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Dreams vs making money

tommyz7

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Hi, Everyone!

I’m Tom, I’m a blockchain consultant and (so far failing) entrepreneur. I’m looking for advice from more experienced minds and since I don’t have anyone to ask, I decided to give the forum a shot. It’s going to be a bit long but I wanted to give you as much info as possible to be able to understand my situation and what I'm asking for. Especially when I'm not sure if even I understand myself.

The background.

In 2017 (27yo at the time), my life took a significant turn when I learned about Blockchain and Fastlane. Both of these things were standing for the values so dear to me: independence, privacy, empowering an individual. I created an exit plan from my web development job and a few months after reading MJ’s book I quit and started my blockchain career as a freelancer/consultant.

I think I did ok on my own but no major successes though, well, mostly failures. I created two companies, both failed spectacularly but as a side effect I’ve built a pretty nice consulting career as Blockchain Consultant. It’s funny but I feel like these two big failures made me a really good consultant even though I’m a huge introvert.

I really enjoy building stuff on the blockchain. The problem is, there is no money in it at the moment. What I mean is, I don’t think there is true blockchain company in the world that is profitable right now and if so, there is only a handful of them globally. It's just so early, infrastructure isn't ready.

During the last 4 years I did the following in circles. Work as a consultant for a few months, make some money, quit consulting and co-found a company, fail, spend all my savings in the process, and go back to consulting. Right now, I’m at my third cycle where I started building another blockchain product.

Consulting makes me quite some money, and I didn't even plan for it. I was forced to make a living so I started freelancing on upwork. It turns out I'm really good at it and it'd make me a good living if I focused on it. The problem is it's almost the same as 9-5 job (still selling my time). Also, for one contract/client I enjoy working with, I get ten B.S. jobs that I hate.

The problem.

I truly believe in blockchain and I want to build products with it. I want to detach my time from my income but so far I’ve only succeeded in selling my time as a freelancer/consultant. I feel that my current way of doing things (make money on consulting and spend it on building products) is not working well for me. Building blockchain products take a long time especially if you work in small teams or alone. When I choose to decline contracts so I can focus on my product, I’m jeopardizing my progress with the consulting business. When I need to do consulting because my savings are gone I need to put extra effort to undo the damage I did previously. Also, when I work on a contract, I focus 100% on my client (I can’t help it) and that hurts (or even kills) my side hustle. As a result, I neither succeed in my business nor my consulting.

The question.

I’m torn right now. I want to focus on my blockchain project but I need income. I’m starting to think that I should change my focus to solving some common problems that people have no matter what it is or if it’s related to blockchain. Or maybe just focus on consulting since for some reason it’s quite easy for me. At the same time I’m thinking, what if that blockchain product will work? What if I can support myself doing what I really like?

I’m stuck, I don’t know which way to go and have no one to advise me. Hell, I don't even know if this is a real problem or I just got spoilt. I have no entrepreneurs around me and I’m so in my echo chamber that I feel like any outside voice would be refreshing. Feel free to write your thoughts, I could really use some honest feedback.
 
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kleine2

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imo your specialized knowledge about blockchain can be a valuable asset.
Give yourself credit for your success as a consultant.
Failing is part of the process. It's not a scorecard it's a process.
If you are working on something people need or can adapt whatever it is to something that people need then it can still be successful with more of the right work.
My advice, focus as much as you can on customer interactions and on selling in your ventures and not on building big things without knowing that there are people that will pay for them.
Collecting money asap.
Recommended book "Ready, Fire, Aim" by Michael Masterson.
 

CryptoCurt

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Hey Tom,
Blockchain is absolutely in the top IT trends. To have this knowledge or even experience (as you have) is great!
Its clear that you have to pay the bills by doing your consulting. Sure you should focus on your customer but at the same time you should put some time management behind it. I.E. 8h/day for your consulting biz and 2-4h into bulding products. Tread them as 2 businesses, separate them accordingly.

Do networking in real life. google for "blockchain events" or similar, plan an X amount of days per month/quarter that you spent on visiting public events for real life networking. This gives you not just contacts but also new ideas and feedback on your own ideas. Maybe you can even partner up with someone or put a crew together.
IMHO: you are definetely on the right track, keep going!
 

amp0193

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I’m stuck, I don’t know which way to go and have no one to advise me.

