
Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant? - MichaelEstes
I recently put in my notice at work with nothing lined up. Do any of you operate full time as a consultant? I&#x27;d love to hear about how you got started and what resources, pitfalls, experiences you came across along the way.
======
msadowski
I have been working as a consultant/contractor since May last year.

I found my first jobs on UpWork, where Robotics is quite niche field. Being a
niche field there are not many jobs available (I'd estimate there are 2-3 a
month that fit my skill set) but also there are not so many freelancers doing
Robotics.

Starting on any freelancers platform you need to start building reputation,
which can mean you will need to sell yourself well or do the first project for
peanuts (my first one was converting some Python to C# that took me 8 days and
I earned 10$). In the second project I earned about 2k$ and in further ones I
was already earning more per hour then in my previous job.

My advice is anecdotal but if someone advertises "a simple project for ..."
then they don't treat it very seriously and won't be willing to pay for
quality. The clients willing to pay more for your services will also respect
your time more and are usually much easier to communicate with.

Avoid fixed price contracts if you can unless you know exactly how to do the
project and can predict any pitfalls. Charging by the hour/day/week/month is
in my opinion least risky and if you encounter huge issues you are still paid
to fix them.

Speaking of issues. Firstly make sure that you know the requirements clearly,
before starting development make sure you understand all stakeholders. As you
are developing the project communicate frequently with the client about any
doubts to the client and make sure you are on the same page. If you see
anything off - communicate this! The requirements will never be perfect and if
you put yourself in the user's shoes you will be able to identify things your
client missed and this way you will be bringing an extra value by solving
problems before they even arise.

Sorry for the wall of text, hopefully you will find any of this useful. If you
have any questions feel free to ask here or e-mail me (I hope my e-mail is in
my profile).

Good luck!

~~~
sgillen
Can you speak at all as to what skills are in most demand for robotics? It’s
such a broad field it’s hard to know what to focus on in order to be
marketable.

Do you think your education matters? Do people want to see a masters/PhD or is
gaining more experience the important thing for landings these sorts of jobs.

Thanks!

~~~
msadowski
That's true that the field is very broad. I'm mostly focused on software
(doing a lot of ROS in R&D setting at the moment). From what I heard there is
quite a de,amd for integrators of robot arms (at least in Europe) but I can't
really say anything more about other Robotics related skills.

I have a master's degree and don't know if it affects anyone's decision about
hiring me for a contract. My feeling is that the companies I work with now
value my experience much more than my degree but personally I learned so much
studying Mechatronics/Robotics that I'd highly recommend doing it if you are
not experienced in Robotics and want to start working in the field.

------
jacquesm
I wrote a whole series of articles on this subject, maybe there is something
that is useful to you there:

[https://jacquesmattheij.com/categories/consulting/](https://jacquesmattheij.com/categories/consulting/)

best of luck!

~~~
projectileboy
Wow, I always love your writing; can’t believe I had missed this. Thanks for
sharing.

------
Evan_Hellmuth
I did this less than a year ago. Two things I wish I had done off the bat:

1) Choose a specific skillset that you want to use and only accept jobs in
that skillset. For me that should have been React/Node projects (even this is
too general, but much better than “web programmer”). People hire consultants
for instant productivity, and the type of person that has so little experience
working with technologists that they expect instant competence after you tell
them “yeah I used Python for a personal project” probably won’t be a great
client. Ultimately you’ll want to own a business problem, possibly combined
with a technological skillset, but that’s something you can think about after
you’ve set up a steady stream of work.

2) Use a “premium” recruiter or agency. Gun.io, Toptal, something like that.
They don’t lock you in, you’re still free to find your own work, but they will
save you SO much time and they’ll find SO much work that you wouldn’t have
been able to find on your own. Use them to find projects in which you can hone
the specific skillset you chose and make it _more_ specific.

After a project or two you’ll have a feel for what’s out there and you can
start tweaking your rate and how you market yourself. Also, consider reading
Developer Hegemony to get a (pretty cynical) feel for the business side of
things. Feel free to reach out if you want to chat further (email in profile).

