61–70 of 121 posts
1) Publish a library of pre-built, generic UI components suited to a particular domain. Use a license like Creative Commons to charge for commercial use, but make the library available for free trials.
2) Offer hourly consulting services to enhance/adapt the components to specific needs.
Here are some things to consider about consulting: Sales/Selling is the last thing on your list and salesperson is only a maybe. Reverse all of your priorities because selling and relationships are the most difficult things to master for a consulting company and you will die without those skills. In consulting, tech talent To give you an example of this I once worked with a consultant who was a technical rock star, a…
When you can't speak English fluently your shop's greatest strength will be technical prowess. Soft skills take a backseat until OP learns English fluently.
It sounds like you are serious about staring a new business and certainly have a working knowledge of your industry. Do you want to become a real business or do work as independent contractors. If you want to become a real business you would need to establish licensing and tax obligations.
Many entrepreneurs have experience and really good ideas of what kind of business they see themselves succeeding in but do not have an understanding of how to actually establish a legal business. Most people understand that they might need a business license from the city, but don't think or know that they need anything further. Searching the internet to find information about starting a business is possible, but there is so much information that it becomes frustrating and time consuming.
If you are serious about starting a real business then I know how valuable your time can be I would recommend using a service such as Simple Licenses. The real value comes from having the peace of mind to knowing that experts have done the necessary work of finding all the licensing and permit applications from each different branch of government. Every business is required to be licensed at the Federal, State & Local levels. Simple Licenses create a custom business licensing report that gives detailed descriptions, fees & contact info, and easy to understand directions on how to apply for each license and with each branch of government. This report gives you, the entrepreneur, a meaningful and tangible way to open and operate a new business.
Check out the website here https://simplelicenses.com
Hopefully that helps forward you down the path of starting a new business!
It sounds like you are serious about staring a new business and certainly have a working knowledge of your industry. Do you want to become a real business or do work as independent contractors. If you want to become a real business you would need to establish licensing and tax obligations.
Many entrepreneurs have experience and really good ideas of what kind of business they see themselves succeeding in but do not have an understanding of how to actually establish a legal business. Most people understand that they might need a business license from the city, but don't think or know that they need anything further. Searching the internet to find information about starting a business is possible, but there is so much information that it becomes frustrating and time consuming.
If you are serious about starting a real business then I know how valuable your time can be I would recommend using a service such as Simple Licenses. The real value comes from having the peace of mind to knowing that experts have done the necessary work of finding all the licensing and permit applications from each different branch of government. Every business is required to be licensed at the Federal, State & Local levels. Simple Licenses create a custom business licensing report that gives detailed descriptions, fees & contact info, and easy to understand directions on how to apply for each license and with each branch of government. This report gives you, the entrepreneur, a meaningful and tangible way to open and operate a new business.
Check out the website here https://simplelicenses.com
Hopefully that helps forward you down the path of starting a new business!
- Short intro: Spent 2 years as freelance and 4.5 years building a 20 people consulting company (1). During this time met dozens of CEOs of various size consulting companies to share knowledge and learn. - The why: Think hard and long before you get into this field. 1. Turning into a product company statistically never happens. 2. You will become profitable only after a year+ (most consulting companies get stuck at 3…
Do you want to create your own product or do you want to consult? My customers are sick of consultants who are really just pitch men for products, products they probably do not need. When i consult i openly say that i am not tied to any product, that while i do suggest and evaluate products i never accept comissions. That's pure consulting. The client comes first. The other type of consulting is to offer consulting s…
I'd rather go entirely opposite. 1. Get clients and start working for them. If you don't have more than one clear customer who already wants you, you're not ready for anything further in this list. 2. Incorporate and handle the core legal and financial stuff (only when #1 is solidly working!) 3. Setup the business processes and workflow; 4. Start aggressively looking for more projects - not online, though. The projec…
Here's a question—if you have > more than one clear customer who already wants you ...but they only want you as a full-time contractor (i.e. an employee-in-all-but-name), is there a good way to convince them to pay for your expertise on a consulting-as-needed basis instead? It's easy to "become a consultant" if what you really mean is signing on for fixed-length engagements to produce low-level piece-work (as e.g. an…
Here are some things to consider about consulting: Sales/Selling is the last thing on your list and salesperson is only a maybe. Reverse all of your priorities because selling and relationships are the most difficult things to master for a consulting company and you will die without those skills. In consulting, tech talent To give you an example of this I once worked with a consultant who was a technical rock star, a…
Great advice. I'd only add that the OP seems like he's from a foreign country and doesn't have English fluency. When you can't speak English fluently your shop's greatest strength will be technical prowess. Soft skills take a backseat until OP learns English fluently.
- The two most important words in your business plan are "segmentation" and "qualification". While being open to lots of different kinds of projects, try to pick 1 or 2 kinds of projects that you can standardize and package. It's easier to succeed selling a couple things well than it is to succeed selling everything just adequately.
- Pick a kind of customer you want to work with. Aim on the higher-end side. Build collateral that will appeal to those customers: case studies, how-tos, industry news bulletins, open source packages. Find places to meet those kinds of customers and introduce yourself to them. You'll get wildly different answers on how well cold-calling and cold emails work (nobody will disagree that LinkedIn private messages do not work). My take is: if you're good at cold calling, cold call; otherwise, don't bother.
- Which you prioritize depends on where you are, but I'd prioritize content and collateral that you can use either locally or online. Again: build packaging around just a few offerings, and try to make that packaging unique. It should feel producty, and the way in which you turn your team into a product should communicate something interesting about your worldview.
- I don't think you should sell yourselves an available subcontractor. For the subs, good sub relationships are bought, not sold: if you advertise yourself as being willing to sub, you're communicating something about your willingness to get rolled. Your best sub relationships will come from bumping into people at shared large clients.
- No, don't have mentors or coaches, at least in a formal way.
- No, do not hire a salesperson. The world of employed account managers is divided into good salespeople, who can work anywhere they want to and don't want to work for your small consulting firm, and bad salespeople whose real talent is selling people like you on getting paid a salary without helping the business. It's incredibly hard to hire and manage a sales team and most consulting shops --- let alone the young ones --- don't have sales teams. The ones that do tend to have been founded in part by a salesperson. Since that's not you, good news: you're many years away from having to worry about this. Act like salespeople don't exist.
Bonus advice:
- Bill weekly, or at worst daily. Never bill hourly.
- Raise your rates.
1. Cash flow / making payroll will be a constant issue.
Even when you win a gig, you won't be paid for 45-60 until after you start. And that will be trailing your work. Do you have enough cash reserves to float 2 months salary.
Now think about when you grow your team and now you have 10 employees, do you have enough cash reserves to pay 10 employees for 2 months until you receive your first installment check?
2. Sales cycles can be long and costly
Keep in mind you won't win all sales cycles. And sales cycles might take 6-12 months to win. During that time you'll probably have to fly to the customer, pay for travel,etc.
No of this pre-sales expenses are reimbursable. It's just a cost of business. Do you have enough cash reserves.
3. What to do when you don't have billable work?
For ever day you don't have billable work, you still have to pay your staff. Do you have enough cash reserves to pay your staff for months on end without billable work?
TLDR; consulting requires huge cash reverses. Also keep in mind it's hard to get credit lines in consulting businesses because you don't have inventory assets.