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I find that many of my clients aren't eager to do retainers because they don't trust that I'll actually be around (I did only start consulting this year). Do yo

I find that many of my clients aren't eager to do retainers because they don't trust that I'll actually be around (I did only start consulting this year). Do you have any advice for overcoming that?

patio11 13y ago
Work on increasing perceived professionalism: no lawyer in the history of the legal profession ever had this problem. (Slight exaggeration, but not much of one.) This is a broad topic, but in general, be more communicative, comport your affairs like you're a serious business (contracts, professional language, business mien) rather than a kid cutting lawns for beer money, etc. As a stopgap, offer to invoice after the month, not before: "That way if I'm not there when you need me, you don't have to pay."
- lifeisstillgood 13y ago
  That strikes me as right out if the Uncle Bob Clean Coder playbook - and is one I completely underestimate THanks for the reminder
lifeisstillgood 13y ago
They only say that. What they mean is they think they can find another Ruby On Django-AWS Front end developer any time they like. Your job is to convince them there are no other developers like you out there - and the best way to do that is not sell yourself as a developer but as someone who uses software to add value to their business. This could be turning up and running email campaigns to improve retention, or it could be the wider world of finding a niche in a nice industry that is about to get disrupted (all of them), working out what the world will be like after it is hit, and becoming an expert in that business model / software It turns out writing software at the dynamic language web request processing end is nothing particularly strenuous. Which means some great tools get produced quickly which means the people who can sell a solution dont necessarily have to be the ones who can write it. What I think I mean is that increasing customer conversion for SaaS companies is a lot less coding than it is getting the gig and introducing rigour into an ignored process If you want to stay ahead of the game - well I am not sure, but its likely to be find a vertical niche, where specialisation wins or find new technical integrations where early wins (such as uses for UAVs) - but combinations appeal to me - I bet there is scope for GPS in waste collection lorries for example, and across europe thats a multi billion dollar industry

I find that many of my clients aren't eager to do retainers because they don't trust that I'll actually be around (I did only start consulting this year). Do you have any advice for overcoming that?

patio11 13y ago

Work on increasing perceived professionalism: no lawyer in the history of the legal profession ever had this problem. (Slight exaggeration, but not much of one.) This is a broad topic, but in general, be more communicative, comport your affairs like you're a serious business (contracts, professional language, business mien) rather than a kid cutting lawns for beer money, etc. As a stopgap, offer to invoice after the month, not before: "That way if I'm not there when you need me, you don't have to pay."

lifeisstillgood 13y ago
That strikes me as right out if the Uncle Bob Clean Coder playbook - and is one I completely underestimate THanks for the reminder

lifeisstillgood 13y ago

They only say that. What they mean is they think they can find another Ruby On Django-AWS Front end developer any time they like. Your job is to convince them there are no other developers like you out there - and the best way to do that is not sell yourself as a developer but as someone who uses software to add value to their business. This could be turning up and running email campaigns to improve retention, or it could be the wider world of finding a niche in a nice industry that is about to get disrupted (all of them), working out what the world will be like after it is hit, and becoming an expert in that business model / software It turns out writing software at the dynamic language web request processing end is nothing particularly strenuous. Which means some great tools get produced quickly which means the people who can sell a solution dont necessarily have to be the ones who can write it. What I think I mean is that increasing customer conversion for SaaS companies is a lot less coding than it is getting the gig and introducing rigour into an ignored process If you want to stay ahead of the game - well I am not sure, but its likely to be find a vertical niche, where specialisation wins or find new technical integrations where early wins (such as uses for UAVs) - but combinations appeal to me - I bet there is scope for GPS in waste collection lorries for example, and across europe thats a multi billion dollar industry