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Longer write-up here: https://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-consulting-leads/ https://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-consulting-l... Some th

by gk1 7y ago

Longer write-up here: https://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-consulting-leads/ https://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-consulting-l... Some things I learned through mistakes: - Charge more. - Travel like a professional and bill the client. For my first business trip I used airline points, stayed at an Airbnb on my own dime, and even refused the client's offer to reimburse me. Stupid. (Full story here: https://www.gkogan.co/blog/stupid/ https://www.gkogan.co/blog/stupid/) - If I'm not enjoying the work, request a change or move on. Don't just "tolerate" it and chug along. One of the greatest benefits of consulting is the freedom to chose whom you work with... Take advantage of it. - Remember who the client is, and don't get too involved with their subordinates. - If you don't feel "Hell yes!" about taking on a project or prospect, just skip it. It's not going to get more interesting over time. - Find a great accountant. Fire bad accountants fast (and lawyers, and other service providers). - Tell the client the hard truth. - Impostor syndrome is normal. Get over it. - Stop trying to go above-and-beyond all the time. Do what you were brought in to do, and do it exceptionally well. If other opportunities come up, suggest them as follow-on projects instead of just doing extra stuff for free. - If you're clashing with an exec at the company, tell the client, instead of just backing away from the project. - There are hundreds/thousands (depending on specialty) of potential clients out there, you just have to find them. So don't worry if a deal falls through, don't envy other consultants, and don't take on bad projects out of desperation.

