5 ms·

So you want to be a consultant?

193 points by CaptainMorgan 18y ago

icey 18y ago
I wish I could upvote this a hundred times. It's been a couple of years since I've consulted, but almost every piece of advice in this article is good. I take some issue with his finance section, but it looks like he's a set up as a Sole Proprietorship (it's a bad idea if you're consulting by the way; set up an LLC or a Corporation, and spend a few bucks on a CPA). It's risky to run all your personal accounts in line with your business accounts; I think most people here understand why (in case you don't, this is where "piercing the corporate veil" occurs). Otherwise, there are tons of great pointers in here, including more than a few that I wished I had thought about when I was consulting. If you're thinking about consulting I would seriously print this out and read it multiple times; I know it would have saved me some heartache when I was getting things figured out.
- Andys 18y ago
  I agree about setting up a company - I think if you're not prepared to separate personal and company accounts, you're not ready to do consulting.
- haxorize 18y ago
  The Secrets of Consulting by Gerald Weinberg is also an excellent resource for consulting nuggets like those presented in the article.
- jon_dahl 18y ago
  Overall a great article, but I had a few issues too: 1. I worry about giving away some things for free. If you give away research time for free, or you chase a dead end and decide not to bill it, do you set a precedent that those things will be free in the future? 2. You're absolutely right on the financial front. Mingling your business and personal expenses, and not operating as an LLC or corporation, means all sorts of unnecessary risk. 3. He suggests that a consultant who only works regular hours is less valuable than a consultant who is willing to work 24/7, and so justifies lower rates. I think this is backwards: if I'm going to pay someone $100/hour, I want to know that they're thinking clearly and have slept. Otherwise, this is great advice. I wish I'd had it 5 years ago, when I started my first dev shop. The Warm Fuzzy Feeling (tm) concept right on; customers want a good relationship, and responsive communication, as much as they want technical skills.
  - jbert 18y ago
    "If you give away research time for free, or you chase a dead end and decide not to bill it, do you set a precedent that those things will be free in the future?" I don't think so. You set a precedent that you will be fair to the customer. If you don't chisel them out of every minute, they'll trust you when you do bill them.
vaksel 18y ago
excellent article, especially in the current economic situation where everyone could use a consulting gig to supplement their income
Allocator2008 18y ago
The author is completely wrong about "client v. customer". Your "customers" should be "clients", because it instills confidence. The difference is the country doctor versus the highly payed surgeon. A country doctor pokes around and asks "where does it hurt". The highly payed surgeon goes in to the situation and says, OK, this is your problem, I have performed this procedure 100 times, this is what we need to do. So if your client's pain is not having a good website, you go in there and say, OK, this is what we need to do, wether that be the look and feel, optimizing it for search, adding video, whatever. Don't say "what do you want me to do", say, "this is my recommendation based on my knowledge of the problem you are having and my experience in that problem's solution". The principle underlying this, is you want your revenue curve to be linear as you add more customers, but you want your cost curve to be logarithmic, that is, you want to do LESS work for the next customer than you did for your last customer, and still get the same payment. What I mean by less work, is basically provide the same solution for the same problem, but since you have done it before, it is easier the next time. Have a basic approach for the problems your clients have, so, for example, if they need their website optimized for search, have a basic strategy for doing this, and apply that for each new customer with this same problem. Kissing the customer's behind and re-inventing the wheel for each new customer doesn't do anybody any good. It reduces the consultant's profit by requiring more time, and it reduces the efficiency with which the customer gets their solution, because the consultant is being a short-order cook with them and re-inventing solutions for every new problem, which takes a lot longer. So if you want to slave away re-doing the same thing over and over again for each new customer, by all means, treat the client as a "customer", but if you want to provide timely solutions for the client, and not have to re-invent the wheel all of the time, then take the "surgeon" based approach and not the "country doctor" based approach. The client pays you to know the solution to their problem. So don't ask them what solution would they like, rather, tell them the recommended solution that you know works. Kind of like you don't want your doctor asking you which treatment for your brain tumor you most prefer. Rather, you want your doctor telling you which treatment for your brain tumor is going to the most effective, based on how that treatment has worked for others. Sure be nice and respectful to the client, but inspire confidence in having a good grasp on what will work for them and what will not.
- tptacek 18y ago
GavinB 18y ago
Great article. It's good to note that "The warm fuzzy feeling" is not unique to consulting. It is important in any area of business. This includes dealing with customers, investors, and even co-workers, employees, or supervisors.
pkrumins 18y ago
What this document basically means is - You Don't Want To Be A Consulant.
- tptacek 18y ago
  Because?
  - netcan 18y ago
    You could probably turn that into 100 reasons to (or not to)... A big one is that these are businesses more difficult to sell.
    - tptacek 18y ago
      They're easier to sell; they just sell for much less.
  - pkrumins 18y ago
    Because it's very stressful.
    - icey 18y ago
      This is true... if you make it true. My time as a consultant included the most challenging stuff I've probably worked on; but it was also some of the most rewarding work I've done. Consulting is a pretty vast world; you can be a glorified contractor or you can go help companies actually solve some of their deep problems. If you have a good customer-base, you can be up to your ears in interesting work and get paid incredibly well for it. The downside is that you're a bit of a ronin, and you have to be ruthless with the customers you keep as well as the new customers you bring on. I don't think I have the energy to do it full time any more, because it is incredibly time consuming; but I am definitely glad I did it for as long as I did.
    - tptacek 18y ago
      Everything worth doing is stressful. Try making payroll.
kungfooey 18y ago
I printed this article out a couple of years ago when I started consulting and it has been an inspiration to me. It's always worthy of a re-read!
petercooper 18y ago
If someone reads only one part of that page, it should be: Why work 8 hours/day for someone else when you can work 16 hours/day for yourself? If you think it's a dumb question because the answer is obvious, you've got the right mindset. If you think it's a serious question, stick to your day job.
- CaptainMorgan 18y ago
  Excellent point. I'd rather work all day for myself... actually, I do that now - and I wouldn't change it(unless I had no choice) for some 9-5'er. :)
charcoal 18y ago
There's no date on this article and I remember bookmarking it long ago. When was it written?
jyothi 18y ago
Great article. I have been consulting and though I stand by all of these, it had been real hard to manage some of those. I can't say it in words how much this article helps.
weegee 18y ago
good article, it's been bookmarked for future reference.

