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How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

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Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#291

Post by MrFoof »

chris11 wrote: post #260
MrFoof wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually am, and I'm a Hacker News nobody that is 100% solo, including all of my sales. I started in mid-2012 after being fed up with every employer out there, but was well aware that I was one of the best people someone could hire for things that are necessary, but not glamorous -- database performance tuning, data warehousing, ETL process development, and cleaning up disasters. Yet getting market rate for salary…

> In 5 1/2 years I've averaged 42 hours of billing a year Should that be month instead of year?

42 weeks of billing a year, rather.

So I average about 32 hours a week (or billing 4 out of 5 weeks) over the course of a given calendar year. As I said, I'm very busy all the time. I took 6 months off for a reason.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#292

Post by AFNobody »

maneesh wrote: post #177
AFNobody wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A consultant making 5 figures a week, in practical terms, is a unicorn that is not reliably repeatable. Most people cannot maintain that level of marketing while maintaining an income (as a consultant) effectively. If they could, every programmer would try to transition into making 5 figures a week as a consultant instead of making $100-200k with a stable job. The $4k/week thing isn't since pretty much any decent con…

I used to have a similar scarcity mentality --- thinking that because other people were successful, it was like the lottery -- based purely on chance. But I learned over time to develop a abundance mentality -- rather than say 'it can't be done' -- to change my mode of thinking to say 'how did they do it, and is there anything for me to learn.' A consultant making 5 figures a week is not a unicorn, it's not even that…

Please provide literally any evidence you have that the average consultant can reliably and repeatedly generate 5-figures-a-week-individual consultancy. I can already tell you no such evidence exists but if you want to search for it, you are free to do so.

> I used to have a similar scarcity mentality --- thinking that because other people were successful, it was like the lottery -- based purely on chance.

> But I learned over time to develop a abundance mentality -- rather than say 'it can't be done' -- to change my mode of thinking to say 'how did they do it, and is there anything for me to learn.'

You probably should look up 'reliably' and 'repeatable' and the definition of those words. You really should not attack a straw man.

I just understand the probability of X event is Y and I'm not naive enough to try to talk myself into wasting energy on low probability paths.

The 5 figures a week consultancy path is exactly such a low probability path.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#293

Post by patio11 »

kleiba wrote: post #57

To this day, I'm still not quite clear about what a consultant actually does. I mean, beyond some vague idea ("goes to some company, talks with people, gives some recommendation"). I'd really love for someone to give some example or describe in a tangible way what the work of a consultant entails, what skills one typically needs and actually employs, what a typical gig looks like from beginning to end and so on. If a…

My modal engagement was with a SaaS company with $20 million a year sales, a few dozen employees, and 1~3 very strapped people wearing the marketing hat.

“How much email do you send?” “We have a newsletter.” “What else?” “Welcome to free trial email. “What else?” “Nothing.”

I write proposal.

You should:

1) Have a pre-sales drip campaign positioned as a “free course about X delivered over email” w/ 8 emails arriving over the course of a month. This will push people at purchasing the product in 2 of the emails.

2) You should email people 4 times during the trial depending on their level of engagement with it. Here’s a decision tree.

3) You should email people within 80% of their monthly quota offering a discount to move to the next higher plan.

4) You should email your entire userbase and upgrade as many as possible to annual billing for a 10% discount to the cost of their current plan.

You can tell your engineering team to do this for you, but there is 0% chance they schedule this because it is boring scutwork and they’d rather do those features you have scheduled this quarter. Or you can have me just do it. I need a commit bit and probably two weeks. It will cost you $30k per week.

Probabalistically this makes you $2 million in next 12 months but your results are your results; you keep all the upside and my invoice is due regardless.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#294

Post by kirubakaran »

bastijn wrote: post #284
kirubakaran wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Noticed the word "design" was written as "degsin". It isn't. For reference: https://web.archive.org/web/20170927012427/https://kirubakar...

It is, though it was desgin not degsin. "desgin assets such as color palette and images to be used". Under 1.3. Also in your reference.

Great, thanks! Fixed now.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#295

Post by Retric »

s73ver_ wrote: post #192
Retric wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that increasing the number and quality of great actors increases the profitably of movie studios, and thus the number of movies made. Similarly with sports, there is a huge range of player incomes and assuming the sport becomes more interesting to watch and thus profitable their would be room for more highly compensated players.

