SHAMELESS PLUG: While I understand not everyone can attend, http://indieconf.com is a conference dedicated to these sorts of topics, and Brennan will be speaking there. If you'd like to meet him face to face, this is an opportunity to do so, while also meeting with other solo consultants/freelancers looking to grow.
Kalzumeus Podcast 3: Growing Consulting Practices, with Brennan Dunn
21–30 of 48 posts
Re: Kalzumeus Podcast 3: Growing Consulting Practices, with Brennan Dunn
#22Just as a minor PSA: I get that certain consultant types around these parts are always saying "raise your rates", and I get that a lot of people who work freelance do undercharge and often significantly, but the advice has very limited value unless it has some sort of quantifiable element attached to it. Otherwise, with due respect to those consultant types, it sounds a lot like "We're obviously smarter than you, bec…
For me, as a solo developer/consultant, my standard rate is about 50-80% more than most other solo developers I know in the area. My CPA is $25/hr more than my standard rate. Attorneys in the area are anywhere from $50-$100/hr more than my standard rate. Does that help at all?
My area is Raleigh, NC, and currently all of my active clients are in NC.
Re: Kalzumeus Podcast 3: Growing Consulting Practices, with Brennan Dunn
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do mention in the podcast (rather at the end) that internet famous is not customer famous. Patrick is well-known only to HNers and then some, but not to all CEOs in the world. Much seems to come from word of mouth. Do you think Patrick or Brennan are übermenschen? Can they program 30x as good as you? They focus on bringing value to clients, discarding pride in technical perfection (well maybe they do, but your c…
To be clear, I'm not asking because I'm concerned about my rates. I don't work full-time on contract projects as I have other business interests as well, but even when I do, I seem to be somewhere around what Patrick considered the sweet spot in terms of size of client, who I'm dealing with, etc. I just wish that if people who have been consulting for a relatively short time themselves want to share their advice with…
This is slightly a plug for my conference, but is also the motivation behind it.
I've been in software dev for 18 years or so. I set up a small shop 12 years ago, went bust after 4 years, then went solo again in 2007. I've not expanded beyond myself (so far), but have been hopefully getting better at what I do, both in terms of software but also business skills.
A couple of years ago I started seeing an uptick in questions from people in the area: "How much do you charge? How do you decide what to charge? How do you write a contract? How do you get clients? How should I do XYZ? What tools do you use?", etc.
People who know me know I love to talk, so I'd happily answer. I started to realize though, that I was only giving one perspective. Even when I'd qualify that perspective as "this is just my experience", it didn't help them very much. I started getting other people I knew involved in the discussions, getting their perspectives, which were sometimes vastly different than mine, and they'd arrive at different conclusions. Eye-opening to say the least.
At the point, the idea of the conference (http://indieconf.com) was born - an event to bring people together to foster the learning, Q&A and networking which helps those questions get answered with far more perspectives than I could offer on my own.
Reading a book is not necessarily bad, but being able to ask questions about those books' ideas face to face, get answers, and have discussions about those topics has worked out decently for the conference over the past couple years.
Re: Kalzumeus Podcast 3: Growing Consulting Practices, with Brennan Dunn
#24Happy to answer questions, to the extent possible. This dovetails quite a bit with the Ramit Sethi interviews earlier, but is largely about the mechanics of businesses as they get away from the solo consultant stage. There is some very important math in there for folks looking to expand by hiring. (Copious hat tips due to Thomas for much of the advice here. Except the bad stuff, that's mine.)
How do you charge if onsite presence is required for an engagement? This could either be due to a client requirement or you need to do interviews with developers for an architecture/code review. Should you add a separate line item for travel + lodging expenses or just bundle it together with the consulting rate? I feel like you're at a disadvantage if the client can see that you're more expensive compared to local ta…
For projects where I travel to a customer, I've switched to an all-inclusive day rate. However...
I quoted a project which I (thankfully) didn't get, based on the person I was talking to being in SC (few hours drive or short flight). Turned out the project would be onsite in North Dakota, which was a $1200 flight.
That was a lesson learned :)
Other than that, I still am primarily hourly, because I have multiple ongoing projects that don't lend themselves to 'day rate' work. Newer stuff I take on next year will likely be 'day rate' based, with travel and hotel expenses outside a short driving radius line-itemed.
