I just quit to run a consulting firm from scratch. Advice? | Hacker News Reader

I just quit to run a consulting firm from scratch. Advice?

2 pointscookiecaper3 comments

I just quit my job. It was too much to take any more. I spoke with my manager about this two weeks ago, and things have just devolved steadily, so today was my last day.

I've had a technology consulting firm called Deseret Technology ( http://www.deserettechnology.com ) for the last year or so. Heretofore it's received very little business, but as of this afternoon it's my full-time and my main support, so I plead for HN's advice on drumming up business.

Our target niche is medium-sized businesses in the Salt Lake City and Provo Utah areas, though of course we're willing to take accounts located elsewhere. The name "Deseret" emphasizes locality and hopefully conjures up good feelings inside Mormons.

What suggestions would you make regarding successfully marketing a thing like this? Should our webpage stay so plain? As a consulting firm, our target is much more B2B and low-level than a traditional web design shop (though web design is fine if that's all there is). This means our website is designed to appeal to IT workers who'll contract us to help with projects, etc.

Anyone have good connections in the UT area that can help me out? I'd appreciate that. :) My email is jeff@deserettechnology.com if you have anything you'd rather not divulge in a public forum.

Thanks for your time, HN. Looking forward to your responses.

Initially I'd focus less on your marketing and more on taking advantage of whatever network of contacts you've got. If you can build a client base from people that know you and trust you, that should serve as a source for continued work in the months to come. The idea is to build a base of clients that are satisfied with your work, with the hope that they'll recommend you to people they come in contact with that may need similar services. With every client you serve, think about how you can take the work you've done and re-apply that some effort towards future clients. If you're doing any type of development, and you retain the right to reuse that code, it'll save you time and money down the road.

I'd also recommend speaking with an attorney, or finding a basic contract from an online resource that you can use for jobs you accept.

You may also want to speak to an accountant to make sure you handle the tax-aspect of a business correctly. You can make some mistakes that wind up costing you a lot more in fees and penalties than a meeting with an accountant would cost.

Spend some time on the website Freelance Switch (http://freelanceswitch.com/). It is a good resource for somebody in your position.

Good luck. Working for yourself is rewarding, but it's also definitely a challenge.

My experience running such a consulting firm in the (distant) past was that the best way to stay profitable is to focus on WOM. Use any connections you have now to get some gigs, do above and beyond (regardless of what those early clients pay you) to make those customers extremely happy, and new project will keep coming your way. The best thing about those referrals was that they were mostly serious - not just checking us to convince themselves that using some company in India is so much cheaper, and tended to close. Other forms of promotion, PR mostly, resulted in lots of phones and meetings that usually led to nothing and proved to be a huge waste of time. Since in a consulting firm time = money in a the most acute sense, that hurt.

Oh, and regarding your website, you should improve the design. Don't think of it as a way to get new clients, that's unlikely. However, even if someone had heard about you through a referral, they check out your website first. It must look professional (i.e. business-like boring). If it doesn't, you lost them before they even talked to you. So this isn't a matter of getting clients, it's a matter of not losing them.

Thing number 1 is that you need to put some effort into the design on your webpage. Maybe even just changing the font will make a difference.

Personally, I like the content you've got there, I don't think that's going to require much in the way of changes.

Also, you might want to do something to make it more obvious that your icons are clickable.

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