~~~
mdn0420
#1 is something I've been pondering as well. I've been developing games on
Unity for quite some time but questioning if I'd be better off retooling into
a tech stack that is higher demand?

~~~
abakker
I think unity is in demand for VR/AR rendering and CAD work. I think of
geospatial data get presented that way, too.

------
punnerud
It's all about creating value for your customer. "Don't give me some trend
analysis, give me actionable insight ". Recommend watching this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2SdmYuMMIg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2SdmYuMMIg)

I earn $180000/year, recently raised my rate to $280/h and working 40h/weeks.
Feel I create way more value for my customers than my cost, so I started
several small projects in parallell the last months to move away from
consulting. Most of them was about a week of work and give about $10000/year
with minimum maintenance.

Started building webpages, but figured out that this in itself don't solve a
problem I can't fix with some sitebuilder (all about value). All my value
creation in now in gathering data from different (API) sources into and
databases and generating custom reports on this data. The most important
skills I need is Python and SQL, stuff I did not know under 3 years ago.

For the $10000/year examples I make some prototypes, try to understand the
business I try to sell to and calculate something I don't think they already
easily know that will increase their revenue way more that my cost. Then I
make the cold call (<3min), just to ask if I can send them an email with some
analysis. They almost always get back the next day with an email or call back
for more details or some adjustments.

Hope to go all into startup in a near future, only focusing on this. Love the
feeling of solving real problems and see people willing to pay for it
recurring <3

~~~
ryanjmo
Hey! It sounds like both your consulting and budding start-up are very
interesting. I'm looking to get into consulting. Python and SQL and my
specialties.

If you want to cut back on your consulting perhaps I can try to take some of
the work off of you. I could work under you at half your price $140/h, so you
could spend more time on your start-up and still be making money from your
consulting and keep your clients. It makes sense for me as it would be a quick
way for me to get into consulting and it seems like you already have the
workflow, etc down.

Or perhaps you would want to work with someone on your startup. I have had a
few successful start-ups over the years.

You can check my LinkedIn and my email is in my HN profile. Get in touch if
you are interested!

------
3pt14159
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.

------
tptacek
* Raise your rates. You need to charge _way_ more than your FTE rate. _Way_ more.

* Say "no" to prospects that don't fit your practice/price.

* Avoid freelancing/matching sites.

* Don't bill hourly. Don't track hours.

* Specialize.

* Be prepared for clients to be very late on payments.

* You can't stop selling when you hit capacity. Be intentional about smoothing your utilization out.

~~~
stockkid
> You can't stop selling when you hit capacity. Be intentional about smoothing
> your utilization out.

Could you explain more?

~~~
runako
Not the OP, but after consulting for many years, I could make some educated
guesses.

If you stop selling (networking, outreach, etc.) when you're fully utilized
now, you will impair your ability to stay utilized later. If you have a
project that you expect to wind down in 90 days, communicate that to prospects
without pushing them away.

For example, we overestimate what a start time of "now" means in business.
Sometimes, it's "today." Other times, "now" means "right after I get back from
vacation, roughly 3 weeks from now" or "this quarter." Depending on the
client, contracts + background check and other on boarding can take weeks of
(unpaid) calendar time.

I've seen people turn away work slated for a start date of "soon" because they
were on a project for another few weeks. A better move would have been to let
the client know the existing project was winding down but let's get the
paperwork started now for a quick start later.

------
scarface74
Daedtech has an excellent article

[https://daedtech.com/software-consulting/](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 using something like Upwork.

I’ve been building up a curated list of _local_ third party recruiters for
years. I always engage with them when they reach out to me.

Even though they call the above “consulting”, it’s actually closer to just
freelancing.

~~~
hardwaresofton
Read every single article on daedtech.com related to software consulting (and
maybe some that aren't) -- the amount of insight contained inside those
articles for free is insane.

99% of the people who think they are doing consulting (me included) are not
doing consulting. If you're getting paid to write software, you're not a
consultant, you're a freelancer/service provider. Let those words shake you
then read all the writing on daedtech.com to learn _why_ and see if you
disagree (you won't).