Why not get someone?

My friend is being mentored by the CEO of github to help him with his tech company. He literally just asked out of the blue and the guy wanted to help.

Feel free to write your thoughts, I could really use some honest feedback.


My 2 cents is you should get a job. The freelancing is fine for income, but it takes all your mental energy away and you have nothing left. Get a cushy remote work gig, that you can mentally flip the switch and turn it off when the work day is done, and can focus on your ventures.

That, or find a partner or two, and raise a bunch of startup money from investors to cover 12-18 months of runway.
 
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pumpking

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Some things jumped out to me from your post:
  • No infrastructure / successful blockchain companies out there but lots of interest in it anyways (opportunity)
  • Failing lots, that means learning lots. Can you find a way to fail without spending so much money?
  • Dichotomy thinking on the startup / consulting choice. Can you do both at the same time? Work 9-5 as a consultant, work 5-10pm on your biz ideas? (It’s not a choice once you have a family)
  • You love blockchain - are you chasing your passion? Or see a legitimate problem that you can provide value by solving?
Looking forward to your replies!

Full disclosure, I’m also “failing” at the moment.
 

Kevin88660

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Hi, Everyone!

I’m Tom, I’m a blockchain consultant and (so far failing) entrepreneur. I’m looking for advice from more experienced minds and since I don’t have anyone to ask, I decided to give the forum a shot. It’s going to be a bit long but I wanted to give you as much info as possible to be able to understand my situation and what I'm asking for. Especially when I'm not sure if even I understand myself.

The background.

In 2017 (27yo at the time), my life took a significant turn when I learned about Blockchain and Fastlane. Both of these things were standing for the values so dear to me: independence, privacy, empowering an individual. I created an exit plan from my web development job and a few months after reading MJ’s book I quit and started my blockchain career as a freelancer/consultant.

I think I did ok on my own but no major successes though, well, mostly failures. I created two companies, both failed spectacularly but as a side effect I’ve built a pretty nice consulting career as Blockchain Consultant. It’s funny but I feel like these two big failures made me a really good consultant even though I’m a huge introvert.

I really enjoy building stuff on the blockchain. The problem is, there is no money in it at the moment. What I mean is, I don’t think there is true blockchain company in the world that is profitable right now and if so, there is only a handful of them globally. It's just so early, infrastructure isn't ready.

During the last 4 years I did the following in circles. Work as a consultant for a few months, make some money, quit consulting and co-found a company, fail, spend all my savings in the process, and go back to consulting. Right now, I’m at my third cycle where I started building another blockchain product.

Consulting makes me quite some money, and I didn't even plan for it. I was forced to make a living so I started freelancing on upwork. It turns out I'm really good at it and it'd make me a good living if I focused on it. The problem is it's almost the same as 9-5 job (still selling my time). Also, for one contract/client I enjoy working with, I get ten B.S. jobs that I hate.

The problem.

I truly believe in blockchain and I want to build products with it. I want to detach my time from my income but so far I’ve only succeeded in selling my time as a freelancer/consultant. I feel that my current way of doing things (make money on consulting and spend it on building products) is not working well for me. Building blockchain products take a long time especially if you work in small teams or alone. When I choose to decline contracts so I can focus on my product, I’m jeopardizing my progress with the consulting business. When I need to do consulting because my savings are gone I need to put extra effort to undo the damage I did previously. Also, when I work on a contract, I focus 100% on my client (I can’t help it) and that hurts (or even kills) my side hustle. As a result, I neither succeed in my business nor my consulting.

The question.

I’m torn right now. I want to focus on my blockchain project but I need income. I’m starting to think that I should change my focus to solving some common problems that people have no matter what it is or if it’s related to blockchain. Or maybe just focus on consulting since for some reason it’s quite easy for me. At the same time I’m thinking, what if that blockchain product will work? What if I can support myself doing what I really like?

