Looking for feedback. Nonprofit worker wants to go solo.

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bigjoshua
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Looking for feedback. Nonprofit worker wants to go solo.

Post by bigjoshua »

I cant believe I am thinking about selling out, but I am a pig. I want *oink* money *oink*.

I have been working for nonprofits for way too long and am kind of, well, sick of being paid peanuts. If I sound bitter, it might be because today was a particularly obnoxious yet painfully typical day at the office.

As a nonprofit employee, I have come to be an "accidental techie" and likewise a technical jack-of-all-trades. I know enough about a lot of things to be dangerous, but not enough to be fully competant in the real world. I build light php applications, Drupal and Joomla sites, and do database design/development. Typical nonprofit stuff. I am very interested in open source.

I love the work. Usually. I have my PMP certification so my coworkers tend to assume I know what I am doing. Its a good time, sometimes.

The problem is, I have nobody to learn from and I have always, ALWAYS wanted to work for myself. Beyond that, this is an exciting/nerve-wracking time for me because I am getting married.

I need to make more money. I have paid my karmic dues and am settling down to have a family now.

I am examining the possibility of starting a business, potentially doing consulting work for nonprofits. Perhaps building web applications. Maybe just doing websites. However, I have not done anything like this before and am looking for your input. I have not been out there in the "real world" for some time. The last time I worked in private industry was ~2001.

If you have been working as a consultant you can help me with a minute of your time. Please take a second to give me your thoughts on this.

* What skillsets should I concentrate on?
* Which do you find clients are most willing to pay good money for?
* Which do you feel will be in demand for some time?
* If you, as a consultant, had to give your son/daughter (who also wanted to be a web application or web consultant) some advice, what would it be?
* When I got out of college, people pushed me to become an attorney. I declined, saying that there were too many lawyers in the world. The competition would be too high (and Id be miserable). Are there too many developers out there, working for themselves?

I greatly appreciate your responses. This is a big move for me and I want to see what this crowd thinks of the climte for such a move, what areas I would need proficiency in. From this, I can perhaps gauge my readiness to invest myself fully in the dream.

Thanks!!! And I apologize for the extended question. This is purely a way for me to get honest feedback from the people who know. I will research everything and not act in haste. This is very important to me.

- Rico
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Todd_Z
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Post by Todd_Z »

Hey Rico,

Jobs seem to be throwing themselves at me, and it continues to get better and better with each project. I don't know if that's because I live in a large city [boston], or simply luck, but after doing 1 year of freelance, then 1 year with a real estate company, I can pretty much get 40+/hr at the drop of a hat. However, the first year was the hardest in terms of cash flow. I was a student then [as I am now], and so I wasn't forced to pay for rent or food [living with the 'rents], so I was able to just do very cheap work, get experience, get work done, etc. You will learn what skills you need as the project goes, but essentially you will always need the basics: php5, mySQL, apache [or lighttpd], and deffinitely need to know your way around a linux box, particularly permissions, ssh capabilities, tar, etc. After a year of basically whoring yourself out to companies for little money, you will be ready for primetime. I would suggest that you don't get involved in longterm projects at first, take a few personal projects, creating a front-end controller, implementing smarty templates, update a database table using ajax, and just get more than just your feet wet in all the previously mentioned aspects of web-dev. After a while, you will create connections, and networking will do your interviews for you. Another good way to develop your skills is when you come across something online that makes you think "how'd they do that?!" Do it yourself. Create a little dummy app, for no reason but to learn. Good luck, and the devnet community will be here to help.

~ Todd
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RobertGonzalez
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Post by RobertGonzalez »

If you have had the experience (and can show the portfolio) you can command larger fees for projects as a freelancer. Remember to maintain your fee structure. You lose almost all credibility when you say your fees are $40 per hour and someone balks at the rate so you lower yourself to $20. Stand firm in what you know and, if you are as good as you make yourself out to be to your clients, the work and the money will come.
bigjoshua
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Post by bigjoshua »