~~~
krn
> If you're getting paid to write software, you're not a consultant, you're a
> freelancer/service provider.

That's by definition:

 _consult_ verb (used with object): to get information or advice from a
person, book, etc. with special knowledge on a particular subject

[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/consult](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/consult)

~~~
hardwaresofton
You're right that it's very obviously in the definition of the rowds and
_should_ be this simple to classify "software consultancy" by definition, but
that's not what's out there in practice.

How people use (in this case misuse) the term leads to confusion and the
linked article (and the other related ones) starts with this fact as the
baseline (we're in agreement) and goes into how/why software shops are doing
it wrong/mislabeling themselves, and how you can stop doing that. It seems to
be exactly what OP is looking for.

~~~
tptacek
I don't see anything in the OP asking for an extended semantic debate about
the meaning of the word "consultant" or any problem any consultant has that
could be solved by it.

------
davidscolgan
Welcome to the wild world of consulting! I hope you enjoy your stay, it's the
only way to live in my opinion.

What's helped me in my freelancing/consulting journey more than anything else
has been building one on one relationships (aka, networking). The more people
you know who know what you do, the more opportunities you'll have come your
way. Some call it Luck Surface Area.

Join a paid online community of other consultants. Go to meetups around your
city. If someone wants to learn programming take them out for coffee. Go to
networking events. Give talks in public. Anything that will introduce you to
other humans. Then keep track of all of them in a CRM. Follow up with people
and provide as much value to them as you can. Participate in Hacker News (this
post is increasing the number of people you might meet!). Put it on your
Github/Twitter/Website etc.

Ways I've gotten gigs lately:

* Person from my online freelancer community I'd talk with multiple times was working on a project and they needed help, brought me on, now I'm getting more work from that client.

* Someone from college I hadn't talked to in 8 years saw my LinkedIn profile and contacted me about a project for their company.

* Someone saw a comment on HN about my work and reached out to me.

* College student wanted advice on freelancing, I took them out for coffee, 3 months later "I decided not to freelance but I found a client, do you want them?"

* Sitting in a coworking space and person I met yesterday and told about my business says, "I'm getting a full time job, want this client?"

None of these have had to really come from direct "selling" and all of them
came to me which in my experience makes it way better since they already want
and trust you. I don't even feel like I'm all that good at promoting myself,
but I have work because I talk to people.

Happy to chat about this further if you want, my email's in my profile. Best
of luck in your consulting!

~~~
topoftheforts
I couldn't agree more with this advice. I'm more of a dev than a consultant,
but I believe this applies to many fields.

I quit my job a year ago to start doing freelance/contract work, I never
directly looked for clients but just by having good relationships with my
former employer, colleagues, and people I know in general, by October I had so
many projects on my hand I had to work 80hrs/week for a short period of time.

Just to re-iterate in how many different ways you can get projects and even
long-term clients, this is my "how I've gotten gigs" list:

* Former employer: when I quit I was 100% honest, boss trusted me and wanted to keep working with me. They are still giving me work

* Former colleague: he quit right before me, started his own small company, knew he could count on me being a reliable dev, became a long-term client

* I was looking for devs on Twago, in order to get help in case I had too many jobs on my hand. One of the applicants was a small dev agency looking for projects. They ended up giving me work, instead of the other way around.

* (most random one) A client I had a few years ago, during my first venture as entrepreneur, messaged me on Skype by mistake, thinking I was somebody else they knew. Turns out they needed a dev, became a long-term client.

* Went back home to Italy during the summer, rented a room for a few months. My landlord was working in marketing, ended up giving me a few very good clients

------
aunty_helen
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 lot of 'digital nomads.' They
all do interesting things and the stories of how they got there are all
different. And if they don't like it anymore, they can stop at any time.

In short, there's other options than diving from a job that's burnt you out
straight into a consulting gig.

