Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy - <AUTHOR> https://www.axios.com/podcast-amazon-allbirds-e4f77873-b4ad-4b29-94c1-104b793347ce.html <comment><USER2> Allbirds is a luxury brand. Retailers offer cheap versions of luxury brands. There's little surprise here. Should Ray-Bans complain that Walmart offers sunglasses that look nearly identical at a tenth of the price?

Amazon has plenty of dodgy business practices, but I don't think this is one of them.

<comment><USER3> Just because it's common doesn't mean it's not also dodgy.

<comment><USER4> Serious question. Why is it dodgy?

<comment><USER5> Because designers spend an entire year designing what they are going to sell as their line for the year and when they show it on the runway, Zara takes a photo and has it mass produced and sent to stores in two weeks. They do this consistently. It is dodgy.

<comment><USER6> Don't hate the player, hate the game. That's business. The fact that your designers worked hard is irrelevant. Capitalism is by its very nature competitive, and it's on you as a business owner to figure out a working model in a world with fast followers.

It's a bit like complaining that someone blocked your shot in basketball. It's allowed, those are the rules, do better next time.

<comment><USER4> If you don't think this should be allowed (and it's sort of pointless to argue dodginess if it's perfectly legal) you have to logically argue for much more stringent IP protection.

Added: Of course some protections do exist and I don't doubt some knockoffs skirt or outright violate those protections.

<comment><USER7> That doesn't follow.

One could argue as well we should minimize the draw of purely romanticized notions that premium things should exist.

Other than inflated pricing pushing more money around in one go than cheaper stuff pushing a lot of little money around, what does owning premium accessories get humanity?

Stop manufacturing final products & retail can be just the materials that enable people to make their own accessories if we're worried about style differentiation.

Or we could keep drilling into ideas like yours which will result in more consolidation of economic activity in the hands of the haves.

Like markets, brands are simply propped up by feels. IMO pretty sick of being told I need to give a crap about Coach as a business so a minority can actually design/create while the majority get to deal with their HR and accounting needs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> If you can't succeed because somebody made a low effort, low quality copy of your product, then you don't deserve to make money. Especially in light of the fact that Coke has been around for 150 years and is essentially just sugar water.

<comment><USER9> Coke actually has regulatory protections in place. They can use flavor extracted from coca plant through a special arrangement with the dea.

Anyway they sell all kinds of varieties of sugar water, and the margins are extremely thin.

<comment><USER10> Margins are thin?

"Coca-Cola's latest twelve months Net Income Margin % is 23.1%."

"Coca-Cola's Net Income Margin % for fiscal years ending Dec, 2014 to 2018 averaged 14.3%."

[https://finbox.com/KO/explorer/ni_margin](https://finbox.com/KO/explorer/ni_margin)

<comment><USER11> They split off Coca Cola Enterprises to achieve this.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca- Cola_Enterprises](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola_Enterprises)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > Amazon is known for watching what retail products gain traction on its > platform and elsewhere and then creating similar products it can sell for > less.

Should we really care? Isn't this what consumers want? Value.

<comment><USER13> Better, cheaper, faster, thanks Amazon.

Plus let's be realistic any actual good stuff isn't going to be worth attempting to copy, say an iPhone or some Burton snowboarding boots.

Amazon computer mice? HDMI cables? Socks? We are just watching commodities being realized for what they are.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Allbirds shoes look very very cheap. I stopped into their NYC store downtown twice. Each time I noticed a ton of glue that had seeped onto the wool when they glued the fabric on. I thought the first time it was a one-off issue. The pattern continues. Allbirds really needs to step up their quality. If you look at the product quality of Merrel, Danner, US Made Red Wing Shoes, it's night and day! I would never buy an Allbird.

<comment><USER15> You're comparing work boots to what are effectively wool slippers with rubber soles - of course there's a difference in quality because they're not even the same market segment.

I agree with you they're overpriced, but not for the reasons you stated.

<comment><USER16> Maybe they should aim for a different market segment then. Common Projects, a plain but very well made luxury sneaker seems to be doing well. I'd imagine fighting for scraps against Amazon/Walmart isn't going to go well.

<comment><USER17> Their market is well off techies/tech adjacent people that don't care about fashion and just want to be comfy (Allbirds are the butt of jokes in any men's style community).

They can't price their shoes too high because their market would scoff at paying more than $~150 for shoes. This market also won't care about where the material is sourced from or who makes it.

Allbirds made a cheap product people can easily copy, so they did. Shrug.

<comment><USER18> My biggest problem with them is they wear out in less than a year. Extremely unreliable...

That said, if you love merino - check out Icebreaker...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Abstractly, the question at hand is this: is a retailer that sells its own in house brand anticompetitive due to the information it has on potential competitor sales?

Other large retailers: Target, Walmart, etc. have a higher percentage of in house brands for sale than Amazon. So on this argument going after Amazon means you need to decouple retailers from in house brands across the board.

Even the concern about search placement has concerns, as shelf space in the store can be viewed as a analogous to search pages.

<comment><USER20> I think most people don't know that shelf space is actively sold by the stores. They imagine the stores go out and find the best products to display. That's not what happens.

<comment><USER21> That's not always true. I don't think it would matter how much Amazon money offered Apple, they aren't going to install an Echo end cap.

<comment><USER22> Yeah, the person above you makes it sound like stores just have giant Dutch auctions for space when it's more like negotiating terms to a contract after they've already passed other qualifying steps.

<comment><USER20> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slotting_fee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slotting_fee)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This is pretty ironic given that allbirds are very much a derivative of Nike Roshe Runs which were popular at the same time Allbirds was founded.

</comment><comment><USER24> I own a pair of all birds. I think I paid around $100 for them. I wouldn't be surprised if the actual cost of the shoe was around $8.

Amazon is a margin-eating business("your margin is my opportunity"). You can't expect margins like that to just go on unmolested from anyone. I'm honestly surprised Amazon hasn't done more of this - e.g. in the makeup industry which has notoriously high margins.

<comment><USER25> It's more around $25-$35 when you factor in all overhead.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> This is why I stopped selling on Amazon. It's compelling because there's a built-in customer base. But in the long-run, they will use your selling data against you and eventually attempt to put you out of business by finding a cheaper supplier.

<comment><USER8> We have built a good business selling on Amazon in a product category where the competition (including Amazon Basics) is half of our price. If all you bring to Amazon is something that is undifferentiated and can be easily copied, then it'll be a race to the bottom and you'll lose to factories in China selling direct or players like Amazon who can achieve massive economies of scale.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> My problem is when the oligopolies hurt the market with these practices.

I used to buy boxes of nitrile gloves from Home Depot for painting. Then they started carrying 'HDX' brand nitrile gloves. Then they stopped carrying all other brands of nitrile gloves.

I'm not sure the practice is the problem, or the oligopoly. I would shop somewhere else, but where am I going to shop? Lowes?

</comment><comment><USER17> I'm not going to defend Amazon or capitalism as much as others in the comments, but Allbirds are fairly cheaply made shoe sold at a high price to well off tech workers or tech-adjacent workers. It was only a matter of time until someone that can eat the margin (Amazon) stepped in.

</comment><comment><USER28> This is what happens when the internet is essentially taken over by the walled gardens of "platforms" where the only choices you have are the ones your masters in charge of the platform you have subjugated yourself to allow you to have.

</comment><comment><USER29> Amazon needs to be broken up.

</comment><comment><USER30> Well. allbirds has serious supplychain and production problems. This is their own fault</comment>


Ask HN: Tell me about your experience with productivity apps - <AUTHOR> There are tons of those apps: Any.do, Todoist, Microsoft todo (Wunderlist), Things, Omnifocus, etc. I want to do a small research on the use of those apps. I am thinking about three types of readers 1. The user: A person who actually use a productivity app
* What app do you use?
* What are the features you use a lot?
* What are the most cumbersome features you wish they didn't exist?
* Have you ever been in a situation when you are using an app and you say "I wish I could do that"?
* Have you tried other apps before using the actual app? Why did you quit?
* Are you using different apps to organize a workflow? Tell me about it.
2. The traumatized user: A person who once used an app (or several apps) and then decided to never use an app anymore.
* What drove you to quit the app?
* How do you manage your time without the app?
3. The person who never used an app:
* Why you didn't consider the option?
* Do you have some particular fear/need (privacy, accessibility)?
Feel free to talk about anything that I didn't ask above. I want to listen to you. <comment><USER2> I've been looking for task tracking / planning software with some project management features, like the ability to decompose tasks into subtasks, estimate duration and priority and specify dependencies among tasks. However, the software I tested only allow duration to be recorded if the task is scheduled on a specific date, and they're usually complicated with a lot of features I don't need (yet). So I'm still using a bunch of spreadsheets for now...

<comment><AUTHOR> What do you mean by "estimate a duration" ? Do you mean take a duration as an input? Would you elaborate more on how you are using spreadsheets ?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: I've lost the ability to concentrate. How can I fix this? - <AUTHOR> I seem to have lost my ability to concentrate, work, and think deeply about topics. I can't even seem to read a book, even when I want to. I check my phone for notifications. I get anxious. Occasionally I feel depressed or hopeless. But I generally feel okay-ish, I think.<p>What's the quickest way for me to regain my ability to concentrate and get into states of flow? <comment><USER2> Anecdotal stuff I've found helps keep me out / people I know who struggle out of low points (YMMV):

\- Keep a clean room.

