6 ms·

Becoming A Software Consultant: My Backstory

119 points by brandontreb 13y ago

ilbe 13y ago
Thanks for sharing, I also found your previous post thought-provoking and motivating. How sales-oriented is independent consulting? Do you look for new technologies to branch out into and if so, how?
tieTYT 13y ago
> I recently published a post about my first year of being an independent iPhone development consultant. I admit I briefly skimmed so maybe I missed it, but where is that article? I'd like to read it first.
- fieldforceapp 13y ago
  I think this is the post: http://brandontreb.com/learned-first-year-ios-consulting http://brandontreb.com/learned-first-year-ios-consulting
  - rhizome 13y ago
    HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7018341 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7018341
  - brandontreb 13y ago
    Thanks for posting the link. I would have put it up, but Hacker News penalized me last time I linked in the comments of my own post.
scarecrowbob 13y ago
I don't work at quite the same level--I'm quite dirts (as they say here), but I have done a bit of consulting even though, I'm swinging back through freelancing and considering going back to being an employee. What I found most useful was the picture of a person working for an existing business who has knowledge of the entire pipeline from the sales process through development: "Armed with the knowledge of the entire software pipeline-from sales, to development, to maintenance-I hit the ground running the very next day in search of my first contract." I think that is a key among most of the really good consultants that I have met.
slabrador 13y ago
awesome backstory ... you remind me of Mel Gibson in Braveheart.
nick2021 13y ago
I enjoy working a full time position and doing consulting on the side, it's the best of both worlds. The full time position provides financial security and the contract work provides me with more revenue streams. When I do consulting work I try to find companies who want someone to partner with them. They have some product and customers already and usually want say a mobile app. I build the app for free and take a percentage of sales from recurring customers. So far I bring in $1,000/month from one and a bit over $1,000 from the other. It's awesome because I put in the initial 40 hours to build the app and now occasionally maintain it or add features.
patio11 13y ago
You'll notice the lack of "And then I was bitten by a radioactive spider and anointed the designated iOS consultant by Steve Jobs." I only mention this because so many geeks think consultants are a special breed apart, and in the main, they're geeks just like you who a) got good at something and b) started charging appropriate amounts of money for it.
- bennyg 13y ago
  Exactly. I think most of this comes from the confidence in making technical things work and lack of confidence in making the business/sales aspects work. Like all things, you get better the more you attempt them, and if you don't even try to get these contracts, then you won't.
- glimcat 13y ago
  Steps to being a consultant: 1. Decide to call yourself a consultant. 2. Make it stick by doing the job. The "something" can be quite a lot of things, while "good enough" is more or less driven by "it would take one of our senior staff at least few weeks to get up to speed with it." (For a more in-depth walkthrough, go read this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615)
  - chc 13y ago
    Ten thousand guides have been written to becoming a freelancer or consultant, and all contain the same variety of Underwear Gnomes planning. 1. Decide to call yourself a consultant. 2. ???? 3. Keep on doing step 2 and raise your rates. It's the part where you find decent paying clients that is most people's stumbling block, and yet that part is always elided. Really, how many times have you heard someone say, "I have so many great consulting prospects, but I don't know how to call myself a consultant and I can't figure out how to write quotes based on a figure of $1000 per day"?
    - glimcat 13y ago
      Okay, here's how you find clients. 1. Know some narrow segment of businesses well enough to have an idea what problems they're facing and how it translates to dollars, or do enough research to learn same. 2. Track down people matching that segment and pitch them. Use your existing connections if you have them, make connections or go cold if you don't. You will spend enormous effort making new connections either way, so having connections to start with isn't the long-term advantage it might seem. Note: this requires sales skills. If that's a problem, consulting may not be for you - at least, not as an independent. One of the key selling points of an agency is having the principals deal with much of the lead generation, sales, reputation building, and so forth. But seriously, if you want to start, start. Stop worrying that you'll be bad at it at first - because you will be, no longer how long you worry about it. And at the same time, they're hiring you because they expect to get value from it. Go out, make a fool of yourself in front of a few prospective clients, learn stuff in so doing, then do a better job pitching the next few. If you're half decent at public speaking, see posts by patio11 & bdunn re: throwing events related to the topic you consult on. Being the person in the front of the room at a professional event automatically positions you as an authority figure. If you're terrible at public speaking, this still mostly works if you run the event but invite other people to give the actual talks.
tjr 13y ago