Todd_Z wrote:Hey Rico,

Jobs seem to be throwing themselves at me, and it continues to get better and better with each project. I don't know if that's because I live in a large city [boston], or simply luck, but after doing 1 year of freelance, then 1 year with a real estate company, I can pretty much get 40+/hr at the drop of a hat. However, the first year was the hardest in terms of cash flow. I was a student then [as I am now], and so I wasn't forced to pay for rent or food [living with the 'rents], so I was able to just do very cheap work, get experience, get work done, etc. You will learn what skills you need as the project goes, but essentially you will always need the basics: php5, mySQL, apache [or lighttpd], and deffinitely need to know your way around a linux box, particularly permissions, ssh capabilities, tar, etc. After a year of basically whoring yourself out to companies for little money, you will be ready for primetime. I would suggest that you don't get involved in longterm projects at first, take a few personal projects, creating a front-end controller, implementing smarty templates, update a database table using ajax, and just get more than just your feet wet in all the previously mentioned aspects of web-dev. After a while, you will create connections, and networking will do your interviews for you. Another good way to develop your skills is when you come across something online that makes you think "how'd they do that?!" Do it yourself. Create a little dummy app, for no reason but to learn. Good luck, and the devnet community will be here to help.

~ Todd
Hey Todd,

I am in Boston as well. From what I can tell, this is not such a bad area to be in.

Your response is fantastic. Thanks so much. Even though I dont know what a front-end controller is, at least I know that I dont know now and can begin the good work.

Much appreciated.

- Rico
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Todd_Z
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Post by Todd_Z »

Ironic kinda, could have introduced you to some people, but I'm leaving for University of Michigan tomorrow [WOO HOO].

Send me a pm if you need anything,
timvw
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Re: Looking for feedback. Nonprofit worker wants to go solo.

Post by timvw »

bigjoshua wrote: I have nobody to learn from and I have always, ALWAYS wanted to work for myself.
Beyond that, this is an exciting/nerve-wracking time for me because I am getting married.
I can imagine that job security is important for a young marriage...

In my experience you learn more when you're backed by a company that supports you in your consultancy role... Eg: i don't want to spend time making sure timesheets are paid on time, customers are found, etc... The time that i win i can invest in education :)

The other advantage of such a company is that you aren't the only consultant they have, and usually there are lots of opportunities to get training, join usergroups, learn from each other, ...

Admitted, it comes with a price too: Instead of making $100/hour you'll only make $50/hour... A good company will get you into nice places (those that can pay $800/day ;)) and thus allow you to build a network... After a couple of years you can still decide to become an independent consultant...
bigjoshua wrote: I need to make more money. I have paid my karmic dues and am settling down to have a family now.
I am examining the possibility of starting a business, potentially doing consulting work for nonprofits. Perhaps building web applications. Maybe just doing websites. However, I have not done anything like this before and am looking for your input. I have not been out there in the "real world" for some time. The last time I worked in private industry was ~2001.
- In my experience the market is flooded with cheap php programmers..
- Why do you epxect nonprofits would (or could) pay you? I wouldn't consider them as easy milk cows... But meaby you have better knowledge of that sector ;)
bigjoshua wrote: * What skillsets should I concentrate on?
The ones you like.. Otherwise you'll become unhappy ;)

If you insist on doing webdevelopment i'd expect that you're familiar with concepts such as a frontcontroler... Good knowledge of one or more SQL dialects is also required...
bigjoshua wrote: * Which do you find clients are most willing to pay good money for?
Overhere you get paid most for C# and Java jobs.. Which leads to ASP.NET and JSF/JSP... The PHP jobs are usually filled in by cheap students...
bigjoshua wrote: * Which do you feel will be in demand for some time?
As i already said, there seems to be a good market for C# and Java at the moment... And i don't think that market will collapse overnight...
bigjoshua wrote: * If you, as a consultant, had to give your son/daughter (who also wanted to be a web application or web consultant) some advice, what would it be?
People visit a site because of the content, so make sure the user can easily find and consume what he's looking for... And untill that's realized you shouldn't waste time on making extra's like flash or javascript...

Don't use the excuse: But it's what the customer asked me to do... Since you're the consultant it's your responsibility to make him clear why something is (or isn't) a good idea... And then stick with that decision.
bigjoshua wrote: * When I got out of college, people pushed me to become an attorney. I declined, saying that there were too many lawyers in the world. The competition would be too high (and Id be miserable). Are there too many developers out there, working for themselves?
I find that an odd reason (not) to become an attorney... I think there are enough opportunities to do something you like and make a decent living while you're doing it... In my experience there has been and there will always be a shortage of qualified developers ;) (Admitted, the burst of the internet bubble was a bit nasty.. But we're like 5 years later and everything seems to go well again :))
bigjoshua
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Re: Looking for feedback. Nonprofit worker wants to go solo.

