[Personal Freelance Journal] Starting on Niche Freelance Consulting Work

[DMNinja]

I've been listening to Unscripted again, and something dawned on me. I have domain experience in a niche field, and I am actively getting paid to tackle a problem.
Through systemizing this procedure, I can scale my income (still bound to time though) and in the future I could turn it into a human resource legacy system that doesn't need my input anymore.
I'd like to provide the C.E.N.T.S. evaluation I personally did in hopes it is of any value to people reading. Feedback is greatly appreciated.

1. Control: The niche domain revolves around doing the heavy lifting for corporations requesting grants from the government. It is contingent on the Bureau existing (although in the EU, there's one such bureau in every country, and I can deploy in either of two countries.
2. Entry: The domain is niche because a specific skillset and specific companies apply for those grants. It's a field where most companies don't look, and most of those who do can't get their foot in the door. There is no other entity that is willing to take up that work on behalf of the companies. They have to do it themselves.
3. Need: In order to get in this niche, there's a ton of pain points. In order to get those grants, companies need to alter their structure to provide data in the way the government wants, and that's a big, emphatic, NO from all of them. They also need to take time off their schedule to work on that, and that's another NO. Extreme thoroughness is requested by the bureau, which means that nothing really ever gets done fast. These are the main ones that I can count on top of my head.
4. Time: In this stage, it's still bound to my time because, as mentioned earlier, it can only be a human resource legacy system (at least it will always have a component of it)
5. Scale: Although it can be considered bound to operating within a country, the clientele ranges from small companies to the biggest companies in the country. Multiple grants can be requested by one company, on different fields each. Each request is a potential "client". Multiple services can be offered if I decide to go through with the system.
6. Value Skew: For the company it would be the provision of ease. Ease of access to funding. Ease of handing the bureaucratic red tape. Ease application. Convenience of process simplification. Convenience of retaining the workflow of the people otherwise needed to perform the task.

Why did I decide to act on this? Domain experience. It will be harder to turn it into a legacy system, due to human resources needing to be employed, but for now (freelancing for capital) I believe it can fulfill most of C.E.N.T.S. while also giving me entrepreneurial experience (since in order to get legally paid, I need to turn it into any type of business structure).

Do you think that my assessment of the commandments is off? Am I making too many assumptions? How would YOU rate it, given the data I have provided?
As always, thank you for your time,
-Constantine

EDIT: While I had the time, I edited the topic for this to be my own personal journal on learning this freelancing work. My objective: to obtain a high-income skill that I can fall back on, in case future business endeavors don't work out well.

 

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[DMNinja]

Upon reflection, I have a question to ask the forum:
The above endeavor entails me and a good friend of mine to get into this business. In theory, I can do all of this solo, but at a significant time and resource cost. Without me bogging you down with specifics, my question is this:

Have you historically had a good experience getting into business with someone else or no?
How can I make a sound evaluation of this proposition of myself?

This is a case that I don't know what I don't know yet, and I'll learn once I act on it. But the lack of clarity for me is discomforting at the very least. I know MJ talks about EVS in Unscripted , but this is a case that I can't understand how to evaluate, since we're not strictly talking profits.

Granted, we've had no hard agreement on anything. He's been a good friend to me, so I'm not considering anything like a schism as a plausible outcome. What I am considering is if I'm severely reducing the impact of this venture in my life. The total production value offered will be magnitudes larger, and so will be the total value offered to that market. In theory, as mentioned earlier, I could get there myself at a significant time and resource cost.

Partnering up would allow for expansion of the scope of the service offered, as well as the range of offers that can be provided. If I listen to my gut, it says it's a good idea. I also know that I've still got 3B's that are not in-line with TUNEF, and thus my judgment can't be impartial.

At this particular time in this endeavor, I can think of people who had great success working with other people, and also of people who had great success working solo. I just don't know, and that's why I'm asking.

Thank you for your time
-Constantine

 

[DMNinja]

An update: There's an expected waiting period to see if we can actually go forward with this. Upon reflection, I've noticed that I utilize my free time differently than what I used to. I went from playing games, wasting time etc, to trying to write a guidebook (mostly).

In my Intro I think it's mentioned that the guidebook and coding were things I was dabbling in, but what changed is that I got many positive echoes on the guidebook. I've been feeling more meaningful joy than I ever have just consuming entertainment. It feels natural that I gravitate towards that. There was also an insinuation of me transcoding the manual into an audiobook, and this got my brain thinking. This endeavor (that I'll be releasing for free), can bring me money through crypto wallets appended at the end or even by charging the audiobook version.

But to the point of freelance work: I've already been asked by my very first client (who again, is a business entity) to pick up more projects by them. Payment has been arranged, with no later negotiations. The only thing that will inherently increase our hourly rate, so to speak, is automation and streamlining. This would allow us to pick up more projects, or keep the same volume but save time, that can be used elsewhere.

 

[DMNinja]

Another update:

I've started learning about business structures, and I've contacted an accountant for consulting services about inquiring into setting up the business entity, as well as learning about the financial responsibilities which that entails. I will then be working backwards to calculate my minimum expenses (taxes, social securities etc) so I can assess viability.

I will also be looking into assessing the possibilities of liability in the offered service. Other than that I'll keep on writing a manual, which started as a side project, instead of spending time mostly consuming entertainment like I used to.

 

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[DMNinja]

Yet another update:

I need to figure out the exact process in registering a business name which can be done through the registrar of companies, then figure out how i'll be assigning social securities as my own employer/ employee through the bureau of health services, and also figure out how taxation laws will be affecting the business.

Regarding the important stuff, I've already got customers lined up, and there's already a solid payment model that is accepted.

I still need to address some of the stuff below

I will then be working backwards to calculate my minimum expenses (taxes, social securities etc) so I can assess viability.

I will also be looking into assessing the possibilities of liability in the offered service.

And I'm keeping the side project

Other than that I'll keep on writing a manual, which started as a side project, instead of spending time mostly consuming entertainment like I used to.

 

[DMNinja]

Regarding the important stuff, I've already got customers lined up, and there's already a solid payment model that is accepted.

I was dead wrong on this statement after all. It ended up being multiple projects for ONE customer, and the available pool of customers is not as big as I thought. This idea is NOT C.E.N.T.S. viable due to it violating the commandment of Need and Scale. It doesn't offset this by magnitude, so I'll only endeavor in this field again if I want some side income until I figure out something else.

I thought I'd be sad that it fell through, but I'm not. I learned from it, and I'll take that lesson forward. I'm already moving towards my other idea for a business, one centered around a product. It violates the commandment of Scale, but it can be offset through replication.

I'm also wondering who in this forum provides good consulting services in terms of direction, since I'd rather understand how to align my efforts to my own personal values.

Thank you for reading and I wish you the best
-Constantine