3 ms·

Reasons not to become a consultant

9 points by MarlonPro 13y ago

atwebb 13y ago
On the working for yourself, I get what you're/the author is saying, but since going off on my own, I do feel freer to use my time as I see fit. Of course I'm available during business hours but there's a sense of autonomy that, if I need to do something, I'll go do it and catch up later in the day or at night because everyone's aware that if I'm not working, I'm not getting paid. Whereas, when I was a salaried employee, I always felt pressure to be in my seat and certain times, regardless of function or usefulness. It may be that my positions are a bit different now but I feel a majority of it is how salaried employees view contractors. A point I didn't see on there and no one let me know prior to consulting was this: No one wants to lend you money. Really. Nope, not even with that bill rate. I'm being a bit dramatic but I've been shocked at the difficulty of acquiring financing as a consultant, it's eaten into money I spend on high rents (a note would be ~70% of my rent for a much nicer place) and on several moves. It's annoying and a very real life drain that I didn't anticipate (after some in-depth researching).
namecast 13y ago
Two notes: Re: the non-tangibles - As a consultant, you get to make your own intangibles. If you can't extract some sort of benefit - extra time to work on your own side project, more flexible hours than a regular employee, etc. - that can compete with an office pizza party and free t-shirts, then you should probably look into becoming an employee again. Freedom and self-direction are the biggest intangible out there. Re: working more hours and getting paid less of them - this is true, but it's also an excellent argument for freeing yourself from the notion of hourly billing. Bill on a daily, weekly or per-project basis if you want to avoid this pitfall. Other than that your points were pretty spot-on. Consulting ain't easy, and filling a pipeline full of consulting clients is hard (though I still think it's worth it.)
garrickvanburen 13y ago
The article is confusing 'independent contractor' with 'consultant'. All the points are true for 'independent contractor'. For a 'consultant' they're not even in the same universe.
- bonemachine 13y ago
  How so? Not that I doubt you, or don't have some idea of the distinction (I've done a bit of both, myself) -- I'd just be curious as to how you'd articulated it.
  - garrickvanburen 13y ago
    In my experience, independent contractors work on very tactical tasks for an hourly fee. Whereas consultants provide strategic direction and confidence for a fixed fee. Those 2 differences (and their corresponding incentives) create 2 very different worlds.
Touche 13y ago
I don't find myself working more hours. If anything employees are (usually) salaried so making them work the extra hours while the consultants are expected to charge 40hrs a week.
larrys 13y ago
"Before cell phones, I knew where every pay phone in Epcot was located, because I rarely got very far from one during the week I spent there with my family." I found this interesting given that I started in business well before cell phones "back in the day" so to speak. The fact that that the OP knew the pay phones seems to indicate to me that he carried around a beeper. One wonders though if what he was doing was consulting or rather something that required him to be in constant contact for another reason. And to be able to return calls almost immediately.

9 points by MarlonPro 13y ago

On the working for yourself, I get what you're/the author is saying, but since going off on my own, I do feel freer to use my time as I see fit. Of course I'm available during business hours but there's a sense of autonomy that, if I need to do something, I'll go do it and catch up later in the day or at night because everyone's aware that if I'm not working, I'm not getting paid. Whereas, when I was a salaried employee, I always felt pressure to be in my seat and certain times, regardless of function or usefulness. It may be that my positions are a bit different now but I feel a majority of it is how salaried employees view contractors. A point I didn't see on there and no one let me know prior to consulting was this: No one wants to lend you money. Really. Nope, not even with that bill rate. I'm being a bit dramatic but I've been shocked at the difficulty of acquiring financing as a consultant, it's eaten into money I spend on high rents (a note would be ~70% of my rent for a much nicer place) and on several moves. It's annoying and a very real life drain that I didn't anticipate (after some in-depth researching).

namecast 13y ago

Two notes: Re: the non-tangibles - As a consultant, you get to make your own intangibles. If you can't extract some sort of benefit - extra time to work on your own side project, more flexible hours than a regular employee, etc. - that can compete with an office pizza party and free t-shirts, then you should probably look into becoming an employee again. Freedom and self-direction are the biggest intangible out there. Re: working more hours and getting paid less of them - this is true, but it's also an excellent argument for freeing yourself from the notion of hourly billing. Bill on a daily, weekly or per-project basis if you want to avoid this pitfall. Other than that your points were pretty spot-on. Consulting ain't easy, and filling a pipeline full of consulting clients is hard (though I still think it's worth it.)

garrickvanburen 13y ago

The article is confusing 'independent contractor' with 'consultant'. All the points are true for 'independent contractor'. For a 'consultant' they're not even in the same universe.

bonemachine 13y ago
How so? Not that I doubt you, or don't have some idea of the distinction (I've done a bit of both, myself) -- I'd just be curious as to how you'd articulated it.
- garrickvanburen 13y ago
  In my experience, independent contractors work on very tactical tasks for an hourly fee. Whereas consultants provide strategic direction and confidence for a fixed fee. Those 2 differences (and their corresponding incentives) create 2 very different worlds.

Touche 13y ago

I don't find myself working more hours. If anything employees are (usually) salaried so making them work the extra hours while the consultants are expected to charge 40hrs a week.

larrys 13y ago

"Before cell phones, I knew where every pay phone in Epcot was located, because I rarely got very far from one during the week I spent there with my family." I found this interesting given that I started in business well before cell phones "back in the day" so to speak. The fact that that the OP knew the pay phones seems to indicate to me that he carried around a beeper. One wonders though if what he was doing was consulting or rather something that required him to be in constant contact for another reason. And to be able to return calls almost immediately.