I’m stuck, I don’t know which way to go and have no one to advise me. Hell, I don't even know if this is a real problem or I just got spoilt. I have no entrepreneurs around me and I’m so in my echo chamber that I feel like any outside voice would be refreshing. Feel free to write your thoughts, I could really use some honest feedback.
I don’t know about blockchain technology. Perhaps you are too early? A lot of business Models succeeded after Steve jobs made mobile internet possible on a massive scale, and before that they couldn’t. Perhaps some major technology breakthrough In our infrastructure has to take place.

But I do know a bit about crypto currency. There is speculative demand and transactional demand as money. Mining..Providing Exchange services..consulting..Media.
 

tommyz7

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imo your specialized knowledge about blockchain can be a valuable asset.
Give yourself credit for your success as a consultant.
Failing is part of the process. It's not a scorecard it's a process.
If you are working on something people need or can adapt whatever it is to something that people need then it can still be successful with more of the right work.
My advice, focus as much as you can on customer interactions and on selling in your ventures and not on building big things without knowing that there are people that will pay for them.
Collecting money asap.
Recommended book "Ready, Fire, Aim" by Michael Masterson.

Thanks! Maybe I didn't sound like it but I do appreciate consulting. It gave me the flexibility that I never had before.

The problem is that my product is so deep within the blockchain ecosystem that the user base is silly small. That's the problem with all blockchain apps, we almost have no users. People come for speculation on crypto and most of them are not even aware that there is more to blockchain than that.

I'll make sure I focus on talking to customers and read "Ready, Fire, Aim".

Hey Tom,
Blockchain is absolutely in the top IT trends. To have this knowledge or even experience (as you have) is great!
Its clear that you have to pay the bills by doing your consulting. Sure you should focus on your customer but at the same time you should put some time management behind it. I.E. 8h/day for your consulting biz and 2-4h into bulding products. Tread them as 2 businesses, separate them accordingly.

Do networking in real life. google for "blockchain events" or similar, plan an X amount of days per month/quarter that you spent on visiting public events for real life networking. This gives you not just contacts but also new ideas and feedback on your own ideas. Maybe you can even partner up with someone or put a crew together.
IMHO: you are definetely on the right track, keep going!

That was my original plan, to keep doing both but I failed at this so many times. For some reason consulting always wins with my side hustle. I have this need to be the best and I when client asks "can we fit this extra feature within our timeline?" I say "of course we can", and end up working 12h a day instead of planned 8h. I make more money and the client is happy by side hustle dies. That's why I decided to do things the way I do.

I actually planned to do serious networking before C0VlD-19 happened. I'll try to do it online now.

It sure doesn't feel like I'm on the right track but how do I know, I've never done it right :) Thanks for the encouragement, I'll keep going then.

Why not get someone?

My friend is being mentored by the CEO of github to help him with his tech company. He literally just asked out of the blue and the guy wanted to help.




My 2 cents is you should get a job. The freelancing is fine for income, but it takes all your mental energy away and you have nothing left. Get a cushy remote work gig, that you can mentally flip the switch and turn it off when the work day is done, and can focus on your ventures.

That, or find a partner or two, and raise a bunch of startup money from investors to cover 12-18 months of runway.

What?! I'd almost kill for a mentor like that xD That's crazy. I will actually try to find someone I admire and ask him for help. What's the worst that can happen...

My logic was that job will pay 50% of what I make on consulting but you are right, when you have a job it doesn't drag you, consulting does. I was actually offered a full-time position in March by my client, nice equity, and a really good salary but C0VlD-19 made the investor back out in the last moment and the offer was gone. It's not the first job offer I got from a client but I thought a full-time job will corrupt me again. This fake security and convenience scared me a little. I'll definitely reconsider.

I had an investor in my first startup, what a fake, passive-aggressive bully she was. On the bright side, the amount of conflict I had to deal with on a daily basis made me almost an extrovert :) I don't think I even want to go for funding. I really enjoy doing things the old school way. Somehow it's more rewarding I think.

Some things jumped out to me from your post:
  • No infrastructure / successful blockchain companies out there but lots of interest in it anyways (opportunity)
  • Failing lots, that means learning lots. Can you find a way to fail without spending so much money?
  • Dichotomy thinking on the startup / consulting choice. Can you do both at the same time? Work 9-5 as a consultant, work 5-10pm on your biz ideas? (It’s not a choice once you have a family)
  • You love blockchain - are you chasing your passion? Or see a legitimate problem that you can provide value by solving?
Looking forward to your replies!

