
The day I did something - justinmayer
http://www.frankwiles.com/posts/2015/day-i-did-something/
======
tunesmith
Yeah, this is refreshing to read. One of my favorite scenes in movies is the
Wolf in Pulp Fiction, because the comedy of it is how there's no magic to the
Wolf. My own entry into consulting was similar to this guy's story - it felt
huge and mysterious and forbidding beforehand, but in hindsight it was just a
bunch of breaking problems down to stuff that felt boring and mundane in
hindsight, even if the solutions were stylized to my own needs.

One thing that was important to me was to be able to max out retirement
contributions even while being self-employed. (I think a lot of folks that go
into business for themselves will too easily convince themselves to sacrifice
that early on.) So I had a spreadsheet that basically factored in my needed
take-home income after taxes and retirement contributions, and added in those
taxes and contributions, and I turned it into a daily (weekday) dollar amount
that I needed to earn, complete with 7-day and 30-day moving averages. Being
able to check that daily helped me to know whether I was on the right track.
For the first few years, I think that was around $300-$400 per day - later on,
I was able to stop paying attention to it since I was exceeding it so much.

~~~
downandout
The first time I hired a really well-known, expensive attorney, I felt the
same way you do about the Wolf. I thought "There's no magic to what he is
doing, he is having the same conversations and doing the same things that I
would". It was the same when I took on a very wealthy business partner - he
did many of the same things that I would do.

In most cases, the work these kinds of people perform is neither magical nor
brilliant. It's that because of their reputation, resources, and influence,
when they do the same things that you would do, it has an entirely different
result. This is just one of the many unfair aspects of life - knowing exactly
what to do and working hard on it isn't even close to enough to make you
successful. If no one listens to you, it doesn't matter what you say or how
brilliant it is.

~~~
applecore
A similar situation is discussed in Godin's _Linchpin_ : you could do most of
that attorney's job, perhaps even better than he does, except for what he does
for five minutes a day. Of course, all the value is created in those five
minutes.

~~~
nickzoic
I think also, a really top notch expert makes what they're doing seem so
effortless that you do think "yeah, that's just what I would have done".

And probably you would have, at least eventually, although maybe with a couple
of false starts and by that point perhaps some misfeatures have already been
locked in and now your simple, elegant solution (the one you came up with all
on your own without some fancy consultant) isn't quite going to work the way
you'd like it to, but it's still 90% of the way there and you're only a little
bit over budget -- so long as you cut a couple of the less useful features you
should hopefully get the whole thing done before you lose the support of
management -- but then they change CTO and the whole thing gets put on hold
indefinitely.

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sadkingbilly
It seems a lot of consultancies follow this pattern:

    
    
        1. Hate permanent job.
        2. Start consultancy.
        3. Spend half the day finding work/collecting bills; other half programming.
        4. Eventually find reliable client with long-term project always pays on time.
        5. Cancels all other contracts to focus on reliable client.
        6. Go to step 1.
    

The way to break free from this is to scale the consultancy by hiring
developers and profiting on overhead. This was not mentioned in the post, but
if you neglect the scale factor, it will be very difficult to break past a
typical employee salary. There are only so many hours in the day. The
alternative is to sell a product.

~~~
benzor
I think your post is a little misleading in that #1 implies working for BigCo
on the first read-through, but then working for yourself on your own business
stuck with a single major client on the second read-through.

Perhaps some people will find this equivalent, should both stakeholders
(BigCo/single demanding client) be equally unpleasant, but I for one still see
a lot of value in having full control over my life and my time.

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mooreds
I thought this post was full of actionable advice for starting off on a
consulting adventure (product companies are a whole different animal, in my
opinion, definitely in terms of marketing research).

I did much the same. Having the savings are key, as are knowing your burn rate
and having a plan B.

At the start of my most recent consulting stint, I watched cash in the bank
and was prepared to be an employee if the balance fell below two months of
expenses.

~~~
frankwiles
Agreed! I call it my "get a job" date and I still calculate it about monthly.

