Moving business from single postings to operating a consultancy w multiple customers

[northernladuk]

Perhaps the 1966 refers to d.o.b. That'd make him 51.

Or it could be referring to the military coup in Upper Volta which lead to a new national constitution.

[Eirikur]

I know a guy who was doing exactly that, very specialist area, multiple customers and he did have a wide network from his previous career which was in pre sales. Still he found it very hard to get enough clients to work on a call off basis, fixed amount of hours or days per month for and had to change to working full time on contracts for 1 client at the time, which now provides him with a much better turnover.

[oliverson]

Perhaps the 1966 refers to d.o.b. That'd make him 51.

Perhaps he's an England football fan?

[MeMeMe1966]

Ah ok...The decision makers you refer to., are you particularly close to any of them? Is this a question you could ask them in confidence? Given they would be the person/role you would be selling into, you could pick their brains on the kind of challenges you are likely to face? Also, you never know, one of them might be interested in running it as a sideline venture with you.

Some closer than others. I think that is a good idea.

[MeMeMe1966]

Are you selling to public sector? World of pain if so.

Unfortunately this is my area of expertise and the knowledge isn't transferable

[MeMeMe1966]

I remember giving a few pointers, i.e moving to consultancy set up, from my experiences, when you asked the question.

CBA to do the same again.

ok. cheers.

[MeMeMe1966]

Total dreamer/fantasist. 2.5 years in contract, you're having a laugh. I know people in London, total top of the tree, got off the ground doing this but the competition is intense. They form in small groups of elite specialists and they've been struggling to find the talent to satisfy the client requirement. Right now they are advertising contract developer roles at £ 750 a day. Is this something you feel you could muster? I very much doubt it. Just enjoy contracting for the next couple of years until the government kill it in this country would be my advice.

You are probably right. But I can make them money and not a lot of people can do this. Not wooly softy business advice tulip but real concrete proven extra money. It is sort of a compelling argument.

[MeMeMe1966]

Dare I ask how old you are OP?

51. I did my time as a permie over 25 years and was well known and extremely respected within my field before jumping ship and going contracting.

[MeMeMe1966]

If you have to ask on here - in other words you don't have a network of people to find this information out from in real life - then it's a non-starter.

I am asking everyone I can plus listening to Ted talks on marketing start-ups plus reading articles. This forum is just another resource.

[MeMeMe1966]

I know a guy who was doing exactly that, very specialist area, multiple customers and he did have a wide network from his previous career which was in pre sales. Still he found it very hard to get enough clients to work on a call off basis, fixed amount of hours or days per month for and had to change to working full time on contracts for 1 client at the time, which now provides him with a much better turnover.

The trouble with that model is that I'll soon hit the ceiling on my day rate for public sector and then I will be limited forever. This is why I wanted to move to consultancy but it sounds like your friend was in a similar situation and found it difficult. Do you know if he had a one-off offering so that once he used up a client they were finished and he had to find new ones or did he struggle to get them onto on-going contracts?