Can your book help an IT consultant?

Hi Barnaby,

Thanks for your emails over the past few months and for your keen support ofself-employed consultancy. I would like to get your e-book but have a couple of questions for you.

I was originally an IT contractor here in the UK with Project Management of a large infrastructure setup being my last major role. The company went belly-up and my contract ended. This was back in 2002 and the IT market was dire so a colleague of mine and I set up an IT consultancy for small/home based businesses.

Over the years it's done OK but nothing marvelous as whilst we have done some nice consulting/project work for clients, a lot hasbeen fixing 'silly' problems and ordering items like network adapters and so on which results in very little profit and doesn't really feel like a consultancy. In this regard, we've been charging by the hour for work we do which to me smacks of being a 'virtual employee/contractor' without the benefit of continual hours being accrued?

I decided to leave the partnership in June this year because of my frustration described above and 'operational differences' with my partner and am desperately trying to get back into the normal job-world so as to stabilize cash-flow and give me a little breathing space to clear my head for a while.

I am however conscious that that move may well not be 'secure' so to speak and need to bear in mind that a successful home-based business might still have to be considered; (in fact I used to like the idea of being home-based but have found the admin, lack of contact, et al a real headache to deal with!) My questions therefore are:

1. Does your book address some of the issues I've described here; particularly, is an IT consultant something that you believe can be operated in the fashion your book is suggesting, (without becoming a low-key support person)?

2. I may well not find full-time work in a hurry so may have to retry the 'business' my way, would your book help and would you in fact recommend trying to do so?

3. Does the book cover areas of confidence and sales? The experiences over the last few years have given my confidence a bit of a knock and I've never really been a sales-y person which makes it hard to promote one's own business. (With the job-hunting however, my confidence is improving).

Dear S______,

Yes. It offers advice for going out on your own in a safe, secure way, with an "anchor" client and contract. Plus ways to promote yourself and get your first clients and projects.

My advice to you would be to definitely stay away from small businesses. They're great people... but cannot pay the type of fees that will give you a steady six-figure income. You need clients at medium-sized and particularly large companies. A good contact at a big company can lead to multiple projects during the year, plus great referrals to other people in his/her company who can use your services as well. The danger lies in becoming too concentrated in just one big company, which my book discusses. You become a de facto employee again, at great risk of losing everything.

If you have a solid skill set, and if you know there's a demand for the problems that your skills can solve, then the task becomes identifying people in large organizations who are involved with these types of issues.

Activities such as personal networking at association events, speaking, giving a workshop for managers (at medium to large companies), are good avenues for finding these types of clients.

My book focuses particularly on sales and marketing your services -- through easy, low-cost way such as simple sales letters, emails, referrals, etc.

As my book points out, you only need one anchor client to get started down a path that will ultimately give you far more job security (and income) than you could achieve as an employee.

If you're anxious about the future, I would recommend pursuing both directions at the same time (50% of your time devoted to each -- getting a full-time position as an employee, versus landing one solid client as a consultant).

Even if you land a full-time position, you should spend the next year thinking of how you can parlay the contacts you make in this job into a consultancy in the future. Sometimes being part of a large organization is a great launching pad.