[LRUG] Switching from solo contractor to being a development company

[Jonathon Horsman]

Hi Luke

I'm in a similar situation where I work on several short to medium term
projects for several clients, operating under a company.

I seem to be getting more and more work now but am a bit scared to take on
staff in case all the work dries up suddenly. Also the prospect of
employing someone seems a bit daunting.

This might be a bit tangental to what you were asking about, but partnering
with other developer(s) on an informal basis seems very appealing, if there
could be easy resource sharing for overflow work.

Ideally working in a shared office space with a few freelance developer
types with potentially design resource onsite and a shared meeting space.
This would facilitate collaboration on bigger shared projects and also
solve the problem of holiday cover and pitching to clients concerned with
lack of coverage.

Eventually this could evolve into a formal arrangement or having everyone
operating under an umbrella company.

Thoughts?

On 16 February 2012 12:29, luke saunders <luke.saunders at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> For several years now I've been a contract developer, usually working
> for a single client at any one time and often for a couple of years at
> a time. Sometimes I get projects which are short term to fill some
> specific requirement, like now I'm redeveloping a site, which will be
> done by May. I think I'm a pretty typical contract developer.
>
> At some point I would quite like to run a development company, which
> might handle several projects at a time, employ other developers etc.
> But it's not clear how to best approach making the leap, when I am
> employed by clients they usually want to employ me and only me, if
> they need other developers or a designer they'll find them themselves.
> So probably the companies I have relations with now would not be my
> target market then.
>
> Has anyone made the jump from solo contractor to development company?
> And if so do you have any advice on how to achieve this? How do
> clients find you and do you have a lead gen / sales process?
>
> Thanks,
> Luke.
> _______________________________________________
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>



-- 
Jonathon Horsman
Director - Arctic Kiwi
Mobile: 079 42366038
Web: http://www.arctickiwi.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jhorsman <http://www.twitter.com/arctickiwi>
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