RE: Consulting As A CCIE

Never "hold the bag folks" its just not worth it...

Plenty of good firms will give you "front money" if travel is required...

Do you guys know how many people in clubs, etc. I have met who own small businesses (just like you if you are a CCIE consulting)

That have put on fashion shows for designers, or floral displays for celebrity weddings thinking "THIS IS THE BIG ONE" "BEYONCE IS GOING HELP ME PROMOTE MY BUSINESS"
Only to be left high and dry when the bill is due...

Never lay out anything. PERIOD...

You'd have to be crazy... anyone can go bust these days...

My advise after doing billing about 100 firms in 3 years-

"In God we trust, All others shall send a retainer"

-Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: nobody_at_groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of Scott M Vermillion
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2009 12:38 PM
To: Gary Duncanson
Cc: Joe Astorino; ccielab_at_groupstudy.com
Subject: Re: Consulting As A CCIE

I'm pretty much in agreement with all comments and insights offered
thus far. In my own personal experience, I have found that I:

1. Could likely remain employed full-time at half my billing rate
through an agency
2. Remain at least half-time (typically 3/4-time averaged over any
given year) employed at my full billing rate.

The choice would seem obvious but fear wears on certain people more
than others, thus they tend to buy "security" at what I view to be a
prohibitive cost. I have yet to ever do a single hour of work via an
agency, although I always respond to professional inquiries.

You need to assess your ability and willingness to market yourself.
As much has already been said but it bears repeating. The selling
aspect is the least desirable for me, personally. You need to be
brutally honest with yourself about not only your willingness, but
also your ability/opportunity. I would offer that many brilliant
technologists are not necessarily businesspersons any more than they
are salespersons. These are all different skill sets.

Finally, what I see drive people out of consulting time and time again
is their inability to withstand protracted payment cycles. You may
negotiate Net 30 or even Net 15 terms, but may ultimately not see
payment for a couple of months with some clients and under some
circumstances. Also, you need to evaluate not only your willingness
to travel (probably a must in all but the biggest markets), but your
financial ability to incur significant travel cost and, again,
withstand late payment. Travel costs to larger/more expensive cities
can easily average upwards of $3k/week. So if your invoicing and
payment cycle is 60 - 90 days, you could be holding the bag for
something in the neighborhood of $25-35k in outstanding travel costs
(not to mention your labor!) at any given point in time. Moral of the
story is to have minimal (if any) debts and good cash reserves going in.

Regards,

Scott

On Jun 6, 2009, at 1:15 , Gary Duncanson wrote:

> Difficult on the side in the UK but not impossible. For contracting
> most gigs are all week long. If you register with agencies and
> explain you are able to take 'small' jobs as they come along you
> might get some calls from time to time but often those will still
> require you to be places at short notice for spells which may clash
> with whatever commitments you have at the time. Not a lot of
> homeworking options provided by clients, they want you onsite.
> Contacting integrators direct might lead to some flexible work on
> the side depending on the ebb and flow of their contracts with
> clients. You can also promote yourself as an independent and see
> what comes back but expect to spend a lot of time promoting
> yourself. A website helps and some research to create a mailing
> list, also the buddy network.
>
> Good luck.
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joe Astorino" <jastorino_at_ipexpert.com
> >
> To: "CCIE Groupstudy" <ccielab_at_groupstudy.com>
> Sent: Saturday, June 06, 2009 7:04 AM
> Subject: OT: Consulting As A CCIE
>
>
>> Hey group,
>>
>> I am looking to start doing some network consulting work on the
>> side. The
>> trouble is, I really have no idea how to get started doing that. I
>> mean, OK
>> I can print off a flyer and put my credentials and skills, and what
>> I can
>> help with...but not really sure what else to do to get started. Does
>> anybody else out there do work like this? How do you get things
>> going? It
>> seems many of the big businesses have people that take care of
>> their stuff,
>> and the small businesses are generally too small to want to pay or
>> deal with
>> somebody on the CCIE level...they might have a few linksys switches
>> or
>> something. Any pointers would be appreciated!
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Joe Astorino
>> CCIE #24347 (R&S)
>> Sr. Support Engineer - IPexpert, Inc.
>> URL: http://www.IPexpert.com
>>
>>
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>>
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Received on Sat Jun 13 2009 - 00:32:52 ART