In January 2022, I started writing a book about automation. Shortly afterwards, I set up a blog. Every day, I wrote about things that annoyed me about software development and about things that I thought would help me contribute to its improvement. This turned into reading every day about software development. This turned into writing about books, theories, and ideas.
All of this was with the purpose of becoming a software consultant who could help a certain group of people solve problems to that were difficult to solve. Very much in the mode of:
I help [TARGET MARKET] solve [EXPENSIVE PROBLEM]
Along the way I read marketing books, I set up a newsletter, I worked on my profile on LinkedIn.
I wanted to turn my expertise into what the experts call ‘authority’. But it turns out that I have a problem with authority.
As someone more interested in the ‘whys’ than the ‘hows’, I find it hard to provide solid advice because I every decision has nuance and every situation is different. This generally precludes me from being any form of consultant, manager or architect. I’m a freelancer. I’m a contractor. Fulfilling roles that other people for the most part define for me. I focus on doing a good job for them. When it comes to grey areas and debate, I’d rather keep my powder dry.
This doesn’t mean I don’t have opinions, but it does mean that I won’t force them on you. A consultant needs to convince.
The Freelancer vs the Entrepreneur
Seth Godin says that when you set yourself up in business you’re either a freelancer or an entrepreneur.
A consultant is neither of these things and also both of these things. They are someone who comes up with a list of services and needs to sell them. A freelancer is someone who fulfils a readily understood service i.e. java programmer, react front-end person, graphic designer, accountant.
A consultant is someone who provides advice and a remedy. In the world of IT consulting, this is a crowded space.
A consultant is famously: “Someone who gets paid to tell you something that you already know.”
Let’s Talk Money
The clever people who are trusted with the purse strings in a big company, are often averse to risk taking. As it was once said, “No-one was ever fired for hiring IBM”.
In the same way, no-one was ever fired for hiring a big four consultancy.
But if you’re a small consulting business, you need proof that you’re going to do a good job for your customers. For them, spending money on consultants who have little pedigree, and worse, no way of scaling in order to take away the problems they identify, is taking a risk. It’s going to end up taking them more time to fix their problems.
So perhaps, that start-up idea you had might be easier to get off the ground than your consulting idea? Or perhaps it takes a blend?
Maybe while you consider setting up your consulting business, it’s good to think about cashflow.
Be a contractor for a while. A freelancer. An employee. Be committed to what you do today. Keep dreaming, keep working. And remember that steady work for steady pay has a lot going for it.