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From Serf to Surfer: Becoming a Network Consultant
Let's be frank: I didn't expect to like this book. The cover has a picture of a California surfer dude surfing (get it? surfing? get it? ha! ha!) with a laptop. At first glance, it seemed about two steps below a "for Dummies" book, and what I expected (or at least desired) from a book on this topic was serious advice, not some flippant idiot dispensing watered-down aphorisms. I wouldn't have bought this book in a store -- probably wouldn't have looked at it twice.
But hey, I thought, the publisher sent Slashdot a review copy, might as well read it. If nothing else, it might be bad enough to write a really funny review.
It wasn't as bad as I expected. The author is quite intelligible and coherent -- they just need to fire the cover artist.
The author starts with a humorous quiz designed to point out that you have to market yourself to succeed -- and that there may be quite a few non-obvious barriers to marketing yourself. If you have a foot-high purple mohawk, that may be an expression of your uniqueness to you, but it's likely to make it hard for you to get and maintain consulting jobs. He follows with "a day in the life," designed to show that though he makes good money, he works rather hard for it as well -- the job isn't to punch the clock or put in the time, but to solve particular problems, whatever it takes.
Chapter 3 is an overview of a single project from beginning to end. It's pretty informative, and gives you a good idea of what to expect. He then covers work habits and forming a personal network of contacts. His advice for getting work is to dispense business cards liberally and offer finder's fees to people who steer work to him, which is a stunningly good idea that probably isn't obvious to most people. He's also got good advice for bringing a project to a close -- when you're working on a fixed-fee basis (the approach he advocates), you need to come in, do the job, and depart without lingering around, since it only costs you time and money without any extra income.
The next chapter covers tools of the trades: computers and software. I didn't find this chapter of much use, and my guess is most of his target audience won't either. If you're competent enough to consult, you're competent enough to know what you want/need as far as computers and software go.
Chapter 7 covers setting up a business. It doesn't have enough detail to be your sole resource -- I would recommend one of the guides from Nolo Press as another good starting point.
He talks about contracts, which basically boils down to the very simple advice: write it down, all of it.
He has a few strategies for pricing services at whatever the customer is willing to pay. This is probably one of the harder tasks to master, and his advice here is good -- present a tiered proposal, with low, medium and high bids for different amounts of work. If you've estimated the customer properly, the medium bid should be on target, but if you haven't, the low or high bid may be more to their liking and may allow you to get the job anyway.
He covers project management briefly -- very briefly. If you really need to manage a large project, this book alone won't cut it. But for small jobs, sure.
Short sections on dealing with bad clients and other contractors are useful. He finishes with discussions of the law and taxes. These sections are just long enough to warn you of potential pitfalls; if you really want to deal with them, you'll need to hire an accountant or invest in some more Nolo Press books.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. There's enough humor in it to make it read quickly and painlessly, and enough good information that you don't feel like a Dummy when you're done. If you gain only a few pieces of good information from the book, you'll probably recoup the $20 price of the book in short order.
You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.
Fortunately, the same trend toward outsourcing that has placed many techies into a shotgun wedding with entrepreneurship has also created a web of resources they can use to cope. For starters, check out Janet Ruhl's Real Rates website. Also, those seeking a relatively painless (though pricey) back-office solution should check out Professional Association of Contract Employees (P.A.C.E.). And be sure to read the Contract Employees' Handbook by the same guy who runs P.A.C.E.
I would add that keeping overhead low is key. Money spent on offices, nice chairs etc won't make you anymore money.
Second outsource the stuff you don't know. It is impossible to know it all. For example I outsource the firewall/VPN stuff as it can get quite complicated.
You've obviously never written a book about consulting. To date, this book has made me about $20,000 over the course of two years. The consulting firm I own makes well over $500,000 now. But, granted, I am audacious.
aka Matthew at SlashNOT/!
Yes, marketing sucks -- especially when it comes down to writing your own contracts.
I've been with a consulting company for almost 6 years now and besides having them get my next contract, it's also get nice benefits like paid LOA, vacation time, pay when there is no work, health and dental benefits and (most importantly) paid training.
It takes a special individual to go in to business for themselves -- and that individual is not me.
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Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
As a single individual, if I don't have a client this month, I can sell some stock (well, not these days) and make it through a few months of hard times. With a group, you have to 'make the nut' every month, or draw down your working capital.
The other advantage I've found is that if you are really good in your field, you can usually find a new gig as the current contract is winding down, either by direct referral from the current client, or from friends who are also in the business.
The biggest headaches are handling billing and general accounting issues, and dealing with having too much work- you need to network with small firms and fellow one-man-bands, and be able to bring in additional talent or pass along new prospects, with a gentleman's agreement that they will do the same for you.
