
So you want to be a consultant? - CaptainMorgan
http://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html
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icey
I wish I could upvote this a hundred times. It's been a couple of years since
I've consulted, but almost every piece of advice in this article is good.

I take some issue with his finance section, but it looks like he's a set up as
a Sole Proprietorship (it's a bad idea if you're consulting by the way; set up
an LLC or a Corporation, and spend a few bucks on a CPA). It's risky to run
all your personal accounts in line with your business accounts; I think most
people here understand why (in case you don't, this is where "piercing the
corporate veil" occurs).

Otherwise, there are tons of great pointers in here, including more than a few
that I wished I had thought about when I was consulting.

If you're thinking about consulting I would seriously print this out and read
it multiple times; I know it would have saved me some heartache when I was
getting things figured out.

~~~
jon_dahl
Overall a great article, but I had a few issues too:

1\. I worry about giving away some things for free. If you give away research
time for free, or you chase a dead end and decide not to bill it, do you set a
precedent that those things will be free in the future?

2\. You're absolutely right on the financial front. Mingling your business and
personal expenses, and not operating as an LLC or corporation, means all sorts
of unnecessary risk.

3\. He suggests that a consultant who only works regular hours is _less_
valuable than a consultant who is willing to work 24/7, and so justifies lower
rates. I think this is backwards: if I'm going to pay someone $100/hour, I
want to know that they're thinking clearly and have slept.

Otherwise, this is great advice. I wish I'd had it 5 years ago, when I started
my first dev shop. The Warm Fuzzy Feeling (tm) concept right on; customers
want a good relationship, and responsive communication, as much as they want
technical skills.

~~~
jbert
"If you give away research time for free, or you chase a dead end and decide
not to bill it, do you set a precedent that those things will be free in the
future?"

I don't think so. You set a precedent that you will be fair to the customer.
If you don't chisel them out of every minute, they'll trust you when you do
bill them.

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petercooper
If someone reads only one part of that page, it should be:

 _Why work 8 hours/day for someone else when you can work 16 hours/day for
yourself?_

If you think it's a dumb question because the answer is obvious, you've got
the right mindset. If you think it's a serious question, stick to your day
job.

~~~
CaptainMorgan
Excellent point. I'd rather work all day for myself... actually, I do that now
- and I wouldn't change it(unless I had no choice) for some 9-5'er. :)

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GavinB
Great article. It's good to note that "The warm fuzzy feeling" is not unique
to consulting. It is important in any area of business. This includes dealing
with customers, investors, and even co-workers, employees, or supervisors.

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kungfooey
I printed this article out a couple of years ago when I started consulting and
it has been an inspiration to me. It's always worthy of a re-read!

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jyothi
Great article. I have been consulting and though I stand by all of these, it
had been real hard to manage some of those. I can't say it in words how much
this article helps.

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vaksel
excellent article, especially in the current economic situation where everyone
could use a consulting gig to supplement their income

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charcoal
There's no date on this article and I remember bookmarking it long ago. When
was it written?

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pkrumins
What this document basically means is - You Don't Want To Be A Consulant.

~~~
tptacek
Because?

~~~
pkrumins
Because it's very stressful.

~~~
icey
This is true... if you make it true.

My time as a consultant included the most challenging stuff I've probably
worked on; but it was also some of the most rewarding work I've done.
Consulting is a pretty vast world; you can be a glorified contractor or you
can go help companies actually solve some of their deep problems. If you have
a good customer-base, you can be up to your ears in interesting work and get
paid incredibly well for it.

The downside is that you're a bit of a ronin, and you have to be ruthless with
the customers you keep as well as the new customers you bring on.

I don't think I have the energy to do it full time any more, because it is
incredibly time consuming; but I am definitely glad I did it for as long as I
did.

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Allocator2008
The author is completely wrong about "client v. customer". Your "customers"
should be "clients", because it instills confidence. The difference is the
country doctor versus the highly payed surgeon. A country doctor pokes around
and asks "where does it hurt". The highly payed surgeon goes in to the
situation and says, OK, this is your problem, I have performed this procedure
100 times, this is what we need to do. So if your client's pain is not having
a good website, you go in there and say, OK, this is what we need to do,
wether that be the look and feel, optimizing it for search, adding video,
whatever. Don't say "what do you want me to do", say, "this is my
recommendation based on my knowledge of the problem you are having and my
experience in that problem's solution".

The principle underlying this, is you want your revenue curve to be linear as
you add more customers, but you want your cost curve to be logarithmic, that
is, you want to do LESS work for the next customer than you did for your last
customer, and still get the same payment. What I mean by less work, is
basically provide the same solution for the same problem, but since you have
done it before, it is easier the next time. Have a basic approach for the
problems your clients have, so, for example, if they need their website
optimized for search, have a basic strategy for doing this, and apply that for
each new customer with this same problem.

Kissing the customer's behind and re-inventing the wheel for each new customer
doesn't do anybody any good. It reduces the consultant's profit by requiring
more time, and it reduces the efficiency with which the customer gets their
solution, because the consultant is being a short-order cook with them and re-
inventing solutions for every new problem, which takes a lot longer.

So if you want to slave away re-doing the same thing over and over again for
each new customer, by all means, treat the client as a "customer", but if you
want to provide timely solutions for the client, and not have to re-invent the
wheel all of the time, then take the "surgeon" based approach and not the
"country doctor" based approach.

The client pays you to know the solution to their problem. So don't ask them
what solution would they like, rather, tell them the recommended solution that
you know works. Kind of like you don't want your doctor asking you which
treatment for your brain tumor you most prefer. Rather, you want your doctor
telling you which treatment for your brain tumor is going to the most
effective, based on how that treatment has worked for others. Sure be nice and
respectful to the client, but inspire confidence in having a good grasp on
what will work for them and what will not.

~~~
tptacek
5 paragraphs about country doctors notwithstanding, it costs more to
constantly acquire new clients than it does to continue servicing a steady
client. It also makes your pipeline more predictable, and it generates word-
of-mouth business. Companies continue to do business with people they like
doing business with. Customer service is a win.

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weegee
good article, it's been bookmarked for future reference.

