>
> Okay, here's a question that goes more to the "consultants" side of the
> list then the "web" side necessarily. I've done a little bit of
> I offered them the chance to ask me to just build a site and then go
> away, but they're interested in my being involved with their business
> for the long term. But if this site takes off, it's not going to be a
> one-person-in-his-personal-time job, it'll be a full time job for a
> staff of people (hopefully!) I know this list contains a depth of
There are several types of consultants:
* High profile leader with his own crew, (David Segal comes to mind,)
* Sole proprietor with or without per-hour extras for special tasks
* Contractor working for agencies
Everyone else is really an employee at some level or other. Heck,
even contractors are often employees of the agencies. I do the lower two,
mostly in the software field. I don't have the ego and bluster to do the
top slot.
Sounds like they want you to be able to be one of their regular
extras. My first question of them, is how they plan to work the phones.
Never mind contacts, contracts, etc. What will they do when they need to
work the phones for the next contract? What is their marketing plan? And
how will they handle your position when that happens. If they say they
will never have to do that, forget them. If they admit it might be
necessary after the next batch of contracts, then you have someone who
might last. And in the bad times, if you know how to work the phones, you
are more likely to remain with them.
Consulting is a wonderful way to learn to economize, make do with
second hand equipment, etc. There are good times, when you are swimming
in money, and times when you wished to heck you hadn't bought that
frivolous two year old, one other owner car. If you know how to save, and
money does not encourage you to splurge, you can probably do very well.
The goal is both to know how to get new jobs, AND how to glide through the
downturns without crashing. I've been though wonderful times, and bad
ones. This spring was fairly good; but now I am working the phones to try
to get anything I can.
If you join a company, or you are independent, you need to be
comfortable working the phones. The person who does good work during
the good times, and knows how to work the phones during the lean times,
will be most respected. See http://www.mall-net.com/webcons/coldcall.html
> I also interested in your recommendations ofd any useful consulting
> references -- a friend of mine who has been a consultant already has
> suggested "Consulting for Dummies" (really!) Any others? (on- or
> off-line?)
I just scanned a few books in one of the book stores. (Would have
bought a few except for having been on the side lines most of the summer
after my little episode with the kidneys and silica hydride / microhydrin
crap. That really slowed me down for months as my metabolism and body
temperature went subnormal.)
Most of the consulting books glossed over the number one most
important thing: doing good telephone marketing. I like what one of the
books said about this big PhD consultant: He must have thought he
invented the magic telephone, because he sat in his office day after day
waiting for it to ring. It didn't. YOU have to ring someone else's
phone! And even that book had wildly optimistic projections of what
happens when you make 100 calls. 80%+ of the people answering the phone!
(Try 30%) Five appointments. (Try 0.1%) And maybe two projects (Try
0.01%) That means (at least in the programming field in Silicon Valley,)
you will have to make fifty to a hundred and fifty calls a day, day after
day, to get work. And that means getting perhaps a thousand No's, maybe
ten thousand No's, to get a Yes. If you don't have the psyche for it,
forget consulting.
As to being your own boss, forget it! You will work for whomever
will pay you. Sometimes the person will be nice, sometimes that person
will be an ogre. Always, the person will have deadlines, and reasons for
not paying you promptly. (Well, almost always.)
So if you have a regular full time job, and it is modestly
satisfying... think hard about this. But... if you have a wife who has a
steady income, or have superb confidence in your abilities AND adequate
examples of such; then you might consider it. Just remember, your
primary skill and your primary tool has to be dealing with that telephone.
Because when you finish an assignment, whether you sink or swim will
depend on two things:
1.) How many referrals you can drag out of your client, (which is
NEVER enough!)
2.) How well you can work the phone calling those referrals
and anyone else you can dredge out of the yellow pages who might be able
to use a web site or whatever you do best.
3.) How willing you are to put your face out before the public as Mr.
whatever it is that you do.
In a good market, #1 predominates. At all other times, it is #2. (I
don't want to do #3.)
The real work of consulting, is marketing yourself. The rest is just
stuff you know how to do. I look upon assignments as nice quiet
vacations. I usually enjoy them immensely, meet interesting people, make
some friends, and have a lot of fun doing what I do best -- thinking,
coming up with new ideas (which I have to sell to whomever I am working
for,) and just... working with "green phosphorescent clay" that takes on a
life of its own. And after all that fun is over, I say goodby, and go
back to work dialing the phone.
The phone makes the difference. I've had far more experienced
friends of mine sit there for two to five years between assignments during
the depths of the recession, when even the State of California was issuing
IOU's instead of paychecks, lamenting, scrounging, etc. But even if it
took me half a year to get the next major project, I worked each year
because I kept at the phone.
Go read http://www.mall-net.com/webcons/coldcall.html . If you can't
do that, don't even bother! You won't last. Before you quit your job,
set one morning a week aside, plan on going in late, and spend two months
seeing if you can perfect your telephone act. (The first couple days will
be murder. Expect that!) Take notes on each day, think about what you are
doing, etc. Never mind whether you will land one! You just want to know
if you can handle the old fishing pole! If you want to eat, you need to
be able to fish. If you can't fish, don't get into the game.
Agencies, you ask? They are just another set of fish. You can fish
them too, if you like. But whether or not you deal with them, it is still
fishing! Me, I troll the valley with a high powered computer (a sickly
old dBase program,) that dials the next number for me. I hang up, click a
few keys to mark the prospect for whether I should call him in 90 days or
more often; and within three or four seconds after I have hung up, the
next number starts dialing. That is the engine of my boat. My spiel is
my bait, and my _ear_ is the fishing line -- playing him by listening for
anything I can comment favorably on regarding stuff I have done. I script
some of that, always having something to fall back on. But fishing is the
only way I know of keeping myself fed.
Do I like fishing? Well... I'd rather be working, but... it really
isn't that bad once you get use to it.
Go read http://mall-net.com/webcons/ for several articles on
techniques, then give it a try at least ten days just to see if you can
get yourself to do it well, regardless of the near fact that ALL of your
prospects will say NO. (Indeed, during those days, don't call anyone who
is a real prospect, because you are testing YOU -- whether you have the
endurance to last a thousand NO's. If you land a contract on your first
call, you are setting yourself up for disaster, because you won't know if
you can sustain yourself as a consultant after that contract ends! You
need to know if you can do this BEFORE you accept consulting work!)
Just my opinion... Maybe someone else out there has a magic phone
or some good bait that I don't know about. Anyone???
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