Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

training.kalzumeus.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 270 posts

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

#81

Post by polyfractal »

I feel like every post by Patrick should be printed out and taped to the wall. So many great lessons in his writing. Thanks patio!

Question of my own: if you are breaking into consultancy, how do you go about cold-calling potential clients? Say you've identified a few clients that you think you could help. What kind of email do you send them?

Go the honest route and say "Hey, I'm new but I want to help your business make more money...I'll take a cut of whatever increased revenue I derive, otherwise you dont have to pay me" ?

Or go with the "I know what I'm doing route" and just pitch that you are a professional doing this all the time?

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

#82

Post by pseut »

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.

>>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.

Maybe things are different in tech, but I don't know anyone who likes attending or speaking at conferences. Don't think of them as trips, think of them as work. Because they are.

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

#83

Post by [deleted] »

katedungan wrote: post #77
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 pa…

[deleted]

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

#84

Post by chatmasta »

patio11 wrote: post #79
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 ha…

Do you have engineers on payroll to whom you can outsource the bulk of the actual programming, or do you have a network of independent contractors that you keep going back to?

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

#85

Post by zrail »

This is a great article, but one thing it doesn't really address: how does one get started doing this while still keeping a day job? I would love to start charging for value by the week, but if I can only spend 10 hours a week on a particular contract, how do I sell that?

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

#86

Post by JagMicker »

polyfractal wrote: post #81

I feel like every post by Patrick should be printed out and taped to the wall. So many great lessons in his writing. Thanks patio! Question of my own: if you are breaking into consultancy, how do you go about cold-calling potential clients? Say you've identified a few clients that you think you could help. What kind of email do you send them? Go the honest route and say "Hey, I'm new but I want to help your business…

I am not the author, but my advice would be:

-Focus on the "Sales Process". You won't go anywhere without first identifying the need(s) of the prospect and making sure they know that you understand their need(s). Then determine who the decision-maker is, so you don't waste your time selling to the wrong person.

-Approach prospects via email AND phone, until you've figured out which method they prefer.

-Don't give up until you've received a clear rejection. Offer rebuttals to their objections.

Stick with those rules, and work to refine your pitch. Persistence is key!

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

#87

Post by Cass »

trhtrsh wrote: post #59
bmelton wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SAAS? PAAS? I think it's fairly well known that Patrick consults to help fund his other projects, with the ultimate goal of becoming independent of consulting in favor of passive income. (Apologies if I'm mischaracterizing Patio's intent -- that's at least how it always seemed to me.) Alternately, you could raise your rates a bunch, save the difference and try to retire early.

Patrick's other projects are the self-education, credibility-development, and marketing for his consulting business. He is not going to retire a millionaire on bingo cards and appointment reminders.

Have you looked at the appointment reminder pricing? A single mid-tier customer brings in $1000 to $2400 per year. Scale that to a few hundred accounts, and you won't have to wait for retirement age to be a millionaire.

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

#88

Post by smiler »

polyfractal wrote: post #81

I feel like every post by Patrick should be printed out and taped to the wall. So many great lessons in his writing. Thanks patio! Question of my own: if you are breaking into consultancy, how do you go about cold-calling potential clients? Say you've identified a few clients that you think you could help. What kind of email do you send them? Go the honest route and say "Hey, I'm new but I want to help your business…

I've been freelancing / consulting for just over a year myself and am discovering more of the process myself. Here's what I've done so far..

- Reach out to your existing network - if you have friends who have done freelancing / consulting, find out what companies they did freelancing / consulting for - chances are those companies still need it.

- Offer to meet for coffee / lunch / dinner. I'm based in the UK and was trying via e-mail to speak to a potential client. It just wasn't happening. They are based in the US. So I called them up and offered to meet for dinner there at a time convenient for them - they accepted and I had the dinner last week. It is very easy for someone to decline a phone call / conference call. It's much harder for someone to do that when they know you have made an effort to turn up in person - they also have to eat so meal times work good.

- I find being honest is the best route to go. They expect you to know what you're doing! I think it's fine to say - I've just stepped out of employment and now I'm looking to build a business myself in what I've been doing - people respect you for trying to start a business!

- Don't offer to do something for free too early on. The person you're pitching to is not working for free and they won't be expecting you to work for frre either? Yes, you may need to offer something for free to land a client initially - but do not do it with open-ended development!! Instead suggest you do an analysis of their system etc and write up a report and how you'd improve things - at least that has a fixed scope. Or ask for a dataset and show simply how you can use that data to give them some new numbers they don't yet have.

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

#89

Post by ronyeh »

zrail wrote: post #85

This is a great article, but one thing it doesn't really address: how does one get started doing this while still keeping a day job? I would love to start charging for value by the week, but if I can only spend 10 hours a week on a particular contract, how do I sell that?

Charge per 0.25-week increments? As long as you hold up your end of the bargain by providing enough value, they'll be happy to recommend you to a friend, or request your services again. Later on, you can charge for larger increments while retaining your billing rate.

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

#90

Post by thisisdallas »

SwellJoe wrote: post #78
debaserab2 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Unfortunately, I can attest to this. I am one of those developers who live in a low cost no tech industry smaller city and I would cry tears of joy if I could land a job for $80/hr. I understand my value and I understand what I can bring to the table but that doesn't mean jack when potential clients could "make a website in Word if they just had the time."
Post reply on HN