<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On 16 Feb 2012, at 12:29, luke saunders wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><div>Has anyone made the jump from solo contractor to development company?<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Yes, that's how Eden started.</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>And if so do you have any advice on how to achieve this? How do<br>clients find you and do you have a lead gen / sales process?<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I have lots (and lots) of advice - too much for a list post, but here goes:</div><div><br></div><div>- Be sure you want to transition into a company before you start. Your job will change dramatically, and you'll be managing clients a lot of the time. As you transition through bigger clients and bigger jobs, you'll find yourself more in the lead dev role, then in the project manager role, and then in the business development role. Make sure you like those jobs, or learnt how to find people who do like them.</div><div><br></div><div>- Don't spend a lot of money on an office, even when you're successful. Ever.</div><div><br></div><div>- Use contractors and only hire them when you're sure they're awesome. Keep 30-50% of your team as contractors so that you can downsize fast if the work dries up.</div><div><br></div><div>- Only hire when you're 110% sure.</div><div><br></div><div>- Network like *crazy*: meet as many devs, designers, potential clients, and 'rival' companies as possible. See if you can work with them to take on work they haven't got time for. Isolation spells death for your company.</div><div><br></div><div>Buy me a pint after LRUG and I'll happy rant on about this topic for ages :)</div><div><br></div><div>Good luck!</div><div><br></div><div>Chris</div><div><br></div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>Thanks,<br>Luke.<br>_______________________________________________<br>Chat mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Chat@lists.lrug.org">Chat@lists.lrug.org</a><br>http://lists.lrug.org/listinfo.cgi/chat-lrug.org<br></div></blockquote></div><br><div apple-content-edited="true">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; ">--<br>Chris Parsons<br><a href="mailto:chris.p@rsons.org">chris.p@rsons.org</a><br>http://twitter.com/chrismdp<br>http://pa.rsons.org<br><br><br><br></span>
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