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Poll: Do you have your own company?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#31

Post by bentcorner »

throwaway520141 wrote: post #20
zippergz wrote: post #17

If people are open to it, I would really love to hear some anecdotes about making the transition from working for a big tech company to doing independent consulting. It seems very hard (often forbidden by the company) to pick up clients on the side while being an employee, but quitting a job without any clients is pretty scary. And I'm not even clear where to find clients (who will pay a reasonable rate).

I am currently doing this. What I am doing on the side or the companies I am doing it for does not compete in any way with what my day job company produces. Edit - I do have the problem you are describing though. Where to find clients who will pay a reasonable rate. Don't mean to spam but since this seems relevant, full story here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7821974

This is, I feel, the biggest problem seen by people who want to jump ship from salaried positions to freelancing/independent contracting.

I've asked around a little bit whenever this topic comes up and the majority of people who I've talked to say that their best source of customers comes from people that they know.

Not a very satisfying answer for me, since I don't know a whole lot of people (maybe that's just my view of things, I could be wrong), and of those people, very few of them need someone with my skills and expertise (or, to be more frank, I doubt any of them would be able to match the paycheck I currently get from my employer). It's equally likely I'm not imaginative enough.

In any case, if anyone is "living the dream" in the Seattle area, drop me a line - I'd love to chat with you and maybe have a coffee (haha).

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#32

Post by adamb_ »

I'm considering making the transition from sole proprietor to LLC for my on-the-side consulting... Advice from friends range from "it's a no-brainer!" to "it's more trouble than it's worth". I don't make a lot doing my side-work (under $10k), but the amount has grown year-over-year. Any advice on incorporating?

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#33

Post by ma2rten »

throwaway520141 wrote: post #12

Remote consulting. I setup a C-corp. 3 Full time offshore employees. Still have my day job as a full stack enterprise developer but what I am getting to learn about running a business and helping people 'produce their best' is phenomenal. I look at my role as a really strong conduit between client and my team. I can speak both their languages and since I am a developer myself and the team is so small, I can point to…

It will appear there by itself, after the post has been reviewed by a moderator.

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#34

Post by will_brown »

gk1 wrote: post #15
will_brown wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before organizing your LLC, consult with an attorney (most should offer a free consultation). Generally, you would want separate legal entities for your consulting and side-project business, as they sound unrelated. If both function under the same LLC, then one may be accountable for the liabilities of the other. A consulting business will generally have very limited potential liability; nevertheless, a free consulta…

Thanks for that suggestion. Is free consulting something many attorneys provide? I've just been going by my own research instead of consulting with an attorney, because I assumed the consultation would be costly.

In Florida I would say it is the norm (sorry...that is probably a big qualification to my earlier statement). Otherwise, my old Firm did free consultations and we had offices in: California, Nevada, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Florida and London.

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#35

Post by aggronn »

jasallen wrote: post #22
modoc wrote: post #21

At the time of writing this 262 responses and 0 "life style" business. That seems pretty nutty to me. Maybe "high growth" captures more than how I read the poll author's intent, but 91 of you are chasing funding/VC/big exit and 0 of you are building a profitable business that can fund its own growth that you enjoy and want to keep control over? FWIW I'm 7 years in on my fully bootstrapped, profitable, strongly growin…

Maybe I'm wrong, but I've always considered "lifestyle" business to refer to something that pays your salary, but that doesn't really grow beyond maybe hiring an admin or two. Something like an Insurance Agent type of scope.

As an example, most web consultancies are not meant to be high growth startup type businesses, but its apparent that many grow to be fairly sizable. There are lots of large botique organizations, for instance companies that specialize in RoR development, which can employ 30+ people while still being owned entirely by a single person who expands the business organically to accomodate demand.

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#37

Post by tragic »

adamb_ wrote: post #32

I'm considering making the transition from sole proprietor to LLC for my on-the-side consulting... Advice from friends range from "it's a no-brainer!" to "it's more trouble than it's worth". I don't make a lot doing my side-work (under $10k), but the amount has grown year-over-year. Any advice on incorporating?

Most advice would be jurisdiction specific. General advice: get a good accountant, whose job it is to know stuff like that, and keep apprised of when it changes.

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#38

Post by desarun »

zippergz wrote: post #17

If people are open to it, I would really love to hear some anecdotes about making the transition from working for a big tech company to doing independent consulting. It seems very hard (often forbidden by the company) to pick up clients on the side while being an employee, but quitting a job without any clients is pretty scary. And I'm not even clear where to find clients (who will pay a reasonable rate).

Hey there. I made the jump last week.

I work in London, and used to work for a FTSE 35 company. I was there for about 2 years, and worked primarily as an Android developer.

I'm not sure about the situation where you are, but here in London there's tons of Android contracts.

I made the decision to jump about a month and a half ago after getting screwed over a promotion that was promised to me. Any loyalty I had to the company died at that point.

I had a month's notice, and two weeks holiday before I quit. Two weeks before I officially handed my notice in, I let my manager know I was contemplating going contracting. She was very understanding, and tried to make me stay.

I started phoning round recruitment consultants letting them know my experience & what I was after.

After two weeks, twenty plus recruiters, 30 plus contracts, and two interviews, I landed the third interview.

The one thing holding me back the most, and probably the reason I didn't land a job sooner was that in contracting land, you're expected to start pretty much the next day, and I had a 2-4 week wait before becoming available.

I got the job, started my company the same day (£15 & 15 minutes time). Got an accountant via recommendation & started two weeks later.

I'm not going to lie, the jump was terrifying. Losing the security of permanent employment, & imposter syndrome play a big part in keeping people in perm jobs.

After a week in this job though, I'm incredibly happy.

I'm not getting full contract day rates (£400+), its more around £250, but I'm two years out of uni & doubled my salary by quitting.

That's not even including the tax benefits of getting paid via your own company.

My advice would be make damn sure you're good enough (not by validating your own abilities, but by getting other contractors to evaluate you), and start getting in touch with recruiters.

Your world isn't going to come crumbling down by having a conversation.

Oh, and don't trust recruiters. They're a necessary evil.

This helped me: http://www.contractoruk.com/

Re: Poll: Do you have your own company?

#39

Post by throwaway520141 »

ma2rten wrote: post #33
throwaway520141 wrote: post #12

Remote consulting. I setup a C-corp. 3 Full time offshore employees. Still have my day job as a full stack enterprise developer but what I am getting to learn about running a business and helping people 'produce their best' is phenomenal. I look at my role as a really strong conduit between client and my team. I can speak both their languages and since I am a developer myself and the team is so small, I can point to…

It will appear there by itself, after the post has been reviewed by a moderator.

Thank you!
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