Post by bigjoshua »

timvw wrote:
bigjoshua wrote: I have nobody to learn from and I have always, ALWAYS wanted to work for myself.
Beyond that, this is an exciting/nerve-wracking time for me because I am getting married.
I can imagine that job security is important for a young marriage...

In my experience you learn more when you're backed by a company that supports you in your consultancy role... Eg: i don't want to spend time making sure timesheets are paid on time, customers are found, etc... The time that i win i can invest in education :)

The other advantage of such a company is that you aren't the only consultant they have, and usually there are lots of opportunities to get training, join usergroups, learn from each other, ...

Admitted, it comes with a price too: Instead of making $100/hour you'll only make $50/hour... A good company will get you into nice places (those that can pay $800/day ;)) and thus allow you to build a network... After a couple of years you can still decide to become an independent consultant...
bigjoshua wrote: I need to make more money. I have paid my karmic dues and am settling down to have a family now.
I am examining the possibility of starting a business, potentially doing consulting work for nonprofits. Perhaps building web applications. Maybe just doing websites. However, I have not done anything like this before and am looking for your input. I have not been out there in the "real world" for some time. The last time I worked in private industry was ~2001.
- In my experience the market is flooded with cheap php programmers..
- Why do you epxect nonprofits would (or could) pay you? I wouldn't consider them as easy milk cows... But meaby you have better knowledge of that sector ;)
bigjoshua wrote: * What skillsets should I concentrate on?
The ones you like.. Otherwise you'll become unhappy ;)

If you insist on doing webdevelopment i'd expect that you're familiar with concepts such as a frontcontroler... Good knowledge of one or more SQL dialects is also required...
bigjoshua wrote: * Which do you find clients are most willing to pay good money for?
Overhere you get paid most for C# and Java jobs.. Which leads to ASP.NET and JSF/JSP... The PHP jobs are usually filled in by cheap students...
bigjoshua wrote: * Which do you feel will be in demand for some time?
As i already said, there seems to be a good market for C# and Java at the moment... And i don't think that market will collapse overnight...
bigjoshua wrote: * If you, as a consultant, had to give your son/daughter (who also wanted to be a web application or web consultant) some advice, what would it be?
People visit a site because of the content, so make sure the user can easily find and consume what he's looking for... And untill that's realized you shouldn't waste time on making extra's like flash or javascript...

Don't use the excuse: But it's what the customer asked me to do... Since you're the consultant it's your responsibility to make him clear why something is (or isn't) a good idea... And then stick with that decision.
bigjoshua wrote: * When I got out of college, people pushed me to become an attorney. I declined, saying that there were too many lawyers in the world. The competition would be too high (and Id be miserable). Are there too many developers out there, working for themselves?
I find that an odd reason (not) to become an attorney... I think there are enough opportunities to do something you like and make a decent living while you're doing it... In my experience there has been and there will always be a shortage of qualified developers ;) (Admitted, the burst of the internet bubble was a bit nasty.. But we're like 5 years later and everything seems to go well again :))
I have no Java knowledge, so Java might not be the way for me to go. And I do not insist on being a web developer at all. I only mentioned those skillsets because they are somewhat familiar to me (although I dont know Java... I know...).

From what I gather from this thread, php5, mySQL (or SQL in general), apache, and frontcontrollers will be important. I would rather stay away from msft, all things being equal. Just in principle I support open source.

Just finished playing with Apache and doing a rewrite but Im sure I have no idea how horribly complex it gets. Likewise with php and mySQL.

Do you think Content Management Systems have a place in a consultant's toolbox?

I appreciate your time very much! This is great info.
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Todd_Z
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Post by Todd_Z »

A CMS is deffinitely a good way to learn a bunch of skills in a short amount of time, you get some database experience, you learn how a controller works, and get some javascript experience too.

Have fun
d3ad1ysp0rk
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Post by d3ad1ysp0rk »

Joshua, take a look at BostonPHP. I've got to about 4-5 meetups so far, and each time there are quite a bit of people there. Stay for the after-meetup discussion time at the bar/resteraunt, and talk to as many people as you can. It seemed each time I went, I was offered a freelance job, haha.
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Todd_Z
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Post by Todd_Z »

MySQL Group is good too
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