Envy Labs has grown by leaps and bounds in the past year, and I’ve learned a great deal about business along the way. A few months ago at Ignite Railsconf I presented a 5 minute talk entitled “Swearing and Consulting” where I dispensed some key lessons I’ve learned about consulting. I recently rerecorded the talk, which you can see below. Hopefully you find some of it useful, and don’t worry.. this version doesn’t contain much swearing (but the ignite one did).
Thank you very much Gregg, very interesting talk and it was very useful for me
Nice talk, but I completely disagree about fixed-bid contracts, and why I never bill by the hour: http://www.markrichman.com/2009/11/17/why-i-never-bill-by-the-hour/
Thanks for posting this! I missed IgniteConf and heard your presentation was great.
you are awesome G.POLLACK , really nice tips and tricks, thanks for sharing it.
Good post – especially about the scotch ! If you are around SFO/SJC ping me, we can have one or more Glenroths.
Seriously, all good ideas – I would add that “Don’t be afraid to do a fixed price contract” – yes, scopecreep happens; but if you are transparent clients will understand. And beware of the 10 Red flags http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1807
[...] Swearing and Consulting « Envy Labs – September 16th %(postalicious-tags)( tags: business consulting tips rails talk video envylabs gregg_pollack )% [...]
Thanks for putting this up, Gregg. Great tips, and well thought-out ideas. I love the Ruby5 podcast, and what EnvyLabs is doing.
I’m curious how you balance paying up front with not doing fixed-bid contracts. Does it get awkward when you come back to your clients and ask for more money? I understand you must estimate well, but sometimes things happen.
John: Two ways. I set the expectation up front that the estimate is just an estimate, and let them know it’s natural for the application to evolve. They need to know that they’ll end up paying more then they expect in the long run. 25% more would be reasonable. We’ve also been getting into the habit of giving weekly estimates. We talk with the client, ask what they want done, and afterwards put quotes to each task and send them roughly how many hours we’ll need to get what they want complete.
There’s also a lot to be said about good project managers who help facilitate this process. I’ll never be able to live without a PM again.
Great talk, I usually have to sit for 1 hour to hear that information from other shops, so kudos.
Hey Gregg, I really liked this talk. I’m solo right now but there are MANY things that I can apply. I just wanted to add that surrounding yourself with people is always useful, even if you’re looking for work.
Gregg, simple and powerful advice, would you like to share the systems or software you use for hourly reports, monday status calls, project management, and crm. thanks for a great post.
[...] caught wind of my Swearing and Consulting video a few weeks ago, and asked me to come on his show. I certainly pale in comparison to some [...]
Gregg, I sat down with my iPad to watch your presentation but alas, no go. I’m used to this, but I’m always a little disappointed. I enjoyed your interview with keep up the great work.
Great talk, I usually have to sit for 1 hour to hear that information from other shops, so kudos.
thanks for putting that together! Its nice to have it condensed like that.. estimating jobs is always the hardest for me, oh and delegating – and lets not forget my rampant perfectionism..
;-)
Loved this. I spent 11 years as a smaller consulting company and every word you said rang true. Nice work & thanks for sharing.
Buy you a scotch? Really, you really are a cheeky git.
Remember, reciprocity helps; and you are already doing it, “don’t be afraid to eat hours”