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>but after you've figured out scaling for a product business (highly non-trivial), they often scale so well that continuing with the consulting would be economi

>but after you've figured out scaling for a product business (highly non-trivial), they often scale so well that continuing with the consulting would be economically irrational. I have this hybrid model going on. I do consulting, I do products and I do training too. Products make 2-3x Consulting revenue. If I pushed it, it would go much higher than that. However, I just like my job. I like consulting. I like solving problems for businesses. I like it much more than building a full scale business for myself, actually. What I want to say is this: If you're a consultant and want to scale, you won't be doing what you're doing now. You will be running a business. If you do software deelopment, you won't be doing any of that any more. You will be figuring how to hire people, how to train them, how to retain them, how to get them work, deal with accounting and a million other things. Another thing to think about is competition. When you're a solo operation, competition is not a problem. When you grow a company, however, it becomes a big problem. Not only direct competition. Indirect one too. Take for example PPC (pay-per-click) agencies. Firms offering search engine optimization started offering PPC, so the ones specializing in PPC had to start offering SEO too. Then SEO became all about web development and now those firms had to compete with web dev shops. Hire, train, retain people for that? Then traditional ad agencies started getting into digital too and they have a lot of other expertise to offer. Growing a business is like taking a life-long trip without knowing the destination and you might be very unpleasantly surprised at the end.

arkitaip 11y ago
Very astute observation that echoes the core message in Michael E. Gerber's brilliant The E-Myth Revisited [1]. I would add that if you're about to grow your business, you will have to find passion and inspiration in other areas in your professional life as you won't be doing the technical work you used to. Luckily, running a business means having the opportunity to explore many areas of expertise that are super interesting and rewarding, like human psychology, operations management, logistics, human resources, etc. [1] http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280/ http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-Abou...
lifeisstillgood 11y ago
I am not so sure. I was CIO for a small/mid company and ran it well, but slowly got fed up with the politics. So I went back to contracting, and loved it for a while, just me and the keyboard. But I still have to do the same "CIO" stuff - negotiating the trade off between "right" and "right now", project and risk management etc etc. but this time it's for me alone, with far less positional authority, far less face time with decision makers and generally less support. It's called being a professional I suppose. But I simply do not trust that contracting or consulting without working on a client funnel and focusing on a niche and so on is going to provide the richness of work I want. So despite having thought I was going to be happy, it turns out I need to work on the business in some fashion so I can later on work in the business - without worrying so much about the future. Tl;Dr - if you are a consultant and want to keep on being one without constant fear of empty schedules or just being a cog in a giant machine you have no control over, you need to work on your business. Automate as much as you can, but if you are not marketing yourself and building some funnel then you are accepting whatever comes along - if anything. Edit: Oh, and when you are just a solo operation, competition is definitely something to worry about - you are almost a commodity, pitched about by shiny suited agents or vaguely remembered contacts in past contracts. Edit2: hmmm, and this is me after two weeks holiday. Might need a long look at things Monday Morning.

arkitaip 11y ago

Very astute observation that echoes the core message in Michael E. Gerber's brilliant The E-Myth Revisited [1]. I would add that if you're about to grow your business, you will have to find passion and inspiration in other areas in your professional life as you won't be doing the technical work you used to. Luckily, running a business means having the opportunity to explore many areas of expertise that are super interesting and rewarding, like human psychology, operations management, logistics, human resources, etc. [1] http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280/ http://www.amazon.com/E-Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-Abou...

lifeisstillgood 11y ago

I am not so sure. I was CIO for a small/mid company and ran it well, but slowly got fed up with the politics. So I went back to contracting, and loved it for a while, just me and the keyboard. But I still have to do the same "CIO" stuff - negotiating the trade off between "right" and "right now", project and risk management etc etc. but this time it's for me alone, with far less positional authority, far less face time with decision makers and generally less support. It's called being a professional I suppose. But I simply do not trust that contracting or consulting without working on a client funnel and focusing on a niche and so on is going to provide the richness of work I want. So despite having thought I was going to be happy, it turns out I need to work on the business in some fashion so I can later on work in the business - without worrying so much about the future. Tl;Dr - if you are a consultant and want to keep on being one without constant fear of empty schedules or just being a cog in a giant machine you have no control over, you need to work on your business. Automate as much as you can, but if you are not marketing yourself and building some funnel then you are accepting whatever comes along - if anything. Edit: Oh, and when you are just a solo operation, competition is definitely something to worry about - you are almost a commodity, pitched about by shiny suited agents or vaguely remembered contacts in past contracts. Edit2: hmmm, and this is me after two weeks holiday. Might need a long look at things Monday Morning.