Network consulting has been a tight field since this past fall, and shows no sign of getting any better.
I do not deploy Linux. Ever.
There is a certain amount of productivity that is gained from that fancy-ass $400, 96-way pivoting chair. It's this thing that corporate types base their purchasing decisions on, called ROI (return on investment). It's been shown in studies that if you spend X dollars on a 21" monitor, you gain Y dollars in gained productivity over a year.
To a point, you will gain a certain amount of productivity by a nicer office (and you impress clients, should they visit you). But above and beyond the basic comfort level, you won't gain much.
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Linux: The world's best text-adventure game.
I have a license from the State of California which says I can do Civil Engineering for hire direct to customers. But I can't. I don't have the marketing skills or the existing customer base to be able to do that. My options right now are to work for a company which does the marketing for me, or change careers. Fortunately, my boss is an excellent marketer as well as a good engineer - he can talk to clients, make them not only feel confident in our abilities to do the job, but make them feel that we're the people they want to do their job. I can do the first part, but not the second. So I work for someone who can.
Contracts and finance aren't beyond most geeks' understanding, though the details are better left to professionals. But marketing is hard to hire a professional to do for you when you're first getting started, unless it's your spouse, your business partner, or someone who's going to be similarly important to your operation. After all, your skill can be hired, so why wouldn't the marketer go out on his/her own and hire you as needed, rather than be hired by you?
All clear, wail the sirens!
I prayed about it, and God said, "Don't do it!" But I thought, "I know better."
For all those that are currently doing custom programming or other computer consulting, how has your amount of business changed in the last year? Are independent consultants being hit as hard as dot-coms?
Am wondering because I'm trying to get into that field but haven't marketed myself much yet. I do have one customer but am waiting for him to get me some graphics before I can continue, and he's too busy to get them too me (which could probably be seen as a good thing!).
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Then there would be no point in having an 'income tax' in the first place, because they would never collect a dime.
Also, the current functioning of government/military/public spending is based on taxation. If this were not the case, we would have some other system, like taxation through inflation, or some other equally twisted system.
Which would you rather have?
FWIW I really like the cover art on O'Reilly books, at least those which look like woodcuts or engravings. Very classy.
Uhh, if it's an O'Reilly book, damn-near everyone in the industry will know it's worth buying regardless of what's on the cover.
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The key to sucessful consulting is to find people with money who have jobs for you to do. For me, the biggest source of leads has been the Small Business Innovation Program (SBIR) and the Commerce Business Daily. If you don't know about these resources, you should.
If you are even thinking about $20 then going the contracting route probably won't work out.
This is a valid concern. Consultants routinely earn so much money that they can't stop to count it all without having their head explode. But that's a rookie mistake, after you've been consulting for a while you're far more likely to die from accidently inhaling a $1,000 bill or having the solid gold brakes on your car melt as you're taking a turn. The key is that it's important to understand what you're getting yourself into before you start down the consulting route, being mega-rich isn't easy.
Cover art is big business and book publishers know that bad cover art can doom a good book. What beats me is why so many publishers still put ugly modern art or insulting pictures on covers. (Yeah, like surfing on a laptop I haven't seen about 50 times now, ho ho)
FWIW I really like the cover art on O'Reilly books, at least those which look like woodcuts or engravings. Very classy.
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
It's probably the toughest part of being a freelancer or consultant.
... This book SHOULD tell the reader to take a long hard look at themselves and ask if they can do the sales job as well as the technical job (and the admin job, and the financial job,..). If they can't or won't, being "an independent" is likely not for them.
Face it, most "geeks" are as unfamiliar with marketing, selling, cold calling, and negotiating and closing a sale as they are skilled with installations, networking, administration, coding,
Look at many small consulting shops - several techs, usually with kick-ass skills, and a business manager/sales/marketing person to take care of the essential tasks the techs can't do well enough themselves.
I speak with some experience - I know my limitations and being effective as my own sales person is outside my core strengths. My wife has had her own marketing business for years and is very successful - she could sell snow in a blizzard (if I ever decided to go independent, I'd hire her to sell me). My brother is a freelance photographer and multimedia designer/producer, and while he is excellent technically (awards, kudos, the whole bit), he HATES doing the sales part and as a result, he struggles.
I am a network consultant (more by accident than career planning), and a good read would be quite valuable to those who would like to get into the field. Consulting in general is different from your average job, and tech consulting can be just totally confusing at times. And that's just trying to figure out what your client really wants!
