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by ng12 78 days ago
One thing I learned from consulting is if you position yourself as the "fix your mess" guy you have to be very defensive. Ask for more up-front, and bail at the first sign of underpayment.

Be pleasantly surprised when a poorly run project is being run by nice, honest people. Prep for the opposite.
3 comments
veunes 78 days ago
You're not just delivering expertise, you're stepping into a situation where incentives are already misaligned, expectations are fuzzy, and there's often a cashflow problem hiding somewhere
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randomNumber7 77 days ago
It sounds counterintuitive but from my experience it are often nice and (somewhat) honest people. They just came after whoever messed it up horribly in the first place and at some point they came to the conclusion that they need some external help.
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caminante 77 days ago
IMHO, he was defensive in the way you suggest. He got ~25% upfront.

But let's assume he got 100% upfront.

More importantly, he didn't protect scope or contract change requests. That was the time to contract. It sounds like collecting 100% would've been leaving money on the table for value delivered.

I like your label for "fix your mess" guys, but I know/use a few who definitely bill and get paid much later (especially lawyers). Sucks for OP that he contracted with a CN firm with credit risk.

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