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Ask HN: How good do you have to be to start a web consulting business?

8 points by kusina ↗ HN
I graduated from college (MS in CS) 3 years ago. I have around 3 years of Java experience. I had 2 years of PHP/JavaScript web dev experience while I was a student. I have a great interest in RoR/Ruby/JS and web dev. I built a couple of apps in the past year. This year I joined bloc.io and started working on my skills.

I want to start my own Ruby on Rails consultancy firm but I am not sure how good I am. What are some benchmarks I need to hit before I can confidently start a firm? My goal is to take on projects from clients and keep improving my skills and make decent money as well.

10 comments

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seregarev
I think you can start now. If you've built enough to have a decent portfolio to show, then you should be able to get clients based on that alone. Team up with a few people that can make up for any weaknesses you might have and get to it. IMO design skills are huge since the way something looks is often how clients will judge your work, so find someone who can wireframe and mockup solutions quickly and get your initial clients excited about your work. You can start with smaller projects and build your way up.
kusina
Should I just pound the pavement and talk with local business people and see if they want to get some work done?
andyakb
Yes. Your value as a consultant is dependent upon being able to deliver value to clients. From the sounds of it, you are a reasonably skilled programmer, so the difficulty is not on the technical side but on explaining to business owners why your services will make them more money. Read anything you can find by Patrick Mckenzie, and just start putting your knowledge to work. You will quickly learn what skills you need that you dont yet have.
josefresco
No academic test will be able to give you a conclusive answer. Client work presents new challenges (beyond code) that you'll need to experience yourself. The only tactic I'd recommend before going out on your own, would be to work for another firm, to get an idea of how the business works, and what real world client work is like.
kasey_junk
You have to be good enough to keep your work queue as full as it needs to be to support your lifestyle.

I'd say you are pretty off base on what it takes to run a web consulting business if you are still thinking it has something to do with how good your technical skills are. Sales, sales, and more sales are the difference between successful consultancies (and most other businesses too).

So, what is your pitch, your niche and who you are pitching?

kusina
I want to pitch to local businesses and see if I can build for them websites, mobile applications. Integrate any software solutions that will help their business.
coryl
What did you mean by "start a firm"? Are you going to be working with other team members or just yourself?

If its the latter, then why not just jump in and do it? Even high school students are capable of being competent contractors. You don't need anyone's permission to start!

kusina
Just with myself and slowly get more people aboard. I have a full time job and I want to go ahead once I am confident with my technical skills. I want to do a light weight version of Pivotal/Thoughtbot.
dalerus
Running a firm and doing client work has two major aspects: your technical ability to execute the work and your client relationship skills.

Just like any skills, you will need to learn not only how to code well, but how to communicate to clients who are not as technically inclined, how to sell, network, and provide value to your clients.

I would recommend finding a very specific niche, some type of business type you would like to work with. Local businesses is too broad. For example, lawyers have very different needs than a plumber. By finding a specific niche you can learn what that type of client needs, what they value, and you can better position yourself to become an expert in that area.