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Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

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Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#51
My personal experience: Having a successful consultancy depends on producing the best products for your best clients.

Which means it depends a lot on your ability to find clients, and get rid of the bad ones.

Bad client meaning the one costing you money, for example by not paying the invoices, or always wanting free stuff.

So ask yourself, How do I get good at marketing and sales? How can I sell the project bu subcontract the developers?

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#52
post #23

define consultant? are you solving a problem/challenge for them? you are not a consultant, you are a contractor, freelancer or agency. are you telling them - and help implement the mindset and processes - on how they can solve a problem/challenge? you are a consultant. or to paraphrase jerry weinberg: a consultant gives advise when asked. if you are the second, read "secrets of consulting" by weinberg (and "are your…

Just a heads up: Firefox gave me a bad cert notice when I visited your site. You might be losing some business.

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#53
post #23

define consultant? are you solving a problem/challenge for them? you are not a consultant, you are a contractor, freelancer or agency. are you telling them - and help implement the mindset and processes - on how they can solve a problem/challenge? you are a consultant. or to paraphrase jerry weinberg: a consultant gives advise when asked. if you are the second, read "secrets of consulting" by weinberg (and "are your…

Certificate on f19n.com is expired. ;-)

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#54

Daedtech has an excellent article https://daedtech.com/software-consulting/ If you live in a major metropolitan area almost anywhere in the US, and your skillset is in tune with the market, you should be able to find some W2 or 1099 contract quite easily through local recruiters. Yeah they will take their cut, but you still should be able to negotiate close to market value. You will definitely get paid more than usin…

That's a really cool article. Are there any lists of incubators that are open to the "rent-a-CTO" idea? It's really an interesting way to get your foot in the door.

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#55
On a related topic, what are people's thoughts on most lucrative niche / products to consult for? Salesforce, Oracle, Atlassian, etc? I feel like being a general programming / web development services consultant isn't going to get you the big bucks unless you really excel in that field, and you'll still probably need a niche.

A while back I was at a company that specialized in Sun Identity Management consulting. Not sexy, sure, but they charged clients in the $250-300 per hour per resource (developer) range for projects that spanned several months. This was back in 2008-2012.

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#56
post #23

define consultant? are you solving a problem/challenge for them? you are not a consultant, you are a contractor, freelancer or agency. are you telling them - and help implement the mindset and processes - on how they can solve a problem/challenge? you are a consultant. or to paraphrase jerry weinberg: a consultant gives advise when asked. if you are the second, read "secrets of consulting" by weinberg (and "are your…

FYI: big scary SSL warning in (at least) Chrome when I click that link.

NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID

This server could not prove that it is www.f19n.com; its security certificate is from *.easyname.com.

And so on.

( that'll be $1,000 :-) )

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#57
The first thing I learned about consulting is that my job is no longer about technology. It's about sales, project management, and communication. Finding a niche (I found mine by accident) led to a lot of great opportunities.

Consulting is no longer about trading hours for money, it's about building your reputation and positioning yourself as a valuable asset.

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#58

Take a break, honestly. A lot of people seem to be of the opinion that if you don't work your life will start to implode around you. I've just started my first consulting job via a friend I used to work with. I was 10 months unemployed, living in an exotic country, enjoying myself and building out my own projects. I only ended up taking the job because the pay was good. Whilst I've been doing my own thing I've met a…

To your point, https://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/guy-on-the-beach-with...

Re: Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant?

#59
1. Bill by the half-day, but don't charge for a 10 minute fix unless a client starts to get annoying.

2. In your first year aim for half of what you made the previous year. Take the best clients you can, but make sure you hit that or you'll stop. Don't take work that makes you feel icky.

3. Talk to people. Spend about 35% of your time doing it. Do work for free if you need to, but get someone talking one way or another or your pipeline will dry up.

4. By two years in you'll find a client that will make up over 50% of your billable. Do whatever it takes to make them happy. Even if you lose the client for reasons outside your control, make sure that the decision maker that brought you in feels like you did your best. They'll bring you in again, even if it isn't there.

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