~~~
kzzzznot
Unfortunately for a lot of people, their lives will implode if they stop
working. If they stop working, they receive no income and have to either eat
into savings (if they're lucky) or would otherwise struggle to pay rent/life
expenses.

~~~
aunty_helen
And I understand that, most people that I meet have jobs. A lot doing
marketing, social media, copywriting, language teaching.

I'm using my savings to bootstrap my idea currently. This side gig I've picked
up is a bit of a distraction.

If I stayed at home and continued to live as I was my runway would've been 3-4
months.

------
eldavido
This whole thread is misguided.

You're starting from a position of _what do I have_ (software dev skill) and
trying to backfit a need onto it.

The right mentality is to think hard about _your buyer_ : What are you
selling, why would someone buy it, and how would they find you? Ideally it
should be some kind of business need, like "I want to stop using Expedia at my
hotel and transition to get more direct bookings" or "I need a very high-
value, complex system migrated from one thing to another". The more
risk/difficulty/P&L impact/fewer people can do it, the more you can charge.

What you don't want to do is come in and just be a coder. Those are a dime a
dozen. Even though developer skill varies dramatically, there's no way to
really bill for that. Most business buyers are going to see "C# developer" and
want to pay the lowest rate they can. It is outrageous how little the pay
difference (even at software companies) is between high and low performers.
It's like 2x, it should probably be like, 10x (no company outside finance
would ever tolerate this kind of pay difference). You will never win charging
2x when the other guy is charging 1x for what, on paper, looks like the same
skill (a relationship/reputation can offset this partially).

Don't become a "consultant" unless you want to do sales and marketing full-
time, as that is the end-state of a successful consulting career. If that
isn't your cup of tea, either find a better dev job (if you want to keep
coding professionally) or find a company like 10x who will place you with good
clients and do the grunt work for you of selling, where you can simply come in
and provide value as a high-skilled technical person (which has its benefits,
including decent pay, work from anywhere, put up with less of the posturing/BS
of typical office life).

Source: did this. Wasted a lot of time doing bottom-of-the-barrel dev work
before I realized probably 95% of the software that gets written in the world
is boring, not particularly well paid, and has no real career trajectory in
front of it.

~~~
gwbas1c
I worked as a contractor early in my career, on a team made up of contractors.

It's just temp work. It wasn't how I wanted to run my career, but I wouldn't
knock anyone for doing it.

------
dmilicic
If you don't know where to get clients or you don't yet know how to sell
yourself, then I suggest applying to one of the premium developer networks
like Toptal, Gigster, CodeControl or Pilot.

I found that selling yourself directly to companies as a consultant takes a
different set of skills and requires more than just being a great engineer.

However, to get into these developer networks you only have to be good at what
you do and their job is then to sell you as a great developer/consultant. You
only have to know how to pass technical interviews.

At least that's my recommendation for when you are just starting out.

But to get great consulting contracts you have to pick a niche where it's
difficult to find people and be good at it. For example, I got a large
contract by just being good at doing bluetooth connections between Android and
BLE devices.

PS: I have a referral link to Toptal, but you don't have to use it and can
apply via regular means: [https://www.toptal.com/#work-with-the-best-
programmers-today](https://www.toptal.com/#work-with-the-best-programmers-
today)

------
sitkack
You need two things 1) an accountant and 2) customers. Lots of people get
thrust into consulting because they are given a customer.

Technical skill is required but not sufficient. Even average is ok. What
matters is all the stuff around the technology. Most of it being diligence,
follow through, following up and being predictable and consistent. You have
those and you can write your ticket.

~~~
szaroubi
I would add to this the following points: \- being 5 minutes ahead of your
customer in terms of what is hot and useful (or: the second part is super
important) \- constantly ensure that your deliver value to your client ( if
they negotiate you on price, bring it back to the value your deliver ) \- good
communication skills (the capacity to explain your thoughts in plain , concise
language) \- good situational awareness (understand your clients problems and
solve for that (not the tech that you want to test) \- get your ego out of the
way, if your client or someone on their team doesn't accept your solution,
raise ) argument once or twice, then stop. Your client understands his/her
context better than you. If your solution is not retained, it is not a
reflection of how good you are. \- steernaway from internal politics. \- build
good personal relationships with people (your client, their employees, other
providers / consultants) this will help you build your network and get more
work.

Hope that helps.

Personally I had great projects and others were lawyers were involved. But all
in all, switching projects every other month, meeting new people , playing
with different architectures ... It keeps me sharp and super happy.

Again hope that helps.

