Latest / DevQuestions with Tim Corey / 025 Should You Become a C# Consultant? When Are You Ready To Be a C# Consultant?

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025 Should You Become a C# Consultant? When Are You Ready To Be a C# Consultant? · DevQuestions with Tim Corey

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Dev Questions Podcast with Tim Corey.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Join us each episode as we tackle the questions you are asking about a career in software development, understanding the industry, and new technology.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you're just starting out or you want to grow stronger as a developer, this is the place to get your questions answered.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's your host, expert developer and online educator, Tim Corey.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Should you become a C sharp consultant?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: When are you ready to become a C sharp consultant?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: These questions come from both Jasper and Alma this week.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought that we'd be good to kind of combine these two questions and talk about when you're ready and what do you do as a C sharp consultant.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: So let's start off with the difference between a freelancer and a consultant.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: They they both do similar things and they can be used interchangeably.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: But let's kind of clarify, at least for this conversation, the difference between freelancer and consultant.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: A freelancer in my mind is a person who does work but isn't a full-time employee.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: So you come in and you're kind of working as an employee, but are not necessarily associated with the company you're working for.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: You're a uh a third party they brought in for a job or something like that.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas a consultant, that's kind of more what they do from company to company to company.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: So there's more of the idea that they're intentionally looking to work for multiple companies or multiple different situations where they're coming in, bidding for jobs, bidding for um, you know, some kind of work at that company as an outside advisor, both advising and also doing work.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna focus more on the consultant side of things, not necessarily the side of they just wouldn't hire you full-time, so I would start as a freelancer instead.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the difference.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: You're more intentionally deciding I'm gonna do this as my job.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: My job is to work for myself and talk to different employers and work with them.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a difference here also between planned and unplanned.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where I see freelancers end up becoming freelancers, usually unplanned, meaning maybe you lost your job, maybe you couldn't find a full-time job, but you found an employer who's looking for a nine-month position or a one-year position that just want to bring you in temporarily.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you're using that as a way to still work, but it's not quite as good as full-time.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not what we're talking about here.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about you planned this, you you wanted to make this work, you want to work for yourself.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're in the position where you want to go out on your own as a developer and use your skills to become a developer who works for other companies as a consultant, there's a few things I want you to consider.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Number one is consider your income.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that may seem obvious.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: It may seem like, well, sure, you want to consider your income.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: But what you made at, or what you could make as a full-time employee, is not usually enough as a consultant.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, usually it's half as much or less than half as much as what you need as a consultant.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: So when I was a consultant, I would charge you know, four and five times, even when I was doing it early on, four and five times what I would charge an employer.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: So an employer, if I was making, let's just throw a number out here,$30 an hour, that's guaranteed income.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: If you're on a salary position, you're making$30 an hour, then you're guaranteed$60,000 a year.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: And usually that comes with benefits, whether it's you know, stock offerings, retirement, um, in the US, it's healthcare because it's because.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so but you have you know other benefits that come alongside your position and your pay.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas when you're a consultant, you have none of those extras.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: So whatever that number is, first of all, it has to at least match the other benefits you are getting in order to be equal.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: But then don't forget that as a consultant, you are not guaranteed your full work week every week.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, what I would like to budget as a consultant, when I worked, I worked for about a year, year and a half as a full-time consultant on my own.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I would budget usually to try to make enough money in about 15 hours a week to cover my entire week's expenses.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: And anything beyond that needed to go into savings.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why it was so few hours to cover your entire week's worth of expenses is because I budgeted for only working half the time.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: It happens.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I've had some months where I was so slammed with work, it was incredible.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I was just, you know, raking in the money, and it felt so great.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then I've had other months where it felt like no one remembered my number and I couldn't find work anywhere.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so a month goes by with no income.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: So that's something to consider.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Can you bill enough to make more than you need to for every week?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Can you survive the dips?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: So when you go into consulting, you don't want to go into consulting needing that week's pay.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: You want to go into consulting saying I need to make money in three months or in six months and keep that buffer.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: If you can.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now that's gonna think through.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's also not gonna think through can you effectively budget?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's really important that you can budget.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And when when that big check comes in at the beginning, where let's just say you you got a job that's gonna pay$50,000, and that's you know half your year's income that you need.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: But if that comes in day one, can you effectively spend that in a budgeted manner so that on day 180, that's when you're running out, not in day 30.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you decide time for a new TV, a new car, a new house, all the rest, you know, we're rich.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Woo-hoo! And then day 30 comes and you have no more money, that's a problem.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: So income is a big thing to think through.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Not just can I get the income, but then can I spend it in a wise way?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Can I save it and make sure that I smooth out the peaks and valleys?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because consulting is all about peaks and valleys.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: We're you know going through a time right now of uncertainty where some companies are hiring more people and other companies are letting people go.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is gonna be a peak or a valley for a lot of consultants.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: It already has been.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you're not prepared for that, that can be traumatic.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of being something that you can work through and live through, it may be a really bad thing for you.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: So think that thing through, think the income through, think if you can handle those peaks and valleys, and if you can handle it stress-wise.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's difficult.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I worked, like I said, I worked for as my for myself for about a year, and I said, you know what?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: I want to have that steady income.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so, even though I have been consulting for years on the side, even though I had uh customers coming in, I still say, you know what, I want to work for a company that gives me a steady paycheck.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so I did.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: I went away from consulting for a while.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, I never went back to it full time because that peak and valley was just too stressful.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't want to have that stress in my life because it it ate up too much of my personal time.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: So that's number one of the things to consider.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Number two is what skills do you have to offer?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: I have people who have asked me a question, okay, I just graduated college.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Can I be a consultant now?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: It depends.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: What skills do you have to offer?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: What have you done that you have can prove?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: What can you show that says, yes, I am well qualified to help?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're gonna come into a company and say, This is the direction you should go.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you are not confident to tell them that, then you're not ready.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not equipped enough, skilled enough, experienced enough to have seen how that goes, then you're gonna really struggle, even if you have that confidence, because the fact that things happen, things go off the rails, it can be difficult.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so the more experience you have in the code side, the better off you're gonna be.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now, number three thing to consider how are you gonna get clients?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Clients don't just magically appear if you create a website that says I'm a consultant now.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't happen.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: And trust me, I know.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, how are you gonna get cons clients?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: I found that clients most easily come through word of mouth, through my connections that I've made, people who already know me, who then say, I have a need.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Hey Tim, can you help with that?
