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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?

#91

Post by Tehchops »

hardwaresofton wrote: post #16
scarface74 wrote: post #14

Daedtech has an excellent article https://daedtech.com/software-consulting/ If you live in a major metropolitan area almost anywhere in the US, and your skillset is in tune with the market, you should be able to find some W2 or 1099 contract quite easily through local recruiters. Yeah they will take their cut, but you still should be able to negotiate close to market value. You will definitely get paid more than usin…

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…

His book is excellent as well.

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

#92

Post by Evan_Hellmuth »

mdn0420 wrote: post #87
Evan_Hellmuth wrote: post #65

I did this less than a year ago. Two things I wish I had done off the bat: 1) Choose a specific skillset that you want to use and only accept jobs in that skillset. For me that should have been React/Node projects (even this is too general, but much better than “web programmer”). People hire consultants for instant productivity, and the type of person that has so little experience working with technologists that they…

#1 is something I've been pondering as well. I've been developing games on Unity for quite some time but questioning if I'd be better off retooling into a tech stack that is higher demand?

Haven’t seen much demand for Unity contractors, but haven’t been looking either. It might be worth reaching out to a game studio recruiter or two to get a sense of how receptive Unity shops are to hiring contractors.

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

#93

Post by juliusmusseau »

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.

In Canada there are important federal tax credits (e.g., SR&ED) that work best if staff and contractors track hours in at least 4-hour chunks.

But if a client hopes to get tax credits back for your hours, that's another good reason to raise your rates!

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

#94

Post by uxisnotui »

alexknowshtml wrote: post #40

Start here: https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/category/start-freelancing...

Third this. Perhaps the most organized, complete set of free info on consulting, pricing, and negotiation. His book Double Your Freelance Rate is pretty great too.

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

#95

Post by uxisnotui »

Philip Morgan specifically has a ton of advice in the area of positioning oneself to be a sought-after consultant in technical fields. Even if I'm in UX and content I found his book "The Positioning Manual for Technical Firms" to be invaluable:

https://philipmorganconsulting.com/the-positioning-manual-fo...

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

#96

Post by gwbas1c »

eldavido wrote: post #90

This whole thread is misguided. You're starting from a position of what do I have (software dev skill) and trying to backfit a need onto it. The right mentality is to think hard about your buyer : What are you selling, why would someone buy it, and how would they find you? Ideally it should be some kind of business need, like "I want to stop using Expedia at my hotel and transition to get more direct bookings" or "I…

I worked as a contractor early in my career, on a team made up of contractors.

It's just temp work. It wasn't how I wanted to run my career, but I wouldn't knock anyone for doing it.

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

#98

Post by abakker »

mdn0420 wrote: post #87
Evan_Hellmuth wrote: post #65

I did this less than a year ago. Two things I wish I had done off the bat: 1) Choose a specific skillset that you want to use and only accept jobs in that skillset. For me that should have been React/Node projects (even this is too general, but much better than “web programmer”). People hire consultants for instant productivity, and the type of person that has so little experience working with technologists that they…

#1 is something I've been pondering as well. I've been developing games on Unity for quite some time but questioning if I'd be better off retooling into a tech stack that is higher demand?

I think unity is in demand for VR/AR rendering and CAD work. I think of geospatial data get presented that way, too.

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

#99

Post by punnerud »

It's all about creating value for your customer. "Don't give me some trend analysis, give me actionable insight ". Recommend watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2SdmYuMMIg

I earn $180000/year, recently raised my rate to $280/h and working 40h/weeks. Feel I create way more value for my customers than my cost, so I started several small projects in parallell the last months to move away from consulting. Most of them was about a week of work and give about $10000/year with minimum maintenance.

Started building webpages, but figured out that this in itself don't solve a problem I can't fix with some sitebuilder (all about value). All my value creation in now in gathering data from different (API) sources into and databases and generating custom reports on this data. The most important skills I need is Python and SQL, stuff I did not know under 3 years ago.

For the $10000/year examples I make some prototypes, try to understand the business I try to sell to and calculate something I don't think they already easily know that will increase their revenue way more that my cost. Then I make the cold call (Hope to go all into startup in a near future, only focusing on this. Love the feeling of solving real problems and see people willing to pay for it recurring <3

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

#100

Post by lateaugust »

krn wrote: post #27
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…

> 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

Writing software is an act of labor, not getting information or advice.

That definition just proves his point. Or am I missing something?

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