~~~
sitkack
Your comment reminds me of something else you touched on, make everyone around
you look good to great all the time. Never call anyone out and give tactical
advice to all levels. If someone is really into Redis, tell them about some
new cool extension module. If someone likes Kafka, show them some new commit
that does a cool thing. Go out and seek these things in technologies the
customer uses. They think ur on the ball, and they are given something that
they can pass on and look even better.

------
uxisnotui
Philip Morgan specifically has a ton of advice in the area of positioning
oneself to be a sought-after consultant in technical fields. Even if I'm in UX
and content I found his book "The Positioning Manual for Technical Firms" to
be invaluable:

[https://philipmorganconsulting.com/the-positioning-manual-
fo...](https://philipmorganconsulting.com/the-positioning-manual-for-
technical-firms/)

------
foobar1962
1) Don't quit work until you have a couple of clients lined up.

Seriously, treat it like a side-gig until you make more per hour than the day
job.

~~~
gk1
I quit my job and lived off savings until consulting picked up. I don’t know
that I would’ve tried as hard or gotten those first few clients if I was
treating it as a side-gig in the evenings.

~~~
andy_adams
Depends - I started freelancing with 2 kiddos and little savings, so I had to
do the side-gig transition until I was sure it'd make ends meet.

You definitely need a "fire" keeping you moving, though - if you have savings
& low expenses, making the leap to full-time can force you to learn fast.

------
franze
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
lights on").

then, what is your product? what do you want to advise on? and find out why
this would be so valuable to pay you 10k, 25k, 50k, ...

then, get a client, anyway you can and make sure you deliver 20x to 100x times
the value than what you cost (note: make sure your client can and will execute
what you advised, otherwise you did not deliver any value). make the client
your reference case, market the reference case, go a month on a vacation, your
next two clients will be waiting when you come back.

my consulting company: [https://www.f19n.com/](https://www.f19n.com/)

~~~
asark
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 :-) )

------
xfitm3
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.

------
saasbuyer
Never charge by the hour, as it gives a ceiling to your potential earnings.
Charge by the job/retainer/etc and then spend a lot of energy becoming more
efficient.

~~~
softwaredoug
But beware you take on a ton of risk, especially as complexity and size of
project grows. Many clients will also divide the price by how many hours they
think you’re working and still think in hourly terms...

------
vbsteven
Make sure you are really good at what you want to consult on. Find your niche.
It helps if you've been doing the same thing as an employee for a while so you
already have references. Or if possible start doing it "on the side" for a
while to build up some experience.

For me my niche is making already built PoC projects ready for production and
scaling those. So I target small startups typically with 1 to 5 developers
with a PoC built, some traction and a good funding round so they can bring me
in with my experience to stabilize/deploy/scale their product and build proper
development, testing and deployment practices.

I've been doing that for years, first as an employee, then combined consulting
with employee work and since 2015 switched to full time consulting. I have
built up a network of investors and people in the local startup scene and
whenever my current contracts are almost finished I start pinging those
contacts for more companies that fit the criteria.

------
DyslexicAtheist
Depending on skills you can earn a magnificent hourly rate in comparison to
full-time employment and have more freedom in the types of projects you pick.
Location matters a lot though. Be ready to jump on a plane / train to discuss
with potential clients. It takes a lot of grit especially if you build your
own client base and wish to avoid middle-men who broker to the larger
companies.

For larger firms though you won't get in without middleman (because of
preferred supplier lists (PSL)). The bigger players pay you usually
competitive rates (unless the middleman is fucking with you which is rare but
happens), but you won't own the relationship with the client (the middleman
does). Work for smaller firms and you run a higher risk of losing money, not
getting paid or getting shafted simply because they think they can.

