[TehShrike]

When I first read this post over 7 years ago, it led to me negotiating an extra 6k/year on my next job, for an employer with <5 developers and <20 employees.

The portrayal of "businessmen" was also valuable to me. You're correct that most people don't think of themselves this way – but they should.

Reading this post was one of my first steps of many towards feeling like an active agent selling a service, rather than a passive agent looking for a corporation to glom on to.

There are plenty of companies who want to hire active agents, and they don't correlate perfectly with employee count.