5 ms·

Tptacek https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615 (1) Start a freelance practice. (2) Raise your rates. (3)

Tptacek https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615 (1) Start a freelance practice. (2) Raise your rates. (3) As you work for clients, keep a sharp eye for opportunities to build "specialty practices". If you get to work on a project involving Mongodb, spend some extra time and effort to get Mongodb under your belt. If you get a project for a law firm, spend some extra time thinking about how to develop applications that deal with contracts or boilerplates or PDF generation or document management. (4) Raise your rates. (5) Start refusing hourly-rate projects. Your new minimum billable increment is a day. (6) Take end-to-end responsibility for the business objectives of whatever you build. This sounds fuzzy, like, "be able to talk in a board room", but it isn't! It's mechanically simple and you can do it immediately: Stop counting hours and days. Stop pushing back when your client changes scope. Your remedy for clients who abuse your flexibility with regards to scope is "stop working with that client". Some of your best clients will be abusive and you won't have that remedy. Oh well! Note: you are now a consultant. (7) Hire one person at a reasonable salary. You are now responsible for their payroll and benefits. If you don't book enough work to pay both your take-home and their salary, you don't eat. In return: they don't get an automatic percentage of all the revenue of the company, nor does their salary automatically scale with your bill rate. (8) You are now "senior" or "principal". Raise your rates. (9) Generalize out from your specialties: Mongodb -> NoSQL -> highly scalable backends. Document management -> secure contract management. (10) Raise your rates. (11) You are now a top-tier consulting group compared to most of the market. Market yourself as such. Also: your rates are too low by probably about 40-60%. Try to get it through your head: people who can simultaneously (a) crank out code (or arrange to have code cranked out) and (b) take responsibility for the business outcome of the problems that code is supposed to solve --- people who can speak both tech and biz --- are exceptionally rare. They shouldn't be; the language of business is mostly just elementary customer service, of the kind taught to entry level clerks at Nordstrom's. But they are, so if you can do that, raise your rates.

