Ask HN: How to Become a Consultant?

I've been working as a programmer for almost 20 years now. I have experience with the JVM and the Node.js platforms and what's necessary to keep them operational: containerization, cloud computing, databases, etc.

I think I've reached an upper bound as a grunt programmer. I tried management as a new direction but it didn't work out, I just can't do it, it makes my life miserable. I noticed however, that I have a unique ability: I really like talking to people (including business folks), wrapping my head around their problems and figuring out robust solutions for them including all the models, documentation and preliminary implementations (POC/MVP). I'm also good at sharing the knowledge (right now I'm working as a tech trainer).

I did this a few times as part of some contract work and everybody was very happy with it but I don't know how to scale this into a consulting business. What I want to keep doing is getting projects from 0 to POC/MVP state. I can help putting together teams, figuring out the architecture, and concrete solutions / algorithms, but if I keep doing the grunt work instead, it won't pay that well. So to sum it all up I can apply my skills in an area that has higher returns, but I don't really know how to get there.

What should I do to achieve this? What makes this harder is that I'm not living in the USA (I live in Hungary, Europe).

Edit: I quit my day job half a year ago. I was thinking about a sabbatical, but people from my network started to appear and now I'm swamped with work. What my goal is to streamline all this and turn regular grunt programming into a specialized format where the ROI is much better.

I also have a business partner who has similar ideas but a different skill set, and I'm trying to shape this into something that's more effective.

I already have a blog, a GitHub portfolio, and I'm regularly talking on meetups, but you are right, I need to focus on this much more, thanks for this tip!

It is funny that you ask this, as I've just began [this][1] learning path on AWS. Having the knowledge is only half the story though. I'm not good at sales / finding business partners. I'm good at solving their problems.

[1]:https://aws.amazon.com/partners/training/path-tech-pro/

The solution for your situation is to connect with someone formerly in sales, or maybe a former CXO with an extensive rolodex that the two of you can systematically connect and talk with and discover needs that you can start to solution and then team build to solve. How you do that- can't offer specific advice. But 90% of consulting is relationships, and by the stage of career you either have them to mine or you do not. Ok to not have them, just need to connect with someone who does. Bonus if you can do this in the US, the lower cost model will serve you extremely well. Good luck.

In my experience, scaling a consulting business is more to do with sales and building long-term relationships. Sales is a skill that can be acquired, and you don't have to be very good at it to get started. Learn the basics of business development and sales; try experimenting with different approaches. See what fits you best.

IMHO, I think the problem is "getting projects from 0 to POC/MVP state." These are projects that typically have an expiry. Either the MVP fails to validate its viability, or when it succeeds, the business will try to find someone who can commit full-time. It's hard to find something in the middle. More often than not, consultants who position themselves here spend more time on finding new contracts than doing the work. Since once a contract is completed, there is little continuity to it. Aside from a small maintenance contract, which is not enough to keep the light on. Doing the work pays, searching for work does not.

Another problem is, you are in the space where you have to compete the most, and therefore "building MVP" contracts become a pricing competition. Competing with offshore dev shops on price is hard to do.

So, to sum up, in my humble opinion, you need to spend time upgrading business development and sales skills. Think about what unique skills you can offer that are less price competitive in the market and offer you a long-term contract. I hope this helps.

0) First step: read Jerry Weinberg "The Secret of Consulting"

1) Understand that Consultants solve problems when asked for against money.

2) People need to start asking you to solve their problems. So first step is to tell people that you have the potential to solve their problems. So I recommend to start giving talks on (virtual) meetups, start publishing in some way (articles, blogs, podcasts, newsletter, video) either your own and/or contributing to others.

3) When they start asking, make a 1h free. Create as much value as you can in this 1h for them. Do not give more than 1h free.

4) Every contact gets into your newsletter. Send them out regularly. Always create value for (for the readers).

5) Accept and anticipate long sales cycles. Between 1h free and a final sale might be half a year, a year, two years.

x) At one point you need to write a book.

That is what I did, worked quite well.