How much of a role did the fact that there was hardly any other public information on iOS programming out there play? Could you start an iOS blog today and realistically hope for a similar outcome, or are there so many iOS blogs that it would it get lost in the noise, and it would be better to pick some newer, less-published technology?
- bennyg 13y ago
  Github is the new iOS blog. Make good libraries, get them trending, and go from there. I've had some amazing traction on one of my iOS/OSX libraries: https://github.com/bennyguitar/Colours https://github.com/bennyguitar/Colours - it's been trending for about 2 weeks straight now, and many many times in the past year. I get random emails all of the time from recruiters and people wanting me to do iOS contract work. The New York Times flew me up for an interview after I open-sourced this HN reader I made: https://github.com/bennyguitar/News-YC---iPhone https://github.com/bennyguitar/News-YC---iPhone. Of course, I marketed it fairly well on here through a Show HN and then on Reddit to get more people looking at it (there's not a whole lot of full apps on Github, mostly libraries).
- brandontreb 13y ago
  I believe that it played a huge role. Although, I feel that you could still start a successful iOS blog today, you would have to bust your butt to even come close to sites like http://www.raywenderlich.com http://www.raywenderlich.com. Believe me, I've tried on my blog a while ago, but it's extremely hard to keep up a relevant and popular iOS tutorial site, especially with how fast Apple is moving. That's not to say that you can't grab a piece of that market. When I was blogging there were only a few thousand iOS developers, now there are hundreds of thousands. So there is more demand.
rmchugh 13y ago
"I now believe the only way to have a secure career is to make one for yourself. You could be let go at any time, for any reason." This is absolutely nuts. Do American workers have zero rights to redundancy pay, notice, warnings etc? I realise this may seem ignorant, but it blows my mind that you can just be fired from one day to the next without compensation or any kind of due process. It reminds me of the working conditions for stevedores in the 19th century.
- rhizome 13y ago
  It depends, but generally yes.
- benched 13y ago
  You can be let go at any time. It will be a surprise - companies typically go to lengths not to provide any warning. Usually you just go to work one morning, and get turned away - sometimes you won't even be allowed to go to your desk. You'll be able to collect unemployment, which is like insurance that you paid money into via taxes. You have to show that you're searching for work while you collect. (I've been laid off once before.)
- aestra 13y ago
  Generally, yes. With a few exceptions (I can't for example, fire you if I find out you are Jewish and I hate Jewish people) The concept in the US is called "At-will employment." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment
- frandroid 13y ago
  Depending on which state or province you get laid off (since this is basically the situation in Canada as well), you're entitled to some severance pay. I got laid off from a large multinational IT company after a couple years working there in a junior role, and I got less than 20% of my annual salary as a severance, which my employment lawyer told me was within the upper range for someone of my experience and seniority working there. As for warnings though, it's rare that people are given much, especially when it comes to larger companies. I was taken aside to a meeting room, was announced by my manager that I was made redundant, was introduced to a guidance counselor for the agency the company had retained for me, my personal belongings were brought to me from my desk, and I was shown the door. I didn't get to say bye to my coworkers. It's pretty harsh.
strictfp 13y ago
I became a consultant because I got fed up with all the random reconstructions that big companies go through when there's a "new boss in town". If you're smart enough to see that through it just drives you nuts to see the company flip back and forth between two equally valid organizational structures every x years. I'm feeling happy I'm above things every time I see how the companies who hire me are messing with their employees. And I have my team mates at our consultant agency, who are all really good coders, ambitious and fun to talk with. We go on trips together and have lots of fun. I believe that I have much better job security here. People know who I am. I'm appreciated. And the money is good too. Why work for a corp again? I won't set my foot there ever again. Meanwhile I'm collecting ideas for startup #2, this time it will be about something I'm passionate about and with a viable business model.
mavdi 13y ago
Became a consultant a year ago, and the only thing I regretted was why I didn't do it earlier.
- brandontreb 13y ago
  I have that exact same regret.
lquist 13y ago
A bit off-topic, but I thought here would be a good place to ask: What are the economics like for a consultancy (say 50 people)? What are the major challenges that make scaling difficult?
mratzloff 13y ago
After my current job, I'm considering freelancing by pairing up with a good recruiter (an individual, not a firm). I plan to offer a commission to the recruiter for finding me good clients; in effect, using their client base to build my own. Any warnings or red flags to this approach?
- sriram_sun 13y ago
  I do like that approach. However are you ready to offer the recruiter 20% off the contracting amount? This is their usual cut off your hourly wage if they place you in a temp/contracting position. Good Luck and keep us posted!
- eweise 13y ago
  You usually sign a contract prohibiting you from working directly with their clients and sometime anyone associated with their clients.

