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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

#121

Post by logn »

jwingy wrote: post #112

On a related note, does anyone have some informed opinions on the best type of business entity (e.g. LLC vs S-Corp vs C-Corp, etc.) to set up for a consulting business such as this?

You mean LLC vs Corp? I'd go with an LLC. Corps have more formalities like required meetings, minutes, etc. And they're set up to be invested in. LLC should protect your assets without having to jump through too many hoops. The taxes differ, consult a tax pro. You can always convert an LLC to a corp down the road.

That being said, I consult on the side and am trying to grow my business and haven't set up any company yet. It's a little risky but then again I'm not doing the kind of work where I'm likely to get sued, and I don't have many assets.

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

#122

Post by johngalt »

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…

In sysadmin work it's easier to make large consulting fees. The problem you have is that no one spends the money for good sysadmin architecture/infrastructure. So you can't sell "good practices". Instead just focus your work in loss aversion, not value creation. People will spend more for a emergency room doctor/hospital than a gym membership.

The keys are two simple things:

1. Be able to quickly fix expensive problems.

2. Make sure people with expensive problems know about you.

I've routinely seen multi-million dollar projects held up for months over things a skilled sysadmin can solve in a day. You just have to be at the receiving end of that 911 call, and not afraid to quote a big flat fee for problem resolution.

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

#124

Post by SonicSoul »

Patrick, while being such a web marketing guru, how come you named your page title (and article path) "consulting" instead of using the title? I realized this after bookmarking you in pinboard and later realizing there is a mystery "Consulting" entry in my links feed.

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

#125

Post by joseph »

What are some good resources for learning how to handle corp to corp paperwork (contracts, billing, insurance, etc)? It's very easy to land contracts through agencies, who handle all of that stuff for you, but billing these kind of rates through them is not possible, since they are going to take a large cut for themselves.

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

#126

Post by whileonebegin »

s04p wrote: post #68

To be very honest, this reads like the typical Shoemoney "how to earn $100k within x weeks" article. It's not a big secret that SEO and conversion optimisation can generate a lot of value, and I guess you consult a lot about these topics?

I was thinking the same thing, even down to the sign-up form for the newsletter. Not that there's anything wrong with that, shoemoney has done quite well and his posts are usually quite good.

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

#127

Post by ryusage »

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…

This is exactly correct. I work in a midwest city which I'd consider small/medium sized, and my entry level salary five years ago was only around $20/hr (which, as a single guy with a low cost of living, seemed like a lot). The most I've heard of a developer making here was somewhere on the order of $65/hr, and that was considered very high. If I went to Chicago, that wouldn't be high at all, but my costs of living would also probably triple.

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

#128

Post by mylittlepony »

trapexit wrote: post #73
sown wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

This is inspiring, you should write a book.

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

#129

Post by rmc »

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 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.

The implication being that if a company only pays peanuts, they probably only employed monkeys before, and it'll be a head-wreck of a situtation.

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

#130

Post by napoleond »

roflc0ptic wrote: post #119
tptacek wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This meme about there being "contractors/freelancers" and then "consultants" is toxic. In the markets that Patrick and Jason Cohen and Brennan Dunn are talking about, almost the entire difference between "freelancer" and "consultant" is "how you price engagements". It is true that consultants value-price engagements, so that they collect a percentage of the revenue or cost-savings derived from their code instead of a…

>>many people have built and written up methodologies for using code to make money for businesses Would you mind pointing out some examples, or naming the field of literature? When I googled "optimizing business processes with software" I got a bunch of ads for software. I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for.

Umm... well... for fear of stating the obvious, Patrick's blog (see TFA) would probably be a really good place to start. You should also watch every video at http://businessofsoftware.org/category/video-2 -- they are presented in the context of helping software companies become better but a lot of the ideas presented could be flipped around (I'm especially thinking of applying various forms of business analytics to more traditional companies).
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