Full disclosure, I’m also “failing” at the moment.

Yes! In 2017, my first client asked me if I do blockchain full time, I said yes and I was hired. That client ends up being the first security token exchange registered in USA. A no-name like me cannot get a job there anymore. In 2017, I had 5 months of full-time experience and got hired. It's not like that anymore but yes, plenty of opportunities here and quite easy to make a name for yourself.

My first company cost me only an opportunity. It was the time of the bubble when any blockchain guy was offered $300k+ salary. I lost an opportunity to build savings. The second company cost me $40k. Third, just rent and food. I'm trying to bring down the costs as much as possible so my runway is a long as possible.

As I mentioned in one of my previous responses, "Dichotomy" in my thinking is a result of my experience. For some reason consulting always killed side hustle. It drains my energy and when I start at 5pm working for myself I can barely think.

I really try my best to try focusing on solving actual problem but I limit myself to blockchain world for sure. I'm trying to have it all, I guess.

I don’t know about blockchain technology. Perhaps you are too early? A lot of business Models succeeded after Steve jobs made mobile internet possible on a massive scale, and before that they couldn’t. Perhaps some major technology breakthrough In our infrastructure has to take place.

But I do know a bit about crypto currency. There is speculative demand and transactional demand as money. Mining..Providing Exchange services..consulting..Media.

I'm sure, it's too early but I was thinking that I don't need to have 100 clients tomorrow. I'd settle for very little income for quite some time as long as it's not attached to my time and I do something to improve people's lives.

It looks like you might be right. It seems like we are one big blockchain company away from breakthrough and blockchain entering mainstream. Then, everything will become much easier. I remember that two years ago I had a team of 4 programmers and it took us 4 months to build tools for our products that today I can setup myself in 2 weeks. Things are improving quickly.
 
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Silverfox148

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That was my original plan, to keep doing both but I failed at this so many times. For some reason consulting always wins with my side hustle. I have this need to be the best and I when client asks "can we fit this extra feature within our timeline?" I say "of course we can", and end up working 12h a day instead of planned 8h. I make more money and the client is happy by side hustle dies. That's why I decided to do things the way I do.

This has been my direct experience, I have tried multiple strategies to overcome this but have yet to find a successful one. I also have this need to be the best and am very driven and competitive, I have found a way to switch it off completely but no middle ground, where I can switch it off completely for brief periods of time(days) but the off switch is to everything including side hustles, when I shut it off I get philosophical and revert to taking care of myself physically and mentally which isn't a bad thing but it's definitely not business building mode. I'm a software developer.

I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that for some like me, it's an either/or proposition. I have to go all in or nothing. Keep in mind a lot of the people saying they work X hours, can work a mentally exhausting 9-5 job and then hit mentally exhausting side hustles are most likely exaggerating/drugs/etc. It's possible but unlikely for most people.
 

tommyz7

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This has been my direct experience, I have tried multiple strategies to overcome this but have yet to find a successful one. I also have this need to be the best and am very driven and competitive, I have found a way to switch it off completely but no middle ground, where I can switch it off completely for brief periods of time(days) but the off switch is to everything including side hustles, when I shut it off I get philosophical and revert to taking care of myself physically and mentally which isn't a bad thing but it's definitely not business building mode. I'm a software developer.

I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that for some like me, it's an either/or proposition. I have to go all in or nothing. Keep in mind a lot of the people saying they work X hours, can work a mentally exhausting 9-5 job and then hit mentally exhausting side hustles are most likely exaggerating/drugs/etc. It's possible but unlikely for most people.

It's like I'm hearing myself. I can work for 8h maximum doing creative work. After that I can keep working but it can't be problem-solving. It must be something simpler, easy. My mind just shuts off. I can't count how many times I was working late, trying to find a solution, gave up in the middle of the night to solve the problem in 10min in the morning.

It's really a problem when you want to do 2 things at once. As @amp0193 said, it may be a good idea to get some simple job just to have income and try to save that mental energy for the important stuff.
 

