

Ask HN: Work on products, or take a break for (seemingly) lucrative consulting? - dangrover

I'm an undergraduate and I run a small Mac and iPhone software business (http://www.wonderwarp.com) that, in the past, has been done in &#60;2 hours a day while either being a full-time student or an intern.<p>The business has been juuuust allllmooost ramen-profitable in 2007 (thanks for coining the term, PG!), which I only consider an achievement because I'm not engaged full-time on it. If I were, there would be tons of things I'd improve in my software and business processes. Plus I have a whole shelf of ideas waiting to be evaluated and fleshed out.<p>I finished an internship, then had to have surgery, and now for August, I'm renting a desk at a wonderful co-working space where, so far, I've been very productive (much better than the apartment!). In September, I return to school, and I'd like to put the ramen-profitable thing to the test and make sure I never have to dip into savings during the semester (paying rent, meals, other expenses). Then in January, I start an internship with a company yet to be determined. (I go to NU, where that's part of the program)<p>However, in this month, due to all the hype around the iPhone and some other fortunate circumstances, I have a handful of prospective clients that I could make reasonable money off of, and could lead to better things down the road. I also rejected a decent full-time job for the rest of the summer working for a company that does the website for a major political campaign, which I'm kind of regretting now.<p>I've realized I'm kind of an indecisive douche, so I'd be interested to hear what you guys think...<p>1. Spend time primarily on client stuff = maybe reasonable money this month, possibly have this lead to bigger things and offers/referrals/internships where i learn something, but the business would languish and be sub-ramen-profitable for next semester, and most likely leave me in bad state to meet my 2009 sales goals. But hey, maybe meet some interesting characters and opportunities I wouldn't have anticipated being a total hermit and working on my own stuff.<p>2. Spend time primarily on my own products = Break even this month for certain, probably have a decent, incremental boost in sales for Sept-Dec, and maybe be in reasonable shape for 2009. There's some chance that the increased focus would let me get some <i>really</i> good work out that could bring real opportunities later, and wouldn't embarrass me as much. There's also a chance that I completely slack off, but I've gotten a lot more disciplined in the past year, and I'm liking this co-working thing.<p>Where do you think the iPhone consulting market is going? I don't really like consulting and wouldn't want to do it full-time as a career, but for those of you who have consulted, has it been something that's led to opportunities you wouldn't have anticipated? Every time I've done consulting, I've regretted it, but that's mostly because I never charged enough and it ended up being a poor use of time.  What would you do?<p>This particular business isn't something I'm married to -- it would be nice to have it bringing in the equivalent of a good salary by the time I graduate, but it has absolutely no focus or direction (other than financial goals and the vague notion of putting out better stuff), mostly just a lab for me to experiment with software and business.
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lsemel
Questions for you to think about to help make your decision:

\- Will the extra money from consulting reduce any worries you have about
money, thereby letting you focus on the product more?

\- Would consulting save you from having to take a full time job, giving you
extra time work on the product?

\- Can you consult on something very similar to your product, own the IP, and
use it as a way to learn about your market?

\- Can you take whatever custom thing you'd be building as a consultant and
instead develop a product out of that, and then sell the product to your
consulting customer?

\- Can you outsource part of the consulting, so you're just designing the
software, managing the project, and reviewing their work, thereby saving time
and drudgery, and letting you mark up the outsourced hours?

\- Could you meet good people consulting? (i.e. are you consulting for a
startup or tech company, as opposed to some company in an unrelated line of
business?)

\- Can you use the consulting gig to learn about tools or technologies you
want to use in your own startup? Can you use the consulting to learn about a
market that your startup is targeting?

\- Can you talk to more experienced consultants and get tips on how to charge
more and manage clients better?

~~~
dangrover
Thanks for the ideas! This is exactly what I was looking to hear more about.
I'm going to have to think more about those questions.

The only thing keeping me from treating the consulting differently is that the
product business is something that I can work on when I have time and put on
the back-burner if it's really needed and still have it generate passive
income. Not so much with clients and deadlines.

For the money thing, I've saved up about a year of living expenses, but I
don't want to dip into it. Ever. I've heard this gets harder if you're not
single, but I have high hopes :).

~~~
lsemel
Don't take tiny bits of work that are due in two days. But if it's a bigger
piece of software, you can tell them "It'll be ready in 6 weeks" then you'll
have time to do it on your own schedule, assuming you really don't need 6
weeks fulltime to do it. And set up a time limit, and a high rate, for
maintenance and bug fixes, so they don't keep calling you six months later to
add this or change that.

------
sidsavara
You could try a hybrid approach - develop client software, but negotiate to
own the intellectual property to parts of the software that are just "utility"
and not specific to their needs. I think Matt Raible once wrote a blog post
along those lines, but I don't have a link handy.

Edit: Clarification, the reason for this is that you would still make some
headway developing tools to aid you in your own software development. If there
is no overlap at all though, I think it's up to you to decide which is more
important at this point in time. You can always come back to client work
later, or always come back to your own product later. It is hard to do both at
the same time though, and it may not be feasible when crunch time comes - what
do you pick, your product, or theirs?

------
noodle
why can't you institute a consulting wing of the business?

might not be as fun as writing your personal stuff, but if 1 week of
consulting will carry you for the rest of the month on personal stuff, why
not?

~~~
dangrover
hmm that's an idea. But I've found it's hard to do a full-time occupation
(school/internship), keep the product side afloat, AND do consulting.

Plus, most clients I've worked with want sort of an ongoing commitment for the
project, not like a week here or there kind of thing.

------
trevelyan
Take your business seriously or drop it.

~~~
dangrover
Well, I have all these forced breaks in the form of school and required
internships, so it's impossible to fully commit for the next 3 years -- I
don't want to drop out. I guess that makes me not-so-serious...but I don't
really see what I'd buy with the all-or-nothing approach. It seems like I'd
miss out on all the experience/knowledge I'm getting now if I totally shut it
down, and I can't imagine spending my spare hours on anything else.

Sorry, don't mean to be rude, just puzzled.