bayesian_horse 7y ago
Anybody here that did it that way and succeeded? In my opinion the main road-blocks are finding clients who are convinced you can do whatever you want to sell.
- drewmol 7y ago
  >finding clients who are convinced you can do whatever you want to sell. Find clients who need what you want to sell and convince them is the solution. It's not easy and in my experience they won't all be convinced (some ever) but if you can provide what you're selling then clients only need persuaided enough to pay a deposit, first payment or some other initial small invoice and trust/capability will be build/demonstrated when first building clientele. Once you have more work than time raise your rates as high as you can without decreasing your earnings. Then if you can get to step 7 hire a convincing sales person first.
  - mpeg 7y ago
    I don't know if this is a cultural difference or something, but in the UK no client will ever pay a deposit on an invoice for consulting work. I normally get paid within 30-90 days of the work being done (it sucks)
    - drewmol 7y ago
      Possibly is, my experience with a few current London based clients in my day job is often recieving pushback and delays on any initial deposits or pre-payment. Holding firm that the clearly defined payment terms are a prerequisite for work commencement has been the most effective approach, even if it involves some uncomfortable emails or meetings. Polite but firm push back on a clients reluctance is very often sucessful even if momentarily uncomfortable. I'd suggest to try proposing reasonable payment terms as soon as possible, terms that are as favorable to you as they may or possibly are willing to accept, and upon discussion (or a note included in the proposed terms) respond that an initial deposit is a firm requirement before commencement of any billable work, but you are flexible and willing to discuss a customized draw (payment) schedule if it's required (or.. you're not willing). You may be surprised how many clients will accept your terms, even after declaring them unacceptable, once you (re)affirm the terms as a firm, mandatory requirement. Willingness to walk away is often a strong, persuasive signal of competence and/or high demand of your service and can provoke decisions to be made more promptly by potential clients. You can factor an intrest charge for payment delays that will encourage prompt payment, calculate by percentage and then format your payment terms to represent these differences as discounts for prompt payment instead of penalties for late payment. A secondary benifit of using these now slightly increased rates combined with prompt payment discounts is that you will be able to slightly increase your effective rate for recurring clients by adjusting these discount amounts in the event you can't or don't want to propose a higher rate. Also, IME (in the US) the initial disclosure of late payment terms or penalties may be a requirememt when including compounded interest on an outstanding debt amount in a situation where legal action to recover debt becomes necessary.
camillomiller 7y ago
You should put: - get a shiny office - raise your rates even more Somewhere in there. Don’t underestimate the image of your business, unless you wanna play the “solo star” career. Also, write about what you know and do somewhere (a blog, a specialized magazine): it gives you credit.
- notzuck 7y ago
  We're billing over 500k per year in retainers right now and taking on more implementation work. We work out of an extra room in a house (we're a 2 man partnership). Why would we need an office? Alan Weiss never had one...
  - Doxin 7y ago
    I think it rather depend on if you invite clients in your office, or you visit the clients on-premise. If all you do is on-premise meetings then having a swanky office is fairly redundant. You'd maybe rent something fancy looking for a day for some beauty shots on your website, but even that seems redundant to me.
westoque 7y ago
Interesting timeline. Whilst I love how it’s broken down, it just looks so much harder than just making a product and focusing on that. At least you don’t have to raise your price as often and not worry about not having enough contracts.
- peterbell_nyc 7y ago
  Making a product might be easier. Getting enough people to buy it to turn it into a profitable business, not always easier :)
mpeg 7y ago
This reads as one of those "how to draw an owl" memes, step 1. draw a circle; step 2. draw the rest of the owl. I've been trying to succeed at consultancy for the last couple years, and here's my list of (realistic) steps 1) Reach out to your network and see if anyone is looking for help that you can provide 2) Realise that clients don't care about your background, or skillset, they're 100% focused on what results you can provide and how fast 3) The usual advice from the lucky ones is to always raise your rates, "raise your rates after every contract!" etc. but a more realistic approach is to lower your rates when you have to. I wish I could get steady work at my usual rates, but sometimes I will take on side gigs at a lower hourly rate just because they help keep you afloat 4) Despite what people may say, consultants that can speak both tech and business are very common. They might not be very good coders, or very good biz people, but they are common. Differentiating yourself comes down to personal network rather than any substantial difference in output. 5) Specialists are paid a lot better than generalists. If you're an awesome cloud migration expert (like OP) focusing on that will likely bring more clients and revenue than trying to branch out to other areas Most other advice is good, but it's important to notice that it won't apply to most folks when they're starting out. I still love the freedom that working for myself affords me, and that it's allowed me to do things that I would have otherwise not been able to, but it's a lot of work, and a good chunk of my time is spent essentially working for free (writing proposals, chasing up payment, etc)
- scardine 7y ago
  It is a catch 22: unless you are spending at least half your time prospecting new clients it is hard to keep a steady income, but it is hard to invest that much time in the commercial side of your "one man show" if you are not charging high enough. Every beginner underestimate how much salesmanship it takes to run a successful freelancer career.
  - mpeg 7y ago
    Yes, it's very difficult to balance and it's been an interesting experience in the sense that no one really cares about what work you've done in the past; if they like you on a personal level they'll hire you. I'm comfortable doing sales, but it's maintaining that balance that I find difficult – if I spend too much time pitching I make no money as I have no employees to deliver the work and if I spend too much time working I get stuck in a cycle of feast and famine.
ajcodez 7y ago
(0.2) Keep your day job. (0.4) Start building a portfolio. Nobody will hire you without examples of past work or past clients they know. Blog posts, LinkedIn recommendations, case studies, screenshots, mockups, anything is better than nothing. (0.6) Give free advice to your friends, former roommates, former classmates, former colleagues. Sit down, have coffee, listen to their app idea, compliment them, show them who did it already. (0.8) It’s hard to meet people if you work at a desk. Conferences and meetups can help you build your network. (1) At this point, every month at least two people should be reaching out to you about software projects.

bayesian_horse 7y ago

Anybody here that did it that way and succeeded? In my opinion the main road-blocks are finding clients who are convinced you can do whatever you want to sell.

drewmol 7y ago
>finding clients who are convinced you can do whatever you want to sell. Find clients who need what you want to sell and convince them is the solution. It's not easy and in my experience they won't all be convinced (some ever) but if you can provide what you're selling then clients only need persuaided enough to pay a deposit, first payment or some other initial small invoice and trust/capability will be build/demonstrated when first building clientele. Once you have more work than time raise your rates as high as you can without decreasing your earnings. Then if you can get to step 7 hire a convincing sales person first.
- mpeg 7y ago
  I don't know if this is a cultural difference or something, but in the UK no client will ever pay a deposit on an invoice for consulting work. I normally get paid within 30-90 days of the work being done (it sucks)
  - drewmol 7y ago
    Possibly is, my experience with a few current London based clients in my day job is often recieving pushback and delays on any initial deposits or pre-payment. Holding firm that the clearly defined payment terms are a prerequisite for work commencement has been the most effective approach, even if it involves some uncomfortable emails or meetings. Polite but firm push back on a clients reluctance is very often sucessful even if momentarily uncomfortable. I'd suggest to try proposing reasonable payment terms as soon as possible, terms that are as favorable to you as they may or possibly are willing to accept, and upon discussion (or a note included in the proposed terms) respond that an initial deposit is a firm requirement before commencement of any billable work, but you are flexible and willing to discuss a customized draw (payment) schedule if it's required (or.. you're not willing). You may be surprised how many clients will accept your terms, even after declaring them unacceptable, once you (re)affirm the terms as a firm, mandatory requirement. Willingness to walk away is often a strong, persuasive signal of competence and/or high demand of your service and can provoke decisions to be made more promptly by potential clients. You can factor an intrest charge for payment delays that will encourage prompt payment, calculate by percentage and then format your payment terms to represent these differences as discounts for prompt payment instead of penalties for late payment. A secondary benifit of using these now slightly increased rates combined with prompt payment discounts is that you will be able to slightly increase your effective rate for recurring clients by adjusting these discount amounts in the event you can't or don't want to propose a higher rate. Also, IME (in the US) the initial disclosure of late payment terms or penalties may be a requirememt when including compounded interest on an outstanding debt amount in a situation where legal action to recover debt becomes necessary.

