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How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting

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Re: How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting

#71

Post by SatvikBeri »

danso wrote: post #37

Excellent article. 1. I would be interested in learning more about what a programmer brings to the table in the consulting field. I mean, besides raw programming knowledge. The OP mentions Fog Creek as one of his first clients, a place that obviously is not short on programming insights. What does a consultant with programming chops bring that a non-programmer doesn't? Better ideas? Better tailored ideas? 2) Pedantic…

Being able to bridge the gap between understanding how people work and how it's possible to improve that work with technology is an incredibly rare and valuable skill right now.

Quite frankly, most people have no idea what's possible with programming. I once worked at a company where they spent dozens of hours each month manually updating monthly reports in Excel spreadsheets. If you watch the average person work, you'll see dozens of things that could easily be automated or simplified. Watch a little more, and you'll see the possibility to add new capabilities that simply weren't possible before.

Re: How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting

#72

Post by mootothemax »

pknerd wrote: post #55
patio11 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get a blog and start making new business acquaintances. (Being in the Valley should not exactly have you hurting for options on that score.)

And what about those who not even in US and belong to a "3rd world country" where one wish to give work only because it's Cheap?

And what about those who not even in US and belong to a "3rd world country" where one wish to give work only because it's Cheap?

Be good at what you do; your location shouldn't affect your consulting rates.

By way of example, I routinely bill in excess of $100/hour despite being located in Poland. And trust me, I'm working on increasing the value I deliver, and charging appropriately.

Re: How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting

#73

Post by trapexit »

sown wrote: post #44
bmelton wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"So what do I do if I don't have a blog or any real friends to refer me? I don't know anyone at all here in SV and no one seems to want me anyways." Change that. Go to conferences. Go to meetups. Leverage whatever professional network you currently have to expand it. Start a blog. Post to it. Establish yourself as an authority on something. If you can't do the above yet (because you aren't an authority on something),…

> Go to conferences. ... Find conferences that relate to it and attend... later, speak at said conferences. Well, I'm screwed. I can barely speak in private or deal with people. Perhaps someone else can use your advice, though.

Kaizen. Small improvements. Start now and don't deviate.

You grow by constantly pushing yourself just barely outside of your comfort zone. No anxiety or panic needed, just a little tiny dose of discomfort.

Start now, with the smallest improvement you could possibly make. Then continue to make one small improvement every day.

Are you a complete shut in? Make it your goal to spend just 1 minute outside in public. If 1 minute is too much, then make it 10 seconds. Do it again tomorrow, and add just a little more time. Did you feel a bit uncomfortable? Good. If not, push yourself just a little more.

Are you good with being outside? Make eye contact with one person for 1 second. Tomorrow, make eye contact with two people. Or try to hold eye contact for 2 seconds.

Good with eye contact? Let's get talking.

Go to the grocery store and use the human checkout line instead of the self-checkout. Then the next day, make it your goal to say one sentence to the checkout person beyond the usual pleasantries. A comment about the weather will be just fine. Once you're good with talking about the weather, ask the checker if they have big exciting plans for this evening/the weekend/Christmas/whatever.

Just take action every day. ACTION. EVERY. DAY.

If you feel like you're not making process fast enough, or if you slip up one day and stay firmly within your comfort zone, don't beat yourself up about it. Just get out there tomorrow and make one small improvement. Small improvements will have a huge effect on your quality of life before you even realize it.

I've been there. It's possible. Start now and don't deviate.

Re: How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting

#74

Post by TallboyOne »

jasonswett wrote: post #65
TallboyOne wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't have a large variety of jobs to pick and choose from, you're not doing it right. I'm going to rant here a moment... The secret to getting more work than you can handle (and charging $100/hr, which is not difficult)... DONT SUCK. I swear to god, 95% of people out there suck, your competition. Send emails to your phone, and answer them right away when you're out and about, even on weekends or when you're o…

You might be right about that. I'd like to offer another perspective, though: if you get into the habit of quickly replying to all emails, I think your clients will develop an expectation that you'll always quickly reply to emails, which it's not always possible or desirable to do, at least for me. Also, if you immediately attend to every email that hits your inbox, that means you probably won't have contiguous chunk…

That is indeed true, but the part I left out for brevity is the part about client expectations, which must also be handled. I disagree however that it makes you appear needy. If you ARE needy, you're going to seem needy no matter what you do. I can assure you though the client would rather have you reply sooner than later... just set the expectation that you can drop them at any time (subtly obviously, you wouldn't say that to their face).

Consider the following scenario:

A) Email exchange which takes 2 days, for a fix to a site... you quote $800 and they hesitate

B) An email exchange where you take no more than 2 minutes to reply, even at 11pm. They are happy that you got back to them so quickly, and you quote $2000. They agree.

This happens quite a lot in my experience. To the point where it's extremely noticeable and can't be chalked up to coincidence.