\- Own less things.

\- Wash clothes ahead of time. In big cities there'd also be cleaners that'd fold clothes, too.

\- Have your bills paid and paperwork up to date. You don't want this weighing over your mind.

\- Rearrange furniture.

\- No caffeine after 2PM.

\- Are you getting enough sleep? Consider going to a sleep specialist to get to the root of the problem.

\- Hyperactive? Considering fitting gym into your schedule to get it out of your system.

\- If it's possible in your commute, take a scenic route where there is more time to walk.

\- Sometimes people check with a doctor to rule out ADHD, depression, and so on.

\- Install a clean copy of your OS.

\- Try switching between windows/linux and macos/linux. I flip between them every 6 months.

\- Intermittent fasting has helped me focus. That is, not eating foods until 4 or 6PM, there are various types of this.

\- Remove toxic people from your life. These are people in your life who aren't straight with you and suck your emotions away. Steer clear.

\- Keep a change log of all the stuff you accomplish in a day. Helps you feel effective.

\- White noise sound files ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dozJzkdLPRU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dozJzkdLPRU)) / White noise machine on Amazon

\- Full spectrum light (I've found Verilux to be quite nice)

\- Vitamin D if you don't get enough sun light. Zinc, Magnesium.

\- Consider removing all stimulants (caffeine, energy drinks) for a few weeks and see if that causes things to return to equilibrium

<comment><USER3> Awesome list! Things to add to it:

\- Cleaning your environment is very helpful. Get rid of clutter, donate, or trash things you do not need. Have minimal stuff in your environment, this will help you focus.

\- Do not multitask. Do one thing at a time. Multitasking is bad for your focus. (Read this: Leo Babauta's [https://zenhabits.net/focus- book/](https://zenhabits.net/focus-book/))

\- Start a meditation practice. I meditate at least 10 minutes after waking up. This trains your focus for the day.

\- Exercise and eat right. If your body is healthier, your focus is much better. Setting up an exercise routine builds discipline as well.

\- Caffeine is ok. t if you are having too much of it, it affects sleep. Reduce caffeine intake, go decaf, or quit.

\- Sleep. Your mood is affecting your focus. (Ariana Huffington's sleep manifesto is on-point: [https://www.ted.com/talks/arianna_huffington_how_to_succeed_...](https://www.ted.com/talks/arianna_huffington_how_to_succeed_get_more_sleep))

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I just want to add 2 thoughts to the discussion that's already here:

\- Attention is a muscle you have to train and build up (of course it helps to be able to work on interesting and/or challenging things)

\- The world is infinitely distracting and if you think about it, almost everything is noise. Today's apps are literally designed to capture, own, and monetize your attention. The most successful people are the ones that stop to think about what to ignore intentionally so that they can focus on tweaking the small number of levers that actually drive results. I like to work with my phone on Do Not Disturb mode or Airplane mode. I keep Slack and Notification Center on macOS on DND as well when I'm doing hard work.

</comment><comment><USER5> \- Radically limit your input. Read less and only high-quality stuff

\- Do-nothing-alternative: if you work on a task either a) work on it, or b) do nothing. Don't allow yourself to browse, check the phone etc.

\- meditate or try "free-writing": open your text editor and write. Only rule: never stop typing. Do this for as long as you can. It clears your mind and uncovers deeper thoughts and ideas

I believe we all are losing our ability to concentrate which is a frightening prospect. But you made an important step by recognising this! To concentrate is something we need to train and exercise like a muscle.

</comment><comment><USER6> I don't belive there are any quickfix solutions. It's something that needs time and attention (!?)

One thing that helped me was, doing something physical which needs attention and concentration, for e.g. Woodworking or Yoga.

Also, it might be a good idea to do a complete break from technology. Say maybe do a 1 week hike or a hunting trip without internet and mobile with you. I did a 10 day Vipassana retreat and that definitely helped me. But I don't recommend that route unless you are ready to fight through that process. It can be mentally and physically challenging! But it did help me thremondously in concentrating and becoming aware of things that distract my mind.

Start with git-pull's recommendations ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14908340](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14908340)) those are rock-solid. With that as a starting point, investigate other options that could help you. But first is building awareness of what is throwing you off the game.

</comment><comment><USER7> There are two things that come to mind that seem like opposite approaches.

One is to find something you care enough about to actually concentrate on-- some project you really want to work on, say. Your work ethic will be great as long as it's interesting enough to hold your attention. Then you need to find out how to sustain your interest when you finish, or get stuck or bored.

The other way is to build a suite of habits to minimize, or at least de- emphasize, distractions, and to maximize the amount of time that you're focused on work OR not focused on anything else. You train your mind to enter a mode where either you're focused on work, or nothing at all. Since we generally don't like boredom we'll refocus on the work. This takes more discipline and long-term habits. This is the method that Stephen King advocates for in On Writing: you sit down every day at the same time and wait for the muse to come, and don't do anything else.

I'll generally use a combination of these two strategies, and while I'm still more distraction-prone than I'd like, it generally works fine.

</comment><comment><USER8> Check your physical health.

An injury (and failed surgery) obstructed my breathing. Big impact on my ability to get into and maintain "flow".

Sleep apnea (not something I've been diagnosed with, although...) is often cited as a problem in this vein. Some people become so used to its chronic presence that they don't realize just how tired and impacted they are.

</comment><comment><USER9> Exercise improves memory and concentration. Schools here now have kids go on a stationary bike for a few mins before lessons to help them concentrate on lessons. Personally I will ride a bike for 20 minutes as fast as possible to get heart rate up, shower, then have no problem concentrating on streaming lectures or working through a technical paper for the next couple of hours whereas before I would always have my mind wander and not get anything done.

Doing pullups/anything that builds your core also helps your back, so sitting for a while isn't uncomfortable. If you don't have an exercise bike just run in place, or do anything else to get your heart rate up before you try and concentrate.

</comment><comment><USER10> What really helped me was to:

* Uninstall some distracting apps, and block the rest with Appblock

* Not check email on weekends, and do outdoor things like hiking instead

* Start running as much as possible, for at least 30 minutes 3 times a week

* Meditate for 10 minutes a day

* Cut out sugar and alcohol

* Install Stayfocusd to limit time spent on sites like HN

* Go to bed by 10 every day, and have 30 minutes of "unwind" time in bed without devices

I don't always adhere to all of these well, but when I do, I feel amazing, and can concentrate extremely well.

I would encourage you to think of this as less of a "quick patch to get back to concentrating on things" and more as "I need to change my lifestyle to improve my mental state. It's going to be a long process, but the long-term rewards are worth it".

</comment><comment><USER11> Two ways worked for me:

1\. Get away from everything for a month. Visit another country. Go somewhere completely foreign and immerse yourself. It jolts your brain away from whatever habit you have now. It can be a bit expensive so a lighter detox can work - cut yourself off from all websites and apps for at least a week.

2\. Overwork yourself. It doesn't have to be hard work. Maybe work fast food at night, work in a warehouse by day. As long as it keeps you too busy to do the things you need to do.

IMO a lot of blocking tools don't help. If you block FB or Reddit, you just replace it with some news site or game.

</comment><comment><USER12> From what you've described, I'm going through the same thing and I understand it's completely down to my lifestyle choice and work. I'll be trying lots of these comments (thanks everyone) to see if I can improve / lift my brain fog. I can say sleeping around 10 after half an hour of no technology is bliss, have a shower, prepare your clothes for the next day so you have nothing but me time in the morning. It feels good to wake up, grab a coffee and read a book.

</comment><comment><USER13> Physical stuff: Make sure you get enough exercise and sleep, check your diet is balanced and reduce caffeine and alcohol. Mental: Try to work out what is distracting you and get it done or eliminate it. Technology: It's yours to use sometimes it feels like we are its slave. Time out: Go on a back to basic holiday trekking or cycling , camping etc with a bare minimum of stuff (particularly tech) - find this puts things in perspective

</comment><comment><USER14> Try the Headspace app. Just using the first 10 free sessions should get you started. If you don't want to spend the dough Youtube has a bunch of guided meditations.

Or you can try standing in front of the mirror, look your self right in the eyeballs, say "I will stay focus on task X for the next 30 minutes", then slap yourself across the face 3 times. That always worked for me.

</comment><comment><USER15> If you can't concentrate or work and feel anxiety and occasionally hopeless, that sounds like the definition of depression to me. I'd suggest immediately finding a therapist you connect with (or at least get into meditation with an app like Headspace), a long vacation, and an emergency infusion of fun and challenge in your life.

</comment><comment><USER16> A great free series on coursera called Learning How to Learn (also a book "A Mind for Numbers) addresses this in several ways. The biggest win for me was integrating a Pomodoro Timer into my workflow. I'd really recommend going through video series or book or both if you feel like you're having trouble learning, good luck!