Andy Black

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I was an IT Consultant for 10 years, and then a Google Ads consultant for another 10 years. I quite like consulting, and am good enough that I’m never out of work.

My consulting brings in most of my revenue, and maybe I’ll never fully give it up as (for the most part) I enjoy helping clients in that way.

I too am building up other things on the side that are divorced from my time.

Here’s some threads that might interest you:
> "Build Your High Ground" & "Grow What You Know"
> (Radio Interview) Freedom, Motivation, & Grow What You Know
> A chat with a consultant about escaping the time for money trap
 
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D

Deleted78083

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Hey buddy,

Interesting profile you have! I don't know exactly what type of products you were building, but i do think that if they are not solving a need, you can make the best blockchain products in the world, you ll keep on failing. So you can whether:

1. Start an investigation and see what people need in terms of blockchain application.
2. Do 1, not for blockchain but for any other need.

Honestly, it is quite nice to be a consultant, maybe you could increase a bit your rate and look for bigger clients so you can consult less hours and have the same amount of money, and build a third company. Many many...many people have failed an incredible amount of time before building a successful business. The failing itself doesn't matter as long as you learn from each experience.

Best,

Monfi
 

Bekit

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The problem is that my product is so deep within the blockchain ecosystem that the user base is silly small. That's the problem with all blockchain apps, we almost have no users.

This stood out to me from your post.

The user base for blockchain products should be millions. It just makes so much sense. It's obviously going to be the future. So why would the user base be tiny?

A good fastlane business model is one where your pool of potential customers is in the millions.

That's ripe for the picking at the moment. First come, first served.

Trouble is, somebody like me, who is completely outside of the blockchain world, can't figure out how to get in.

I don't know how to be a customer of a blockchain-based product.

Example: Back in 2018, I heard about a type of ethereum-based smart contracts where freelance copywriters can charge royalties to their clients based on the number of sales their copy brings in for the company. The contract will automatically issue micropayments to the freelancer every time a sale happens. Collecting royalties is difficult for freelancers to do, because their clients lie and cover up the numbers. So this is brilliant.

But I have no idea how to get one of those contracts in place. I have no idea where to even start. I'm totally in the dark about how to get that done. So I just go on and think, "Bummer, maybe I can get this someday when it's more common." And for two years, I've just held this idea in limbo. I'd jump on it... but I don't even know where to find it. Maybe it was just a rumor.

This is partly a marketing problem (no messages are reaching me about blockchain products), and partly an infrastructure problem (what stuff do I need to install and learn to navigate?).

Somebody needs to bridge that gap.

To the whole blockchain industry, I would say, "Make it easy for regular people to buy from you, and you will be rewarded handsomely."



Also, when I work on a contract, I focus 100% on my client (I can’t help it) and that hurts (or even kills) my side hustle. As a result, I neither succeed in my business nor my consulting.

As I mentioned in one of my previous responses, "Dichotomy" in my thinking is a result of my experience. For some reason consulting always killed side hustle. It drains my energy and when I start at 5pm working for myself I can barely think.

I think this either-or situation plagues a LOT of people.

Personally, I think that a job would drain you the same way that your clients do, unless it was a job that made use of your physical strength (e.g. welding or something), leaving your mental strength and creativity fully intact for afterward.
 

peterb0yd

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Check out consulting.com - if you follow the steps and make it your 100% focus, you can make consulting fast-lane.

It's my back-up plan. Currently building a software product so that has my 100% focus at the moment.
 
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tommyz7

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I was an IT Consultant for 10 years, and then a Google Ads consultant for another 10 years. I quite like consulting, and am good enough that I’m never out of work.

My consulting brings in most of my revenue, and maybe I’ll never fully give it up as (for the most part) I enjoy helping clients in that way.

I too am building up other things on the side that are divorced from my time.

Here’s some threads that might interest you:
> "Build Your High Ground" & "Grow What You Know"
> (Radio Interview) Freedom, Motivation, & Grow What You Know
> A chat with a consultant about escaping the time for money trap

I think the difference between enjoying consulting and hating it is the client. Thanks for the links, I'm listening to them right now.