Ask a lawyer to help you draft contract templates which reflect how you
envision any business relationship and then make your clients that you work
for directly sign that (rather than expecting them to talk to their own lawyer
which the won't do if they never considered bringing in a freelancer).

Find other freelancers in your region to speak to and get a feel for what they
charge and how they go about acquiring new clients.

Biggest question when pitching to middlemen is "do you have any
freelance/consulting" experience. If no this will be a read flag. So be
creative to get your foot in the door.

Ensure you stay on their radar: Send your professional profile to every
middle-man in the country and keep updating them with the latest version and
your current availability.

Always say yes to any opportunity when asked for an interview (even you're
busy right now with something else, or it is slightly off-topic for you). It's
a chance to network and to practice your pitch (practicing the skills of
interviewing and marketing your skills/brand is even more important than
knowing your technical stuff, the latter should be taken for granted).

Gerald M. Weinberg's "The Secrets of Consulting" is excellent for anyone
starting out in consulting or for those who consider hiring them (in any case
your world might never be quite the same after reading this book):

[https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Consulting-Giving-Getting-
Suc...](https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Consulting-Giving-Getting-
Successfully/dp/0932633013)

~~~
barry-cotter
> For larger firms though you won't get in without middleman (because of
> preferred supplier lists (PSL)).

If that’s true for you then you’re either a freelancer, not a consultant, or
you’re not charging enough/not in enough demand that they’re willing to work
with you one on one.

Nick Disabato has one employee and charges $15,000 and up a quarter for Draft
Revise. Do you think he goes through a preferred supplier list? By the same
token, when patio11 was a one man consulting firm charging $10-30K for a
week’s onsite consulting you think he went though a recruiter?

[https://draft.nu/revise/](https://draft.nu/revise/)

> Draft Revise engagements are serious, long-term, design-driven, and
> consultative. We are not a chop-shop contractor, and we do everything in our
> power to be worth your time and your business's money. Before you send this
> application, we ask that you be prepared to commit to upfront fees at or
> above USD $15,000 for our first quarter of work together. The final fee we
> quote for you will be based on the value we're capable of providing for your
> business.

~~~
koboll
>If that’s true for you then you’re either a freelancer, not a consultant, or
you’re not charging enough/not in enough demand that they’re willing to work
with you one on one.

I think they were speaking to the OP, who seems to not yet be a consultant, as
they are considering "Becoming" one

------
scardine
The hardest part for me was learning how to spot good clients from bad
clients. Reading the "Win without pitching" manifesto"[1] transformed my
business (I'm not affiliated in any way).

"Breaking the time barrier"[2] is also a good book I wish to have found
earlier.

[1] [https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/the-
manifesto/](https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/the-manifesto/)

[2] [https://www.freshbooks.com/fbstaticprod-uploads/public-
websi...](https://www.freshbooks.com/fbstaticprod-uploads/public-website-
assets/other/Breaking-the-Time-Barrier.pdf)

------
jypepin
I operate as a full time consultant (more like as a full time studio) and
although getting my first clients was easy, I'm not having a roadblock on how
to get new business. My clients are all happy and I've asked for referrals,
and I'm sure they'll do without issue once they meet someone looking, but
until then I'm not sure what to do...

~~~
toyg
In a similar boat - I have a couple of customers that generate repeated
business more or less regularly, but have no idea how to generate more. My
niche is very profitable but very small and not really based around where I
live. I am also really lazy...

I'm tempted to give a spin to Linkedin premium features, or just exit the
niche and sell myself as a regular coder.

~~~
cedex12
what's that niche?

~~~
toyg
[http://linkedin.com/in/glacava](http://linkedin.com/in/glacava)

------
soVeryTired
>In the pin factory, when learning comes first, we neither expect nor want the
workers to improvise on any aspect of the product, except to produce it more
efficiently.

Sounds like a Dickensian nightmare to me. I would have thought some of the
_best placed_ people to suggest improvements are the people who build the
pins, second only to people who use the pins every day.

Stay classy HBR.