</comment><comment><USER17> I find the one thing that kills my mood quickest is just not drinking enough water. A lot can be learned from tracking your diet: [https://cronometer.com/](https://cronometer.com/)

</comment><comment><USER18> Give us a breakdown of what you eat and what you do throughout most of your days, so we can have a better idea what's going on.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't eat fantastically well, though I don't eat horribly. Unfortunately, following an injury, I don't go to the gym anymore either. As I live in an urban area, I try to walk as much as possible, but I don't think it's ever enough.

During the day I'm (attempting to) work full-time on a software project, but tbh, I think I may be burning out.

<comment><USER19> If you have an injury, please go to physical therapy. In many cases, not exercising at all is actually worse. Most injuries require at least some form of therapeutic / strengthening / rehabilitation exercise to correct the injury.

You can also do other forms of exercise that are low impact and less prone to trauma. Swimming, yoga, etc...

Also try meditation. Start with 1 minute at a time and work your way up to 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes. You'll experience an immense difference and calm your racing mind.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Block all social media at your router, sell your smart phone, and buy a dumb phone that only texts and makes calls

</comment><comment><USER14> Creating a quick to-do list every morning also helps.

</comment><comment><USER21> I can strongly relate to your situation. To me it felt like there is a constant unrest in life, you are not happy about how things are but not that motivated either to change overnight.

The quickest way to get what you want is trying out small changes which can have big impact on your day, which gives you hope that you can change.

Below are such small changes that made a big impact on me. I have come to know about these methods from the book "Mind Hacking" by Sir John Hargrave. It is a free GitBook and I strongly recommend it. Not a long read. -

1\. Mindfulness Meditation -

      I follow the below order

      - Be aware of your breath for some time
      - Be aware of your thoughts for some time ( don't fight them. Let them free but observe )
      - Identify negative loops (Things that you believe in or repeatedly say to yourself that puts you down. Eg. I am a bad dancer)
      - Write positive loop for each negative loop ( Eg. I love dancing. Literally write this on a piece of paper everyday for a couple of times. It is to make it stick in your head )
      - Simulate situations in your head which you are afraid to face or are confused about.
      - Think of the best possible future situation, 4-5 years down the line. Think in as much detail as possible.
      - Think of the perfect day where you get everything done exactly as you wanted to. Again, think in as much detail as possible.

      Also, try to stay mindful of your actions and thoughts throughout the day. It will help you control yourself and your unwanted habits like checking phone frequently or procrastinating.

      You don't have to identify negative & redefine positive loops everyday unless needed.

      This routine takes 15-20 minutes in the morning and has helped me be clear minded and motivated throughout the day.

      I owe my current job ( which I am very happy with ) to this routine. It inspired me do things I won't normally do. The rush of positive energy I felt during the first few days was something I have never felt before, as if I was high on something very strong but positive.

2\. Writing down a detailed to-do list the night before

      You have to make a list of things you think you can do the next day and write them down in the exact order you want to do them in. Keep the list very practical and write in on a piece of paper or white board. Try not to do it on your phone.

      Then, on the next day strike out the things you have done. This will give you a clear sense of accomplishment and in case you are ahead of schedule, it will motivate you to do even better.

      This also eliminates the need of thinking what to do during the day and you will have very less confusion.

      I implemented this a few days ago and it was the most productive and satisfying day I have had in several months, not just work wise but on a personal level.

The key in both the above methods is that you are actively taking effort in the process of figuring out what you really want to do in life or just the next day. Implementing either one of the methods would only take 15-20 minutes of actual thinking every day, so give it a try.

<comment><USER21> Also, email me if you need to talk about this. Sharing thoughts about this kind of stuff always helps.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Resources/Steps for Becoming a Consultant? - <AUTHOR> I recently put in my notice at work with nothing lined up. Do any of you operate full time as a consultant? I'd love to hear about how you got started and what resources, pitfalls, experiences you came across along the way. <comment><USER2> I have been working as a consultant/contractor since May last year.

I found my first jobs on UpWork, where Robotics is quite niche field. Being a niche field there are not many jobs available (I'd estimate there are 2-3 a month that fit my skill set) but also there are not so many freelancers doing Robotics.

Starting on any freelancers platform you need to start building reputation, which can mean you will need to sell yourself well or do the first project for peanuts (my first one was converting some Python to C# that took me 8 days and I earned 10$). In the second project I earned about 2k$ and in further ones I was already earning more per hour then in my previous job.

My advice is anecdotal but if someone advertises "a simple project for ..." then they don't treat it very seriously and won't be willing to pay for quality. The clients willing to pay more for your services will also respect your time more and are usually much easier to communicate with.

Avoid fixed price contracts if you can unless you know exactly how to do the project and can predict any pitfalls. Charging by the hour/day/week/month is in my opinion least risky and if you encounter huge issues you are still paid to fix them.

Speaking of issues. Firstly make sure that you know the requirements clearly, before starting development make sure you understand all stakeholders. As you are developing the project communicate frequently with the client about any doubts to the client and make sure you are on the same page. If you see anything off - communicate this! The requirements will never be perfect and if you put yourself in the user's shoes you will be able to identify things your client missed and this way you will be bringing an extra value by solving problems before they even arise.

Sorry for the wall of text, hopefully you will find any of this useful. If you have any questions feel free to ask here or e-mail me (I hope my e-mail is in my profile).

Good luck!

<comment><USER3> Can you speak at all as to what skills are in most demand for robotics? It's such a broad field it's hard to know what to focus on in order to be marketable.

Do you think your education matters? Do people want to see a masters/PhD or is gaining more experience the important thing for landings these sorts of jobs.

Thanks!

<comment><USER2> That's true that the field is very broad. I'm mostly focused on software (doing a lot of ROS in R&D setting at the moment). From what I heard there is quite a de,amd for integrators of robot arms (at least in Europe) but I can't really say anything more about other Robotics related skills.

I have a master's degree and don't know if it affects anyone's decision about hiring me for a contract. My feeling is that the companies I work with now value my experience much more than my degree but personally I learned so much studying Mechatronics/Robotics that I'd highly recommend doing it if you are not experienced in Robotics and want to start working in the field.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wrote a whole series of articles on this subject, maybe there is something that is useful to you there:

[https://jacquesmattheij.com/categories/consulting/](https://jacquesmattheij.com/categories/consulting/)

best of luck!

<comment><USER5> Wow, I always love your writing; can't believe I had missed this. Thanks for sharing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I did this less than a year ago. Two things I wish I had done off the bat:

1) Choose a specific skillset that you want to use and only accept jobs in that skillset. For me that should have been React/Node projects (even this is too general, but much better than "web programmer"). People hire consultants for instant productivity, and the type of person that has so little experience working with technologists that they expect instant competence after you tell them "yeah I used Python for a personal project" probably won't be a great client. Ultimately you'll want to own a business problem, possibly combined with a technological skillset, but that's something you can think about after you've set up a steady stream of work.

2) Use a "premium" recruiter or agency. Gun.io, Toptal, something like that. They don't lock you in, you're still free to find your own work, but they will save you SO much time and they'll find SO much work that you wouldn't have been able to find on your own. Use them to find projects in which you can hone the specific skillset you chose and make it _more_ specific.

After a project or two you'll have a feel for what's out there and you can start tweaking your rate and how you market yourself. Also, consider reading Developer Hegemony to get a (pretty cynical) feel for the business side of things. Feel free to reach out if you want to chat further (email in profile).

<comment><USER7> #1 is something I've been pondering as well. I've been developing games on Unity for quite some time but questioning if I'd be better off retooling into a tech stack that is higher demand?

<comment><USER8> I think unity is in demand for VR/AR rendering and CAD work. I think of geospatial data get presented that way, too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It's all about creating value for your customer. "Don't give me some trend analysis, give me actionable insight ". Recommend watching this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2SdmYuMMIg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2SdmYuMMIg)

I earn $180000/year, recently raised my rate to $280/h and working 40h/weeks. Feel I create way more value for my customers than my cost, so I started several small projects in parallell the last months to move away from consulting. Most of them was about a week of work and give about $10000/year with minimum maintenance.

Started building webpages, but figured out that this in itself don't solve a problem I can't fix with some sitebuilder (all about value). All my value creation in now in gathering data from different (API) sources into and databases and generating custom reports on this data. The most important skills I need is Python and SQL, stuff I did not know under 3 years ago.

For the $10000/year examples I make some prototypes, try to understand the business I try to sell to and calculate something I don't think they already easily know that will increase their revenue way more that my cost. Then I make the cold call (<3min), just to ask if I can send them an email with some analysis. They almost always get back the next day with an email or call back for more details or some adjustments.

Hope to go all into startup in a near future, only focusing on this. Love the feeling of solving real problems and see people willing to pay for it recurring <3

<comment><USER10> Hey! It sounds like both your consulting and budding start-up are very interesting. I'm looking to get into consulting. Python and SQL and my specialties.

If you want to cut back on your consulting perhaps I can try to take some of the work off of you. I could work under you at half your price $140/h, so you could spend more time on your start-up and still be making money from your consulting and keep your clients. It makes sense for me as it would be a quick way for me to get into consulting and it seems like you already have the workflow, etc down.

Or perhaps you would want to work with someone on your startup. I have had a few successful start-ups over the years.

