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INTRODUCTION
This is the tale of how Allan Branch and Steven Bristol founded a milliondollar-a-year web consulting firm, LessEverything. For the previous four
years, LessEverything has primarily made its revenue from consulting. In
the past 12 months, the company’s app revenue has grown to support 90%
of its overhead, so LessEverything’s focus is now shifting to refining it’s
current product offerings. In this book, You will learn Allan and Steve’s
story, and they will share the lessons they have learned as they have trudged
the road to success.
Along the way, the book’s text will be rudely interrupted by commentary
from Allan or Steve. These timely intrusions are denoted by: “Allan says...”
or “Steve says...” Oh, look! Here’s the first one now...
Allan and Steve say...
“This ebook contains information we wish we could have told
ourselves in 2006 when we first started LessEverything, Inc.”
A Little History
Allan started freelancing full-time as a print designer in 2005. He slowly
took on web projects, and the sizes grew bigger and bigger. Soon, he
was contracting his development work out to three full-time developers.
In 2006, Steve became one of those developers. Steve and Allan started
working together exclusively and formed a new company with a revised
focus.
In 2007, LessEverything grossed over 1 million dollars with six fulltime employees and started building web apps as a side project. In 2008,
LessEverything trimmed down its client base and labor. Allan and Steve
refocused company efforts on LessEverything’s apps, and that year, they
grossed almost $800,000 with just three full-time employees. In 2010 the
company’s apps went from providing 30% of the company’s support to
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INTRODUCTION
providing 80% of its support. As of 2011, LessEverything is exclusively a
web app company spending its time building and refining its products.
Allan and Steve say...
“Okay, enough talking about how special we are, because we’re not.
We’ve learned a lot over the years. We’ve missed many opportunities
and made plenty of mistakes. We want you to benefit from our
errors and avoid the stress and loss of revenue these situations
created.”
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WARNING
Stop now. It’s easier to quit.
If you’re not willing to change; stop now and give this book to someone
who is. You’re wasting your time reading this if you’re not willing to do
what it takes. You don’t have to be someone you’re not. You don’t have to
change everything. You do, however, have to recognize your weaknesses
and be humble enough to fix them.
Really...stop reading now.
To take the advice you’re about to read, you have to be good at what you
do. Unless you consider yourself to have of above-average talent, don’t take
heed to the words of this book, or you will fail. Be prepared to not get every
client, and be ready to take a different path than “Company XYZ.” Taking
a different path and making yourself stand out will be uncomfortable.
This book was written in the hopes that you would avoid the same mistakes
LessEverything has made as the company has grown. Its content should
either scare you away from this industry, or ignite some passion. The hope
would be that you experience the latter.
Forget about who’s better in town, who won Addy’s, or who has what
kind of degree. Disregard the suits and forget the marketing books (except
for Seth Godin’s blog, of course). The advice in this book transcends
all preconceived notions of marketing. Look at your work. Don’t lie to
yourself. By thinking you’re better than you really are, you’re only hurting
your potential. You should always see places to improve. If you’re happy
with your work, then you’ve lost your passion, and you need to find
something else to do.
Don’t think that creating this book has been any kind of walk in the park,
either. Some of this stuff is pretty hard to take and even harder to say. It’s
been a labor of love, but ultimately, it’s about helping others get where
they’re going. Thanks for reading and good luck!
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DECIDING ON
YOUR CONSULTANCY
B uilding Your Company
Building a company is kind of like getting drunk. All night long, you’re
either getting more or less drunk. Maintaining an even buzz is very hard
and requires a lot of practice and familiarization with the tools. Running a
consultancy is much the same way--you’re either growing (too much work/
hiring more people), or you’re shrinking (“how the hell am I going to make
payroll?”) You’re always moving in one direction or another; You’re always
changing.
Getting drunk carries much of the same motivation as building a company.
You’re building this company for a reason. You could have stayed at your
old job, but you didn’t. This shows that you already have poor decisionmaking skills and an abnormal inclination to take the kind of risks
that scare most people into staying in bed with the sheets safely tucked
over their heads. So far so good. This choice to start your own company
probably boils down to the fact that you want less stress, more fun and
more freedom (the same reasons you might have for getting drunk;
however, unlike getting drunk, this was probably a healthy choice and is
something you can do daily).
If you haven’t started your own business yet, we hope this book will give
you enough hope, encouragement and confidence to take that leap and join
the rest of us. It’s a great party.
Who you are matters.
During the life of your company, you will make all kinds of decisions
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shaping and moving your company along its path. Your decisions will give
your company a personality. Most people try to give their company a very
professional appearance. This is a reasonable choice (having taken the giant
leap of actually going out on your own). Most people are so afraid of failure
that they don’t take leaps anymore. They look around and think, “Well,
this is how other companies do it, so I guess we’ll copy them”--not realizing
they’ve just blended themselves into looking just like their competition.
They want to shrink back into the abyss of anonymity and hide behind
their company. That’s fine. That leaves plenty of room for those of us who
haven’t reached our threshold of fear; the fear that makes us stop taking
risks.
Your personality will shape your company by the choices you make and the
risks you take (or are too afraid to take). You’ll learn exactly who you are (as
will your clients, employees and customers). Knowing how to pick clients
and projects that fit you and your company will create a less stressful and
happier job for yourself. It’s always better to find what fits, rather than try
to force yourself into something.