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's how they often come for me.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: I had, I was fortunate enough, I had a friend who what she did was she um worked with a number of different designers and developers to build do projects.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so she would find the client, she would do all the work of tracking down people and and billing people and all that work, and she would say, Hey Tim, can you do this job for me and how much would it cost?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so she brought a lot of work for me that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, can you find someone like that?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: How are the jobs gonna come in?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: How are the clients gonna come in?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you're on your own as a consultant, you have to be the salesperson too.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one of those things that people often don't get when they're thinking about becoming a consultant, is you don't have a full company.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Your full company is you.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: So when it comes to getting the clients, that's you.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: When it comes to creating the contracts, that's you.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: When it comes to negotiating, that's you.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: When it comes to actually doing a job, well, that's you, and you expected that to be you.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: But then when it comes to working through client issues, whether it's not paying, or whether it's um confusion over what's expected, or whether it is frustration at you for not doing what they thought you would, that's all on you.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: When it comes to doing the taxes, it's still on you.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of stuff that you have to think through beyond just the code.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to be thinking through beforehand how will clients come in.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then fourth, this kind of ties in with what I've been talking about who's gonna do the office work.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: One of the best things that I ever did as my own personal business, and I I run my own personal business now.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: One of the best things I ever did was I hired an accountant.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, I had this thought in my mind that accountants were so expensive, I would never be able to afford one.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: The reality is it was a whole lot less expensive than me doing it myself because my time is valuable, and my stress level so much got reduced by hiring an accountant because there is so much to deal with with taxes and with forms and paperwork and making sure that all this gets filed.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: My accountant rocks, and I trust them completely, which is important.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: But that was one of those things where I figured out later in the process, I started by doing it myself.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: But I figured out later in the process that that was something I could take off my plate and I could afford to.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: In the beginning, you can't afford to do a lot, but figure out the things that you really can afford to do that had the biggest impact.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: For me, it was having my accountant do all my taxes, do all my paperwork.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: They even handle my business and my my business stuff that comes around with being a business, you know, filings and all the rest.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's awesome.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: But what else are on the office?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: For example, um invoicing.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: How are you gonna do that?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Who's gonna do it?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: And who's gonna track down customers who don't pay?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things, here's a quick tip that um that comes usually later on as a consultant.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but if you can get away with it early, go for it.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that is get your customers, your clients to pay up front.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: That is super hard to do.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: I get it.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: But if you get them to pay up front, there is no issues when it comes to billing.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because if they haven't paid, you don't work.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: And if you've already done the work, the incentive to pay you isn't there.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: When they pay up front, then they're incentivized to pay you quickly.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because if they don't pay you quickly, you don't get started.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't get started, their work doesn't get done.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: So if you can get them to pay up front, bonus.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: So that's another thing I did.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: I have them pay up front.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, now I don't have to worry about tracking down all you didn't pay and you know, dealing with lawyers or collection agencies or all this crazy stuff that can go on as a consultant.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Think through that process.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: I also use an online accounting software so I can put in my expenses and put in, you know, my income that I get.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: I have an accountant that takes care of doing all the tax work and worrying about how that all fits and works, but I still put those things in because I'm the one that has the credit card.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm the one that puts in the receipts.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: So software that does that really helpful.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have invoicing software that allows me to create in about 30 seconds, I can create an invoice and have it emailed to the client.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, when they get it, they can pay online, and now I have the money in my bank account within days.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: So those are the kind of things you have to think through and try as much as possible to reduce the amount of time it takes for you to do all the stuff around the coding.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because the more time you spend coding, the more money you can make.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: But the more time you spend office work, the less money you're making.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that's my thoughts.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Being a consultant is tough, is something that takes a certain kind of person, it takes a certain skill level, and it's really not for everyone.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just, I want to be a developer, but I don't want to be employed by someone directly.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot more to it.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: So think it through.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, if you have no other option, or if you're doing a freelancer type thing where you can't find full-time employment, but you found a nine-month gig, something like that.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: Totally different situation.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: But consultants, it's difficult, but you can do it.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Just think through those four things and make sure that um that you're ready before you start.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Now, you'll never be totally ready.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: There is a bit of jumping off the cliff, but it's also packing your parachute first.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: So just think those things through.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, thanks for asking the question.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Both Jasper and Alma, I appreciate it.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you'd like your question answered, either leave me a message on the podcast page of I Am TimCore or leave a comment on the YouTube video for this episode.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're listening to this podcast, I'd really appreciate it if you would leave a review.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's gonna help me.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna help the other developers who might not have heard about this podcast yet, but need their questions answered.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Either way, I love it if you'd share this episode.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: That helps me and it helps other developers as well.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: As always, I am Tim Corey.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dev Questions.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Tim is committed to making it easier for you to become a developer.
• 18:13
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• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: You can also send your questions to questions at Iamtimcorey.com.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, remember, you are too smart and your time too valuable to waste it making all the mistakes Tim did.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: When you're ready to learn to think and code like a professional developer, head over to IamtimCore.com and enroll in a course.