119 points by brandontreb 13y ago

ilbe 13y ago

Thanks for sharing, I also found your previous post thought-provoking and motivating. How sales-oriented is independent consulting? Do you look for new technologies to branch out into and if so, how?

tieTYT 13y ago

> I recently published a post about my first year of being an independent iPhone development consultant. I admit I briefly skimmed so maybe I missed it, but where is that article? I'd like to read it first.

fieldforceapp 13y ago
I think this is the post: http://brandontreb.com/learned-first-year-ios-consulting http://brandontreb.com/learned-first-year-ios-consulting
- rhizome 13y ago
  HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7018341 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7018341
- brandontreb 13y ago
  Thanks for posting the link. I would have put it up, but Hacker News penalized me last time I linked in the comments of my own post.

scarecrowbob 13y ago

I don't work at quite the same level--I'm quite dirts (as they say here), but I have done a bit of consulting even though, I'm swinging back through freelancing and considering going back to being an employee. What I found most useful was the picture of a person working for an existing business who has knowledge of the entire pipeline from the sales process through development: "Armed with the knowledge of the entire software pipeline-from sales, to development, to maintenance-I hit the ground running the very next day in search of my first contract." I think that is a key among most of the really good consultants that I have met.

slabrador 13y ago

awesome backstory ... you remind me of Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

nick2021 13y ago

I enjoy working a full time position and doing consulting on the side, it's the best of both worlds. The full time position provides financial security and the contract work provides me with more revenue streams. When I do consulting work I try to find companies who want someone to partner with them. They have some product and customers already and usually want say a mobile app. I build the app for free and take a percentage of sales from recurring customers. So far I bring in $1,000/month from one and a bit over $1,000 from the other. It's awesome because I put in the initial 40 hours to build the app and now occasionally maintain it or add features.

patio11 13y ago

You'll notice the lack of "And then I was bitten by a radioactive spider and anointed the designated iOS consultant by Steve Jobs." I only mention this because so many geeks think consultants are a special breed apart, and in the main, they're geeks just like you who a) got good at something and b) started charging appropriate amounts of money for it.

bennyg 13y ago
Exactly. I think most of this comes from the confidence in making technical things work and lack of confidence in making the business/sales aspects work. Like all things, you get better the more you attempt them, and if you don't even try to get these contracts, then you won't.
glimcat 13y ago
Steps to being a consultant: 1. Decide to call yourself a consultant. 2. Make it stick by doing the job. The "something" can be quite a lot of things, while "good enough" is more or less driven by "it would take one of our senior staff at least few weeks to get up to speed with it." (For a more in-depth walkthrough, go read this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4247615)
- chc 13y ago
  Ten thousand guides have been written to becoming a freelancer or consultant, and all contain the same variety of Underwear Gnomes planning. 1. Decide to call yourself a consultant. 2. ???? 3. Keep on doing step 2 and raise your rates. It's the part where you find decent paying clients that is most people's stumbling block, and yet that part is always elided. Really, how many times have you heard someone say, "I have so many great consulting prospects, but I don't know how to call myself a consultant and I can't figure out how to write quotes based on a figure of $1000 per day"?
  - glimcat 13y ago
    Okay, here's how you find clients. 1. Know some narrow segment of businesses well enough to have an idea what problems they're facing and how it translates to dollars, or do enough research to learn same. 2. Track down people matching that segment and pitch them. Use your existing connections if you have them, make connections or go cold if you don't. You will spend enormous effort making new connections either way, so having connections to start with isn't the long-term advantage it might seem. Note: this requires sales skills. If that's a problem, consulting may not be for you - at least, not as an independent. One of the key selling points of an agency is having the principals deal with much of the lead generation, sales, reputation building, and so forth. But seriously, if you want to start, start. Stop worrying that you'll be bad at it at first - because you will be, no longer how long you worry about it. And at the same time, they're hiring you because they expect to get value from it. Go out, make a fool of yourself in front of a few prospective clients, learn stuff in so doing, then do a better job pitching the next few. If you're half decent at public speaking, see posts by patio11 & bdunn re: throwing events related to the topic you consult on. Being the person in the front of the room at a professional event automatically positions you as an authority figure. If you're terrible at public speaking, this still mostly works if you run the event but invite other people to give the actual talks.

tjr 13y ago

How much of a role did the fact that there was hardly any other public information on iOS programming out there play? Could you start an iOS blog today and realistically hope for a similar outcome, or are there so many iOS blogs that it would it get lost in the noise, and it would be better to pick some newer, less-published technology?