Hey buddy,

Interesting profile you have! I don't know exactly what type of products you were building, but i do think that if they are not solving a need, you can make the best blockchain products in the world, you ll keep on failing. So you can whether:

1. Start an investigation and see what people need in terms of blockchain application.
2. Do 1, not for blockchain but for any other need.

Honestly, it is quite nice to be a consultant, maybe you could increase a bit your rate and look for bigger clients so you can consult less hours and have the same amount of money, and build a third company. Many many...many people have failed an incredible amount of time before building a successful business. The failing itself doesn't matter as long as you learn from each experience.

Best,

Monfi

It's been a common theme in several responses to focus on a user need not my own desires. Definitely something to think about.

The client is what makes consulting good or bad so there is surely space for improvement in that department.

This stood out to me from your post.

The user base for blockchain products should be millions. It just makes so much sense. It's obviously going to be the future. So why would the user base be tiny?

A good fastlane business model is one where your pool of potential customers is in the millions.

That's ripe for the picking at the moment. First come, first served.

Trouble is, somebody like me, who is completely outside of the blockchain world, can't figure out how to get in.

I don't know how to be a customer of a blockchain-based product.

Example: Back in 2018, I heard about a type of ethereum-based smart contracts where freelance copywriters can charge royalties to their clients based on the number of sales their copy brings in for the company. The contract will automatically issue micropayments to the freelancer every time a sale happens. Collecting royalties is difficult for freelancers to do, because their clients lie and cover up the numbers. So this is brilliant.

But I have no idea how to get one of those contracts in place. I have no idea where to even start. I'm totally in the dark about how to get that done. So I just go on and think, "Bummer, maybe I can get this someday when it's more common." And for two years, I've just held this idea in limbo. I'd jump on it... but I don't even know where to find it. Maybe it was just a rumor.

This is partly a marketing problem (no messages are reaching me about blockchain products), and partly an infrastructure problem (what stuff do I need to install and learn to navigate?).

Somebody needs to bridge that gap.

To the whole blockchain industry, I would say, "Make it easy for regular people to buy from you, and you will be rewarded handsomely."







I think this either-or situation plagues a LOT of people.

Personally, I think that a job would drain you the same way that your clients do, unless it was a job that made use of your physical strength (e.g. welding or something), leaving your mental strength and creativity fully intact for afterward.

That gap between web 2.0 and web 3.0 is way too big of the problem for people like me to solve so I don't even try.

I think the copyright example you mentioned is just what is possible with blockchain and smart contracts but it's not a real product. I see how it could work but I also see a lot of issues and challenges to build it. Anyway, I see what you are saying.

Check out consulting.com - if you follow the steps and make it your 100% focus, you can make consulting fast-lane.

It's my back-up plan. Currently building a software product so that has my 100% focus at the moment.

Thanks, I'll give it a read.
 

tommyz7

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Thank you everyone for your answers. Here's my take after a few days of thinking.

I'll look for a mentor.
I'll keep doing consulting and do my best not to sacrifice my side hustle. It is what it is.
I'll focus on solving problems instead of making "cool blockchain" things only a few people might use.
I'm probably on the right path. I'll keep going.
 

Andy Black

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I’m curious if you listened/watched that chat I had with the HR consultant @tommyz7.
 
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I don’t know if I’ve linked to these already:
> www.tropicalmba.com/services
> www.tropicalmba.com/consulting

“Learn a skill. Sell the skill. Scale the skill.“

I had it in my head to move along the sliding scale of Employee > Consultant > Productised Service > Platform. (Maybe you don’t vacate previous slots either as you slide along.)

Maybe that could look something like moving from a job, to 1 x €10k/mth client, to 2 x €5k/mth clients, to 10 x €1k/mth clients, to 20 x €500/mth clients.

I moved from consulting to productised services. (Kinda.)

I think this either-or situation plagues a LOT of people.

Personally, I think that a job would drain you the same way that your clients do, unless it was a job that made use of your physical strength (e.g. welding or something), leaving your mental strength and creativity fully intact for afterward.
“You should work on your most important client first, and the most important client for your business is your own business.”

I can’t remember where I heard that, but it stuck. If we don’t set time aside in our calendar to work on our own business then it won’t happen.