defen 7y ago
> Travel like a professional and bill the client. One additional tip here is to purchase cancellable / refundable airline tickets and hotel reservations. You don't want to get stuck with the bill if your client cancels a meeting or whatever. Made this mistake with a long-term client where it wasn't worth trying to get reimbursed for travel expenses for a canceled meeting.
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  But what about the much higher prices?
  - dwelch2344 7y ago
    Make it part of your policy and very clearly disclose it up front while explaining the why. If they push back, concede by letting them pay for the non-refundable tickets up front then
    - raverbashing 7y ago
      Exactly this. Either bill them in advance or have them purchase your ticket in advance. Any major travel expense shouldn't be on your dime unless you're very acquainted with the customer.
      - londons_explore 7y ago
        Do you actually forward receipts to the client and have them pay to the cent? I always find it easier to just have a fixed line item for "travel to client events", and usually I end up coming out ahead by a substantial margin by not booking fancy hotels.
        antaviana 7y ago
        Be careful. If you do that with a public administration client, you might end up charged for embezzlement.
        o-__-o 7y ago
        Depends what the contract says. I've had a client tell me to use expensify and call it a day. I've had to manage travel as part of a fixed price bid. I've just had to bill for travel as a line item on a T&M. The bottom line is on your end, you should be capturing receipts, you should be logging costs per project, and you should be providing all this data to an accountant for a nice quarterly rollup.
        ghaff 7y ago
        Yeah, it really depends. I've done it all different ways. - Bill the client for actual expenses - Paid out of pocket for travel that was baked into the day rate - Had major travel (air/hotel) paid for directly by a client's travel agent. (Which I actually preferred to avoid when reasonably possible because now you're dealing with your client's travel policies.) I'm not an accountant but I tend to agree you shouldn't be billing a broken-out travel line item that's not actual expenses or expenses plus explicit overhead [or a standard per diem].
sevencolors 7y ago
> - Stop trying to go above-and-beyond all the time. Do what you were brought in to do, and do it exceptionally well. If other opportunities come up, suggest them as follow-on projects instead of just doing extra stuff for free. This so much. I used to waste hours doing small things (for free) that the client may never even notice. Just because it bothered me personally. Stick to the contracted list of things . This isn't to say do a half-assed job, but deliver what was promised
- prox 7y ago
  Very recognizable; I always try to remember that they hire me to solve a particular problem. Most of them really don’t care how. Don’t explain, just do the work. If you’re good at your work it will be a good service / product you delivered and your client trusts you with this.
psv1 7y ago
Nice. These are also great tips for people in permanent roles.
juanuys 7y ago
> fire bad accountants What is bad? What is good? I guess I expect my accountant to be a bit of a financial advisor sometimes, which they aren't.
- oAlbe 7y ago
  From my experience, an accountant is a financial advisor as far as guiding you through your country regulation goes. Where I come from there are a lot of paths you can follow to become a consultant/freelance, and you want a good accountant to guide you through it because some paths end up being significantly more expensive (especially tax wise) for you. What makes a good accounts I guess can also depends on your country legislation. From my experience, I'd ask those questions: are they working in my interest? Am I paying any late fees, arrears or interests on top of the taxes I'm supposed to pay? Are they staying on top of changes to the laws/regulations? Do they return my emails timely and with comprehensive answer to my questions? Those things are off the top of my mind of course, there is more. In my case, although I'm not a very demanding or complicated client, I've been lucky enough to have found an accountant who I completely trust and, after the initial "setup" phase, it has mostly been a set it and forget it kind of situation. I get reminders for when tax payment deadlines are coming up, and neatly filled forms which I just have to pay. They notify me of changes to regulations (which in my country seems to be at least every year) and how that affects me. And whenever I need an estimate of how much in taxes I'm expected to pay in a given year, I send them an email and get an answer within 24 hours. YMMV, I'm sure the things you need to worry about and ask yourself to asses the situation vary from country to country.
- HenryBemis 7y ago
  My first accountant was dangerous. His suggestion regarding cash flow and financial management was "spend the money as you want and we'll figure things out in the end of the year". I prefer to have a "friend", someone who will care for my £€¥$ and will kick my heart butt if he sees I do stupid things. Another comment used the word "advisor". I know that legally there are limitations on what they can propose to you, but better have someone who cares. Otherwise just get something like QuickBooks for a fraction of the cost and use an accountant in the end of the year just for the filing.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
santodante 7y ago
How do I get over the mental barrier of charging more than $100 per hour? - I'm a junior developer and I mostly freelance for larger companies. - I feel like $100/hour is the industry standard and if I charge 150-300 I need to do work that requires managerial work. - 300+ comes from charging a percentage of revenue increase or creating such a narrative, which often requires additional business and strategic consulting. - On the flip side, I enjoy coding and want to avoid additional managerial and business consulting as much as possible.
- onreact 7y ago
  Do not think in hours. You are not a worker in a factory. Consider the value you deliver. When you deliver twice the value in the same time you did a year ago charge twice as much.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    It does depend. When I was a consultant, we tried to charge based on value (by engagement). OTOH, clients often still thought in terms of hours. If we were on-site for one engagement that was only going to take half a day, they'd often try to hook us up with some other group as well given we were there and had the time. (Typically we'd go along as these were long-time clients.) And some areas like law are very hourly-based. The one time I did some legal work it was strictly based on time. (At a very good hourly rate including travel time.)
    - onreact 7y ago
      Yeah, true, that may happen. Ideally you get a combined payment by hours with a bonus for performance. That is often a bit complex or tricky though. You mitigate the risk of getting paid not enough in case the hours spiral out of control while still getting paid a lot when you outperform expectations.
- k__ 7y ago
  I simply started billing weeks and not hours. So nobody can check how many hours you work a day. If you bill $2000 a week and only work 4h a day, you get your $100.
ghaff 7y ago
> Travel like a professional and bill the client. Yep. I don't eat at McDonald's or stay at Motel 6 on my own dime. I'm sure not going to on a company's dime.
herewego 7y ago
These all ring true in my experience too. One more thing I would add is to specialize if you can. Don’t try to be too general in the services you offer. You can greatly increase your own market demand this way.
- ScottFree 7y ago
  Can you expand on this? Also, can somebody else provide a counterpoint?
  - abhiyerra 7y ago
    Not the author but I've experienced this. Basically what ends up happening if you don't specialize is you hit the 80/20 principle. 20% of your clients take 80% of your time. It becomes hard to scale and you end up not doing anything well. Focusing on one thing you can really focus on improvements to how you deliver that one service which reduces stress and helps you scale your service.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    Here's a good example. Someone I know is an AWS consultant. And, within that, he's fairly focused on billing/costs. He thinks it's helped him to be well-known for a specific set of things rather than be someone called in to consult about "public clouds" generally. The counterpoint is that it needs to be a big enough market and one that you can service. Another thing to be careful of is that markets move on. I've known consultants who were world experts in some company's products or specific technologies. And then that company or technology ceased to exist and they really weren't sure what to do with themselves.

