Building a successful open source consulting company
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Nate Aune founded the open source consulting company Jazkarta in 2004. The company now has 3 full-time staff and 10 subcontractors specializing in Plone and Python. In his presentation, Nate discussed various topics related to running an open source consulting business including marketing, pricing, contracts, project management, recruiting, finances, and being an active member of the open source community.
Building a successful open source consulting company
- 1. Building an open source consulting company Nate Aune (@natea) www.jazkarta.com FISL 2010 Porto Alegre, Brazil Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 2. /me • Developer turned business owner • Founded Jazkarta in 2004 • Now 3 full-time staff and 10 subcontractors • Specialize in Plone and Python Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 3. Topics for exploration • Marketing • Recruiting • Pricing • Finances • Contracts • Open Source citizen • Project Management • your topics? • Services Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 4. Marketing Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 5. Marketing & getting work • Speaking • Blogging • Sponsoring • User group / consultants group • Networking / Partnering Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 6. Sales Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 7. Sales • Segment into markets (edu, gov, non-profit) • Do more listening than talking • Get a good sales automation tool (Salesforce.com) • Put a lead capture form on your website • Don’t make it hard for people to contact you Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 8. Pricing Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 9. Pricing / rates • How much do you want to make? • What are your costs? • What will the market bear? Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 10. $100,000 / yr $100,000/yr % 50 wks/yr % 20 hrs/wk = $100/hr Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 11. Costs of doing business (overhead) • Self-employment tax • Legal fees • Accounting / bookkeeping • Office space (co-working) • Telephone / Internet • Hardware (PCs, monitors) • Subcontractors Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 12. Market rates • What are your competitors charging? • How much will your customers pay? • How does the economy affect your bill rate? Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 13. When to raise rates? • When your customers don't blink an eye when you tell them your rate • When you have more work than you can handle • When you have an in-demand skill Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 14. Contracts Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 15. Contracts • Get in writing to avoid misunderstandings later • Get legal advice - don't do it by yourself • EchoSign saves time with digital signatures • Optional scope contracts Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 16. Traditional vs. Timeboxed Optional scope contracts: Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 17. Project management Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 18. Project management • Agile is aligned with open source development • 2 week iterations • 3 person teams (PM, dev, design) • Tools: ClueMapper, Google Docs, Dropbox Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 19. Resource planning Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 20. Global Team Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 21. Global team strategies • Group team members in same or close timezones • Make sure everyone is on IRC and uses it • Set up a mailing list for each new project • Skype calls every week to touch base • Issue tracker (ClueMapper/Trac) Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 22. Pros/cons of subcontractors • Pros • Only pay them when you have work • Can find top talent, specialists • Cons • More expensive • Can be difficult to retain if not enough work Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 23. Services Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 24. Services • Development • Training • Support Recurring revenue • Hosting Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 25. Training • Private onsite training • Public training • Training as part of a conference • Online training Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 26. Support • Open source = no guarantees • Retainer = insurance policy • Keeps the conversation going • Upsell support before the project is complete Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 27. Hosting • Easier to support if on servers you control • Distribute benefits across all customers • Upselling opportunities • Steady source of recurring revenue • Make sure you have a good sys admin Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 28. Recruiting Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 29. Recruiting • Read blogs • Attend sprints • Elastic staff • User groups • Internships Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 30. Finances Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 31. Finances • Get a good bookkeeper • Watch cash flow carefully (invoice often) • Seek next project while still on first project • Find sponsors to fund open source dev • Tools: Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Xero Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 32. Open source citizen Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 33. Open source citizen • writing documentation • contributing code • serving on board • sponsoring sprints • organizing user group Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 34. Thanks! Questions? Wednesday, July 21, 2010
- 35. Stay in touch • Email: natea (at) jazkarta (dot) com • Twitter: twitter.com/natea • Blog: blog.jazkarta.com • IRC: irc.freenode.net/natea Wednesday, July 21, 2010