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Nah, but it's hard to launch a successfull product; if it wasn't, everyone would be doing it. I'm doing contracting work for multiple different customers, long
by NKCSS 7y ago
Nah, but it's hard to launch a successfull product; if it wasn't, everyone would be doing it.
I'm doing contracting work for multiple different customers, long-term project, and I generate 100-200k of revenue on a yearly basis from that. That leaves me with slightly higher salary than if I'd work for a boss, but I have tonnes, and tonnes more freedom and time for my kids. It's just not possible to scale that past 300k/yr, because there's only so much time you can sell.
Once you have a product, you can scale it through the roof, since a digital product, if set up well, has negligible costs, will allow you to earn way more, but only if you find something that people want bad enough to pay for and a large enough group to pay for it. Loads and loads of people have the skills required to build a product, but not a lot have the right idea and marketing to go along with it to make it a success.
- dbancajas 7y agohow many customers per year? and how do you deal with insurance?
- NKCSS 7y agoAround 10 customers. I have recently gotten a liability because a client demanded it, didn’t have any before.
- jlevers 7y agoWhile I generally agree with you that products can scale much higher than consulting income-wise, when you say it's impossible to scale what you're doing past 300k/year due to time constraints...why not charge more for your time? If you have more people asking you to do work for them than you have time for, I'd think that clients would be willing to pay more in order to make it onto your schedule.
- ianmcgowan 7y agoWait, why do you think "it's just not possible to scale that past 300k/yr"? I have at least one counter-example ;-) In general, the way it's worked for me is if I have multiple potential new gigs, I ask for more money. When the next gig comes along, that's my new baseline. Over the last 6 years that's helped moved the hourly rate to a number I wouldn't have asked for upfront. I hate to say no to customers too, so sometimes end up working 60-70 hour weeks in bursts. It's worth it though, because when things get quiet, I can go snowboarding for a week without asking a boss for permission...
- NKCSS 7y agoGood for you :) My hourly rate is €85 currently, which is a lot for the small to medium size businesses I work for. Hiking up that rate would meen I would have to work for larger companies, which I don’t want to. I work from my own office, and get to spend loads of time with my family; if I’d start to work for bigger companies, I’d have to work on-site and loose a lot of time in transit and make it a lot more difficult to dictate the working hours on a day to day basis.