RE: OP ED: Going It Alone ...Blindfolded: Surprises From Full-Time Consulting

DAB — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:20:45 GMT

Hi Dave,

I was planning to move into consulting when I had my accident. Now I live on a disability income instead of a good consulting fee, but that is how the ball bounces. As for finding clients in unusual places, I have always said that it is better to be lucky and good. It keeps you busy and it sounds like you are clearly having fun.

I have several friends who are consultants and they manage just fine. It sounds as if you have jumped into an environment where you can have fun and do good work.

As Charles indicated, make sure you always have some reserve cash on hand. There will be times when you will find absolutely nothing to do and will have to survive during the lean times, but as long as you keep good control of your budget, you should not have any problems.

Anyway, I wish you continued good luck. Engineering is by far the best job when you are having fun and solving many different projects.

DAB

RE: OP ED: Going It Alone ...Blindfolded: Surprises From Full-Time Consulting

gervasi — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:50:28 GMT

I agree with all of this and have experienced most of it. Regarding having kids, it really kicked my bottom three years ago when I was getting started with kids at the same time as moving to contract work. IMHO you are right to get started NOW so you have all this in place BEFORE you start learning about kids. I now have an invoicing/accounting system, contractors I go to for things like website changes, and so on. Three years ago I was tracking my invoices on a yellow pad while sleep-deprived from working out how to make formula in the middle of the night. So I say get your practice stabilized and prepare for having kids to be the equivalent of going to grad school at night.

Regarding costs, I put 10% of my revenues for expenses and retained earnings and 30% for taxes. State and Federal quarterlies plus all that paperwork for W-2 employees is a pain, but I don't believe in outsourcing anything related to large amounts of money unless I'm completely on top of it and someone else is just executing the mechanical act of filling out the forms.

I don't find myself thinking about it too much when having dinner with someone b/c usually at least one kids is present trashing something. When the kids go to bed, though, and I should stop thinking about it sometimes my mind starts going over things I need to do for the practice. The best thing to do, IMHO, is write it down. I thought that would make me think of it more, but usually that shuts it down. Exercise is critical too.

All of this is hard, and many people perceive it as being easy street. I've just come to accept that. I no longer expect people who prefer being employees to understand the constant balance of excitement and fear. IMHO giving up on that really helps.