You can check my LinkedIn and my email is in my HN profile. Get in touch if you are interested!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> 1\. Bill by the half-day, but don't charge for a 10 minute fix unless a client starts to get annoying.

2\. In your first year aim for half of what you made the previous year. Take the best clients you can, but make sure you hit that or you'll stop. Don't take work that makes you feel icky.

3\. Talk to people. Spend about 35% of your time doing it. Do work for free if you need to, but get someone talking one way or another or your pipeline will dry up.

4\. By two years in you'll find a client that will make up over 50% of your billable. Do whatever it takes to make them happy. Even if you lose the client for reasons outside your control, make sure that the decision maker that brought you in feels like you did your best. They'll bring you in again, even if it isn't there.

</comment><comment><USER12> * Raise your rates. You need to charge _way_ more than your FTE rate. _Way_ more.

* Say "no" to prospects that don't fit your practice/price.

* Avoid freelancing/matching sites.

* Don't bill hourly. Don't track hours.

* Specialize.

* Be prepared for clients to be very late on payments.

* You can't stop selling when you hit capacity. Be intentional about smoothing your utilization out.

<comment><USER13> > You can't stop selling when you hit capacity. Be intentional about smoothing > your utilization out.

Could you explain more?

<comment><USER14> Not the OP, but after consulting for many years, I could make some educated guesses.

If you stop selling (networking, outreach, etc.) when you're fully utilized now, you will impair your ability to stay utilized later. If you have a project that you expect to wind down in 90 days, communicate that to prospects without pushing them away.

For example, we overestimate what a start time of "now" means in business. Sometimes, it's "today." Other times, "now" means "right after I get back from vacation, roughly 3 weeks from now" or "this quarter." Depending on the client, contracts + background check and other on boarding can take weeks of (unpaid) calendar time.

I've seen people turn away work slated for a start date of "soon" because they were on a project for another few weeks. A better move would have been to let the client know the existing project was winding down but let's get the paperwork started now for a quick start later.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Daedtech has an excellent article

[https://daedtech.com/software-consulting/](https://daedtech.com/software- consulting/)

If you live in a major metropolitan area almost anywhere in the US, and your skillset is in tune with the market, you should be able to find some W2 or 1099 contract quite easily through local recruiters. Yeah they will take their cut, but you still should be able to negotiate close to market value. You will definitely get paid more than using something like Upwork.

I've been building up a curated list of _local_ third party recruiters for years. I always engage with them when they reach out to me.

Even though they call the above "consulting", it's actually closer to just freelancing.

<comment><USER16> Read every single article on daedtech.com related to software consulting (and maybe some that aren't) -- the amount of insight contained inside those articles for free is insane.

99% of the people who think they are doing consulting (me included) are not doing consulting. If you're getting paid to write software, you're not a consultant, you're a freelancer/service provider. Let those words shake you then read all the writing on daedtech.com to learn _why_ and see if you disagree (you won't).

<comment><USER17> > If you're getting paid to write software, you're not a consultant, you're a > freelancer/service provider.

That's by definition:

 _consult_ verb (used with object): to get information or advice from a person, book, etc. with special knowledge on a particular subject

[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/consult](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/consult)

<comment><USER16> You're right that it's very obviously in the definition of the rowds and _should_ be this simple to classify "software consultancy" by definition, but that's not what's out there in practice.

How people use (in this case misuse) the term leads to confusion and the linked article (and the other related ones) starts with this fact as the baseline (we're in agreement) and goes into how/why software shops are doing it wrong/mislabeling themselves, and how you can stop doing that. It seems to be exactly what OP is looking for.

<comment><USER12> I don't see anything in the OP asking for an extended semantic debate about the meaning of the word "consultant" or any problem any consultant has that could be solved by it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Welcome to the wild world of consulting! I hope you enjoy your stay, it's the only way to live in my opinion.

What's helped me in my freelancing/consulting journey more than anything else has been building one on one relationships (aka, networking). The more people you know who know what you do, the more opportunities you'll have come your way. Some call it Luck Surface Area.

Join a paid online community of other consultants. Go to meetups around your city. If someone wants to learn programming take them out for coffee. Go to networking events. Give talks in public. Anything that will introduce you to other humans. Then keep track of all of them in a CRM. Follow up with people and provide as much value to them as you can. Participate in Hacker News (this post is increasing the number of people you might meet!). Put it on your Github/Twitter/Website etc.

Ways I've gotten gigs lately:

* Person from my online freelancer community I'd talk with multiple times was working on a project and they needed help, brought me on, now I'm getting more work from that client.

* Someone from college I hadn't talked to in 8 years saw my LinkedIn profile and contacted me about a project for their company.

* Someone saw a comment on HN about my work and reached out to me.

* College student wanted advice on freelancing, I took them out for coffee, 3 months later "I decided not to freelance but I found a client, do you want them?"

* Sitting in a coworking space and person I met yesterday and told about my business says, "I'm getting a full time job, want this client?"

None of these have had to really come from direct "selling" and all of them came to me which in my experience makes it way better since they already want and trust you. I don't even feel like I'm all that good at promoting myself, but I have work because I talk to people.

Happy to chat about this further if you want, my email's in my profile. Best of luck in your consulting!

<comment><USER19> I couldn't agree more with this advice. I'm more of a dev than a consultant, but I believe this applies to many fields.

I quit my job a year ago to start doing freelance/contract work, I never directly looked for clients but just by having good relationships with my former employer, colleagues, and people I know in general, by October I had so many projects on my hand I had to work 80hrs/week for a short period of time.

Just to re-iterate in how many different ways you can get projects and even long-term clients, this is my "how I've gotten gigs" list:

* Former employer: when I quit I was 100% honest, boss trusted me and wanted to keep working with me. They are still giving me work

* Former colleague: he quit right before me, started his own small company, knew he could count on me being a reliable dev, became a long-term client

* I was looking for devs on Twago, in order to get help in case I had too many jobs on my hand. One of the applicants was a small dev agency looking for projects. They ended up giving me work, instead of the other way around.

* (most random one) A client I had a few years ago, during my first venture as entrepreneur, messaged me on Skype by mistake, thinking I was somebody else they knew. Turns out they needed a dev, became a long-term client.

* Went back home to Italy during the summer, rented a room for a few months. My landlord was working in marketing, ended up giving me a few very good clients

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Take a break, honestly. A lot of people seem to be of the opinion that if you don't work your life will start to implode around you.

I've just started my first consulting job via a friend I used to work with. I was 10 months unemployed, living in an exotic country, enjoying myself and building out my own projects. I only ended up taking the job because the pay was good.

Whilst I've been doing my own thing I've met a lot of 'digital nomads.' They all do interesting things and the stories of how they got there are all different. And if they don't like it anymore, they can stop at any time.

In short, there's other options than diving from a job that's burnt you out straight into a consulting gig.

<comment><USER21> Unfortunately for a lot of people, their lives will implode if they stop working. If they stop working, they receive no income and have to either eat into savings (if they're lucky) or would otherwise struggle to pay rent/life expenses.

<comment><USER20> And I understand that, most people that I meet have jobs. A lot doing marketing, social media, copywriting, language teaching.

I'm using my savings to bootstrap my idea currently. This side gig I've picked up is a bit of a distraction.

If I stayed at home and continued to live as I was my runway would've been 3-4 months.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This whole thread is misguided.

You're starting from a position of _what do I have_ (software dev skill) and trying to backfit a need onto it.

The right mentality is to think hard about _your buyer_ : What are you selling, why would someone buy it, and how would they find you? Ideally it should be some kind of business need, like "I want to stop using Expedia at my hotel and transition to get more direct bookings" or "I need a very high- value, complex system migrated from one thing to another". The more risk/difficulty/P&L impact/fewer people can do it, the more you can charge.

What you don't want to do is come in and just be a coder. Those are a dime a dozen. Even though developer skill varies dramatically, there's no way to really bill for that. Most business buyers are going to see "C# developer" and want to pay the lowest rate they can. It is outrageous how little the pay difference (even at software companies) is between high and low performers. It's like 2x, it should probably be like, 10x (no company outside finance would ever tolerate this kind of pay difference). You will never win charging 2x when the other guy is charging 1x for what, on paper, looks like the same skill (a relationship/reputation can offset this partially).

Don't become a "consultant" unless you want to do sales and marketing full- time, as that is the end-state of a successful consulting career. If that isn't your cup of tea, either find a better dev job (if you want to keep coding professionally) or find a company like 10x who will place you with good clients and do the grunt work for you of selling, where you can simply come in and provide value as a high-skilled technical person (which has its benefits, including decent pay, work from anywhere, put up with less of the posturing/BS of typical office life).

Source: did this. Wasted a lot of time doing bottom-of-the-barrel dev work before I realized probably 95% of the software that gets written in the world is boring, not particularly well paid, and has no real career trajectory in front of it.

<comment><USER23> I worked as a contractor early in my career, on a team made up of contractors.

It's just temp work. It wasn't how I wanted to run my career, but I wouldn't knock anyone for doing it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> If you don't know where to get clients or you don't yet know how to sell yourself, then I suggest applying to one of the premium developer networks like Toptal, Gigster, CodeControl or Pilot.

