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Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

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Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#71

Post by aunty_helen »

zerkten wrote: post #50
aunty_helen wrote: post #31

Take a break, honestly. A lot of people seem to be of the opinion that if you don't work your life will start to implode around you. I've just started my first consulting job via a friend I used to work with. I was 10 months unemployed, living in an exotic country, enjoying myself and building out my own projects. I only ended up taking the job because the pay was good. Whilst I've been doing my own thing I've met a…

It would be interesting to know more about your personal circumstances and how you set yourself up for success here. I feel like we need to start planning long before we get burnt out. For many people it's hard to avoid things like mortgages, or other situations which impose a financial burden of some sort. I personally think 10 months off for me would be healthy right now in a lot of ways. It would be survivable fin…

Sure,

I was living with my girlfriend, got laid off from a startup but was burnt out a good 6 months before. Financial struggles of that company just made it worse. My previous job had been pretty demoralizing too. I needed a change.

28 yrs old, I got on a plane to Spain with my girlfriend who rented her house out to cover her mortgage. She didn't enjoy it and needed to work to survive financially as I couldn't support both of us not working the whole time. So she left for Aus and now works a desk job there.

I've been living off savings and money from the sale of my car and bike. The lifestyle is pretty different as technically I live out of a suitcase but the experience is great.

In 4 months, my visa will expire and I will move or go home. If I don't work I will eventually run out of money. I could live off ~1000Eur a month but I like to socialize so it's closer to 1400.

There's a lot of people who do it in a more sustainable fashion and on a permanent basis. A couple I know from Cali live here and are renting out their house. He works remotely and she's started teaching English since being here.

Give it some thought, it's a lot of fun and adventure.

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#74

Post by topoftheforts »

davidscolgan wrote: post #66

Welcome to the wild world of consulting! I hope you enjoy your stay, it's the only way to live in my opinion. What's helped me in my freelancing/consulting journey more than anything else has been building one on one relationships (aka, networking). The more people you know who know what you do, the more opportunities you'll have come your way. Some call it Luck Surface Area. Join a paid online community of other con…

I couldn't agree more with this advice. I'm more of a dev than a consultant, but I believe this applies to many fields.

I quit my job a year ago to start doing freelance/contract work, I never directly looked for clients but just by having good relationships with my former employer, colleagues, and people I know in general, by October I had so many projects on my hand I had to work 80hrs/week for a short period of time.

Just to re-iterate in how many different ways you can get projects and even long-term clients, this is my "how I've gotten gigs" list:

* Former employer: when I quit I was 100% honest, boss trusted me and wanted to keep working with me. They are still giving me work

* Former colleague: he quit right before me, started his own small company, knew he could count on me being a reliable dev, became a long-term client

* I was looking for devs on Twago, in order to get help in case I had too many jobs on my hand. One of the applicants was a small dev agency looking for projects. They ended up giving me work, instead of the other way around.

* (most random one) A client I had a few years ago, during my first venture as entrepreneur, messaged me on Skype by mistake, thinking I was somebody else they knew. Turns out they needed a dev, became a long-term client.

* Went back home to Italy during the summer, rented a room for a few months. My landlord was working in marketing, ended up giving me a few very good clients

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#75

Post by sitkack »

You need two things 1) an accountant and 2) customers. Lots of people get thrust into consulting because they are given a customer.

Technical skill is required but not sufficient. Even average is ok. What matters is all the stuff around the technology. Most of it being diligence, follow through, following up and being predictable and consistent. You have those and you can write your ticket.

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#76

Post by tptacek »

* Raise your rates. You need to charge _way_ more than your FTE rate. _Way_ more.

* Say "no" to prospects that don't fit your practice/price.

* Avoid freelancing/matching sites.

* Don't bill hourly. Don't track hours.

* Specialize.

* Be prepared for clients to be very late on payments.

* You can't stop selling when you hit capacity. Be intentional about smoothing your utilization out.

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#77

Post by topoftheforts »

foobar1962 wrote: post #4

1) Don't quit work until you have a couple of clients lined up. Seriously, treat it like a side-gig until you make more per hour than the day job.

On paper this is the most reasonable advice but it's not very realistic and it's definitely not the only choice. When I was thinking about quitting my job, I've encountered this advice a lot and it was very discouraging.

So I just wanted to reiterate for anyone really struggling in their day job, looking to quit: if it gets too unbearable, there are MANY options.

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#78

Post by tptacek »

pault wrote: post #49
hardwaresofton wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read every single article on daedtech.com related to software consulting (and maybe some that aren't) -- the amount of insight contained inside those articles for free is insane. 99% of the people who think they are doing consulting (me included) are not doing consulting. If you're getting paid to write software, you're not a consultant, you're a freelancer/service provider. Let those words shake you then read all th…

Even in this thread I see a lot of people conflating consulting with working as a highly paid contractor. I accidentally fell into contracting two years ago when the company I was working for closed unexpectedly. I doubled my yearly income, but I'm still an employee in practice. I will say though, if you can make the leap to contracting with large companies, the pay is insane. I'm currently making about $60k/year ove…

The distinction between "consulting" and "freelancing" and "contracting" is pretty much fictitious; it's like the consulting version of the "is it really a startup?" game.

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#79

Post by tptacek »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #33
krn wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're getting paid to write software, you're not a consultant, you're a freelancer/service provider. That's by definition: consult verb (used with object): to get information or advice from a person, book, etc. with special knowledge on a particular subject https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/consult

You're right that it's very obviously in the definition of the rowds and should be this simple to classify "software consultancy" by definition, but that's not what's out there in practice. How people use (in this case misuse) the term leads to confusion and the linked article (and the other related ones) starts with this fact as the baseline (we're in agreement) and goes into how/why software shops are doing it wron…

I don't see anything in the OP asking for an extended semantic debate about the meaning of the word "consultant" or any problem any consultant has that could be solved by it.

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#80

Post by topoftheforts »

tptacek wrote: post #76

* Raise your rates. You need to charge _way_ more than your FTE rate. _Way_ more. * Say "no" to prospects that don't fit your practice/price. * Avoid freelancing/matching sites. * Don't bill hourly. Don't track hours. * Specialize. * Be prepared for clients to be very late on payments. * You can't stop selling when you hit capacity. Be intentional about smoothing your utilization out.

> Don't track hours.

Probably you don't mean it in this way, but I found time tracking to be very very useful, even when not tracking with the purpose of invoicing for your time.

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