by gk1 7y ago

defen 7y ago

> Travel like a professional and bill the client. One additional tip here is to purchase cancellable / refundable airline tickets and hotel reservations. You don't want to get stuck with the bill if your client cancels a meeting or whatever. Made this mistake with a long-term client where it wasn't worth trying to get reimbursed for travel expenses for a canceled meeting.

mehrdadn 7y ago
But what about the much higher prices?
- dwelch2344 7y ago
  Make it part of your policy and very clearly disclose it up front while explaining the why. If they push back, concede by letting them pay for the non-refundable tickets up front then
  - raverbashing 7y ago
    Exactly this. Either bill them in advance or have them purchase your ticket in advance. Any major travel expense shouldn't be on your dime unless you're very acquainted with the customer.
    - londons_explore 7y ago
      Do you actually forward receipts to the client and have them pay to the cent? I always find it easier to just have a fixed line item for "travel to client events", and usually I end up coming out ahead by a substantial margin by not booking fancy hotels.
      - antaviana 7y ago
        Be careful. If you do that with a public administration client, you might end up charged for embezzlement.
      - o-__-o 7y ago
        Depends what the contract says. I've had a client tell me to use expensify and call it a day. I've had to manage travel as part of a fixed price bid. I've just had to bill for travel as a line item on a T&M. The bottom line is on your end, you should be capturing receipts, you should be logging costs per project, and you should be providing all this data to an accountant for a nice quarterly rollup.
        ghaff 7y ago
        Yeah, it really depends. I've done it all different ways. - Bill the client for actual expenses - Paid out of pocket for travel that was baked into the day rate - Had major travel (air/hotel) paid for directly by a client's travel agent. (Which I actually preferred to avoid when reasonably possible because now you're dealing with your client's travel policies.) I'm not an accountant but I tend to agree you shouldn't be billing a broken-out travel line item that's not actual expenses or expenses plus explicit overhead [or a standard per diem].

sevencolors 7y ago

> - Stop trying to go above-and-beyond all the time. Do what you were brought in to do, and do it exceptionally well. If other opportunities come up, suggest them as follow-on projects instead of just doing extra stuff for free. This so much. I used to waste hours doing small things (for free) that the client may never even notice. Just because it bothered me personally. Stick to the contracted list of things . This isn't to say do a half-assed job, but deliver what was promised

prox 7y ago
Very recognizable; I always try to remember that they hire me to solve a particular problem. Most of them really don’t care how. Don’t explain, just do the work. If you’re good at your work it will be a good service / product you delivered and your client trusts you with this.

psv1 7y ago

Nice. These are also great tips for people in permanent roles.

juanuys 7y ago

> fire bad accountants What is bad? What is good? I guess I expect my accountant to be a bit of a financial advisor sometimes, which they aren't.

