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The very short consulting can be pretty intense. People come fast and furious and want answers. They sometimes are folks who really badly need a larger consulti
by softwaredoug 6y ago
The very short consulting can be pretty intense. People come fast and furious and want answers. They sometimes are folks who really badly need a larger consulting or training engagement from a specialist, but can't afford it. So they sometimes come hard, sometimes frantically, looking for miracle fixes.
I thought they could be fun, but you really had to be on your toes to do it well. And you need to set really clear expectations on what's doable in the short time.
In the end, however, it can sometimes just be easier not to charge. If you do larger projects, these short little meetings can be a primer for filtering potential clients while giving the potential client a taste of what working with you is like.
- hodgesrm 6y agoMy rule is anything you can do during the time it takes to eat lunch is free. If you need to bill something that small you need to rethink your business model.
- HeyLaughingBoy 6y agoYou must eat a lot faster than I do :-)
- josephg 6y agoI can imagine there’s a “right” amount of this sort of thing. Like, if you work on a project doesn’t have much traction, it can be nice to have the people using it meeting up and talking about it. It can keep energy and motivation high. And hearing what people are working on (with demos) is a blast. On the flip side, if you work on a project that’s already popular, you don’t want to be spending all your time doing free Q&A. Especially not for enterprise folks who have money but aren’t paying anyway. This is how maintainer burnout happens. There’s a sweet spot here, which will vary by project and by maintainer.