~~~
nerdponx
You wouldn't want them to be improvising _while on the assembly line_. You
want their feedback, just not while they're supposed to be making pins.

If they're in a position where they _need_ to be improvising in order to make
pins correctly or efficiently, that's a bad sign.

------
playing_colours
I regularly see the salaries in FAANG companies; a senior specialist can make
400k a year there. Does it make sense to be a freelancer in the US with all
hustle attached, if you can just put on "golden handcuffs", and make similar
or more money at a large corp?

------
skizm
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.

~~~
rchaud
Best way to find out is to look at the top companies in your metropolitan
area, and see if there's someone in your LinkedIn network at any of those
companies you could reach out to and ask.

Stuff I've seen consultants getting hired for: \- Salesforce implementation \-
Sharepoint implementation \- AWS/Azure implementation

Again, depends heavily on what issues companies in your area are facing, that
they're not looking to hire FT for.

------
obiefernandez
Use the right contract. I’ve been a successful consultant for many years and
sell my contract templates at [https://msabundle.com](https://msabundle.com)

------
gfunk911
Toptal is a great place to start. I used them for a while after I quit a
previous job. It won't teach you how to find your own clients, but it will
help ease you in.

------
jtrtoo
Hi. That's quite a topic! I've been consulting as my primary source of income
going on 13 years consecutively (and consulting / freelancing for far longer
than that).

I occasionally post about my experiences. Perhaps you'll find something useful
in my archives: [https://joshrichards.net/tag/self-
employment/](https://joshrichards.net/tag/self-employment/)

------
flurdy
If you are leaning more towards contracting than consultancy then I did write
up some practical starter tips [1]. Note it is biased towards my situation at
the time, IT related contractor based in London, but I think it holds up as
general advice elsewhere as well.

[1]
[https://blog.flurdy.com/2015/10/contracting-101.html](https://blog.flurdy.com/2015/10/contracting-101.html)

------
jorgeleo
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?

------
gargarplex
I helped write a book on this: [https://www.amazon.com/Software-Engineers-
Guide-Freelance-Co...](https://www.amazon.com/Software-Engineers-Guide-
Freelance-Consulting-ebook/dp/B01N1TTJFK/)

If you just email me (email in profile), I will send you a free pdf copy. All
I ask is that you leave a review once you find your first client.

------
vanderburgt
Three books that should get you into the consultant state of mind:

1\. The McKinsey Way by Ethan M. Rasiel

2\. The Consultant's Handbook by Samir Parikh

3\. Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath

Good luck!

------
edw519
Sorry to say, it looks like you're approaching this backwards.

You shouldn't be looking for resources, steps, advice, pitfalls, experiences,
or anything else.

You should be looking for a customer whose hair is on fire.

Then, and only then, should you be looking for whatever it takes to build them
a fire extinguisher. Anything else is a waste of time.

~~~
PopeDotNinja
> You should be looking for a customer whose hair is on fire.

Maybe when their hair is smoking. It's easier to help a client who is
sufficiently motivated. It's harder to help a client who is completely
panicked & out of control.

------
pythonbase
Some great tips shared in this thread.

I'd also suggest reading up and following Jonathan Stark and his ditching
hourly mantra.

------
gk1
Lots of good advice here.

Here’s my take on it, along with an unvarnished recap of my first year as a
consultant:

[https://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-
consulting-l...](https://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-consulting-
leads/)

------
mrmrcoleman
First figure out whether you’re an actual consultant or an
external/freelancer.

If you’re a freelancer the bar is fairly low, if you’re a consultant you
should really be bringing more to the table.

Read the secrets of consulting by Gerry Weinberg.

Network with other consultants, they’ll become a major source of new work for
you.

------
vinrob92
I run a Facebook group mostly on running productized services / productized
consulting. Might be useful to you!

[https://www.facebook.com/groups/192719694795609/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/192719694795609/)

------
acro5piano
I have been working as a consultant/contractor since April last year.

Writing a lot of good blog posts is the best. Sometimes people contact me
directly via my blog.