I’ve got to the point where I have a certain number of “high-touch” clients. These still require my brain-power each week. I know the max number of these I can have at any one time.

I also have “low-touch” clients where things are mostly dialled in. They’re now like spinning plates, and I can pay other people to keep an eye on those accounts.

My goal is to build up the portfolio of low-touch clients.


Let’s say I decide to cap it at 10 “high-touch” clients. I’ve figured out that I’m not over stressed or over worked at that level.

Let’s say each of those clients is paying €500/mth.

Now if I want to work on a side-project it has to be something capable of earning €500/mth, and I’ll cut one of these high-touch clients and replace them with this project.

If I want to sell an online course then it must have the potential to make me €500/mth and replace one of my €500/mth clients.

If I grow the course sales to €1k/mth then I can cut another client and spend even more time growing the course sales.

The main key is to make sales with your side-hustle as soon as possible. Then you can ramp down your main gig as you ramp up your side-hustle.
 

tommyz7

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I’m curious if you listened/watched that chat I had with the HR consultant @tommyz7.

Yes, I did. Some things she said, I can relate quite well. I see that scaling consulting is a well-known problem but I kind of gave up on it and focused on building products.

All my clients come from upwork and only 1 out of 10 is reasonable. The rest is pain to work with. I have no idea how to get clients in any other way. I have moved to US when I was 25 cutting my (tiny) network as a result. I quit full-time job at 27 which means I never had a chance to build my network in the US through a job. As a result of all that, more often than not I have to deal with crazy clients from upwork :)


I don’t know if I’ve linked to these already:
> www.tropicalmba.com/services
> www.tropicalmba.com/consulting

“Learn a skill. Sell the skill. Scale the skill.“

I had it in my head to move along the sliding scale of Employee > Consultant > Productised Service > Platform. (Maybe you don’t vacate previous slots either as you slide along.)

Maybe that could look something like moving from a job, to 1 x €10k/mth client, to 2 x €5k/mth clients, to 10 x €1k/mth clients, to 20 x €500/mth clients.

I moved from consulting to productised services. (Kinda.)


“We should work on our most important client first, and the most important client for your business is your own business.”

I can’t remember where I heard that, but it stuck. If we don’t set time aside in our calendar to work on our own business then it won’t happen.

I’ve got to the point where I have a certain number of “high-touch” clients. These still require my brain-power each week. I know the max number of these I can have at any one time.

I also have “low-touch” clients where things are mostly dialled in. They’re now like spinning plates, and I can pay other people to keep an eye on those accounts.

My goal is to build up the portfolio of low-touch clients.


Let’s say I decide to cap it at 10 “high-touch” clients. I’ve figured out that I’m not over stressed or over worked at that level.

Let’s say each of those clients is paying €500/mth.

Now if I want to work on a side-project it has to be something capable of earning €500/mth, and I’ll cut one of these high-touch clients and replace them with this project.

So let’s say I want to sell an online course. Then my goal is for it to make me €500/mth and replace one of my clients.

If I grow the course sales to €1k/mth then I can cut another client and spend even more time growing the course sales.

The main key is to make sales with your side hustle as soon as possible. Then you can ramp down your main “job” as you ramp up your side hustle.

Honestly, with the type of clients I have, I guess I'm at the very first step in your process. Usually, I work with startups and they expect me to do programming full-time and they pay me by the hour. Maybe it's freelancing than consulting. Either way, it's usually short intensive contracts, meaning I work full-time for a month or two and I'm done. It's almost impossible to take two clients this intense at the same time. On top of it, some clients have delays and then they expect me to jump with both feet to their project right away disregarding if I have other jobs or not. I had weeks like that working 80+ hours. It was great to make 5-figure weekly paycheck but terrible for my mental and physical health.

As I mentioned in other posts, the moment I move to building a product all my consulting efforts are destroyed, and later on I have to start from scratch.

I've never thought about consulting this way. For this process you describe to work in my case, I'd have to make consulting my priority and so far it's just a way to put food on my table. I don't think I'm ready to focus on it yet. I need to fail at my business couple more times xD
 

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Yes, I did. Some things she said, I can relate quite well. I see that scaling consulting is a well-known problem but I kind of gave up on it and focused on building products.

