetry is a sign of bad quality. There are a few ways to get to the place that was laid out by the OP. The first, and most desperately needed, is somebody with deep technical knowledge who can develop and implement processes. The second, and almost as important is somebody who can create documentation that ties everything together and explains code, networks, data and systems at various levels of granularity (C-suite, middle management, engineering lead, devs, network engineers, etc.). While the latter should be the responsibility of a good engineer, it often gets left behind and is almost never prepared for different audiences. Third and final is where we are positioned, risk management. We assess, mitigate and quantify risk in terms leadership can understand and act on. Whether a bank is worried about regulatory pressure and needs to demonstrate a good faith effort to comply or a due diligence team needs a financial quantification of the current cybersecurity risk in an acquisition, the greatest value here is being fluent in business and technology. Translating between lingo, goals and most importantly culture is easier said than done.
- tokyodude 8y agoDoes the author ever actually say what you should do? AFAICT all he says is "don't let them pay you for code" and never really got clear about what you should do instead. Did I miss it?
- tptacek 8y agoThis notion of the distinction between contractors and consultants as a career status strikes me as similar to the distinction we make between developer and manager. And then, this is useful advice if what you want to do is manage, and code less. I've been consulting professionally since 2005, and I think I've gotten pretty good at it? And my take on this is, graduating from "IC" to "manager" in the eyes of your client is presumably one way to ratchet up your status. But there are others, and I think they can be more lucrative. Two straightforward alternative approaches to leveling up a consulting business that you've started by freelancing IC-type work: 1. Scale it out. Take on more work, find trusted people to subcontract it out to, eventually bring on a partner, standardize and methodologize what you do, get to the point where you can train other people to do it, start hiring people. You will probably find that when you get to the point of hiring consultants to work for you, your business accelerates naturally --- one of the most overlooked and important value components of most consulting businesses is on-demand availability, which is expands as your roster does. 2. Specialize. Start looking for commonalities between the projects that you do. Build tooling for them. Maybe publish some open source stuff. Build a specialty practice around that. You can do this repeatedly, for different areas; eventually, you'll do it for business verticals. In both kinds of cases you'll find that you become attractive to different kinds of companies when you change from generic to specific. In neither case do you stop coding, or reposition yourself from the kind of company that writes code to the kind of company that tells other people how to write code. We agree about hourly billing, though!
- 01100011 8y agoI think the biggest failures at the software consulting houses I've worked at have come from not building adequate tooling and not establishing a framework for knowledge/skills transfer. A close runner up would be failures related to trying to build actual products. The problem with consulting though is scalability. You can make a product and recoup your NRE with the first x units, and then most of what you sell beyond that is pure profit which can roll in while you sleep. Scaling a consulting business is tough. You just have to increase billable hours and that is a lot tougher than it sounds(especially in the current market). I made a lot of money in consulting over the years, but at the middle of my career I find myself looking for a product company to call home. Consulting can be great... or it can be terrible. My friend is now charging $165/hr for his solo corp... but sometimes the invoices never get paid and you have to swallow a loss(I'm owed over $14k currently and will probably never see it).
- hemling 8y agoHow do I go from general software developer to domain specialist if I don't have domain knowledge in the first place (or want to get out of the domain I'm working in)? I suspect that people who are in a great niche got there by accident and that luck is a much bigger part than most want to admit. I don't think a deliberate attempt to move into a great position will work.
- pdimitar 8y agoTo answer your first question: you simply sacrifice your free time to do it. No magic bullets sadly. Or, if your day job is very boring, get a fixed slice of your workday and utilize it for your future prospects / education. So many people do it and yet it's a largely denied phenomena. One of the so-called "public secrets". :) A deliberate attempt to move into a higher position is just an intention and nothing else. The real hard part is changing the way you think and view yourself. You can start with reminiscing all the times in your career when you had a much bigger advice to offer outside of the usual coding monkey trope: "this feature will be done in 2 days". In this regard I believe the author hits the nail on the head: it's all about how people view you. If they view you as a coding monkey then they will not listen. Start thinking about the advice you have given and which was ignored. The process of self-transformation can take anywhere from several weeks to decades (and many people never achieve it). It seriously depends on the person. I am currently in that hard transition and I have to tell you -- it's exhausting and it will challenge a ton of preconceptions you didn't even know you had just a week ago. Be prepared to put anything and everything in your life philosophy in question. It's more than most human egos can endure. I am still a programmer, damn good one at that. But I regularly get rejected based on "cultural fits" or half-arsed excuses where they have no idea how to twist the fact that they don't want somebody with my rates or my resistance to BS. And I started having other people market me as not-only-a-programmer. I am in no-man's-land right now but I can feel the attitude of several people changing -- and see a few new ones coming with a drastically different one compared to what I am used to when people hear I am a programmer. TL;DR: It's extremely hard and the main limitation and hurdle is you. Sucks to admit but it's better for one fo be a realist. Remember the amazing "Cloud Atlas" movie: "All rules are conventions and are meant to be transcended. One can only transcend a convention if they first imagine of doing so." --- And yes, luck plays a huge part to it. But in one of the towns in my country people love saying "luck doesn't come to you, you go to it" -- which illustrates that if you keep trying eventually you will bump into the right people and conditions.
- beatgammit 8y agoI'm confused. The title made the think the article would be about licensing is IP transfer on project completion, but I got a lecture on what I consider to be a nuanced lecture about marketing. Because of this and the reactions here, I'm sure I'm missing something and I think others may as well. Is the author essentially saying "outsource the development? As a consultant, I'm expecting to sit with the client, figure out their problem, and provide a solution. I charge based on the project and provide a breakdown of how much they'll pay for each deliverable and when it'll be available. The customer doesn't have to care who does the work (it'll probably be me), provided the deadlines are met, and at anytime the client can stop (they'll pay for any in-progress work). Is that what the author is saying? Or are they saying to avoid taking any responsibility over the development process? Subcontracting is always an option, so if there's too much work, outsourcing is an option. I just don't feel comfortable just delivering a design, but I can if that's objectively better.
- finnley 8y agoNot a fan of this article. Could sum it up fairly simply here: Build credibility and trust with your clients, prospects, and network. Trust in you gets decision makers to listen. You don't do this overnight. You can both code and be viewed as a thought leader - it's not mutually exclusive.
- superhuzza 8y agoAnyone else have trouble reading this site? The combination of low font-weight and color makes for really poor legibility.
- amorphous 8y agoI have been thinking about this for a while. There is a lot of good advice out there. OP, Jonathan Stark (expensive problem), Philip Morgan (positioning), Double your freelancing, Patio11 etc They all have read the same book: Positioning by Al Ries. What the OP (and others) are saying makes total sense. If you move away from being a generalist and carve out a niche everything becomes easier: your marketing (no more job hunting, no more interviewing), the stress (no implementation "details" to deal with) and as you can charge much much more life in general. The problem: no one can tell you how to get there. It's survivorship bias. Some of them got there by luck or not at all (they just coach - J.Stark, for example, started with rare (at that time) mobile dev skills and now decided to do just coaching after his skills have become commoditized). The advice can be summed up in network as much as possible, talk to lots of people, try to find common pain points and so on. Please note: I'm not meaning to discredit anyone, I'm grateful for what they do and learned a lot from them.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y agoAnyone here do UX consulting? How much or how do you charge?