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

[luke saunders]

That's good advice Nic.

I have invested £7.41 into my new venture and bought the book. I have some
meetings coming up over the next month with people who are possibly
interested in working with me in May, so I will try out the 'in transition
from solo to team' approach and see how it goes.

Can I ask though, do you (and others on the list) actively generate leads
and try to sell, or do clients always find your company through your
site/Twitter etc and approach you first?

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 1:39 PM, nicolas alpi <nicolas.alpi at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Chat mailing list
>>> Chat at lists.lrug.org
>>> http://lists.lrug.org/listinfo.cgi/chat-lrug.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> 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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