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

[nicolas alpi]

Hey Luke, it's funny because I did the transition few month ago.

I was (am) a solo developer, and my wife is a project manager. We decided
to combine our skills to take more project on board, so we create we also
do cookies limited.

Basically I have my client, and she manages the project, invoice,
requirements and everything, but I keep the daily communication with my
clients. And when we take external devs for other projects, she manages
both side (client and devs), and just keep me in the loop to make sure that
everyone is happy.

I have to say the first 3 month of working with someone else (specially
your wife!) are insane, and you have to find the right balance for
everyone. But now, I would never go back ever. This a really good way of
expending a little (we think).

We'll be looking for full time people after the summer, but for the moment
we are booked up to June and pretty happy with the lifestyle that it gave
us.

The main problems I found when doing the transition was:

1. How to present/market yourself. You're not a freelance anymore, and you
have to present yourself as someone founder of company X solving a problem Y

2. Refining your target market. Obviously your market will change when
moving from solo to team (mainly because the price goes up).

The way I did the transition is to present the company as it is (Husband
and Wife + freelancer friends). But I make it clear that we are still in
transition from solo to team, so if they need someone to join their team,
or just need 1 dev, it's still possible.

No problems with this tactics so far.

If I can, I would recommend reading "Duct tape marketing", even if the
title sound a bit cheesy, it's a really good book that will help your
during this transition phase I think.

Best of luck with your new venture, their are some exciting times ahead :)

Nic
--
Nicolas Alpi, web developer, cookies eater
http://www.wealsodocookies.com


On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 1:06 PM, Jonathon Horsman
<jonathon at arctickiwi.com>wrote:

> 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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>
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