For that to happen, they would have to increase the number of teams. This requires new stadiums/arenas to be built, and expansion teams to be created. This requires rebalancing of conferences and divisions within the league.

I don't think athletic ability directly translates to higher revenue. But, their is also showmanship which more closely relates to revenue.

Some players make 50x+ what other players are making. Having linemen make 10 million per year does not involve adding linemen it involves linemen that are worth being paid 10 million / year.

At the same time football has added new teams over time and increased both the number of players and minimum salary significantly from inception.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#296

Post by chrishacken »

yequalsx wrote: post #233
chrishacken wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone can; but anyone can.

As an extreme counter example can a person with an IQ or 50 do it? Clearly not. So not everyone can. There’s a range of abilities and personality types. I suspect the number of people with the ability/personality type necessary for $10,000 a week gig is much less than you imply.

Personalities are built; you're not born an introvert. Anyone can be built into a leader; go join the Marine Corps if you don't believe me.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#297

Post by rdiddly »

The answer always involves being interested in marketing, which I find incredibly tedious and dull.

Which kind of makes the person writing it seem dull. Until you realize that's not the content or the purpose of the writing at all. The whole thing is actually, itself, marketing, i.e. somebody's sales pitch for himself. Well no wonder it's a bore.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#298

Post by rev_bird »

dsacco wrote: post #198
zdw wrote: post #17

Step 1: Be popular/famous enough that people know your name. Step 2: Be good/accurate enough at opining in ways that make sense. Most people won't have either 1 or 2 going for them. There's one more thing - charging a lot is how to signal value, which is a a huge thing. I know a guy who used to manage an A-list rock band (everyone knows their songs) who went into consulting, and started out lowballing people, for $1k…

> Step 1: Be popular/famous enough that people know your name. Step 2: Be good/accurate enough at opining in ways that make sense. Neither of these are prerequisites for being extremely successful at consulting. My consulting rates are now approximately $10,000/week with a 70% annual utilization rate. I'm not industry famous at all. I also do not maintain a blog or do "content marketing." For a while I had no website…

I recognize your username from various threads, but I'm unfamiliar with your work. What is it that you consult on? And, if you don't mind me asking, how did you get "demonstrably technically competent" in it? Were you an employee in whatever field it was, and then struck out on your own? I'm fascinated by consulting but have a hard time envisioning what these consultants do that employees don't, at least in the more technical fields.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#299

Post by Retric »

emodendroket wrote: post #175
Retric wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that increasing the number and quality of great actors increases the profitably of movie studios, and thus the number of movies made. Similarly with sports, there is a huge range of player incomes and assuming the sport becomes more interesting to watch and thus profitable their would be room for more highly compensated players.

Today's pro sports players are, as a rule, far better than pro sports players in the past. Why isn't this happening already? People only have so much time and attention. Also, many leagues operate with salary caps. You also mentioned movies, but a lack of competent actors is far from the biggest reason there aren't more movies being produced.

Plenty of great movies had a ~20 million dollar budget, but few moves with that kind of a budget had high returns.

In terms of movies, studios look a lot like a VC firm with a term sheet from hell. However, plenty of studios died over time and would be making moves today if their past movies where more profitable. Sure, you needs a direct / script / special effects etc, but low budget movies with simple scripts and great actors also work without X00 million dollar budgets. So, their is clearly some wiggle room in terms of number of movies produced per year.

Re: How I went from programming to consulting (2012)

#300

Post by andrethegiant »

patio11 wrote: post #293
kleiba wrote: post #57

To this day, I'm still not quite clear about what a consultant actually does. I mean, beyond some vague idea ("goes to some company, talks with people, gives some recommendation"). I'd really love for someone to give some example or describe in a tangible way what the work of a consultant entails, what skills one typically needs and actually employs, what a typical gig looks like from beginning to end and so on. If a…

My modal engagement was with a SaaS company with $20 million a year sales, a few dozen employees, and 1~3 very strapped people wearing the marketing hat. “How much email do you send?” “We have a newsletter.” “What else?” “Welcome to free trial email. “What else?” “Nothing.” I write proposal. You should: 1) Have a pre-sales drip campaign positioned as a “free course about X delivered over email” w/ 8 emails arriving o…

That's a good example of a marketing consultant, but what about an engineering consultant? Would talking tech stack pros/cons pull in a similar rate?
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