Now software developers are shortage, so you can find your clients easily.
Good luck!

------
alexknowshtml
Start here: [https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/category/start-
freelancing...](https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/category/start-freelancing/)

~~~
uxisnotui
Third this. Perhaps the most organized, complete set of free info on
consulting, pricing, and negotiation. His book Double Your Freelance Rate is
pretty great too.

------
dbinder
Check out www.hyke.me. They helped setup my LLC and S-Corp. They offer a bunch
of services specifically aimed at back-office work for freelancers. Good
people and super helpful.

------
baybal2
Reputation/connections... Been a GM/VP in an MNC? That level is what people
look for in consulting deals.

------
chrisa
I wrote several blog posts and a little guide about to get your first client
as a software consultant:
[https://www.breakintoconsulting.com/](https://www.breakintoconsulting.com/)

Short version: become a "visible expert" in your field (blog posts, ebook,
meetup talks), and then connect with people who might need your service.

------
spacedog11
This is something that I am interested in learning about.

------
finnley
Be prepared to spend a lot of time building up your professional network and
brand - and never stop. When times are good, you'll feel like you can stop
because opportunities are all over the place. When times aren't so good,
you're going to want to avoid scrambling for more work.

Good luck.

~~~
maxxxxx
That’s a very important point. Most of us will have a tendency to focus on the
tech work but the real key to success is to always network and making
connections. Also learn how to talk to C level execs because in the end they
have control over the budgets and that’s where the money is. Also learn how to
present your work. Doing a good job by itself is not worth much if nobody
knows about it.

------
europsucks
I started by tagging along with a friend, who recommended me for a project he
was already working for. It was easier to find the courage that way.

The next time somebody hired my, I simply said I'd prefer to work on a
freelance basis. They were OK with it, however, because of my lack of
experience with freelancing, I accepted a rate that was much too low. So that
may be an easy way into becoming a consultant: just say you want to be a
consultant...

I figured that out when I became I'll - nothing serious, but I realized I need
to ask for more money to compensate for downtimes and risks that employees
don't have (also, saving for my own retirement).

After that, I also registered with some freelance sites, like Jobserve and
Gulp (latter might be a German thing, but they offered nice statistics for
average salaries).

Because I struggle with occasional burnout or simply hating my job, I din't
even do much of the network building or friend recommendations. But recruiters
keep calling, just as long your CV has the right keywords. Even long gaps of
"unemployment" don't seem to matter that much.

However, for the same reason, these days I would almost recommend against
sending out your CV or registering with recruiting agencies. Now my profile is
out there, and I can not retract it very easily. So I keep getting those
calls, even though I don't really want them anymore. I'd say if you can get by
without sending out your CV, it would be better.

I haven't really cut ties completely - maybe if I told those recruiters that I
definitely don't want to be called ever again, they would comply. But I
wouldn't count on it - in general, they just ignore "wishes" in the CV, like
preferences for locations to work in.

I was also that way probably not necessarily getting the best jobs (in terms
of interestingness, the pay was always OK). It was more "crap, my bank account
is running low, I better accept this contract", rather than strategically
working towards work I would like. A bit of a "golden handcuffs" problem, I
guess - you have to say no to good offers to be available for the ones you
actually want.

This may have been more serious for me than it sounds - by being stuck in
dreadful Java Enterprise projects, job frustration would mount again, causing
me to quit for months, causing me to eventually accept the next best offer,
for the cycle to repeat. Maybe with a more proactive way of acquiring
contracts, the frustration cycle could have been avoided altogether. (Not
sure, though).

Nevertheless, overall I think consulting is great in principle. You earn more
money, see more different companies and projects, and the hiring process is
not that fucked up. Usually they give you an initial contract for a month, to
see if you work out. So they don't have to evaluate you for weeks and weeks to
see if you are a good fit. If you are not, they simply don't extend your
contract.

~~~
europsucks
Editing of posts seems to be broken. Sorry for the typos. Also had added some
more thoughts on liability for neglience and signing NDAs which are now lost,
but I don't want to try again.