I found that selling yourself directly to companies as a consultant takes a different set of skills and requires more than just being a great engineer.

However, to get into these developer networks you only have to be good at what you do and their job is then to sell you as a great developer/consultant. You only have to know how to pass technical interviews.

At least that's my recommendation for when you are just starting out.

But to get great consulting contracts you have to pick a niche where it's difficult to find people and be good at it. For example, I got a large contract by just being good at doing bluetooth connections between Android and BLE devices.

PS: I have a referral link to Toptal, but you don't have to use it and can apply via regular means: [https://www.toptal.com/#work-with-the-best- programmers-today](https://www.toptal.com/#work-with-the-best-programmers- today)

</comment><comment><USER25> You need two things 1) an accountant and 2) customers. Lots of people get thrust into consulting because they are given a customer.

Technical skill is required but not sufficient. Even average is ok. What matters is all the stuff around the technology. Most of it being diligence, follow through, following up and being predictable and consistent. You have those and you can write your ticket.

<comment><USER26> I would add to this the following points: \- being 5 minutes ahead of your customer in terms of what is hot and useful (or: the second part is super important) \- constantly ensure that your deliver value to your client ( if they negotiate you on price, bring it back to the value your deliver ) \- good communication skills (the capacity to explain your thoughts in plain , concise language) \- good situational awareness (understand your clients problems and solve for that (not the tech that you want to test) \- get your ego out of the way, if your client or someone on their team doesn't accept your solution, raise ) argument once or twice, then stop. Your client understands his/her context better than you. If your solution is not retained, it is not a reflection of how good you are. \- steernaway from internal politics. \- build good personal relationships with people (your client, their employees, other providers / consultants) this will help you build your network and get more work.

Hope that helps.

Personally I had great projects and others were lawyers were involved. But all in all, switching projects every other month, meeting new people , playing with different architectures ... It keeps me sharp and super happy.

Again hope that helps.

<comment><USER25> Your comment reminds me of something else you touched on, make everyone around you look good to great all the time. Never call anyone out and give tactical advice to all levels. If someone is really into Redis, tell them about some new cool extension module. If someone likes Kafka, show them some new commit that does a cool thing. Go out and seek these things in technologies the customer uses. They think ur on the ball, and they are given something that they can pass on and look even better.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Philip Morgan specifically has a ton of advice in the area of positioning oneself to be a sought-after consultant in technical fields. Even if I'm in UX and content I found his book "The Positioning Manual for Technical Firms" to be invaluable:

[https://philipmorganconsulting.com/the-positioning-manual- fo...](https://philipmorganconsulting.com/the-positioning-manual-for- technical-firms/)

</comment><comment><USER28> 1) Don't quit work until you have a couple of clients lined up.

Seriously, treat it like a side-gig until you make more per hour than the day job.

<comment><USER29> I quit my job and lived off savings until consulting picked up. I don't know that I would've tried as hard or gotten those first few clients if I was treating it as a side-gig in the evenings.

<comment><USER30> Depends - I started freelancing with 2 kiddos and little savings, so I had to do the side-gig transition until I was sure it'd make ends meet.

You definitely need a "fire" keeping you moving, though - if you have savings & low expenses, making the leap to full-time can force you to learn fast.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> define consultant?

are you solving a problem/challenge for them? you are not a consultant, you are a contractor, freelancer or agency.

are you telling them - and help implement the mindset and processes - on how they can solve a problem/challenge? you are a consultant.

or to paraphrase jerry weinberg: a consultant gives advise when asked.

if you are the second, read "secrets of consulting" by weinberg (and "are your lights on").

then, what is your product? what do you want to advise on? and find out why this would be so valuable to pay you 10k, 25k, 50k, ...

then, get a client, anyway you can and make sure you deliver 20x to 100x times the value than what you cost (note: make sure your client can and will execute what you advised, otherwise you did not deliver any value). make the client your reference case, market the reference case, go a month on a vacation, your next two clients will be waiting when you come back.

my consulting company: [https://www.f19n.com/](https://www.f19n.com/)

<comment><USER32> FYI: big scary SSL warning in (at least) Chrome when I click that link.

NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID

This server could not prove that it is www.f19n.com; its security certificate is from *.easyname.com.

And so on.

( that'll be $1,000 :-) )

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> The first thing I learned about consulting is that my job is no longer about technology. It's about sales, project management, and communication. Finding a niche (I found mine by accident) led to a lot of great opportunities.

Consulting is no longer about trading hours for money, it's about building your reputation and positioning yourself as a valuable asset.

</comment><comment><USER34> Never charge by the hour, as it gives a ceiling to your potential earnings. Charge by the job/retainer/etc and then spend a lot of energy becoming more efficient.

<comment><USER35> But beware you take on a ton of risk, especially as complexity and size of project grows. Many clients will also divide the price by how many hours they think you're working and still think in hourly terms...

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Make sure you are really good at what you want to consult on. Find your niche. It helps if you've been doing the same thing as an employee for a while so you already have references. Or if possible start doing it "on the side" for a while to build up some experience.

For me my niche is making already built PoC projects ready for production and scaling those. So I target small startups typically with 1 to 5 developers with a PoC built, some traction and a good funding round so they can bring me in with my experience to stabilize/deploy/scale their product and build proper development, testing and deployment practices.

I've been doing that for years, first as an employee, then combined consulting with employee work and since 2015 switched to full time consulting. I have built up a network of investors and people in the local startup scene and whenever my current contracts are almost finished I start pinging those contacts for more companies that fit the criteria.

</comment><comment><USER37> Depending on skills you can earn a magnificent hourly rate in comparison to full-time employment and have more freedom in the types of projects you pick. Location matters a lot though. Be ready to jump on a plane / train to discuss with potential clients. It takes a lot of grit especially if you build your own client base and wish to avoid middle-men who broker to the larger companies.

For larger firms though you won't get in without middleman (because of preferred supplier lists (PSL)). The bigger players pay you usually competitive rates (unless the middleman is fucking with you which is rare but happens), but you won't own the relationship with the client (the middleman does). Work for smaller firms and you run a higher risk of losing money, not getting paid or getting shafted simply because they think they can.

Ask a lawyer to help you draft contract templates which reflect how you envision any business relationship and then make your clients that you work for directly sign that (rather than expecting them to talk to their own lawyer which the won't do if they never considered bringing in a freelancer).

Find other freelancers in your region to speak to and get a feel for what they charge and how they go about acquiring new clients.

Biggest question when pitching to middlemen is "do you have any freelance/consulting" experience. If no this will be a read flag. So be creative to get your foot in the door.

Ensure you stay on their radar: Send your professional profile to every middle-man in the country and keep updating them with the latest version and your current availability.

Always say yes to any opportunity when asked for an interview (even you're busy right now with something else, or it is slightly off-topic for you). It's a chance to network and to practice your pitch (practicing the skills of interviewing and marketing your skills/brand is even more important than knowing your technical stuff, the latter should be taken for granted).

Gerald M. Weinberg's "The Secrets of Consulting" is excellent for anyone starting out in consulting or for those who consider hiring them (in any case your world might never be quite the same after reading this book):

[https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Consulting-Giving-Getting- Suc...](https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Consulting-Giving-Getting- Successfully/dp/0932633013)

<comment> barry-cotter > For larger firms though you won't get in without middleman (because of > preferred supplier lists (PSL)).

If that's true for you then you're either a freelancer, not a consultant, or you're not charging enough/not in enough demand that they're willing to work with you one on one.

Nick Disabato has one employee and charges $15,000 and up a quarter for Draft Revise. Do you think he goes through a preferred supplier list? By the same token, when patio11 was a one man consulting firm charging $10-30K for a week's onsite consulting you think he went though a recruiter?

[https://draft.nu/revise/](https://draft.nu/revise/)

> Draft Revise engagements are serious, long-term, design-driven, and > consultative. We are not a chop-shop contractor, and we do everything in our > power to be worth your time and your business's money. Before you send this > application, we ask that you be prepared to commit to upfront fees at or > above USD $15,000 for our first quarter of work together. The final fee we > quote for you will be based on the value we're capable of providing for your > business.

<comment><USER38> >If that's true for you then you're either a freelancer, not a consultant, or you're not charging enough/not in enough demand that they're willing to work with you one on one.

I think they were speaking to the OP, who seems to not yet be a consultant, as they are considering "Becoming" one

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> The hardest part for me was learning how to spot good clients from bad clients. Reading the "Win without pitching" manifesto"[1] transformed my business (I'm not affiliated in any way).

"Breaking the time barrier"[2] is also a good book I wish to have found earlier.

[1] [https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/the- manifesto/](https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/the-manifesto/)

[2] [https://www.freshbooks.com/fbstaticprod-uploads/public- websi...](https://www.freshbooks.com/fbstaticprod-uploads/public-website- assets/other/Breaking-the-Time-Barrier.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER40> I operate as a full time consultant (more like as a full time studio) and although getting my first clients was easy, I'm not having a roadblock on how to get new business. My clients are all happy and I've asked for referrals, and I'm sure they'll do without issue once they meet someone looking, but until then I'm not sure what to do...

