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How I Find Consulting Clients

gkogan.co

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Re: How I Find Consulting Clients

#31

Post by antonkm »

baraundrar wrote: post #30
antonkm wrote: post #28

Networking works if you do it right. Made $300k my first year from 0 using only physical networks and around $5k spending money. I'm a web developer in Sweden. For me to join a network the network has to match these criteria: * It markets itself as exclusive * It costs money (say $2k/y for small businesses and scaling prices depending on number of employees) * Participants are owners or at C-level The networks are of…

Hej, - $300k SEK or USD? - What is the name of the dinner network you joined? - What services do you provide? Do you subcontract or do the work yourself? Hourly rate, day rate or value based project fees?

Hej!

1. ~2.4m SEK (out of this I also paid other consultants to do parts of the work plus marketing, so I got about 1m)

2. I'm in several. Some are groups based out of Chamber of Commerce. Others are based out of "Science Parks". I'm joining new networks in Stockholm this year since there's probably more work to be found there which would motivate my travel (~1½h). Haven't done the research fully on which.

3. I do the work myself and take in consultants when needed. I'm on a mix of hourly and value based, will try to change from 50/50 to 10/90 in favor of value based next year.

Re: How I Find Consulting Clients

#32

Post by globcal »

There is no easy way. I have worked in different spheres and understand that to make any business work well it needs to be capable of becoming a full-flung manifestation with an office space and receptionist (ready to work around the clock for global ideals) that can canter and monitor networks like Facebook, Twitter and more. You never know from where a client will try to reach you.

Re: How I Find Consulting Clients

#34

Post by fersab »

antonkm wrote: post #28

Networking works if you do it right. Made $300k my first year from 0 using only physical networks and around $5k spending money. I'm a web developer in Sweden. For me to join a network the network has to match these criteria: * It markets itself as exclusive * It costs money (say $2k/y for small businesses and scaling prices depending on number of employees) * Participants are owners or at C-level The networks are of…

Great job!

However, i would like to point out that the Consulting "climate", in Sweden is very, very good and it is super-easy to find a client. Few searches and groups on linked-in will yield interviews, and there are plenty of brokers that deal with independent contractors.

With that in mind 300k is a nice job still for one guy!

Re: How I Find Consulting Clients

#35

Post by ptr »

antonkm wrote: post #31
baraundrar wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hej, - $300k SEK or USD? - What is the name of the dinner network you joined? - What services do you provide? Do you subcontract or do the work yourself? Hourly rate, day rate or value based project fees?

Hej! 1. ~2.4m SEK (out of this I also paid other consultants to do parts of the work plus marketing, so I got about 1m) 2. I'm in several. Some are groups based out of Chamber of Commerce. Others are based out of "Science Parks". I'm joining new networks in Stockholm this year since there's probably more work to be found there which would motivate my travel (~1½h). Haven't done the research fully on which. 3. I do th…

Hi, fellow consultant in Sweden/Stockholm here. Is it possible to contact you somehow? I can't find any contact info in your profile.

Re: How I Find Consulting Clients

#36

Post by galfarragem »

I would say that in the end there are only 2 ways:

- network with, or better, befriend potential clients. Knowing your market is crutial.

- make good work to get future referrals and speak about it (blog, forums, public speaking) to get leads.

The optimal percentage of these 2 approaches depends on your personality and the stage of your consultancy (just starting, long time in the market, etc). As anecdotes, one friend, as an housing architect (and the best seller I ever met) finds his clients always during nightlife. By the other hand, my father, as a tradesman, gets clients only by referrals. After 30y it's more than enough for him. He doesn't even has any online presence.

Re: How I Find Consulting Clients

#37

Post by Radim »

For us, the door opened with open source.

We maintain a few semi-popular Python packages for machine learning, which brings in enough leads to keep a team of data scientists booked for months in advance.

(Funnily enough, the actual work is mostly unrelated to the open source itself.)

We've been gradually increasing the project size and value, now working with companies like Amazon, Autodesk or Hearst.

Helped:

- hot domain (machine learning)

- positioning as problem solvers (rather than tech X vs tech Y), solving in context

- sales (me) being able to speak both the technical and business language

Waste of time (as far as leadgen):

- conference sponsorships, online ads (newsletter banners, PPC), professional marketing agencies

- any sort of academic partnerships or consortium projects

- fancy website, social media

Re: How I Find Consulting Clients

#38

Post by antonkm »

fersab wrote: post #34
antonkm wrote: post #28

Networking works if you do it right. Made $300k my first year from 0 using only physical networks and around $5k spending money. I'm a web developer in Sweden. For me to join a network the network has to match these criteria: * It markets itself as exclusive * It costs money (say $2k/y for small businesses and scaling prices depending on number of employees) * Participants are owners or at C-level The networks are of…

Great job! However, i would like to point out that the Consulting "climate", in Sweden is very, very good and it is super-easy to find a client. Few searches and groups on linked-in will yield interviews, and there are plenty of brokers that deal with independent contractors. With that in mind 300k is a nice job still for one guy!

I consider myself to be more than one person, since I have a network of dev friends. So these contacts help and I'd not be able to do those numbers without people acting as my reference.

Agree about interviews and brokers. I however have no interest on using brokers or being employed. Have gotten some really nice offers since I started consulting, Sweden is great for such opportunities.

Starting Q1 2018 I have a 90% chance landing a ~500k SEK job from an informal Facebook posting. I have no experience with dealing with clients outside of Sweden. Maybe my advice isn't applicable to the US?

Re: How I Find Consulting Clients

#39

Post by kfk »

This is interesting. I am planning to start doing consulting into the analytics industry and started a blog 6 months ago. So far, just by adding a "free call" page and writing few blog posts, I got a couple of leads. It's not much, but it's encouraging. I am now in the process of writing an ebook which I will sell for $100 or so and see what happens there. I do plan to test online ads for the ebook. The idea would be to use the ebook to build a customer base for consulting, let's see. Writing an ebook it's not easy, but it is helping me a lot to better understand my potential customers and define my consulting product a bit more.

Re: How I Find Consulting Clients

#40

Post by vram22 »

antonkm wrote: post #28

Networking works if you do it right. Made $300k my first year from 0 using only physical networks and around $5k spending money. I'm a web developer in Sweden. For me to join a network the network has to match these criteria: * It markets itself as exclusive * It costs money (say $2k/y for small businesses and scaling prices depending on number of employees) * Participants are owners or at C-level The networks are of…

What are primed leads?
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