[ale] consulting climate?

[Phil Turmel]

I run my 2-person business as an LLC - S-Corp.  Seems to be more and 
more valuable from an expense accounting perspective in recent years, 
particularly for sole owners like me.

I do have to maintain serious workman's comp and liability insurance 
policies, and jump through a variety of paperwork hoops, but I do have 
Fortune 500 customers.  Everything is a trade-off.

On 5/6/19 10:57 AM, Jim Kinney via Ale wrote:
> The modern co-op is the LLC-partnership.
> Yes. Large groups want to use only large groups. Small groups are
> intimidated by the large group consultant team. I was looking for a way
> to have a virtual front office to masquerade as larger to chase the
> longer term contracts when I did consulting.
> I enjoyed being the "does everything" IT dept. I frequently sat in with
> the owners as their contract CTO/CIO person and helped steer the IT
> side of their business. I was very clear about the potential conflict
> of interest in my role and made certain they understood the why of a
> purchase and not just the dollar amount approval.
> This could work in a more modern setup with primary and secondary
> support and a virtual office with live office admin. There are services
> that can do phone answering for multiple business names and route calls
> based on rules.  I don't know if such a thing exists for sales.
> The big disadvantage with being the small shop is "the wearing many
> hats" eats time where as the external paid services eat cash. Have to
> find the balance of diversity of abilities and single-capability shop.
> On Mon, 2019-05-06 at 09:44 -0500, Neal Rhodes via Ale wrote:
>> My reply may be a bit late; been out of the country with nothing but
>> a cellphone.
>> We are retired after running a 2 person consulting company as a S-
>> corp for decades.   I don't understand the legal arrangement you
>> describe as a "co-op".
>> We had a specialty within Unix/Linux - Progress Database development
>> and admin of turnkey systems.   Still, we found that there is a size
>> issue - large corporations do NOT contract with 2 person firms - they
>> contract with large body shops.   Most of our business was with firms
>> under 100 people.  Larger body shops have marketing people.
>> Also, large corporations expect you to have your own Worker's Comp,
>> Liability Insurance, have ISO-something audited financials, and
>> various hoops which are costly/time-consuming.
>> We did several long gigs with large clients that initially engaged us
>> through a body shop, then we went direct after 6 months and cut the
>> body shop out.  (with no ill feelings)
>> Our specialty was scarce and in demand - I am skeptical on whether
>> local firms would be willing to get past their gag reflex on a small
>> contractor if it was for generic linux work.
>> OTOH, if you get a local client, and are omnivorous, it can work.  In
>> our early days, we'd do whatever the client needed.  Yes, I put in
>> the server and the manufacturing software and database.   But if they
>> needed a terminal on the loading dock, yes I'd get on a scissors-lift
>> and pull Cat-5 through the factory ceiling 40 feet up and terminate
>> it and check the terminal worked.   As long as it made economic sense
>> for the client, and we made our hourly billing rate,  we'd be their
>> one-stop shop.  They saw our "no finger pointing - we don't leave
>> until it works" as a positive value.
>> I would do it over again to avoid commuting, be able to raise
>> children, have the S-corp pay legitimate rent for the basement
>> office,  etc.  But running an S-corp is a non-trivial amount of work.
>> regards,
>> Neal
>> On 2019-05-02 09:56, maddog via Ale wrote:
>>> Ever considered forming a co-op consulting service?
>>> It allows for greater coverage of skills and people rather than
>>> "lonewolf".  Share fixed expenses.
>>> You can start off small (just you), and pull people in as you see
>>> fit.
>>> md
>>>
>>> Sent from Xfinity Connect Application
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: ale at ale.org
>>> To: ale at ale.org
>>> Sent: 2019-05-02 8:50:18 AMSubject: [ale] consulting climate?
>>> Guys,
>>> I might find myself out of work soon, so I'm thinking of what to do
>>> next. Iused to run a consulting business years ago in New Orleans
>>> and enjoyed itquite a bit.What's the perceived climate these days
>>> for a Linux freelancer onthe northeast side of town (though I
>>> wouldn't completely rule out a good didin Cobb)?