Re: Kalzumeus Podcast 3: Growing Consulting Practices, with Brennan Dunn
#25This was my favourite Podcast so far. A few things I really took away from it ( which I'll be implementing in my own freelancing /consulting business ) in no particular order 1. Charge more..... 2. Sell yourself as someone who solves business problems, not as someone who implements technical solutions 3. http://thunderboltlabs.com/ - An excellent example of how to sell yourself as a developer, without selling yoursel…
Thanks. You just saved me a lot of time.
BTW: I would pay a small subscription fee to have podcasts (and audiobooks) summarized like you just did.
Re: Kalzumeus Podcast 3: Growing Consulting Practices, with Brennan Dunn
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Learn the language of yours customers. This is something I've really got to work on, I have now idea how business people speak. Not just their language, but their lifestyle and culture. A big portion of my clients are Jewish; this is because an early client was Jewish and I learned the little things like... sending emails late on Friday afternoons will rarely get a response till Monday. Or, Mondays are bad days to…
Good point! Thanks Tom. I assumed it was for one person but now you've mentioned it, that is probably for them both. In which case I guess it's less extreme on my brain.
From http://thunderboltlabs.com/hire: "Development is $277 an hour per developer. Technical work is done in pairs."
Ouch. It looks like they've got the skills and marketing figured out. I think there's a great lesson in there for all of us freelancers.
Re: Kalzumeus Podcast 3: Growing Consulting Practices, with Brennan Dunn
#27Just as a minor PSA: I get that certain consultant types around these parts are always saying "raise your rates", and I get that a lot of people who work freelance do undercharge and often significantly, but the advice has very limited value unless it has some sort of quantifiable element attached to it. Otherwise, with due respect to those consultant types, it sounds a lot like "We're obviously smarter than you, bec…
I am in a VERY low-tech, slightly rural area where the median income is somewhere north of $30k a year. In no way does that affect my pricing, and I charge more than most Bay Area consultants.
My method is pretty simple: understand the client's business, get to the root of why they're thinking they need Project X, and then only proposing solutions that have a high likelihood to return a positive investment (this sometimes means having hotly debated arguments with said clients.) In short, in no way do I position myself as "tell me what you want and I'll build it."
The end result has been positive growth and ROI for my clients, which makes my hourly rate immaterial if the product I deliver yields steep dividends.
Re: Kalzumeus Podcast 3: Growing Consulting Practices, with Brennan Dunn
#28I would love to hear more about shifting the "offering commodity skills" to "I produce measurable business value" mindset. From Patrick or other HN'ers.
My career path has always been very conservative, e.g. "What skills do I need to be employed by corporations at salary X?" Even today, I struggle with a strong and compelling internal voice that says "oh, learn blub and enterprise platform ZZZZ" and then you will be seen as more valuable.
I know this is a extremely limiting mindset, but breaking free to a new viewpoint has proven difficult.
Re: Kalzumeus Podcast 3: Growing Consulting Practices, with Brennan Dunn
#29Ok, let's do a concrete example. All of this seems very hand-wavy to me.
Scenario: A client asks me to do support and maintenance on an internal accounts receivables tracking app. How do I justify asking 300/hour or whatever you guys are suggesting? How do I give them substantial business value from that?
Re: Kalzumeus Podcast 3: Growing Consulting Practices, with Brennan Dunn
#30Happy to answer questions, to the extent possible. This dovetails quite a bit with the Ramit Sethi interviews earlier, but is largely about the mechanics of businesses as they get away from the solo consultant stage. There is some very important math in there for folks looking to expand by hiring. (Copious hat tips due to Thomas for much of the advice here. Except the bad stuff, that's mine.)
Being an ordinary iOS and Android freelancer paid by the hour or the day (based in Europe), can you give advice on how to get known as the guy who delivers value? How to become visible? Also, does this kind of value-driven work also work remotely, or do you always travel to customers?
I personally prefer first engagements to be on-site, so that I can meet the team and be something other than the voice on the telephone, but I've done it remotely, too.
You make mobile apps for businesses, right? So you're getting their brands carried on the trusted device that their customers hold their entire social selves on, which is carried in their front pocket 24/7, which they caress when in bed and which they can't bear to be separated from even when in the bathroom. And your app. Their brand. With them the entire time.
Or, if you're making apps with a transactional component to them, like say the Chipotle online ordering app, "Um, it's going to make you several hundred million dollars this year. This will be mentioned in your annual report. You're going to look like a hero for greenlighting this project." works, too.