Ask HN: I got my consulting ball rolling but now I am stuck. What would you do?
About six months back, I started looking for remote consulting work. (on the side. Still have my day job). I setup my company, developed relationship with attorney who understands software contracts, developed relationship with someone offshore who could help me setup a small team there. I wanted to get some of the ducks in a row to increase my chances of success.
It seemed to work! I found one ideal enterprise client. I worked hard to make this client happy. I had enough work for 3 people at my offshore center for more than six months. I hired quality people with experience and I charged accordingly. I had all proper contracts and agreements in place.
Together, we exceeded the client's expectations. But now, the project is over, software is shipped & in production, everyone is extremely happy with what we did and the budget has run dry for now. I know the client will call me back when there is more work & budget.
I seemed to have got the ball rolling but I am unable to find other similar clients to keep it rolling. The biggest problem is finding people in the right position who would need our services.
I am a technical person who loves to code and ship software. I am learning all the non technical stuff required to run a small practice and I seem to be doing OK with 'learning on the job' for everything except the most important one - Where and how do I find clients who have a need and are willing to talk to me. I just don't seem to know the rules of this game.
It seems like if I get someone on the phone I can take it from there but finding interested people is whole another ballgame that I suck at.
Suggestions/ critical feedback?