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From Contracting to Beyond!

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    From Contracting to Beyond!

    I'm really interested to hear any success stories from anybody who has successfully moved from contracting to being some kind of fixed price solutions provider. How did you get your first client and how did it progress from there?

    I'm bored of this contracting scene now and need to do something else. I don't enjoy working in these noddy teams ran by idiots with projects failing to get delivered. There's also a limit to how much you can earn doing this and the fact you have to be there every day in order to earn it, pretty much.

    #2
    Hi Oliverson,

    I am currently in a hybrid between the two, and have found it to cause a few stressful days, but I am sure it will pay off in the end.

    It has typically started by my contracts coming to an end and the client wanting ad-hoc work completed. They have requested me for a quote and I have either compelted the work myself, or subcontracted it to some of my contacts within the business. Moving forward, I feel my social media and website presence should be key. Once you have a few clients that are willing to give you a case study, start contacting companies who would benefit from a similar service.
    Kind Regards,

    Paul

    Comment


      #3
      I started contracting, then moved into fixed price work. The best thing about fixed price work is I found I got to call so many more of the shots, mostly where I worked (i.e. almost entirely from home). I then brought somebody in to help me (someone who worked for one of my ex-clients, who I brought on as a permie), and have grown the company.

      Currently, there are 4 of us working out of an office, but from 5 January next year we move to a larger office and there will be 6 of us. So proper company territory IMO.

      How I got into offering fixed price was fairly easy. I was offering somewhat niche skills (a particular blend of e-learning development and a high level of consultancy in a popular LMS, of which there are surprisingly few contracting consultants). It basically meant I was in a position to call the shots. I'd say things like "I'm working with other clients, so I can't do your daily rate work, but in your instance, I'm not sure daily rate would be appropriate, since there is a danger of overspend on your part. I can deliver within X timeframe and it would be at a cost of Y*."

      *Y would equal significantly less than if they were paying a daily rate over that period. But get 2 or 3 (or up to 7 as I had at one point) clients at the same time and it works significantly in your favour.

      Somehow, I even managed to get a daily rate gig at Barclays where I went into their office probably 10 times throughout the whole eight months I worked there.

      A mixture of luck, and having good business ethics (e.g. not nickel and diming clients, not over-billing, not taking the piss, etc) meant that I accumulated good clients, good feedback and was able to grow the company to where it is today - or rather where it'll be in January. Exciting times.

      It's not for everyone, and I'm personally not as well off as when I was a 1 or 2 man band. But if the company grows the way I hope it will do, I'll be much better off eventually than I'll ever have been as a contractor. It's hard work, HR and admin are overwhelming at times, and dealing with staff being sick is a PITA.

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        #4
        Very interesting. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

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          #5
          Oh and buy the Consultant's Bible by Alan Weiss. Highly recommend it.

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            #6
            excellent post

            Originally posted by GillsMan View Post
            I started contracting, then moved into fixed price work. The best thing about fixed price work is I found I got to call so many more of the shots, mostly where I worked (i.e. almost entirely from home). I then brought somebody in to help me (someone who worked for one of my ex-clients, who I brought on as a permie), and have grown the company.

            Currently, there are 4 of us working out of an office, but from 5 January next year we move to a larger office and there will be 6 of us. So proper company territory IMO.

            How I got into offering fixed price was fairly easy. I was offering somewhat niche skills (a particular blend of e-learning development and a high level of consultancy in a popular LMS, of which there are surprisingly few contracting consultants). It basically meant I was in a position to call the shots. I'd say things like "I'm working with other clients, so I can't do your daily rate work, but in your instance, I'm not sure daily rate would be appropriate, since there is a danger of overspend on your part. I can deliver within X timeframe and it would be at a cost of Y*."

            *Y would equal significantly less than if they were paying a daily rate over that period. But get 2 or 3 (or up to 7 as I had at one point) clients at the same time and it works significantly in your favour.

            Somehow, I even managed to get a daily rate gig at Barclays where I went into their office probably 10 times throughout the whole eight months I worked there.

            A mixture of luck, and having good business ethics (e.g. not nickel and diming clients, not over-billing, not taking the piss, etc) meant that I accumulated good clients, good feedback and was able to grow the company to where it is today - or rather where it'll be in January. Exciting times.

            It's not for everyone, and I'm personally not as well off as when I was a 1 or 2 man band. But if the company grows the way I hope it will do, I'll be much better off eventually than I'll ever have been as a contractor. It's hard work, HR and admin are overwhelming at times, and dealing with staff being sick is a PITA.

            Comment


              #7
              Interesting, good post. A couple of questions:

              When you took on a permie, that must have been a big step. Small business employers I have spoken to say that managing staff is the most onerous task of running a business, especially with the UK's many employment laws. What strategies did you use to manage that ?

              In making the move to fixed-price, did you take on a new client fixed price, or move your existing client from daily-rate to fixed price ? The reason I ask is that generating sales from scratch can be a challenging business, and (I guess) there are no agencies to help you.

              Cheers,
              Jim
              Just ordered that book.

              Comment


                #8
                I've just moved a previous client from a daily rate to more of a fixed price model for adhoc work. They like it as project management can nail down costs to deliver something even if the timescales slip so fingers crossed I can start to grow it.

                Great post by Gillsman, I too have ordered the book

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                  #9
                  The hardest part is to escape the client-agency-contractor daily rate model that the majority of the market consists of. Once you are able to secure the first piece of work as a real consultancy and you are good at it, growing itself shouldn't be that hard. If you outgrow your own capacity / skill set you should have plenty of contacts with other contractors and many of them will be ready to take on small pieces of adhoc work in addition to their normal contracts until you grown enough to get them full time.

                  This is probably the dream of many of us, I will definitely check out the book Gillsman suggested.

                  Originally posted by Stevie Wonder Boy
                  Started my own storage consultancy with three other contractors. It went from strength to strength, and it was sold for many millions. The problem was the other owners, we fell out and I went my own way after a year.

                  You can do it - but make sure you write the cheques, also sorting out the structure and expectations before going on your journey is very important.

                  Talking to the other directors after the company was sold the general view was that I did the right thing financially as they had to really sacrifice to keep the company going and growing. In the end they didn't come away with more than good contractor would have.
                  Many millions divided 3 ways and they didn't come away with more than a good contractor?

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I'd love the idea of doing this, but have zero interest in the marketing, employee side of things - I also would be rubbish at it!

                    That being said, my normal contracting client from 3.5 years ago has continually given me little bits of work that I have done fixed price in my spare time since I left.

                    This developed last year into another public sector organisation seeing the system, liking it and wanting a copy.

                    So the original client gave them it for free (it was theirs to sell or not) and the new org engaged me to install it and make some changes to it (some features, some UI), again all fixed price and in my spare time.

                    I am about to do a second small phase of work for them this weekend (it's not live yet, so not worried about xmas lockdown or anything), and they have already mentioned a third phase in the new year once they've gone live.

                    Then just last week my original client passed my details to a 3rd public sector org who are interested in the system, and I'm awaiting contact with them, hopefully with a view to doing the same again.

                    I'm pretty pleased with this of course, and so far, I have been able to mostly do it all remotely which is perfect.

                    Could I spin this into more? Maybe. It's pretty much fell into my lap really, and it's enough for me for now. As I said at the start, I'm not sure I could be bothered with all the marketing, employee type stuff if I were to try and expand it, and that would take me away from the coding side as well, which I don't want to do.

                    Comment

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