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The only way to do it is to be more efficient than the others. You need to be able to do in 20 hours takes others 40. If you can do the work in 20, with a hig
by iancmceachern 3y ago
The only way to do it is to be more efficient than the others. You need to be able to do in 20 hours takes others 40. If you can do the work in 20, with a high level of quality, they won't mind paying the 40 hours they have budgeted. If you say it'll take 40 and then bill them for 60, or bill them for 40 but are a week late, they'll be upset.
If you can do that you can be very successful. If you can't, don't try, get good first on someone else's dime.
- 01100011 3y agoThe companies I worked for did it by: - Having better than average engineers. Not "10x", just better than average. - Having a project manager required for nearly all projects. The customer was billed for this and it was worth it. The PM managed a Gantt chart and periodically chatted with the engineers to keep the schedule accurate and the project on track. No daily standups. No agile. - Unless the project was for staff augmentation, the project had a clear set of goals and success criteria was defined up front. Feature creep was strongly discouraged. Is this a business model that will scale to billions of dollars? Most likely not. But it can be a good business that provides you with enjoyable work. Consulting companies are the first to be fired in a downturn, but they're the first to be hired when things get going again because companies are short-staffed and need to react quickly.
- iancmceachern 3y agoWell said, check-out the book "Small giants " companies that choose to be great instead of big. Right in this vein.
- cbsmith 3y agoEfficiency in consulting takes many forms. Yes, there's getting the work done more efficiently, but there's also ensuring you've got a deep pipeline so you have fewer idle hours, billing meticulously for every single expense, having commission/kick-back deals for referrals (ideally you're transparent about this with your clients, but they generally don't mind), and squeezing your employees wages (often structured as paying them a cut of their billables, and a bonus if they go in to overtime)... and that's just the obvious stuff. Consulting businesses are generally seen as "sweatshops" because they are really more a like a logistics business, where your profit comes from the marginal efficiencies.
- iancmceachern 3y agoTotally agree. I've found they're great things when they're run like studios, with one or a handful of principles at the top that are there for the long haul and then folks that come in and out as needed and available working for them. This is what I've modeled my product design consultancy around. Then there are the other ones that are often owned by private equity folks, or run by manager types that can't do the work themselves. These in my experience are not built around passion for the craft like the first bucket. These usually end up being sweatshops. My advice- hire a firm that you know the owner(s), and they're people, not a board. It's the same for Vets, doctors offices, hardware stores, etc.
- cyanydeez 3y agomy boss got his small company bought out by private equity masquerading as typical consulting firm. it took me a beat to recognize what was happening but in short, they pushed admin/management down. it didn't matter what the apparent client hierarchy looked like, they're allergic to the actual work. Suffice to say, they constantly wanted to push me towards managing without offering any of the value.