<comment><USER41> In a similar boat - I have a couple of customers that generate repeated business more or less regularly, but have no idea how to generate more. My niche is very profitable but very small and not really based around where I live. I am also really lazy...

I'm tempted to give a spin to Linkedin premium features, or just exit the niche and sell myself as a regular coder.

<comment><USER42> what's that niche?

<comment><USER41> [http://linkedin.com/in/glacava](http://linkedin.com/in/glacava)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> >In the pin factory, when learning comes first, we neither expect nor want the workers to improvise on any aspect of the product, except to produce it more efficiently.

Sounds like a Dickensian nightmare to me. I would have thought some of the _best placed_ people to suggest improvements are the people who build the pins, second only to people who use the pins every day.

Stay classy HBR.

<comment><USER44> You wouldn't want them to be improvising _while on the assembly line_. You want their feedback, just not while they're supposed to be making pins.

If they're in a position where they _need_ to be improvising in order to make pins correctly or efficiently, that's a bad sign.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> I regularly see the salaries in FAANG companies; a senior specialist can make 400k a year there. Does it make sense to be a freelancer in the US with all hustle attached, if you can just put on "golden handcuffs", and make similar or more money at a large corp?

</comment><comment><USER46> On a related topic, what are people's thoughts on most lucrative niche / products to consult for? Salesforce, Oracle, Atlassian, etc? I feel like being a general programming / web development services consultant isn't going to get you the big bucks unless you really excel in that field, and you'll still probably need a niche.

A while back I was at a company that specialized in Sun Identity Management consulting. Not sexy, sure, but they charged clients in the $250-300 per hour per resource (developer) range for projects that spanned several months. This was back in 2008-2012.

<comment><USER47> Best way to find out is to look at the top companies in your metropolitan area, and see if there's someone in your LinkedIn network at any of those companies you could reach out to and ask.

Stuff I've seen consultants getting hired for: \- Salesforce implementation \- Sharepoint implementation \- AWS/Azure implementation

Again, depends heavily on what issues companies in your area are facing, that they're not looking to hire FT for.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Use the right contract. I've been a successful consultant for many years and sell my contract templates at [https://msabundle.com](https://msabundle.com)

</comment><comment><USER49> Toptal is a great place to start. I used them for a while after I quit a previous job. It won't teach you how to find your own clients, but it will help ease you in.

</comment><comment><USER50> Hi. That's quite a topic! I've been consulting as my primary source of income going on 13 years consecutively (and consulting / freelancing for far longer than that).

I occasionally post about my experiences. Perhaps you'll find something useful in my archives: [https://joshrichards.net/tag/self- employment/](https://joshrichards.net/tag/self-employment/)

</comment><comment><USER51> If you are leaning more towards contracting than consultancy then I did write up some practical starter tips [1]. Note it is biased towards my situation at the time, IT related contractor based in London, but I think it holds up as general advice elsewhere as well.

[1] [https://blog.flurdy.com/2015/10/contracting-101.html](https://blog.flurdy.com/2015/10/contracting-101.html)

</comment><comment><USER52> My personal experience: Having a successful consultancy depends on producing the best products for your best clients.

Which means it depends a lot on your ability to find clients, and get rid of the bad ones.

Bad client meaning the one costing you money, for example by not paying the invoices, or always wanting free stuff.

So ask yourself, How do I get good at marketing and sales? How can I sell the project bu subcontract the developers?

</comment><comment><USER53> I helped write a book on this: [https://www.amazon.com/Software-Engineers- Guide-Freelance-Co...](https://www.amazon.com/Software-Engineers-Guide- Freelance-Consulting-ebook/dp/B01N1TTJFK/)

If you just email me (email in profile), I will send you a free pdf copy. All I ask is that you leave a review once you find your first client.

</comment><comment><USER54> Three books that should get you into the consultant state of mind:

1\. The McKinsey Way by Ethan M. Rasiel

2\. The Consultant's Handbook by Samir Parikh

3\. Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER55> Sorry to say, it looks like you're approaching this backwards.

You shouldn't be looking for resources, steps, advice, pitfalls, experiences, or anything else.

You should be looking for a customer whose hair is on fire.

Then, and only then, should you be looking for whatever it takes to build them a fire extinguisher. Anything else is a waste of time.

<comment><USER56> > You should be looking for a customer whose hair is on fire.

Maybe when their hair is smoking. It's easier to help a client who is sufficiently motivated. It's harder to help a client who is completely panicked & out of control.

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> Some great tips shared in this thread.

I'd also suggest reading up and following Jonathan Stark and his ditching hourly mantra.

</comment><comment><USER29> Lots of good advice here.

Here's my take on it, along with an unvarnished recap of my first year as a consultant:

[https://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get- consulting-l...](https://www.gkogan.co/blog/how-i-learned-to-get-consulting- leads/)

</comment><comment><USER58> First figure out whether you're an actual consultant or an external/freelancer.

If you're a freelancer the bar is fairly low, if you're a consultant you should really be bringing more to the table.

Read the secrets of consulting by Gerry Weinberg.

Network with other consultants, they'll become a major source of new work for you.

</comment><comment><USER59> I run a Facebook group mostly on running productized services / productized consulting. Might be useful to you!

[https://www.facebook.com/groups/192719694795609/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/192719694795609/)

</comment><comment><USER60> I have been working as a consultant/contractor since April last year.

Writing a lot of good blog posts is the best. Sometimes people contact me directly via my blog.

Now software developers are shortage, so you can find your clients easily. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER61> Start here: [https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/category/start- freelancing...](https://doubleyourfreelancing.com/category/start-freelancing/)

<comment><USER27> Third this. Perhaps the most organized, complete set of free info on consulting, pricing, and negotiation. His book Double Your Freelance Rate is pretty great too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER62> Check out www.hyke.me. They helped setup my LLC and S-Corp. They offer a bunch of services specifically aimed at back-office work for freelancers. Good people and super helpful.

</comment><comment><USER63> Reputation/connections... Been a GM/VP in an MNC? That level is what people look for in consulting deals.

</comment><comment><USER64> I wrote several blog posts and a little guide about to get your first client as a software consultant: [https://www.breakintoconsulting.com/](https://www.breakintoconsulting.com/)

Short version: become a "visible expert" in your field (blog posts, ebook, meetup talks), and then connect with people who might need your service.

</comment><comment><USER65> This is something that I am interested in learning about.

</comment><comment><USER66> Be prepared to spend a lot of time building up your professional network and brand - and never stop. When times are good, you'll feel like you can stop because opportunities are all over the place. When times aren't so good, you're going to want to avoid scrambling for more work.

Good luck.

<comment><USER67> That's a very important point. Most of us will have a tendency to focus on the tech work but the real key to success is to always network and making connections. Also learn how to talk to C level execs because in the end they have control over the budgets and that's where the money is. Also learn how to present your work. Doing a good job by itself is not worth much if nobody knows about it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER68> I started by tagging along with a friend, who recommended me for a project he was already working for. It was easier to find the courage that way.

The next time somebody hired my, I simply said I'd prefer to work on a freelance basis. They were OK with it, however, because of my lack of experience with freelancing, I accepted a rate that was much too low. So that may be an easy way into becoming a consultant: just say you want to be a consultant...

I figured that out when I became I'll - nothing serious, but I realized I need to ask for more money to compensate for downtimes and risks that employees don't have (also, saving for my own retirement).

After that, I also registered with some freelance sites, like Jobserve and Gulp (latter might be a German thing, but they offered nice statistics for average salaries).

Because I struggle with occasional burnout or simply hating my job, I din't even do much of the network building or friend recommendations. But recruiters keep calling, just as long your CV has the right keywords. Even long gaps of "unemployment" don't seem to matter that much.

However, for the same reason, these days I would almost recommend against sending out your CV or registering with recruiting agencies. Now my profile is out there, and I can not retract it very easily. So I keep getting those calls, even though I don't really want them anymore. I'd say if you can get by without sending out your CV, it would be better.

I haven't really cut ties completely - maybe if I told those recruiters that I definitely don't want to be called ever again, they would comply. But I wouldn't count on it - in general, they just ignore "wishes" in the CV, like preferences for locations to work in.

I was also that way probably not necessarily getting the best jobs (in terms of interestingness, the pay was always OK). It was more "crap, my bank account is running low, I better accept this contract", rather than strategically working towards work I would like. A bit of a "golden handcuffs" problem, I guess - you have to say no to good offers to be available for the ones you actually want.

This may have been more serious for me than it sounds - by being stuck in dreadful Java Enterprise projects, job frustration would mount again, causing me to quit for months, causing me to eventually accept the next best offer, for the cycle to repeat. Maybe with a more proactive way of acquiring contracts, the frustration cycle could have been avoided altogether. (Not sure, though).

Nevertheless, overall I think consulting is great in principle. You earn more money, see more different companies and projects, and the hiring process is not that fucked up. Usually they give you an initial contract for a month, to see if you work out. So they don't have to evaluate you for weeks and weeks to see if you are a good fit. If you are not, they simply don't extend your contract.

