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Ask HN: How to find out who your customers are as a consultant?

4 points by dublinclontarf ↗ HN
I started out as a ruby freelancer in London, April 2014, it's what I marketed myself as(lety.co). Then I figured I'd market myself as freelance CTO (I've been CTO of two startups) as it was closer to what I was actually doing (as well as coding).

Now I'm moving towards software consultant (because the freelancer label means less pay and who knows what a freelance CTO does).

I have no idea on who I should be targeting as my customers. When I started I originally thought it would be small businesses but my first client was a studio with a cool game idea (runanempire.com), and my next was a small startup.

I know this isn't startup specific but I imagine it's a problem many/most face, customer acquisition.

8 comments

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gk1
Dropping the "freelance" tag was a good decision.

Freelancer = I can be hired to do one of X, Y, or Z at a rate of $A per hour.

Consultant = I can be hired to solve business problems within areas of X, at a weekly or monthly rate that's based on the worth of solving that problem.

Dropping the "freelance" tag was a good decision.

Freelancer = I can be hired to do one of X, Y, or Z at a rate of $A per hour.

For finding out who are the clients, starting out with the industry you're familiar with is a good decision. If you "speak startup" and are familiar with the problems they have, then you're more likely to be able to be valuable to them.

But even within the startup ecosystem there are different types of clients. On one end there's the bootstrapped "company" that's not even a company yet and doesn't have a product, and on the other there's the startup with thousands of users and millions in funding. ... The value you can provide (and, by extension, the amount you can charge) is going to vary between the two.

dublinclontarf
So far I've been dealing with the bootstrap end of the startup spectrum, and for my first freelancer gig was a pretty cool project.

I've learned though that bootstrapped startups a risk, many if not most of them have little if any capital. I suppose that gets filed under "qualify lead".

rubiquity
> "I've been CTO of two startups"

Congrats on being a developer!

Joking aside, I'm in a similar situation as you but my experiences have been much different. Here's what I've experienced:

I moved from California to Calgary, Canada in April of this year. In California I called myself a consultant and everything was cool. Moving to Calgary, where Oil and Gas dominates the marketplace and so do the scummy Entperise Consultants it seems the title of consultant rubbed people the wrong way, given I'm trying to do work in Ruby.

I recently went back from referring to myself as a Consultant to Freelancer in my conversations and I've had much better conversations with people. I also can speak more confidently in myself calling myself a freelancer. Consultant has always felt really cheesy and if I don't feel comfortable saying it, then I won't sell it very well.

Long story shory: Go with what you truly believe in and your ideal clients are receptive to. In my experience, small to medium sized clients are far more receptive to "Freelancer" than "Consultant." YMMV.

dublinclontarf
You know, the coding part was by far the most fun but was only about 30% of my time.

From meeting with regulators(fintech startup), bankers, government officials, investors, interviewing, compliance, procedures, speaking at and organising events the coding was the easiest part.

Sadly I've only recently come to understand the importance of a personal network and only in the last few months began to develop mine. I imagine this is common among many people who (like myself) prefer the digital side of things.

I can't speak for other startup CTO's but I'm not just someone who can only code, the human/sales side seems to be my weakest link though.

edit: wrote this before you'd filled out your comment in full.

rubiquity
> Sadly I've only recently come to understand the importance of a personal network

Ditto. I'm working hard on growing mine now as well. I imagine this is the stumbling block for most developers turned freelance/consultant/whatever.

JSeymourATL
I have no idea on who I should be targeting as my customers>

Typically, your customer would be a senior executive type, an individual who, you have the expertise to help. Given your start-up background, it could be a founder, managing partner, or investor. Ultimately, the economic buyer is someone able to pay your fee.

Recommend reading Alan Weiss on the subject > http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/142757.How_to_Acquire_Cli...

taprun
The defining characteristics of your ideal customers doesn't have to include size. Think about an expert in embedded programming. A big company like Intel could use his skills, but so could a small electronics startup. Yet neither a big office supply store nor a tiny supermarket would be interested in his skills at all.

I'd suggest thinking about the types of problems that you can solve. The closer to profit streams the better. Is there a common thread that you like to address? The narrower your focus, the more you can charge and the easier it will be to figure out how to market yourself.

Maybe your tagline is "I rescue software development projects that are failing." Maybe you could be even more specific "I rescue software projects that involve financials and are failing due to uncertain requirements."

Focus on what pain you solve first, then look to see who has that pain.