Seriously, consulting is tough but can be a lot of fun when done correctly. If this book is as good as the review says it is, which I will have to trust until I look at it, then I would have to recommend new consultants to read it. I have met too many wannabes who had no idea what they were getting into- as you can guess they no longer work here.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Those in the second group were the former consultants who had found they couldn't compete in the hard reality of a world where companies actually need productive employees, and the dot-commies who found zero demand for their former positions - "business relationship facilitator, "web audience analyst", etcetra, one listed their former job as simply "synergist" - and who thought a quick course in how to pass a certification test would get them $100K/yr again.
BTW this didn't seem to apply to the few who had Cisco certifications, for whatever that's worth. Maybe you actually have to think for those, I don't know.
I would never suggest anyone evade taxes in a public forum.
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Poliglut
No, bartering is not tax evasion. Neither is making a billion dollars and putting it in an offshore account.
Failing to claim either one on your income tax forms, however, IS tax evasion.
It doesn't matter if you barter or not; the taxman will look at the value of the goods in question. You cannot buy a house from your uncle for $1. Well, you can, but if that house is worth $250,000, then that's what you're gonna get taxed on.
Stock options... you exercise options at $1 and get 3000 shares of a stock valued at $21... you pay tax on *income* of $20*3000 = $60,000, because that's what it was worth.
IANATA either, but if it wasn't this way, nobody would pay tax, we'd just barter for everything and avoid cash altogether.
Of course, neophyte programmers would have to work their way through some years as apprentices and journeymen before they would qualify in a realistic licensing system.
Just because I didn't got to a "conventional" university doesn't mean I don't work for my money. I work harder than most people I know, longer hours with more advanced problem solving. Furthermore, I didn't have to pay to get a piece of paper that says someone taught me something.. I taught myself. Why in the min 90's was there such a shortage of workers in the tech field? Because school weren't teaching any up to date material on the subject and not everyone is a wiz at this stuff.
*whine* *whine*
"Press any key to begin."
"Press any key to begin."
"AnyKey? Where's the AnyKey?" - Homer J. Simpson
is the sound of thousands of out-of-work, non-qualified dot-bombers clicking madly on the "Fatbrain" link to order this book.
What's your damage, Heather?
I bought this book (online, from Chapters, cuz it was on-sale) when I was finishing up my course on Network Administration because despite all the people saysing "oh you'll have no trouble getting a job when you finish" I hadn't a single job offer to go with the dozens of resumes that I sent out. What people didn't know was that no one will even look at you for a networking position until you've got 2 or 3 years experience.
I thought the book was well written, thought out and informative with some real-world examples in a world full of publishers trying to peddle their cookie-cutter text-book format guides. Despite the lame cover art, the author gives you lots of pointers and advice on what to watch for as a network consultant and shows a typical "day i the life of" account of one of his projects.
Not every dot-bomber can make it as a network consultant since it takes more than "yeah I helped the admin guy at my last job hook up some cables one time" to be successful.
I'm currently working as a software tester with some networking responsiilities. Still a long way from a full Network Consultant but I'm getting there.
If you are even thinking about $20 then going the contracting route probably won't work out.
I'm not saying that the key to successful business is throwing money away, but just that if you remain focused on $20 then that's all your likely to see.
Specifically, taxes, incorporating, contract law and such should not be done on the basis of a book, even a good one. Spend a couple thousand a year on a good accountant/lawyer (and if you can find a lawyer who is a CPA like mine, then I highly recommend keeping all your business with him).
The other single salient suggestion I have is do as much as you can on barter. If you need a couple boxen for your new lab and your client is a PC shop that needs some wiring hung and a T1 installed then why bother with the cash and associated accounting.
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Poliglut
With the dark power of these two books combined, you'll be sitting on your booty, abusing customers, and generally overcharging everyone in earshot for "work completed" before the next big market crash!
PS, just kidding. You can make a lot of money as a good consultant.
-- The unsig...
I leafed through this book in the bookstore and came away with a negative impression. The cover alone makes it a definite "on-line only" purchase. The writing seemed to be of that mix of "salesman-consultant-motivational speaker" that makes your skin crawl.
I must admit, in retrospect, that much of my opinion my have hinged on my negative reaction to the cover. I recall that I did spend quite a bit of time leafing though it, for reasons other than to laugh at it. And I recently just pulled that "high-middle-low" trick, and now I remember where I got it.
In sum, if the title interests you, leaf through this in some secluded corner of the bookstore where no one can see you and check it out. It is not as bereft of usefulness as it appears.
Kill, Tux, kill!
The msot profitable thing a consultant can do is write a book. Most write books about some aspect of the field in which they are consulting. Vary few have the audacity to write a book about how to be a successful consultant.
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