State of the Market

[TheDude]

Er, any consultancy I've ever seen that charges per hour/day will charge extra if they're asked to work extra.

A one man band contractor is not a consultancy and despite the smug self satisfaction of some commenter can be discarded in an instant.

[DrewG]

A one man band contractor is not a consultancy and despite the smug self satisfaction of some commenter can be discarded in an instant.

You can could argue it's a one-man consulting practice. Alan Weiss would argue that anyway.

[eek]

A one man band contractor is not a consultancy and despite the smug self satisfaction of some commenter can be discarded in an instant.

I do (and have done) one man band consultancy work and also general contractor work.

There are a number of differences - the main one being that the general contractor work comes via an agency so is very much you are a bum on a seat doing a task, as a consultancy you are selling you expertise for a fixed period of time to delivery what will be a very fixed deliverable (often just a presentation with slide deck or report).

[BlueSharp]

I spoke to my current recruitment agent yesterday as coming out of contract in two months to find out what their renewal plans are (a renewal should be on the table). Says the spate of bank holidays since easter and the half term has been a significant factor in placements the last six weeks, work is out there but he only managed to place half his usual due to the holiday delays. Hopefully, things should pick up significantly in June.

I did manage to work two concurrent contracts last year, the second one was a single day a week. I was transparent with both customers and made sure if there were any concerns about work not being done on the main contract to raise it immediately with me. The only issue came about when some of the permies got wind of it and started getting jealous, so tread carefully it's not just the hiring manager you need to keep sweet!

[DrewG]

I do (and have done) one man band consultancy work and also general contractor work.

There are a number of differences - the main one being that the general contractor work comes via an agency so is very much you are a bum on a seat doing a task, as a consultancy you are selling you expertise for a fixed period of time to delivery what will be a very fixed deliverable (often just a presentation with slide deck or report).

If you're good at selling, there's no reason why the advisory deliverable can't turn into an execution/implementation deliverable. Even McKinsey want the implementation work nowadays.

[malvolio]

If you're good at selling, there's no reason why the advisory deliverable can't turn into an execution/implementation deliverable. Even McKinsey want the implementation work nowadays.

Not actually to do with selling (or, to be precise, upselling) though, is it? Most clients will make a clear separation between a strategic proposal and the delivery of a solution to meet that proposal. I did a detailed service design for a client for a specific ITT not that long ago, in the full knowledge that (a) I was pretty sure they probably wouldn't get the work - correctly, as it turned out - and (b) I ensured what I produced would be easily transferable to any other similar ITT * . Both they and I were fully away that implementation would not be coming my way; they had their own people to follow the plans or they would want someone with considerably more reserve capital than I could offer. As I said elsewhere, most of my work in latter years was around the £10-£100 million bracket. I suspect it might be a lot easier if the work in question was a website design, for instance.


*And before you leap in with the line about "foolish to block further work", They still came back with other things but, as I suspected, they now had a solid template for the basic solution model so wouldn't have given that to me anyway.

[dx4100]

I couldn't ever imagine saying to a client, well you have used up the 7.5 hours within the day so despite the fact we have a hard deadline in the morning that you have been paying me quite a considerable sum to hit over the last couple of months - i am off for the night...

No I would just do the professional and common sense thing... put a few extra hours in, keep the client sweet and probably take it slow for the following days to balance it all up.

God knows how some of you ever get renewed with your attitudes

[JustKeepSwimming]

I couldn't ever imagine saying to a client, well you have used up the 7.5 hours within the day so despite the fact we have a hard deadline in the morning that you have been paying me quite a considerable sum to hit over the last couple of months - i am off for the night...

No I would just do the professional and common sense thing... put a few extra hours in, keep the client sweet and probably take it slow for the following days to balance it all up.

God knows how some of you ever get renewed with your attitudes

I don't think anyone is saying otherwise... The disagreement is between those who think consistently going above and beyond your contract is bad and those who think it is good.

[eek]

I don't think anyone is saying otherwise... The disagreement is between those who think consistently going above and beyond your contract is bad and those who think it is good.

But that bit in bold is a figment of the imagination of the people who think the rest of us are working insane hours for the sake of it. We do it once in a while because if you show willing you have the people around running the political campaign to ensure you get the renewal you want.

[agentzero]

Two of those and you are sorted.

They really are not going to expect much for 350Euros a day. Others will say these gigs are even harder work than 600 a day gigs, but i disagree. Personally i would feel no pressure in a contract like that, i would give them exactly 350 euros of value, if they don't renew the contract because they thought i didn't work hard enough, who cares, no big loss.

Thanks for the post. This was my point when I posted about having no issues with taking on two lower value contracts to make ends meet and add to the war chest. If a client is paying £150 to £250 per day, they aren't paying for a top tier Principal Architect, they are paying for a basic techie. In context, £150 per day would be as good as minimum wage for an inside IR35 contract.

I should feel guilty about taking on 2 x £250 per day inside IR35 contracts if times were hard? Anybody here can take the guilt, working free time (120%? No chance!), client-pleasing smarmery and go permanent. Look after number one, yourself. If you are trying to take on two £600+ per day outside IR35 contracts then you will struggle, because it will mean more time at the desk and close monitoring of performance by the client. If you can complete the statement of works of two high paying outside contracts then good for you.

I am not beyond lowering myself to doing 2 x £250 per day contracts as grunt work, it's all easy work. Those moaning and simultaneously working a single remote or mostly remote £150 to £300 per day inside IR35 on one contract at low rates are mugs, but that's their choice. If they are also trying to get a gold star from the end client for this by working extra hours and spending 8 hours a desk then they aren't a contractor as far as I'm concerned.