Ask HN: Becoming an independent technical consultant
4 comments
I've worked and talked with various dev/IT consultants over the years, and the advice I've gotten boils down to this: specialize in a niche or product. Don't just be a web development consultant, for example. Be a web development consultant with a focus on X.
That X can be anything. Things like Wordpress or Joomla, or product companies like SAP, MS CRM, verticals like finance/banking or energy, or even your own open source project on GitHub.
That X can be anything. Things like Wordpress or Joomla, or product companies like SAP, MS CRM, verticals like finance/banking or energy, or even your own open source project on GitHub.
That makes sense, thank you.
The same question came up just a little while ago:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9836376
Check out those threads and start digging. Patio11 is a good person to read up on.
Check out those threads and start digging. Patio11 is a good person to read up on.
I missed that one - thanks!
I mostly work for large organizations, but I don't want to spend the rest of my life doing that.
Over the years, I've been contracted by small and medium sized companies as a technical consultant. They are usually friends of friends, or someone I worked with in the past. Including time for paperwork, they typically last about two weeks. It pays well, so it doesn't need to be constant, just steady. As it is, this comes up about once a year.
Feedback I've received has revealed some advantages:
- one point of contact, they always talk to the same person - low to no sales pressure, since I don't have a product line to push - much less expensive than a full consulting firm, because I have little overhead - deliver solutions appropriate to the business. No tech for the sake of tech.
I'm getting ready to do the meetups, technical and business. Before I begin stumbling around, could I get some ideas of what small and medium, preferably technical, businesses might be looking for? What are other benefits? What's a good approach for initiating conversations - the "elevator pitch"? Are there other places I could look?
For what it's worth, I ran a small hosting company for a few years, but got out when everything started consolidating. I'm comfortable with the paperwork, taxes, etc. I'm terrible at marketing, and that's where I'd like your help.
I don't want this to be about me. I think there are others that would be interested.
Thank you.