[Murkin]

- Short intro:

Spent 2 years as freelance and 4.5 years building a 20 people consulting company (1). During this time met dozens of CEOs of various size consulting companies to share knowledge and learn.

- The why:

Think hard and long before you get into this field.

1. Turning into a product company statistically never happens.

2. You will become profitable only after a year+ (most consulting companies get stuck at 3-6 people and are NOT profitable). Profitable = you earn more than working full time for someone else.

3. With each year you will spend more time managing and less developing.

4. Its not like a startup - but you will have highs, lows, worries and sleepless nights.

5. Its all about building a name - takes years.

6. If you want to build your own product, stop reading here and don't even start with consulting.

7. Location matters - you didn't mention yours.

[pacomerh]

People mention this a lot. 'You need to learn to communicate better, and it's more important than tech skills'. I see that 500tech offers high skill services (courses and solutions). Are these services outsourced then?

[Murkin]

I would say that is exactly the opposite of running a good consultancy.

There are a few places that are basically business people subcontracting others. Their game is usually "We are cheap" with sub-par quality and endless chasing after (non returning) clients.

The most successful outfits usually are founded by strong tech people who also do the sales. (As in our case, everything is in house)