<comment><USER68> Editing of posts seems to be broken. Sorry for the typos. Also had added some more thoughts on liability for neglience and signing NDAs which are now lost, but I don't want to try again.</comment></comment>


Show HN: A message board with anonymous, open moderation - <AUTHOR> http://www.qxczv.pw <comment><AUTHOR> Notably, delete is not broken, but you have to refresh the page first, as an anti-spam measure

</comment><comment><USER2> Please change the colors oh lord

<comment><USER3> Maybe change the rest of the CSS while you're at it.

This is not good UX [http://i.imgur.com/en3lBF5.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/en3lBF5.jpg)</comment></comment>


Show HN: ChromeScraper – Extract Any Data from Any Website - <AUTHOR> http://chromescraper.com/ <comment><USER2> This is pretty nifty. Unfortunately my use cases for any scraping I do require being performed several times per day at specific intervals or once daily at the same time of day. Without scheduling, this is of limited use to me.

ps. A typo was the first thing I saw:

 _> Extract any data from the any webpage with absolute ease_

<comment><AUTHOR> I actually plan to add that feature, also the option to hit an URL with the data (could be localhost or a public one)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN; I'm the creator of this extension that makes it easy to extract URLS (a[href]) and other data from webpages in a tabular way (in a google sheets table). Feedback welcome.</comment>


After a failed crowdfunding, Mayan EDMS future uncertain - <AUTHOR> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mayan-edms/vu7wq5aR11I/eUdJ33AzCAAJ <comment><USER2> Is it ethical for the Mayan EDMS developer to close the project and leave all his users up in the air because of a failed crowdfunding campaign?</comment>


Privacore – Protect your online privacy - <AUTHOR> https://www.privacore.com/ <comment><USER2> Why make this instead of contributing to DDG?</comment>


Thoughts on Travelling with your Startup - <AUTHOR> http://joel.is/post/27260290057/thoughts-on-travelling-with-your-startup <comment><USER2> Dream job doing what you love while travelling and discovering new places. I think you've hit the sweet spot.

</comment><comment><USER3> I have been travelling Canada while working on my startup. This has been great so far. My friend took this idea to the extreme and has been travelling around Europe for 3 years in a motorhome. He's earnt enough money to keep going pretty much forever. Lucky bastard.

</comment><comment><USER4> I went to Tel Aviv back in 99' and absolutely loved the place, it had such a good vibe, but as I've read recently its becoming a hotbed for startups so I'm sure they will have a great time there!

I would also recommend checking out Netanya just up the coast.

</comment><comment><USER5> I've been traveling with my co-founder for about 4 years full time. This was easy in the USA where we didn't need visas, but eventually we hit on the move- every-90-days limitation of other countries Visas.

Currently we're in Chile with a 1 year residency (which we could extend for another year and then from there get permanent residence). This is very nice!

Relocating every 90 days is a bit too often, as it takes a couple weeks to get back into the zone and really productive.

I wouldn't trade it for the world, though. And the cost? Our burn rate is significantly lower than if we'd remained in the USA.

Now that our team includes non-americans, relocating everyone to one place is problematic. This whole idea that you have to get a visa and can't work thing is silly- everywhere we go we're benefiting the local economy.

It is also impossible for us to have taken jobs from locals because our jobs were created by us in the first place!

<comment><USER6> Exactly. When I graduated college, my plan was to live in different countries and work for a couple years, then move on to the next adventure. With visa issues, it seems the only way to do this is to run your own company, but even then you're limited to 90 days in a country.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Perhaps for the next destination equal rights for the inhabitants should also be considered?

I hope the non-Jews of their company don't get the Al-Araqib treatment.

[http://mondoweiss.net/2012/06/al-araqib-demolished-for- the-3...](http://mondoweiss.net/2012/06/al-araqib-demolished-for-the-39th- time.html)</comment>


Create lightweight Docker containers with Buildroot - <AUTHOR> http://blog.docker.io/2013/06/create-light-weight-docker-containers-buildroot/

<comment><USER2> slideshare version of this same article was linked with a slightly misleading description ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5959790](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5959790)) I prefer this one because the title makes it clear these are containers not standalone servers and links to html instead of images.</comment>


Ask HN: How to maintain open source and enterprise Python code repositories? - <AUTHOR> I would like to make part of my project as open source (with basic features) and I would like to sell enterprise (pro) features. The project is in python, django and celery the front-end is in react. I'm thinking how to achieve two repositories sync for it. Do you know resources where I can find more details about how to achieve repo sync. <comment><USER2> I'm sure that git's branches could allow you to maintain one repo for both free and pro features for a project. It may take some wrangling but I don't see any major caveats to doing it this way.

[https://x-team.com/blog/our-git-workflow-forks-with- feature-...](https://x-team.com/blog/our-git-workflow-forks-with-feature- branches/)</comment>


Mac Pro - <AUTHOR> https://www.apple.com/mac-pro?updated=1 <comment><USER2> What a beast! Too bad you cannot use it for deep learning (No Nvidia GPUs).

<comment><USER3> At least in theory you could now socket in your own Nvidia GPU via PCIe...

...if Apple actually made drivers for Nvidia GPUs.</comment></comment>


GitHub I'm angry because I'm afraid. - <AUTHOR> http://blog.ellenchisa.com/2014/04/22/im-angry-because-im-afraid/ <comment><USER2> > It said "he messed up enough to need to leave, but it's not a technical > legal claim." That's.. ambiguous. It comes across as "something bad > happened, but we're going to pretend it didn't to protect ourselves > legally."

I don't really see why people are confused about this. He probably exercised some poor judgement, as they said, but poor judgement and illegalities are often a long ways apart. The best thing for _both_ parties was probably for him to leave. He was a distraction to GitHub, and this whole mess is a distraction for him. Part ways, both parties move on and continue. I don't think it comes across sketchy, personally. There was almost no way he was going to stay on long-term, given this history. It's a liability for the company, and honestly he's probably on eggshells around the company anyways.

Even as the author states, it's hard to PROVE that something was sexist. I imagine he said some inappropriate things, and maybe even did some inappropriate things, but proving that they were illegal is a WHOLE different bag.

>The entire situation reads: A male executive can do something that's wrong/sexist. The company will want to cover itself legally, so it will discredit the claims.

Let's fix that. "An executive can do something that's wrong/sexist. The company will want to cover itself legally, so it will discredit the claims." Let's not make this about gender. A company has a _duty_ to its shareholders to protect itself.

<comment><USER3> "He probably exercised some poor judgement"

As you said, people seem to fail to understand the nuances of something like this. It's entirely possible that he meant entirely well, but acted in a manner that was -- as they mentioned to his wife -- terribly naive, at least for a company of the scale of Github.

Just to give an example of such a nuance, in a tiny startup there might be occasions where everyone might have a big drinking and cavorting pool party at the founder's pad. As the company gets bigger, however, such activities become legal liability cesspools, and it would be very poor judgment because everything becomes a perilous he said/she said type situation. That is an extreme example, but it's why senior management often become increasingly insular and detached as the company grows: Because they legally have to. It sounds like Tom failed to do this.

Which is exactly what it sounds like happened here.

I kind of despise this blog entry because while it berates the unfairness of the old boy's club and so on, it seems to argue that any woman who claims anything should be treated as unequivocal truth, punishment meted out to the harshest extent possible. _That_ is scary, but it is sadly where many of these conversations seem to go.

Not all women are honest and truthful. Women are not above pettiness, power plays and self-interests.

<comment><USER4> 'despise' is a very strong term. It implies a much much stronger reaction to the material than just disagreeing with it. Why is that?

'it seems to argue that any woman who claims anything should be treated as unequivocal truth, punishment meted out to the harshest extent possible'

No it doesn't. It doesn't say anything of the kind.If you take that from the article then you are bringing that position to the material.

"Not all women are honest and truthful. Women are not above pettiness, power plays and self-interests."

Very true. But it is hard to see how this relates to the real point of the blog.

All in all, I detect clear evidence of an angry person, ready to project his resentment at what he believes to be inappropriate powerplays by scheming women. Scary powerplays that are too often blindly supported.

<comment><USER3> >Why is that?

Because it is unfair when someone supports someone, and their position, _purely because of their gender_. It is despicable behaviour. It is absolutely worth strong emotions.

>It doesn't say anything of the kind.

It quite clearly lays out a case that Horvath must be in the right, Tom must be in the wrong (and those supporting him will face the wrath of all women who will now not want to deal with them, because of the above), and Github is merely trying to clean their hands of it. Yes, it absolutely says so. All outcomes are only variations of the preceding.

>All in all, I detect clear evidence of an angry person

Take your white knight act somewhere else. Your particular form of discouraging disagreement is _disgusting_. No, seriously, it is vile, and is the sort of banal ignorance of people who have nothing interesting to say.

It is actually remarkably paternalistic how many take stories like that: She is a woman, so she simply must be the victim. He is a man, so he simply must be the villain. Yet this base assumption goes unstated and simply assumed, as if we're all in agreement. But we aren't, and stating that women are as great as men in all things, including the negatives, is important, because brave knights such as yourself fail to understand this.

