Ask HN: How to productize a freelance consulting business? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to productize a freelance consulting business?

I've been working freelance for a few years and found good success in attracting and retaining well-paying professional clients and delivering high-quality work in return. But I'd like to scale this work beyond myself and find out how to generate more revenue on an ongoing basis, without being limited by my weekly working hours. What advice would you give? Do you have ideas for products/services that freelancers can "productize" and scale beyond their own working week?

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OP here. Thought I'd give more detail. Say I earn $100/hr, working a 40hr week, I am limited to earning $4,000 a week (before tax and assuming I work a full week at 8 hours a day). I also get unique insight into my clients' problems, which are often common across clients. How can I turn this into stable, repeatable business that scales beyond by weekly potential earnings?

(1) Get a client to pay you to solve one of their problems, but keep the rights to the software. Then, make it your product and sell it to others. This way, your product is funded, you know someone really needs it, and you can continue to profit.

(2) Rather than billing by your time, bill by solution. Many companies are willing to pay a lot more to solve a problem than to pay someone hourly to write software.

Convert the freelance consulting to a consulting agency. The business model is now to hire one more person (either a colleague or someone new) and have them help out in the work. Once they are billable start introducing your clients to them and canvass them for new work. Build this upwards like a pyramid - You on top with highest billable rate, associates at a lower rate, and below them junior associates with minimal rates. Over time, if the people are good, you should be able to get revenue from their work.

Like this: http://draft.nu/revise/

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