oAlbe 7y ago
From my experience, an accountant is a financial advisor as far as guiding you through your country regulation goes. Where I come from there are a lot of paths you can follow to become a consultant/freelance, and you want a good accountant to guide you through it because some paths end up being significantly more expensive (especially tax wise) for you. What makes a good accounts I guess can also depends on your country legislation. From my experience, I'd ask those questions: are they working in my interest? Am I paying any late fees, arrears or interests on top of the taxes I'm supposed to pay? Are they staying on top of changes to the laws/regulations? Do they return my emails timely and with comprehensive answer to my questions? Those things are off the top of my mind of course, there is more. In my case, although I'm not a very demanding or complicated client, I've been lucky enough to have found an accountant who I completely trust and, after the initial "setup" phase, it has mostly been a set it and forget it kind of situation. I get reminders for when tax payment deadlines are coming up, and neatly filled forms which I just have to pay. They notify me of changes to regulations (which in my country seems to be at least every year) and how that affects me. And whenever I need an estimate of how much in taxes I'm expected to pay in a given year, I send them an email and get an answer within 24 hours. YMMV, I'm sure the things you need to worry about and ask yourself to asses the situation vary from country to country.
HenryBemis 7y ago
My first accountant was dangerous. His suggestion regarding cash flow and financial management was "spend the money as you want and we'll figure things out in the end of the year". I prefer to have a "friend", someone who will care for my £€¥$ and will kick my heart butt if he sees I do stupid things. Another comment used the word "advisor". I know that legally there are limitations on what they can propose to you, but better have someone who cares. Otherwise just get something like QuickBooks for a fraction of the cost and use an accountant in the end of the year just for the filing.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

santodante 7y ago

How do I get over the mental barrier of charging more than $100 per hour? - I'm a junior developer and I mostly freelance for larger companies. - I feel like $100/hour is the industry standard and if I charge 150-300 I need to do work that requires managerial work. - 300+ comes from charging a percentage of revenue increase or creating such a narrative, which often requires additional business and strategic consulting. - On the flip side, I enjoy coding and want to avoid additional managerial and business consulting as much as possible.

onreact 7y ago
Do not think in hours. You are not a worker in a factory. Consider the value you deliver. When you deliver twice the value in the same time you did a year ago charge twice as much.
- ghaff 7y ago
  It does depend. When I was a consultant, we tried to charge based on value (by engagement). OTOH, clients often still thought in terms of hours. If we were on-site for one engagement that was only going to take half a day, they'd often try to hook us up with some other group as well given we were there and had the time. (Typically we'd go along as these were long-time clients.) And some areas like law are very hourly-based. The one time I did some legal work it was strictly based on time. (At a very good hourly rate including travel time.)
  - onreact 7y ago
    Yeah, true, that may happen. Ideally you get a combined payment by hours with a bonus for performance. That is often a bit complex or tricky though. You mitigate the risk of getting paid not enough in case the hours spiral out of control while still getting paid a lot when you outperform expectations.
k__ 7y ago
I simply started billing weeks and not hours. So nobody can check how many hours you work a day. If you bill $2000 a week and only work 4h a day, you get your $100.

ghaff 7y ago

> Travel like a professional and bill the client. Yep. I don't eat at McDonald's or stay at Motel 6 on my own dime. I'm sure not going to on a company's dime.

herewego 7y ago

These all ring true in my experience too. One more thing I would add is to specialize if you can. Don’t try to be too general in the services you offer. You can greatly increase your own market demand this way.

ScottFree 7y ago
Can you expand on this? Also, can somebody else provide a counterpoint?
- abhiyerra 7y ago
  Not the author but I've experienced this. Basically what ends up happening if you don't specialize is you hit the 80/20 principle. 20% of your clients take 80% of your time. It becomes hard to scale and you end up not doing anything well. Focusing on one thing you can really focus on improvements to how you deliver that one service which reduces stress and helps you scale your service.
- ghaff 7y ago
  Here's a good example. Someone I know is an AWS consultant. And, within that, he's fairly focused on billing/costs. He thinks it's helped him to be well-known for a specific set of things rather than be someone called in to consult about "public clouds" generally. The counterpoint is that it needs to be a big enough market and one that you can service. Another thing to be careful of is that markets move on. I've known consultants who were world experts in some company's products or specific technologies. And then that company or technology ceased to exist and they really weren't sure what to do with themselves.