

Consulting sucks, but thanks for the work - webwatch
http://www.16thletter.com/2008/05/22/consulting-sucks-but-thanks-for-the-work/

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edw519
Consulting does NOT need to be a tradeoff when starting a software startup.

Why not?

If you pick your customers carefully enough, they can be the R & D department
for your startup. They don't even realize it and they pay you for the
privilege!

You are going to need tons of feedback for your software. One strategy is the
well-known "release early and often". Another, just as effective, is "find out
from your own customers before you develop". You will still need to release
early and often, just not as early and not as often.

I estimate that more than half of the ideas for features in my software came
from existing consulting customers. Things I would have never thought of, and
now I know they're necessary. Without them I would have been releasing alot
more often and early, and may have _never_ received the same valuable input.

OP know this and mentions it, albeit only is passing:

"3. Learn from the work"

I spend less time consulting than many entrepreneurs spend fund raising. I
like to think of my customers as "angels whose money I get to keep".

~~~
diego
I agree with everything you said. It's been working the same way for my
company. To us the key has been to choose our clients carefully, and make sure
that our contact on the client's side is a technical person. Having to explain
why something is easy/hard/impossible to a non-technical person can be a huge
time sink.

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onlinesu
Some people make a living off being consultants and would be thankful for any
job that they could get! Although your point is valid - there are pros and
cons to any business model.

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erickhill
The challenge becomes when the client/consulting work overtakes the time one
can spend on the startups. Truly, if there is no outside investment, this is
hard to do as a labor of love on the side. It's possible, but that much more
likely to fail. Just my opinion.

You hear about these types of scenarios in the entertainment business as
inspirational anecdotes. But, it's like winning the lottery. Less than 1% of
1% may make it. Doesn't mean you shouldn't try!

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tptacek
What contribution does this post make?

~~~
hugh
Why, it tells us all sorts of important things, like that the author does
consulting work, but doesn't like it, but apparently it pays money, so that's
okay!

It also provides some handy bullet-point tips on successful consulting as
copied from some other article. They include such gems as "Charge by the Hour"
and "Network".

Oh, and it has a pretty, if somewhat unrelated, picture in the middle, which
makes it look a bit like joelonsoftware and thus totally buys it some
credibility, in my book.

~~~
PI
hopefully no one here will rise to your bait.

~~~
hugh
Shrug. We can't be sarcastic about useless-looking articles any more?

~~~
PI
because it doesn't add anything to the "conversation"...