I just mentioned what works. If your goal is to get a huge amount of work for $100-200 an hour, then replying right away will get you significantly there (skill aside). Everyone waits hours to respond, so it's the norm. If you want to stand out, you need to be outside the norm.

As far as being at the mercy of your email, in practice this genuinely doesn't really mean any difference than if I wait. You're still going to write the email, it's just a matter of when. My productivity remains the same. If I'm very deep in a project, chances are I need a break anyway (I'm bad with taking breaks when I need them). If I'm really busy with some other task common sense would be required, obviously there are exceptions.

Sidenote: I don't necessarily do this with well-established clients who I've worked with for years. They already know the scoop. I'm more talking about new people, new leads, new projects where they don't recognize your value yet.

Re: How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting

#76

Post by pyre »

sown wrote: post #44
bmelton wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"So what do I do if I don't have a blog or any real friends to refer me? I don't know anyone at all here in SV and no one seems to want me anyways." Change that. Go to conferences. Go to meetups. Leverage whatever professional network you currently have to expand it. Start a blog. Post to it. Establish yourself as an authority on something. If you can't do the above yet (because you aren't an authority on something),…

> Go to conferences. ... Find conferences that relate to it and attend... later, speak at said conferences. Well, I'm screwed. I can barely speak in private or deal with people. Perhaps someone else can use your advice, though.

One great way is to volunteer at the conference. Why?

1. You're forced to interact with at least some set of people regularly. Even if you find it difficult to 'cold call' a person or group of people and socialize at the event, you are guaranteed to have interacted with a minimum number of people.

2. There are set goals to accomplish, and it can be easier to work with people you don't know if you just focus on the work. It basically gives you an excuse to interact with people, because you don't have to worry about awkwardly fumbling around to find some common ground to chat about.

3. If you make yourself extremely useful (always looking to help out, asking what else you can do), people will recognize this.

Re: How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting

#77

Post by katedungan »

SageRaven wrote: post #24

Damn, that sounds nice. I wonder if system admin/architecture can be modeled that way. I'd love to bill even a modest $2k/week, rather than trawl craigslist, responding to posts for "unix/linux ninjas" then having shops balk at anything over $20 an hour. I don't know how many messes I've cleaned up (likely left by people charging a hell of a lot more than me) for really low rates. I know, I know. Craiglist and other…

I found a great sysadmin on Craigslist ... I now pay a $600/mo retainer to have him on call up to 10 hours/month. I usually don't use all the hours, but sometimes I go over and pay more.

The situation works great for both of us.

I don't think Patrick's model is ideal for sysadmin work (who needs a sysadmin for an entire week?) ... but I think the retainer/on call model could be just as good ... get 10-15 companies paying $500/mo ...

Re: How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting

#78

Post by SwellJoe »

debaserab2 wrote: post #70
SwellJoe wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do the same things. Get a blog, become well-known for being awesome. I've hired several "third world country" developers at US market rates (not Silicon Valley rates; more like midwestern rates, like $30-$50/hour) because they were good . And, I've passed on $10/hour developers because they didn't convince me they could do the job. It's about value, not price. That's not to say you aren't at a disadvantage, if you're…

Midwestern rates for a decent programmer should not be lower than $80/hr. If you're finding good programmers in the midwest that are less than that, they don't understand their value in the local market. Source: I work in an office co-share with a dozen or so web developers in Minneapolis.

Chicago and Minneapolis and other big cities don't count in my estimate. I'm speaking more about folks in places with very low cost of living, and no tech industry to speak of (but there are nerds everywhere). The fact that you work in a co-share with a dozen web developers means you work in a place where developers are a known quantity and have a reasonably high value. There are developers in Idaho, too. They don't usually make $80+/hour, even on contract, unless they're famously good.

Re: How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting

#79

Post by patio11 »

chatmasta wrote: post #75

When I hear "consulting," I think about escaping the grunt work that is actual programming. How much of your time as a "consultant" do you spend actually programming? What other tasks do you do on a day-to-day basis?

Talking to clients, getting buy-in for things I want to make, looking at metrics, thinking, learning about the product / space / company / etc, assorted engineering stuff that isn't programming (wireframes / specs / tests / demos / docs / etc), writing copy, etc etc.

Time allocation varies greatly depending on the client and what we're working on. I've had engagements where I spent 100% of my time talking and I've had engagements where I spent as-close-to-100%-of-time-as-practical in heads-down going-to-ship-this-project mode. Most engagements fall somewhere between the two extremes, clustered away from heads-down-programming.

Re: How I went from $100-an-hour programming to $X0,000-a-week consulting

#80

Post by dschiptsov »

"Finding a bigger fool" method because I'm, air quotes, "Internet famous."?

Oh I get it, it's very clever.

Placing narcissistic postings on HN in an a proper time (Monday, morning) with a catchy headline and provocative wording, including digits is a nice work, of absolutely nothing special.)

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