[ryanjshaw]

> This year I'm on track to bill out between $360k and $400k

> To anyone reading this [post] and thinking they are offering you helpful advice, consider their motive

Honestly I'd be happy to sign up to your newsletter and be upsold into a private $20/mo high-end consulting community forum if I were to learn how to earn those kind of numbers and I was disappointed you didn't.

[FredPret]

Consider a company that needs a programming job done. It’s maybe a one-off, perhaps a 3 month to 3 year project. The company is not in tech and has no programmers.

Now, in this scenario they could hire a programmer at say, 100-200k, for the sake of argument. But this person might want to stay on for years, want benefits, and would need a manager. The company has no management experience in programming, so they know they’ll either do a shoddy job managing or have to hire a manager. This thing is already spiralling!

So now a consultant comes along. This person is an expert and has a track record. They are self-starting and self-managing. They can be brought on to get the job done and then they go away.

You can see that hiring such a consultant is not only far easier, faster, and likely to result in high quality, but very likely cheaper.

[tptacek]

Which makes it crazy to me that anybody thinks about delivering work metered in hours, as if they were a furniture mover. A contract developer is selling a (quite valuable) enterprise product. You don't need an MBA to know not to do cost-based pricing.

[ChristopherM]

I started "programming" in 1982 on a VIC-20, I taught myself C++ in 1991 and programmed as a hobby until I switched majors in University. Then I moved from Job to Job once I stopped learning/progressing. Along the way I made many contacts at a diverse group of companies.

I started at a medical device company reverse engineering MRI/CAT scan data for a 3D device used in brain surgery. Then I worked for a company that specialized in Bug Tracking and Project Management. Then a company that engineered optical archival storage discs with a 100 year life span. Then I managed a team developing a video keno/poker gaming machine that was available to the Nevada/Montana market. Then I managed a team in reverse engineering cell phones for forensic analysis. Then a medical company that made a continuous glucose monitoring system for critical care environments. After 1 year working on their firmware, I was brought back as a consultant to rescue the Software department as a Director of Software Engineering over product and manufacturing.

Through all these jobs I was well liked and since then have been contacted by people I used to work with for consulting work. And now I'm getting consulting work from other consulting job referrals.

I currently charge $180 an hour plus expenses, but come January 1st will be raising it to $200 an hour because of the inflation and the fact it's not stopping. In terms of stating new increased prices; through the years I've informed clients to have them tell me it's too much. Then 30 days, 9 months come back and just sign a new contract at the new rate. You have to be willing to walk away, you have to have money in the bank so you don't "need" their work, but would be happy to if they pay your going rate. Just be professional, explain that you could be making more doing work for another client and it's "just business".

I specialize in device drivers Windows and Linux, firmware, embedded RTOS and even desktop applications, mostly Windows but also can do some Qt on linux. My favorite language is C++ but frequently use C as firmware and linux device drivers are written in C. I also have quite a bit of experience managing, hiring, extracting and documenting software reguirments, architecting and implementing as necessary.

As for getting new clients, I tend to pick up a client for 3-6 months of work and still do work for them 6+ years later. In the beginning they get most of my time, later I end up sitting in on weekly meetings, reviewing their code/design, mentoring their junior level software engineers, and helping them to hire more as needed. I end up standing in as their CTO/director/senior manager as they usually don't have the funds to hire a full time one.

[tptacek]

Given what you're working on and how close it comes to intersecting with the consulting work I've done ('05-'20) and the likely client overlap, and given the top-line dollars you said upthread you're bringing in, I'm going to go out on a limb here, way, way out, and say: you could double that effective bill rate, denominate it in days or weeks, and significantly increase the amount of money you make while working significantly fewer days every year.

I might be wrong about this, of course! But I'm not being casual about saying it.

[ryanjshaw]

You've had some really interesting engagements, and it makes sense to see where you are specializing at those rates.

I'm about 10yrs behind you, taught myself everything. I've been consulting for 15 years but I just don't understand how one would find these clients. I'm not sure if I'm the issue, or where I live (South Africa), or the niche I've ended up in (financial markets regulations) - hence the desire for the newsletter!

[csa]

> Honestly I'd be happy to sign up to your newsletter and be upsold into a private $20/mo high-end consulting community forum if I were to learn how to earn those kind of numbers

Based on communities I am aware of that basically do this…:

1. $20 a month might get you a community that is working to get to $100k. The biggest hurdle will be simply taking action, with the second hurdle of having that action be reasonable.

2. A $50-$100 a month community might get you into the solid $100k-$500k range. I think this is your target. Biggest hurdles will be structuring work and addressing low self-esteem issues (e.g., imposter syndrome). Lesser issues will be finding reliable sub-contractors and/or communities thereof.

3. $500-$700 a month gets you into a community of folks running businesses with $1 million ARR and higher (usually as CEO rather than sole proprietor). Biggest issues will be things like hiring (especially key CXX-type slots), info on lesser known/documented processes (typically easier once it has been done once), and info on broader issues (e.g., outsourcing to $COUNTRY, to-the-minute status of manufacturing in $COUNTRY, etc.).

The numbers can go higher.

All of the above will also have an element of sanity check (“is hiring really this tough right now?”) and commiseration (“omg, my sales guy has to have his emotional support emu next to him in every zoom call!”).

[tomrod]

Can you provide some recommended ones to follow or how to find?