Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

Rawb · 05-10-2004, 09:03 PM

I did that for a while, and it didn't work out very well for me. Primarialy because I'm not a salesperson, so getting work was really hard. Luckily I had a pretty good network of people that I could get jobs through, but without them, I would probably have been washing windows on streetcorners and jingling my change cup.

So my advice for you is threefold.
One, don't do sales. Get somebody else to do sales for you, split the profits 60/40 or so in the salesperson's directon. When they make a lot of money, you make a lot of money.
Two, Build something reusable, and milk it for all she's got. It's the only way to make money on the small contracts that small businesses have.
Three, Get a spec. I worked on and off on a project for around three months, getting three approvals along the way for what I was doing, at the final hand-off phase I was expecting to make some changes. Instead, the project got handed off to someone else for signing off, and they determined that it didn't do what they wanted, so they sent me off empty-handed.

My advice: It's trouble. Be sure you have a lot in the bank if you want to try it. Remember, working your own hours means that you are working all of the time.

05-10-2004, 09:03 PM	#2 (permalink)
Rawb Crazy Location: Salt Town, UT	Done that, I wasn't any good at it. I did that for a while, and it didn't work out very well for me. Primarialy because I'm not a salesperson, so getting work was really hard. Luckily I had a pretty good network of people that I could get jobs through, but without them, I would probably have been washing windows on streetcorners and jingling my change cup. So my advice for you is threefold. One, don't do sales. Get somebody else to do sales for you, split the profits 60/40 or so in the salesperson's directon. When they make a lot of money, you make a lot of money. Two, Build something reusable, and milk it for all she's got. It's the only way to make money on the small contracts that small businesses have. Three, Get a spec. I worked on and off on a project for around three months, getting three approvals along the way for what I was doing, at the final hand-off phase I was expecting to make some changes. Instead, the project got handed off to someone else for signing off, and they determined that it didn't do what they wanted, so they sent me off empty-handed. My advice: It's trouble. Be sure you have a lot in the bank if you want to try it. Remember, working your own hours means that you are working all of the time.