[ale] consulting climate?

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

maddog via Ale <ale at ale.org> writes:

> Ever considered forming a co-op consulting service?
>
> It allows for greater coverage of skills and people rather than "lone
> wolf".  Share fixed expenses.
>
> You can start off small (just you), and pull people in as you see fit.
>
> md

I consider this an excellent idea.  I was a lone consultant "back in the
day" (like early 2000s) and frankly it was HARD.  I was lucky in that I
was able to find work consistently (until I had one company basically
give me an offer I couldn't refuse -- a salary higher than my consulting
revenues and they would pay for the conference I had been attending
out-of-pocket).

I had a few gigs that were more co-op-like.

My biggest issue, at the time, was the perenial "where is my next meal
coming from?"  The bizdev aspect of the business really was not my
forte.  I would think that in a co-op, you have more word-of-mouth and
the ability to share work (and share the biz-dev aspect), but even
better, I think that if you get a big-enough co-op you could possibly
even add the overhead of a biz-dev agent to help find more work.

I always wish I had someone whose job it was to find my next gig, so I
could focus on actually doing the work :)

-derek

PS: Hi MD!  :)
-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant