After working for a long time within a large business as a self developed developer you can become very proficient at translating "geek speak" into "business speak". This tends to include spending an increasing amount of time in requirements gathering, specification, project management, best practice, management of other developers etc a...
I graduated few years back and now work for a consulting company. Frequently i have to contact other consulting companies as the client has code that was written by other consultants. The consultants have a maintenance contract but sometimes my company is brought in to implement something new and we are asked to reuse the existing code...
In the past, I've always done independent contracting work for people and they pay me via a 1099. Never really a formal contract or proposal, etc... I now have a software consulting company and will be invoicing customers under that name. I'd like to begin doing more formal proposals and contracts based on the work I'm given. I've be...
I am working on revamping our consulting website. We have a small shop with 12 developers aimed at custom desktop and internet development with a focus on Microsoft technologies. I'm looking for some sites to use as examples - not to copy, but to see how they present services, size of company, and portfolios. I have seen many sites tha...
What are some of the secrets to ensuring that one gets development contracts from potential clients? Especially if you are a solo coder. ...
At any given time, I do consulting for between 2-4 clients, and I'm having some trouble keeping track of the hours and generating invoices. My current solution is to use Google Calendar to track my hours, and then at month-end, manually enter the data on an Excel template I have (one copy for each customer) and email it to them. While th...
Hello, I work for a consultancy whose main revenue stream is from client work. We also run projects internally e.g. to implement a CRM system for our sales team. We build release plans for internal projects just as we do for client projects, though resources are often removed from internal projects when required for client work. In s...
Several years ago I created some custom algorithms and code for processing CNC files (basically ways of controlling automated machines for manufacturing). Now, years later, I found suddenly that my small side project has come to the attention of one of the larger CNC companies and they contacted me and are very interested in it. I am now...
Here is the scenario; I'm a .Net software developer that works from home using my own equipment, which I prefer to do because I have a pretty good system for development (dual screens, fast system....) However from time to time I find that I need to upgrade ram, disk or something that would make it easier and sometimes faster to develop...
We occasionally get approached by people who want someone to write software for them. They often take the form of: I have a great idea for a piece of software and I want to find someone to write it for me. I have money to fund a project. Can you help me? We are fully a "shrink-wrap" software firm, providing production software for ...
I'm trying to transition into some programming consulting work. A friend of my former employer is interested in having me "develop a spec," which I take to mean come up with some technology requirements and time estimates (e.g. milestones). Do developers normally charge for this? I'm imagining it's basically the same kind of workload th...
As a freelance programmer, it can be a good thing when you quote for 4-5 jobs and get all 5 of them. It can mean lots of money, but it also has the effect of stress/burnout, and not knowing where to start and how to get anything done. Especially when each of the 5 clients want a daily progress report. How do you organize your time and t...
I've gotten a couple of interviews from companies to fill a junior software developer, half of which are consulting companies. My last and first job didn't really focus on code quality and was very budget oriented. Creating high quality code is something that I want to practice doing from now on. So my question is, do consulting compa...
I've recently started working with a company that needs ongoing support for their site. They already have a consultant whom they seem very pleased with and have placed a great deal of trust in him. Here's the thing. The "Web App" is a regular frankenstein of various systems using Access, FTP, DTS, ASP Classic and ASP.Net. I've only scra...
Here's my situation with rough numbers. I'd like to know if my thinking (at the bottom) seems sound to you guys. (Side note: I've read many of the related questions on here, and helpful as they were, none seemed to touch on this specific issue.) For 2 years I was a senior developer at Company X. I was full-time, W-2, and making $100k/yr...
As one of the core contributors for an open-source framework, I'm frequently dazzled by the blurry line between "open source help" and consulting. I'd like to ask for your advice on the matter. Frequently, people using the framework would post 400+ lines of their code and expect me/others to dig through it to find an error; there are t...
After about 3 years of working a 9-5 at a couple companies, I've found myself unemployed. My current location doesn't seem to have many opportunities that interest me, so I'm considering working from home doing contract work. I've started to send out some resumes to postings I've seen on boards like jobs.rubynow.com and similar web-site...
In a few days I'll be meeting with the owner and a few others of a small business. At this meeting, I'll be discussing their website, specifically how I would plan to improve it. I have already had a few discussions with employees at this company, so I have a good idea about what they like/dislike about the site now, as well as a few k...
I have been using consultant, contractor, and freelancer interchangeably. I just started working for myself and have been wondering about how to market myself and which term to use. Am I a consultant, contractor, or freelancer? Or maybe I am all three of those. If so, which should I call myself? I have no idea but consultant just ...
I have been a consultant for many years now and find myself crossing the barriers of being at client A while working on client B...then taking part in a meeting over the phone for client C, etc. I was curious what methods other people in my shoes used to track the time across many clients, projects, and tasks. Preferably something that...