193 points by CaptainMorgan 18y ago

icey 18y ago

I wish I could upvote this a hundred times. It's been a couple of years since I've consulted, but almost every piece of advice in this article is good. I take some issue with his finance section, but it looks like he's a set up as a Sole Proprietorship (it's a bad idea if you're consulting by the way; set up an LLC or a Corporation, and spend a few bucks on a CPA). It's risky to run all your personal accounts in line with your business accounts; I think most people here understand why (in case you don't, this is where "piercing the corporate veil" occurs). Otherwise, there are tons of great pointers in here, including more than a few that I wished I had thought about when I was consulting. If you're thinking about consulting I would seriously print this out and read it multiple times; I know it would have saved me some heartache when I was getting things figured out.

Andys 18y ago
I agree about setting up a company - I think if you're not prepared to separate personal and company accounts, you're not ready to do consulting.
haxorize 18y ago
The Secrets of Consulting by Gerald Weinberg is also an excellent resource for consulting nuggets like those presented in the article.
jon_dahl 18y ago
Overall a great article, but I had a few issues too: 1. I worry about giving away some things for free. If you give away research time for free, or you chase a dead end and decide not to bill it, do you set a precedent that those things will be free in the future? 2. You're absolutely right on the financial front. Mingling your business and personal expenses, and not operating as an LLC or corporation, means all sorts of unnecessary risk. 3. He suggests that a consultant who only works regular hours is less valuable than a consultant who is willing to work 24/7, and so justifies lower rates. I think this is backwards: if I'm going to pay someone $100/hour, I want to know that they're thinking clearly and have slept. Otherwise, this is great advice. I wish I'd had it 5 years ago, when I started my first dev shop. The Warm Fuzzy Feeling (tm) concept right on; customers want a good relationship, and responsive communication, as much as they want technical skills.
- jbert 18y ago
  "If you give away research time for free, or you chase a dead end and decide not to bill it, do you set a precedent that those things will be free in the future?" I don't think so. You set a precedent that you will be fair to the customer. If you don't chisel them out of every minute, they'll trust you when you do bill them.

