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The problem is that these are subcontracts where I'm blocked from cultivating the relationship with these companies. I'd like to take my company to the next level, work directly with clients and build out my own team of engineers. Is there any playbook to do this? Has anyone here done this before? If so, how?
I've thought of networking at local events and possibly tech conferences, but I'd like a solid game plan before I invest the time and energy. Any advice is appreciated.
I have been in both sub-contract situations and setup a consulting firm with team of engineers, etc. The "next level" means that you spend a lot of time selling, negotiating, billing, collecting monies, managing your team, etc. Once you get to the level of 5+ engineers you are running a business full-time and won't have time to do any technical work.
What burnt me out was that clients are slow to pay, demand changes, nit pick, etc and I still had to pay my employees. With a payroll, insurance, biz costs of $120,000+ a month, things went south very fast.
If you hire the best staff you can get, then you pay a lot. If you try to hire cheaper staff then you end up having to fix up their mistakes, shortcomings.
These days, I sub-contract through companies that I have long-term experience and relationship with - they handle all the biz stuff and I can focus on the technical work. Their markup is worth it in terms of the work-life balance that I enjoy.
The obstacle is way.
First Action: Get clarity on what your ideal target client looks like. Then reach out to them and start a conversation. See if there's a match-up.
There's an element of Sales Process here. On this subject, Mike Weinberg is brilliant.
See Chapter 14: Planning & Executing the Attack. > https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15863998-new-sales-simpl...
Also talk to your primary and ask them for recommendations to clients they turned down for being outside their target demographic. Also make sure you get your primary to provide you a written recommendation as early as you can in these projects. I know this sounds odd but all software projects will have struggles and I always found getting recommendations early meant I got much better ones then when schedule changed etc. Even if we were not at fault the recommendation would be less then I would have liked when I waited too long.
Last comment. As for your plan the one key thing to identify is your ideal client type, size etc. It is less about Technology and more about client demographics. This helps you create a target client list and start hammering the ground finding contacts in to them.
I don't have any experience in sales, but I'm eager to learn. Any advice on which content I should consume in this area?
I always recommend people new to sales/marketing read "Crossing the Chasm", it has been continually updated and is essentially how to sell new technology products to the general market. While you aren't selling a product in the traditional sense, you are selling a dynamic product which is you and your skills. So while there will be parts of the book that seem not as relevant it will still help you get a broad understanding of how to market/sell your services. And think of the product as yourself, that's what you are selling when you are a one person dev shop.
I am happy to share my experiences if you have specific questions, I struggled starting my first agency as I didn't have anyone to ask questions to and just had to screw up a ton to figured out what to do. I was super lucky many many times that I didn't tank that business, but was within days of doing so multiple times.
2. What technology service are you offering?
3. Knowing #1 and #2: Network with business people (not tech people) in events. Business people are the stakeholders, not some engineer that works at the company.
4. Your sales cycle could very well last over a year. Do you have enough funds to cover that?
5. Read this recent thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19876825
2. As for service, my technical focus is on all things backend, but also advise my clients on best practices at all phases of development. I want to eventually build a team to cover the full stack and QA.
3. Very good points and advice.
4. I currently work on these contracts. One of which should carry me through the year, but I don't have the cash to float myself for any longer than 3 months. I expected to work near full time while I work on sales. Also I don't know much about sales. Any content I should be reading?
5. Thanks I'll take a look.
2. All things backend using what technologies? (language, databses, frameworks etc)