~~~
jklinger410
I started consulting without this safety net due to...circumstances and with
the holiday seasons coming up (and my anniversary) I am really regretting it
to be completely honest.

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leoh
I've had the pleasure to work with Mr. Wiles. He's a wonderful person with
refreshing perspective. If you're working on a serious django project and you
want a little direction or advice on scalability or other technical decisions,
his consultancy is great to go to.

------
japhyr
Side note: RevSys put out a Django cheat sheet a while back, which was given
out at PyCon. Whenever I step away from Django for a bit and start to get
rusty, I pull out the cheat sheet as I'm getting back up to speed. It's helped
me work more efficiently on numerous occasions.

Download (pdf):
[http://media.revsys.com/images/django-1.5-cheatsheet.pdf](http://media.revsys.com/images/django-1.5-cheatsheet.pdf)

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skewart
I really liked the post.

I'd be curious to hear more about the process of finding work from people who
have made the leap into consulting. The post mentions networking and just
doing everything you can to increase your chances of meeting clients. That
makes perfect sense, but are there any other insights or good practices?

For example, is it good to be a little bit forward and make sure people know
you're a consultant looking for projects? Are certain kinds of networking
better than others? Have you ever done any kind of out-bound marketing, or
even cold-called potential clients? What about rules of thumb for whether or
not to take on a project (e.g. better to turn down small things and wait for
something big, or better to just take anything and everything, or certain
kinds of clients you avoid)?

I would imagine that with all of this stuff you kind of just have to use your
judgement. I also would suspect that everything gets much easier once you've
been doing been doing it for longer and have a proven track record and even
start to get referrals from previous clients. That said, it seems like getting
the ball rolling with finding work must be one of the hardest aspects of
starting out as a consultant.

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sb8244
How does this translate to SaaS where you might have paying customers on the
line if you fail? Is runway supposed to be longer, or does it just not matter
to them if it goes belly up?

~~~
ams6110
This should probably be covered in your terms of service? Along with what
happens if your SaaS is sold to another owner.

------
justinclift
This article has the start of his journey... and he's 8 year into it now.

But it gives no sense as to whether he's just breaking even, is killing it, or
what?

It wouldn't be that encouraging if after 8 years he's still struggling to make
ends meet, whereas if he's killing things (in the positive sense), that's more
inspiring. To me anyway. ;)

~~~
chris_wot
He runs REVSYS. I'd say he's doing OK. :-)

~~~
late2part
I'm not familiar with REVSYS. I don't know if this is a one man shop making
$80k gross or a 100 person consulting company throwing off $5M/year profit.

~~~
prawn
Six staff total.

(I followed the REVSYS link and then went to their About page.)

------
chris_wot
Love this page, very straight to the point and some great advise. No fancy
styling, just the facts. And no ad trackers!

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hodgesrm
This was a great read. Starting a company is more than anything else a matter
of getting off your duff and doing it. Then keeping at it through thick and
thin.

I particularly liked the point about raising your skills in non-core areas but
wanted to add a caveat: it is really important to find good partners. For
example, when selling technical products or services things tend to go better
if one person sells the technology (aka the good cop) and another handles the
money (aka the bad cop). Even if you are good at both it is hard to maintain
both personalities simultaneously.

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yarper
I wonder if the reluctance to rent an office, new desk etc extended when the
author started hiring?

I personally think its very important to ensure your employees know you spent
a bit of money making them comfortable and you value their work! I have worked
in a number of startups with a kind of shitty office, shitty equipment etc and
imo it always contributes to some kind of morale/impression problem.

------
swehner
No such thing as "fraternal grandparents"

~~~
frankwiles
Hahaha apparently I needed more coffee. Fixed, thanks!

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paxcoder
There's no 'actonable advice' in this post as far as I can see, except perhaps
'pay off debt'.

~~~
zdw
That, and the other financial strategies, are some pretty darn good actionable
advice for a lot of people starting out.