vaksel 18y ago

excellent article, especially in the current economic situation where everyone could use a consulting gig to supplement their income

Allocator2008 18y ago

The author is completely wrong about "client v. customer". Your "customers" should be "clients", because it instills confidence. The difference is the country doctor versus the highly payed surgeon. A country doctor pokes around and asks "where does it hurt". The highly payed surgeon goes in to the situation and says, OK, this is your problem, I have performed this procedure 100 times, this is what we need to do. So if your client's pain is not having a good website, you go in there and say, OK, this is what we need to do, wether that be the look and feel, optimizing it for search, adding video, whatever. Don't say "what do you want me to do", say, "this is my recommendation based on my knowledge of the problem you are having and my experience in that problem's solution". The principle underlying this, is you want your revenue curve to be linear as you add more customers, but you want your cost curve to be logarithmic, that is, you want to do LESS work for the next customer than you did for your last customer, and still get the same payment. What I mean by less work, is basically provide the same solution for the same problem, but since you have done it before, it is easier the next time. Have a basic approach for the problems your clients have, so, for example, if they need their website optimized for search, have a basic strategy for doing this, and apply that for each new customer with this same problem. Kissing the customer's behind and re-inventing the wheel for each new customer doesn't do anybody any good. It reduces the consultant's profit by requiring more time, and it reduces the efficiency with which the customer gets their solution, because the consultant is being a short-order cook with them and re-inventing solutions for every new problem, which takes a lot longer. So if you want to slave away re-doing the same thing over and over again for each new customer, by all means, treat the client as a "customer", but if you want to provide timely solutions for the client, and not have to re-invent the wheel all of the time, then take the "surgeon" based approach and not the "country doctor" based approach. The client pays you to know the solution to their problem. So don't ask them what solution would they like, rather, tell them the recommended solution that you know works. Kind of like you don't want your doctor asking you which treatment for your brain tumor you most prefer. Rather, you want your doctor telling you which treatment for your brain tumor is going to the most effective, based on how that treatment has worked for others. Sure be nice and respectful to the client, but inspire confidence in having a good grasp on what will work for them and what will not.

tptacek 18y ago

GavinB 18y ago

Great article. It's good to note that "The warm fuzzy feeling" is not unique to consulting. It is important in any area of business. This includes dealing with customers, investors, and even co-workers, employees, or supervisors.

pkrumins 18y ago

What this document basically means is - You Don't Want To Be A Consulant.

tptacek 18y ago
Because?
- netcan 18y ago
  You could probably turn that into 100 reasons to (or not to)... A big one is that these are businesses more difficult to sell.
  - tptacek 18y ago
    They're easier to sell; they just sell for much less.
- pkrumins 18y ago
  Because it's very stressful.
  - icey 18y ago
    This is true... if you make it true. My time as a consultant included the most challenging stuff I've probably worked on; but it was also some of the most rewarding work I've done. Consulting is a pretty vast world; you can be a glorified contractor or you can go help companies actually solve some of their deep problems. If you have a good customer-base, you can be up to your ears in interesting work and get paid incredibly well for it. The downside is that you're a bit of a ronin, and you have to be ruthless with the customers you keep as well as the new customers you bring on. I don't think I have the energy to do it full time any more, because it is incredibly time consuming; but I am definitely glad I did it for as long as I did.
  - tptacek 18y ago
    Everything worth doing is stressful. Try making payroll.

kungfooey 18y ago

I printed this article out a couple of years ago when I started consulting and it has been an inspiration to me. It's always worthy of a re-read!

petercooper 18y ago

If someone reads only one part of that page, it should be: Why work 8 hours/day for someone else when you can work 16 hours/day for yourself? If you think it's a dumb question because the answer is obvious, you've got the right mindset. If you think it's a serious question, stick to your day job.

CaptainMorgan 18y ago
Excellent point. I'd rather work all day for myself... actually, I do that now - and I wouldn't change it(unless I had no choice) for some 9-5'er. :)

charcoal 18y ago

There's no date on this article and I remember bookmarking it long ago. When was it written?

jyothi 18y ago

Great article. I have been consulting and though I stand by all of these, it had been real hard to manage some of those. I can't say it in words how much this article helps.

weegee 18y ago

good article, it's been bookmarked for future reference.