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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

#171

Post by Terry_B »

pav3l wrote: post #170
Terry_B wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great point. I've been trying to think of as many things programmers can do that increase revenue as possible. A/B Testing and sales funnel optimization is definitely a winner. - Optimizing how a company utilises it's resources - Optimizing the speed and performance of a critical business function. - Increasing marketing reach - Generating more sales leads What else guys?

I actually think of your first two points (optimizing...) as cost cutting services, while the other two are good examples.

Yeah, should have been more specific. If they result in the company getting more sales done with the available time/resources then they add to revenue.

The company could of course treat it as "doing more with less" and therefore use it for cost cutting instead. Depends on the situation.

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

#172

Post by nandemo »

F_J_H wrote: post #106

There seem to be a lot of comments centered on “wow, this sounds great – I wish I could charge more” or “how do I find these high paying contracts”? Here’s one way. It may seem obvious to many, but I think it bears stating. If you are looking for consulting contracts that pay really well, focus on providing a service that helps companies make money rather than save money. In other words, help grow revenues rather tha…

> There seem to be a lot of comments centered on “wow, this sounds great – I wish I could charge more” or “how do I find these high paying contracts”?

Actually, I'm wondering how can I get gigs that pay $100/hour in Japan.

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

#173

Post by gadders »

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.

Although it looks cheesy, this book is full of actionable suggestions on how to be able to speak to people.

http://www.mpowers.com/books/charisma.html

I definitely recommend it.

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

#175

Post by nazgulnarsil »

F_J_H wrote: post #106

There seem to be a lot of comments centered on “wow, this sounds great – I wish I could charge more” or “how do I find these high paying contracts”? Here’s one way. It may seem obvious to many, but I think it bears stating. If you are looking for consulting contracts that pay really well, focus on providing a service that helps companies make money rather than save money. In other words, help grow revenues rather tha…

So your advice is isomorphic to the time-tested "get close to the money"?

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

#176

Post by jacques_chester »

tibbon wrote: post #151
flyinglizard wrote: post #145

Here are my lessons after 6 years running a consulting firm in a pretty specialized business (high end ARM/embedded stuff), from the top of my head: 1. Avoid billing by hours, exactly for the reasons listed here. You can only lose like this; it carries more administration overhead, more friction with the customer and at the end there's a max budget allocated on the customer's end anyway - it's not like you can bill i…

Also, I always keep in mind that at some positions; there are people who want to spend more money if they can. Spending more this year might mean a bigger budget next year. Sometimes power at the company is somewhat stacked by who manages a larger spend each year. And sometimes perception of quality has to do with what you spend. A $60k consultant must be better than a $6k consultant right?

In fact I just a few weeks ago lined up a nice little contract on this exact basis. A customer had a budget allocation that they'd won but had been slow in lining up the work from another department in the same organisation. So now it's come to me, because they "need" to spend the money before the end of the year.

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

#177

Post by jacques_chester »

luke_s wrote: post #161
koevet wrote: post #134

I have freelanced for almost 15 years in Europe and a bit of Middle East. I have done pretty well, charging easily 1K Euro a day, less in the last couple of years. Last year, with a colleague and friend, we started our consulting company. The main reason for that being "let's scale!". We contacted a bunch of freelance colleagues we trusted and respected and asked them to join us as hired guns, whenever we needed more…

"Another problem is that the clients are really interested in our specific experience: that means they want to work with me or my partner, not with the company. This bit is hard to crack." You certainly have a lot more business experience than I do - however I've been working recently on preparing a lots of tender responses. I work at a software consulting firm, with about 10 devs and 20 GIS analysts. In our tender r…

Lots of clients require you to say, in your contract, who will be working on a project. They will inquire after individuals.

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

#178

Post by mnutt »

Terry_B wrote: post #171
pav3l wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually think of your first two points (optimizing...) as cost cutting services, while the other two are good examples.

Yeah, should have been more specific. If they result in the company getting more sales done with the available time/resources then they add to revenue. The company could of course treat it as "doing more with less" and therefore use it for cost cutting instead. Depends on the situation.

I guess that depends on if they could hire twice as many people in sales and double their revenue. If there are diminishing returns, then it could be a revenue generator.

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

#179

Post by ams6110 »

zenocon wrote: post #149
johngalt wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 proble…

I bet Team Romney / Orca would have paid handsomely for this at zero-hour, despite all the cost-cutting they did up front.

Yeah but some things aren't possible. A poorly architected system can't be fixed in an hour, or a day, in most cases.

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

#180

Post by jacques_chester »

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?

Talk to your accountant.

You do have a business accountant, right?

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