3 ms·
It really all boils down to risk management. If you're a self-identified say, "Ruby freelancer", the value proposition is "I am an independent Ruby developer f
by bdunn 13y ago
It really all boils down to risk management.
If you're a self-identified say, "Ruby freelancer", the value proposition is "I am an independent Ruby developer for hire". For staff augmentation gigs or applying for a FT position, this is all well and good, because whoever's hiring is looking for warm bodies with specific technical capabilities.
However, many companies are looking to solve specific business problems and might not know how. Simply hiring a developer who happens to know Ruby doesn't guarantee that the problem will be solved — it's a huge risk. It's sort of like saying, "all I need is someone who knows how to swing hammers if I want to build my wife and I's dream home."
Mitigating that risk means stepping away from the "<technology> freelancer" title and becoming a business consultant who happens to use e.g. Ruby to solve business problems. On your end, this is going to require less time spent thinking about the technology, and more about the path to solving the underlying problem at hand. From the perspective of a client, this is a much safer bet. And when there's less risk involved, clients are willing to spend more. And treat you more as a consultant. And you'll be happier, your closing rates will go up, etc.
- nork 13y agoYup. The trick is picking your ideal demographic and catering your "brand" to be most attractive to them.
- mjn 13y agoThis really depends a lot on the business. Even for consultants, many companies prefer to split business and technical consulting, sometimes contracting them out separately, or sometimes just contracting one of them out as needed. In that situation, they typically do not want the technical consultant involving themselves in the business case, because they were hired to solve a technical problem, not to second-guess the role of the technical problem in the hiring company's business. This is particularly common in large companies hiring engineering consultants: a metallurgy consultant hired by Exxon or BP to assist with a design or problem (actual example a friend does regularly) is supposed to provide technical input on metallurgy as required, not try to sell a company on the value proposition of Metallurgical Solutions. Their value proposition is that they are an expert who can provide expert advice and problem-solving in a specific technical domain.
- twistedpair 13y agoIf only the delineation was so clear, yet often I've be asked to implement a technical solution to a political or social problem, where a technical solution was not even needed.
- jacques_chester 13y agoNo matter how it looks at first, it's always a people problem. Gerald Weinberg, Secrets of Consulting.
- jpelker 13y agoI <3 Gerry Weinberg. This book is one of my favorites.
- jiggy2011 13y agoI think this is where it helps to be part of a co-founder in a small consultancy rather than a "freelancer". If a customer asks me to build something in framework A with features X , Y and Z I can probably do that, but as you say unless you have a strong reputation in a specific niche that makes you rare, you are competing against everyone else who can do the same thing. OTOH a customer with a bigger budget who is looking for a more holistic solution may also want infrastructure provisioning and management, SEO and color scheme designed specifically to appeal to their target demographic. It's unlikely that any single person can do all of these things, at least to a level of quality that would justify a significant fee. So either you need a reliable bunch of subcontractors who you can retain for X days/month or you need to partner with somebody with complimentary skillsets.
- Silhouette 13y agoI agree that seeing the problem from your client's point of view has great value, much more so than any particular technical skill that might be useful to solve that problem. However, what you're describing isn't really risk management, it's just marketing. You want a prospect to believe that you have the ability to understand their problem and help them to solve it, because that will determine whether or not you get the gig and how favourable the terms are, but the real risk in hiring you for that gig depends on whether you actually have that ability.
- marcamillion 13y agoThis is very much on-point. Once I launched 5KMVP, people no longer focussed on the tech choices I made. They do ask what my stack is - I think because most of the crowd I cater to are more savvy and are curious - but for the most part they just care about getting an MVP at the end of the engagement. It also works both ways, now that I am able to focus on just giving them an MVP I make recommendations along those lines. I can recommend that they use a Bootstrap template and they don't see it as "cheap design", but rather a "an affordable, clean interface that helps validate their hypothesis". Frees me to work on the business logic of what they want and the quirks of their application. I also make hosting recommendations based on who I know they are (people trying to get projects off the ground, so they are cash-flow sensitive). The difference between the clients I get now and the ones I used to get are night and day, because there is no ambiguity in what the client wants and what I will give them. Best decision from a "freelancing" perspective I have ever made.
- SimHacker 13y agoI get it that your stack is 5 KVMs -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVM_switch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVM_switch -- but what does "P" stand for? Are you a 5 KVM Person? Wow, impressive! Multitask much? ;)
- marcamillion 13y agoLOL...Not sure if this is satire (I assume it is), but in the event that it is not...my stack is not 5KVMs. I create MVPs for $5K - http://5kmvp.com/ http://5kmvp.com/