All my clients come from upwork and only 1 out of 10 is reasonable. The rest is pain to work with. I have no idea how to get clients in any other way. I have moved to US when I was 25 cutting my (tiny) network as a result. I quit full-time job at 27 which means I never had a chance to build my network in the US through a job. As a result of all that, more often than not I have to deal with crazy clients from upwork :)




Honestly, with the type of clients I have, I guess I'm at the very first step in your process. Usually, I work with startups and they expect me to do programming full-time and they pay me by the hour. Maybe it's freelancing than consulting. Either way, it's usually short intensive contracts, meaning I work full-time for a month or two and I'm done. It's almost impossible to take two clients this intense at the same time. On top of it, some clients have delays and then they expect me to jump with both feet to their project right away disregarding if I have other jobs or not. I had weeks like that working 80+ hours. It was great to make 5-figure weekly paycheck but terrible for my mental and physical health.

As I mentioned in other posts, the moment I move to building a product all my consulting efforts are destroyed, and later on I have to start from scratch.

I've never thought about consulting this way. For this process you describe to work in my case, I'd have to make consulting my priority and so far it's just a way to put food on my table. I don't think I'm ready to focus on it yet. I need to fail at my business couple more times xD
Sounds like you have a bit of feast or famine?

Can you get contracts that provide monthly recurring revenue (MRR)?

I suppose my first step was to only take on clients where the expectation was we chip away at work on a monthly basis. I turn down higher paid project work that is only for a short period of time.

Make the decision and figure it out after?
 
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tommyz7

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Sounds like you have a bit of feast or famine?

Can you get contracts that provide monthly recurring revenue (MRR)?

I suppose my first step was to only take on clients where the expectation was we chip away at work on a monthly basis. I turn down higher paid project work that is only for a short period of time.

Make the decision and figure it out after?

If by MMR you mean some fixed monthly income than I think not. My clients expect hourly invoices every time.

The closest I got to MMR was when I created Security Token on the blockchian. It happened totally by accident. I made it for one client and kept copyrights for the source code. Then I had another client that was willing to pay 50% of the original development price as long as I made the whole thing work in 2 days. This was the first time in my life when I sold value instead of time. Man, it felt good. I made that sale a few more times and that was it, never to be repeated again.

Perhaps if I specialized in websites and charge for maintenance then I could generate MMR but it's not for me. I actually escaped web development in 2017 in favor of blockchain and blockchain is such a niche technology that "mortals" won't use it for a long time.

When I read myself I feel like I made everything harder then it needed to be. xD
 

Andy Black

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If by MMR you mean some fixed monthly income than I think not. My clients expect hourly invoices every time.

The closest I got to MMR was when I created Security Token on the blockchian. It happened totally by accident. I made it for one client and kept copyrights for the source code. Then I had another client that was willing to pay 50% of the original development price as long as I made the whole thing work in 2 days. This was the first time in my life when I sold value instead of time. Man, it felt good. I made that sale a few more times and that was it, never to be repeated again.

Perhaps if I specialized in websites and charge for maintenance then I could generate MMR but it's not for me. I actually escaped web development in 2017 in favor of blockchain and blockchain is such a niche technology that "mortals" won't use it for a long time.

When I read myself I feel like I made everything harder then it needed to be. xD
If you want MRR then see if you can figure out how you can package your skills so people pay monthly for it?
 

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I truly believe in blockchain and I want to build products with it.

Instead of saying you're a blockchain consultant, why not lead your pitch as a database consultant and then pitch the idea of using blockchain. Technically a blockchain is a census of databases in different places. Also, make sure you are presenting the value that blockchain brings. IE: What if each diamond your produce could be found in a large database and you know it is protected by math? *It is a hard sell I know*

A word of advice the companies that are using blockchain don't advertise it. I have only worked on two blockchain projects for some clients. Both were very internal by design as it was to keep accountability. They use it as like they would use a CRM or other SAAS solution. Focus on a niche market, do some research, focus on small pockets of companies that are forced to do business together. IE: shipping, digital signatures, certificates.
 
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