bennyg 13y ago
Github is the new iOS blog. Make good libraries, get them trending, and go from there. I've had some amazing traction on one of my iOS/OSX libraries: https://github.com/bennyguitar/Colours https://github.com/bennyguitar/Colours - it's been trending for about 2 weeks straight now, and many many times in the past year. I get random emails all of the time from recruiters and people wanting me to do iOS contract work. The New York Times flew me up for an interview after I open-sourced this HN reader I made: https://github.com/bennyguitar/News-YC---iPhone https://github.com/bennyguitar/News-YC---iPhone. Of course, I marketed it fairly well on here through a Show HN and then on Reddit to get more people looking at it (there's not a whole lot of full apps on Github, mostly libraries).
brandontreb 13y ago
I believe that it played a huge role. Although, I feel that you could still start a successful iOS blog today, you would have to bust your butt to even come close to sites like http://www.raywenderlich.com http://www.raywenderlich.com. Believe me, I've tried on my blog a while ago, but it's extremely hard to keep up a relevant and popular iOS tutorial site, especially with how fast Apple is moving. That's not to say that you can't grab a piece of that market. When I was blogging there were only a few thousand iOS developers, now there are hundreds of thousands. So there is more demand.

rmchugh 13y ago

"I now believe the only way to have a secure career is to make one for yourself. You could be let go at any time, for any reason." This is absolutely nuts. Do American workers have zero rights to redundancy pay, notice, warnings etc? I realise this may seem ignorant, but it blows my mind that you can just be fired from one day to the next without compensation or any kind of due process. It reminds me of the working conditions for stevedores in the 19th century.

rhizome 13y ago
It depends, but generally yes.
benched 13y ago
You can be let go at any time. It will be a surprise - companies typically go to lengths not to provide any warning. Usually you just go to work one morning, and get turned away - sometimes you won't even be allowed to go to your desk. You'll be able to collect unemployment, which is like insurance that you paid money into via taxes. You have to show that you're searching for work while you collect. (I've been laid off once before.)
aestra 13y ago
Generally, yes. With a few exceptions (I can't for example, fire you if I find out you are Jewish and I hate Jewish people) The concept in the US is called "At-will employment." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment
frandroid 13y ago
Depending on which state or province you get laid off (since this is basically the situation in Canada as well), you're entitled to some severance pay. I got laid off from a large multinational IT company after a couple years working there in a junior role, and I got less than 20% of my annual salary as a severance, which my employment lawyer told me was within the upper range for someone of my experience and seniority working there. As for warnings though, it's rare that people are given much, especially when it comes to larger companies. I was taken aside to a meeting room, was announced by my manager that I was made redundant, was introduced to a guidance counselor for the agency the company had retained for me, my personal belongings were brought to me from my desk, and I was shown the door. I didn't get to say bye to my coworkers. It's pretty harsh.

strictfp 13y ago

I became a consultant because I got fed up with all the random reconstructions that big companies go through when there's a "new boss in town". If you're smart enough to see that through it just drives you nuts to see the company flip back and forth between two equally valid organizational structures every x years. I'm feeling happy I'm above things every time I see how the companies who hire me are messing with their employees. And I have my team mates at our consultant agency, who are all really good coders, ambitious and fun to talk with. We go on trips together and have lots of fun. I believe that I have much better job security here. People know who I am. I'm appreciated. And the money is good too. Why work for a corp again? I won't set my foot there ever again. Meanwhile I'm collecting ideas for startup #2, this time it will be about something I'm passionate about and with a viable business model.

mavdi 13y ago

Became a consultant a year ago, and the only thing I regretted was why I didn't do it earlier.

brandontreb 13y ago
I have that exact same regret.

lquist 13y ago

A bit off-topic, but I thought here would be a good place to ask: What are the economics like for a consultancy (say 50 people)? What are the major challenges that make scaling difficult?

mratzloff 13y ago

After my current job, I'm considering freelancing by pairing up with a good recruiter (an individual, not a firm). I plan to offer a commission to the recruiter for finding me good clients; in effect, using their client base to build my own. Any warnings or red flags to this approach?

sriram_sun 13y ago
I do like that approach. However are you ready to offer the recruiter 20% off the contracting amount? This is their usual cut off your hourly wage if they place you in a temp/contracting position. Good Luck and keep us posted!
eweise 13y ago
You usually sign a contract prohibiting you from working directly with their clients and sometime anyone associated with their clients.