Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#221

Post by herewego » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 5:34 PM UTC

gk1 wrote: post #32

Longer write-up here: https://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-consulting-l... Some things I learned through mistakes: - Charge more. - Travel like a professional and bill the client. For my first business trip I used airline points, stayed at an Airbnb on my own dime, and even refused the client's offer to reimburse me. Stupid. (Full story here: https://www.gkogan.co/blog/stupid/ ) - If I'm not enjoying the w…

These all ring true in my experience too. One more thing I would add is to specialize if you can. Don’t try to be too general in the services you offer. You can greatly increase your own market demand this way.

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#222

Post by daxfohl » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 5:41 PM UTC

AlchemistCamp wrote: post #151

jklepatch wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am sure Magento pays well but I don’t think it has to do with being more simple. Ex: wordpress developer vs react / frontend dev, who makes more? React / frontend. This being said, for really high paying consulting gigs, i think that its definetely not in tech but in sales / marketing/ strategy.

Stephanie Hurlburt talked on the IH podcast about doing 7-figure contracting deals for C++ graphics work (math, C++, GPU optimization and various technical work). https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/044-stephanie-hurlburt-...

Like I said, there are exceptions. To do this you have to be a well known expert in a highly valuable skill. I'm sure Troy Hunt does fairly well in security consulting on Azure for instance. Being an expert in something challenging but that doesn't make the client money (say Haskell, or whatever the distributed DB flavor of the month is) doesn't pay beans. Nor does knowing 50 languages or web frameworks: the client only cares that you know one. Determine up front what you want to specialize in, if you go this path.

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#223

Post by miesman » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 5:47 PM UTC

Starting work before I had a written purchase order in hand (or at least a verbal purchase order number with the promise of getting me the written purchase order soon). if you’re working before you get the purchase order there’s no need for them to actually make this a priority. It always eventually turns into a problem. Also having a purchase order shows that everyone in the company is on the same page (between engineering and the finance department).

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#224

Post by daxfohl » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 5:51 PM UTC

mehrdadn wrote: post #53

Related question (especially to those saying you should've charged more): how do you start consulting in software engineering? Like where do you advertise and expose your talent to potential clients who would pay at a rate that you think is worth it?

All the freelancers I know (though only three, including myself) started off taking a job from a company they had worked with previously. Start off doing some moonlighting on a side project, then if it goes well enough to do full time, go for it. I think in all cases it was questionable whether our employment contracts allowed it but nobody's employer seemed to care. Typically you can charge 4x what you were making in salary, and it'll still be less than the company was paying for you earlier.

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#225

Post by ScottFree » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 5:52 PM UTC

herewego wrote: post #221

gk1 wrote: post #32

Longer write-up here: https://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-consulting-l... Some things I learned through mistakes: - Charge more. - Travel like a professional and bill the client. For my first business trip I used airline points, stayed at an Airbnb on my own dime, and even refused the client's offer to reimburse me. Stupid. (Full story here: https://www.gkogan.co/blog/stupid/ ) - If I'm not enjoying the w…

These all ring true in my experience too. One more thing I would add is to specialize if you can. Don’t try to be too general in the services you offer. You can greatly increase your own market demand this way.

Can you expand on this? Also, can somebody else provide a counterpoint?

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#226

Post by gesman » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 5:52 PM UTC

Here're mistakes I didn't make:

- Insisted on payment once contract is done and ignore "could you also do that and then i'll pay you for everything together.

- Did not race to the bottom with developers from poor countries.

- Did not take startup stock/shares/options to sacrifise salary.

- Realized that 5% of customers are responsible for 95% of revenues and prioritize attention to their requirements accordingly.

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#227

Post by japhyr » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 5:59 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #72

japhyr wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a small remote town, and I'm very unlikely to find an accountant familiar with tech work here. Any advice on finding a good accountant remotely?

I'd say try the biggest city close to you. You might not want an out of state accountant unless they're familiar with the peculiarities of your state (or even city)

That's a good suggestion. I'm in Alaska, to be specific, and I was thinking of looking down south. I'll try to find someone in-state first.

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#228

Post by abhiyerra » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 6:04 PM UTC

ScottFree wrote: post #225

herewego wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These all ring true in my experience too. One more thing I would add is to specialize if you can. Don’t try to be too general in the services you offer. You can greatly increase your own market demand this way.

Can you expand on this? Also, can somebody else provide a counterpoint?

Not the author but I've experienced this. Basically what ends up happening if you don't specialize is you hit the 80/20 principle. 20% of your clients take 80% of your time. It becomes hard to scale and you end up not doing anything well. Focusing on one thing you can really focus on improvements to how you deliver that one service which reduces stress and helps you scale your service.

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#229

Post by ghaff » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 6:09 PM UTC

ScottFree wrote: post #225

herewego wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These all ring true in my experience too. One more thing I would add is to specialize if you can. Don’t try to be too general in the services you offer. You can greatly increase your own market demand this way.

Can you expand on this? Also, can somebody else provide a counterpoint?

Here's a good example. Someone I know is an AWS consultant. And, within that, he's fairly focused on billing/costs. He thinks it's helped him to be well-known for a specific set of things rather than be someone called in to consult about "public clouds" generally.

The counterpoint is that it needs to be a big enough market and one that you can service. Another thing to be careful of is that markets move on. I've known consultants who were world experts in some company's products or specific technologies. And then that company or technology ceased to exist and they really weren't sure what to do with themselves.

Re: Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

#230

Post by o-__-o » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 6:18 PM UTC

sgt wrote: post #164

aliswe wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on the "DON'T GO TO THE CLIENT SITE" point?

Probably that if you show any weakness - anything from physical discomfort, being sick, not being 100% mentally, the customer may end up losing confidence in you. It's better come to delay and come back fully prepared.

I like to use the plumber model to describe this. When you have a major problem in your house you hire a plumber. He or she will show up as necessary to fix the problem, probably every day, but what about when that part needs to come in. They are going to come to your house, pull out a laptop and sit at your table while they talk to other suppliers about other jobs and direct their workers at other sites? No, they are going to give you a summary and head off to make money somewhere else.

Now if you don’t have anything else to do, sure go in and network.. find leads. But if your contract is 6 months and you’re just extra hands on site... go try to make more money!