camillomiller 7y ago

You should put: - get a shiny office - raise your rates even more Somewhere in there. Don’t underestimate the image of your business, unless you wanna play the “solo star” career. Also, write about what you know and do somewhere (a blog, a specialized magazine): it gives you credit.

notzuck 7y ago
We're billing over 500k per year in retainers right now and taking on more implementation work. We work out of an extra room in a house (we're a 2 man partnership). Why would we need an office? Alan Weiss never had one...
- Doxin 7y ago
  I think it rather depend on if you invite clients in your office, or you visit the clients on-premise. If all you do is on-premise meetings then having a swanky office is fairly redundant. You'd maybe rent something fancy looking for a day for some beauty shots on your website, but even that seems redundant to me.

westoque 7y ago

Interesting timeline. Whilst I love how it’s broken down, it just looks so much harder than just making a product and focusing on that. At least you don’t have to raise your price as often and not worry about not having enough contracts.

peterbell_nyc 7y ago
Making a product might be easier. Getting enough people to buy it to turn it into a profitable business, not always easier :)

mpeg 7y ago

This reads as one of those "how to draw an owl" memes, step 1. draw a circle; step 2. draw the rest of the owl. I've been trying to succeed at consultancy for the last couple years, and here's my list of (realistic) steps 1) Reach out to your network and see if anyone is looking for help that you can provide 2) Realise that clients don't care about your background, or skillset, they're 100% focused on what results you can provide and how fast 3) The usual advice from the lucky ones is to always raise your rates, "raise your rates after every contract!" etc. but a more realistic approach is to lower your rates when you have to. I wish I could get steady work at my usual rates, but sometimes I will take on side gigs at a lower hourly rate just because they help keep you afloat 4) Despite what people may say, consultants that can speak both tech and business are very common. They might not be very good coders, or very good biz people, but they are common. Differentiating yourself comes down to personal network rather than any substantial difference in output. 5) Specialists are paid a lot better than generalists. If you're an awesome cloud migration expert (like OP) focusing on that will likely bring more clients and revenue than trying to branch out to other areas Most other advice is good, but it's important to notice that it won't apply to most folks when they're starting out. I still love the freedom that working for myself affords me, and that it's allowed me to do things that I would have otherwise not been able to, but it's a lot of work, and a good chunk of my time is spent essentially working for free (writing proposals, chasing up payment, etc)

scardine 7y ago
It is a catch 22: unless you are spending at least half your time prospecting new clients it is hard to keep a steady income, but it is hard to invest that much time in the commercial side of your "one man show" if you are not charging high enough. Every beginner underestimate how much salesmanship it takes to run a successful freelancer career.
- mpeg 7y ago
  Yes, it's very difficult to balance and it's been an interesting experience in the sense that no one really cares about what work you've done in the past; if they like you on a personal level they'll hire you. I'm comfortable doing sales, but it's maintaining that balance that I find difficult – if I spend too much time pitching I make no money as I have no employees to deliver the work and if I spend too much time working I get stuck in a cycle of feast and famine.

ajcodez 7y ago

(0.2) Keep your day job. (0.4) Start building a portfolio. Nobody will hire you without examples of past work or past clients they know. Blog posts, LinkedIn recommendations, case studies, screenshots, mockups, anything is better than nothing. (0.6) Give free advice to your friends, former roommates, former classmates, former colleagues. Sit down, have coffee, listen to their app idea, compliment them, show them who did it already. (0.8) It’s hard to meet people if you work at a desk. Conferences and meetups can help you build your network. (1) At this point, every month at least two people should be reaching out to you about software projects.