<comment><USER4> The post does not do that. In fact it doesn't lay out a case that Horvath must be in the right at all. What the post actually does, for those who took the time to read it, is point out that a distressing takeaway from the whole messy affair is that without a convincing post mortem (legal or not) that is has a chilling effect on the way women feel about the tech workplace. In other words, the key point is about how such messy events are handled and the impact ths 'handling' has.

As for your concern about my concern for your anger. I think your last paragraph speaks for itself. Apparently you don't seem to understand that angry statements about the way women (the unfair beneficiaries of being unthinkingly treated as victims) and men (unfairly branded as villains) just reproduces a stereotyped position that is as laughable as your idea that listing the many negatives of women is doing them a favor.

<comment><USER3> _without a convincing post mortem_

Where they found no evidence or harassment, sexual or not? For those who are sure that Horvath has been wronged, this outcome will _never_ be convincing.

Further it's worth noting that while Horvath can go off slinging whatever accusations she feels like, Github and its employees are all seriously constrained. If they pulled a Tesla and responded openly, they would be attacked for it, guaranteed. This is the best they can do.

 _listing the many negatives of women is doing them a favor_

I listed the negatives of __people __, of which women are (to, apparently, your surprise).

<comment><USER4> Once again I refer you to the actual blog post. The concern about the post mortem she actually voiced was that the investigation was by an agency paid for by the company. The well known problem with such investigations is that they are rarely seen as being independent and hence, sadly irrespective of their merits of lack of them, they rarely solve the problem because their reports are seen as being tainted. Hence such investigations do not serve to remove the chill she was trying to explain and which you evidently failed to understand.

With regard to the apparent imbalance between Horvath and Github and its employees, such an alleged imbalance is fictional. This kind of situation where there is an employee involved in any kind of war of words with a company is indeed rarely balanced but it is rare for it to be truly in favor of the employee. A company has the resources and many means to make its position clear. This starts with engaging a PR / crisis management firm to craft the strategy to be rolled out. It will typically involve and investigation and two classes of public statements. Statements from the company expressing vague regret and apology for any perceived wrong doing. And orchestrated anonymous statements from employees explaining how the situation was more nuanced and how the employee in question was always difficult etc etc. Just to be clear how typical this pattern is, I predicted precisely this rollout weeks ago and it followed the standard pattern precisely.

Please note that I do not have any knowledge of the situation and assume nothing about what did or didn't happen. I do however recognize that precisely that uncertainty, if not properly handled after the effect can indeed have a chilling effect. It is for that reason that I believe the original post had merit.

Please further note that my concern with your comment is because you mindlessly trot out stereotyped generalities about the unfairness of the ways men and women are treated in the workplace. The same tired old shibboleth's about how women are inevitably considered blameless and right and men villainous perpetrators whatever the facts.

As for me being surprised by your insight that women too can have negative sides to their personalities - grow up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > Julie Ann saying what she did was credible because of the reputation she'd > built.

As somebody who hadn't heard of her before her allegations, her reputation to me was "person who was offended by a meritocracy rug and people watching hula- hoopers at a party". If anything, I'm more afraid of working with Horvath because any little thing I do could seemingly get me fired.

<comment><USER4> I think this is a very unfair characterization of her statements. The substance of her concerns was not a rug or people watching hula hoopers.

I think your remark about being afraid of working with her is both understandable and disturbing. And both stem from the same thing - uncertainty. Understandable because if she really is an oversensitive harridan then you might well not want to work with her. But disturbing, because if she isn't then you have judged her unfairly. And the reason this is doubly unfair is that if her case has any merit she can't win in this situation. There will always be people like you who don't want to give her ANY benefit of the doubt. This is a stigma very similar to the one that whistle blowers suffer.

So I understand where you are coming from but it really sucks that the whiff of scandal can result in people not wanting to touch her with a barge pole.

</comment></comment><comment> at-fates-hands This whole situation is really sketchy for me.

Horvath brought some pretty serious allegations, but never actually sued GitHub. Instead, she wrote about it on Twitter and social media sites, because that's what you do these days when you feel you've been discriminated against and harassed, right? More people jumped into the fray and stated Horvath was acting weird and starting nasty rumors about the founder's wife and their new baby.

GitHub didn't help its cause very much when the owner's wife was banned from the office and the founder stepped down, which seemed to give Horvath's supporters some more fuel to tweet about, even though it was probably more damage control than admitting any wrong doing.

I'm still not sure where I sit on this one. Everybody is accountable, and to some degree it feels like Horvath is milking this for all its worth, for better or worse. In some of the environments I've worked in, women who have "alpha" traits are not looked upon favorably and detested by their male counterparts. It seems like Horvath has some of these traits and was probably part of the problem at GitHub.

I'm in the Midwest, but is this situation pretty rare and we're blowing it out of proportion, or do these situations occur more frequently than I read about?

<comment><USER4> What are 'alpha' traits please?

<comment> at-fates-hands "In social animals, the alpha is the individual in the community with the highest rank. Male or female individuals or both can be alphas, depending on their species. Where one male and one female fulfill this role, they are referred to as the alpha pair. Other animals in the same social group may exhibit deference or other symbolic signs of respect particular to their species towards the alpha or alphas."

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_%28ethology%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_%28ethology%29)

The way her blog reads and the stories surrounding the GitHub incident indicates to me, she thought she was in charge and pushed people around, which turned a lot of people off. Alpha positions are earned, not given. When people come in and just expect to be the dominant personality, you get the issues she ran into at GitHub.

This doesn't take away from any of her allegations, but it probably was a role in the issues and friction she had with team members.

<comment><USER4> Thanks for the clarification. I thought you had something like this in mind but wanted to be sure.

So when you say "In some of the environments I've worked in, women who have "alpha" traits are not looked upon favorably and detested by their male counterparts." you are saying that women who have traits that are pseudo alpha - in other words behaving as if you have the 'highest rank' when you haven't earned it or got it as a matter of fact, is the kind of behavior that men detest.

I guess my question is, unless there is something distinctively obnoxious about a woman behaving in this way, is this really a gender issue? There are plenty of men who behave like this aren't there? And my experience has been that both men and women don't like men doing it?

So it seems that either a woman doing it is doubly bad (which seems like a form of sexism - you can't even be obnoxious if you're a woman because it's distinctively obnoxious) or it isn't really a gender issue.

I'm not intending to pointlessly nit pick here. I am really interested in whether you feel there is something about a woman doing it that is likely, for whatever reason, to incite a more negative reaction. Could it, for example, be that men are very attuned to alpha dynamics and feel that they are being in some sense 'wronged' when a woman challenges them? etc etc?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The cached version, as the website seems down now: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HmMy- es...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HmMy- esKPN8J:blog.ellenchisa.com/2014/04/22/im-angry-because-im- afraid/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&lr=lang_en%7Clang_fr)

</comment><comment><USER7> > _Every time I tweet gender, I go back through to make sure all the people > who are "important" to me still follow me. (Hint: people with power over me. > Heads of Product at interesting companies. VCs. I'm not too afraid that my > friends are going to stop following me.)_

I don't even really know what to say to this. Thanks for your honesty, I guess?

> _The situation started feeling much worse when Marc Andreesen tweeted his > support.. I've always looked up to A16Z. I've respected the people I've met > there. Ben Horowitz used female pronouns in his book!_

Woah, hey now. Quite the contrast between this paragraph and the other paragraph that I highlighted above. Much like you make sure people that have power over you being wealthy still follow you, A16Z takes care of people that are very likely to result in making A16Z wealth.

<comment><USER8> > I'm not too afraid that my friends are going to stop following me.

He probably means "I know my friends know me better and won't stop following me over a pronoun".

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> 'I want to spend it doing Product Management and founding companies.'

...so what you're saying is you don't really do anything?

<comment><USER3> Everyone has a right to be heard, but I confess that I was searching around on the site wondering "who is this person?"

While it sounds harsh, it sounds like their claim to fame is being one of the 3 billion or so females on the planet.

<comment><USER10> You don't need to have fame to have feeling and worth.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Have you tried this productivity hack from John Carmack? - <AUTHOR>

This blog post suggests that John Carmack uses a timer to measure his productivity - http://bookofhook.blogspot.in/2013/03/smart-guy-productivity-pitfalls.html.<p>I wonder if a substantial number of people do these kinds of hacks. Do any of you use some kind of timer or application to keep track of your productive time? Do you maintain logs of what you got done today? And if you do, how much do you think it helps you. <comment><USER2> I use a pomodoro timer and find it is amazing at keeping me focused and makes you realise how long your spending on a simple problem.

At the same time, it's amazing to see how quickly 25 minutes goes, and sometimes it's a bit stressful to see the clock ticking down.

I don't track my time in a log.

</comment><comment><USER3> My friend has a 25 minute timer, during which time, he only focuses on the task in front of him. It is more to curb ADD but ends up helping with productivity.</comment>


20 jQuery Plugins for Unforgettable User Experience - <AUTHOR> http://devsnippets.com/jquery-posts/20-jquery-plugins-for-unforgettable-user-experience.html <comment><USER2> am i the only one getting kind of tired of blog posts that are just links and descriptions to jquery plugins?

<comment><USER3> We're at least two.</comment></comment>