Who is your ideal client?
Knowing about all the different types of clients is an important factor in
deciding the kind of consultancy you want to run. Some super fun clients
have terribly boring projects. Some super boring clients have incredibly fun
projects. You need to choose the client and the project that brings you the
most money and the most enjoyment.
You also need to know how to handle clients based on their general
interests, buying habits and characteristics. Like most companies, when
LessEverything started taking clients, Allan and Steve had no money and
did practically anything they could to get money flowing; in fact, Steve
spent one summer being a Vegas showgirl just to keep the company afloat
(not only was he hot, but they also got a lot of “clients” that way).
Allan says...
“I wish we had been more picky about the opportunities we
took. The opportunity cost of working on projects you don’t enjoy
is very high. If you’re a designer, your time may be better spent
contributing to open-source projects, blogging and doing things that
help you get your ideal projects.”
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Types of Projects/Clients
We put clients in two categories: the ones who listen to you (those who
really want your expertise in more than just code/design) and the ones who
don’t. The latter group can be further broken down into: those who make
you think they’ll listen and those who don’t. You’ll have to figure out why
clients are hiring you. Most clients will hire you for your knowledge and
expertise, but maybe it’s just because you’re in the same city, or because
you have experience in their industry, or perhaps you’ve built the type of
features they needed before. It might be simply because you’re the cheapest.
Whatever the reason, it will be easier in the long-run if you figure it out and
accept clients with similar motivations. Once you know why they are hiring
you, you can decide if you want to continue with these types of clients/
projects and enhance the aspects they are looking for. You might decide
that you want to attract different types of clients and change your company
to exude different characteristics and, hopefully, change why people are
hiring you.
LessEverything has experienced
the following type of clients:
The Price Shopper
These are people who give very little information about their requirements
and are just looking for the cheapest price. They’re usually the hardest to
work with because they don’t want you unless you want to be cheap. They
want you to work for below market norms, and then they don’t understand
why you didn’t create the Taj Mahal of websites for them. LessEverything
took a few of these projects to get started, but the last thing you want is
to build your entire business on these types. Rarely do these turn into
great experiences. Usually the client doesn’t listen or only acts like they’re
listening because they really feel that any developer or designer is the same
as the next. They just want the best price. These people tend to drive Yugos
because it’s basically the same car as a Mercedes. And no, they’ve never
actually driven a Mercedes.
The Uneducated Shopper
This is someone with an “amazing idea”, but no clue about the market,
the competition, etc. You’ll quickly realize that these people can easily be
taken advantage of--but don’t do it. Be kind. Spending a few extra minutes
on the phone talking through these individuals’ ideas and showing them
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similar ideas already in play is actually quite helpful. Help them make
their product more unique by giving them a few pointers on research.
Most often, this helps turn them into educated clients who will listen to
you and heed your opinions. Because they start off with such ignorance,
these types don’t know how much work goes into completing a project, and
they usually have small budgets. With some time and education (provided
by you), some of them will obtain funds and increase their budget to
something viable.
These clients--the ones that need hand holding--can end up being your
bread and butter. It takes a bit longer to teach them the right ways to build
a web app and familiarize their expectations of cost, but they often can
become clients with whom you have long, fruitful relationships. Years after
the project is over, you can still enjoy lunch with these people and probably
even receive referrals from them.
The Educated Buzz Word Dropper
This is the guy who’s got it all figured out. He’s got a business plan, and he
knows how to market. He spits numbers and projections at you. He uses
every buzz word he can think of, and he makes your skin crawl. This is a
person that “knows everything.” Only work with this guy if he gives you
the feeling that he acknowledges your expertise. He will probably listen to
you and give you the feeling that he really respects your opinions, but then
(most likely), he will ignore everything you say. If you’re good at what you
do (which you should be), you need to steer this ship. He will make the
final decision, but it should be heavily-weighted on you.
“The educated buzz word dropper” can be a very frustrating type to work
with. LessEverything has only ever fired one client, and they were this
type. They had a great personality and listened very intently, but they never
really considered or took any ideas. They knew everything, so eventually,
Allan and Steve stopped giving advice and just did what the client said. The
relationship went downhill from there.
The Researcher
This is the client who calls the first time and says, “Hey, Allan! How’s the
weather in Florida? I hope your son is doing well. How’s your wife, Anna,
doing with her second pregnancy?” The conversation is not only engaging,
but it’s also sort of a creepy stroke on your ego. They know you. They’ve
researched you. It’s cool. It’s flattering. It’s not a horrible thing (unless they
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know whether you wear boxers or briefs). These are usually the clients you
want. They want to listen, they want your opinion, and they want you to
flex your creative muscles. If you have to bend on price, bend on price with
them. They’ll usually be so happy with you that they’ll give you referrals
just to tell people they got to work with you. Whenever a client lets you do
what you want, that’s a win for you, but you have to be careful not to take
advantage. You are building something for them. This is not the time to
write that awesome plug-in you’ve been wanting to release to open-source
for the purpose of gaining fame. Focus on their needs and how you can
help them.
The Proposal Requester (RFP)
AVOID projects that require an RFP. When Allan first started freelancing,
he would respond to RFPs and spend many hours diligently working for
the potential client. This was always a waste of time. He never got even one
job from an RFP. Often, the client has already unofficially selected a service
provider, but they’re being required by a board of directors or a supervisory
committee to get several proposal submissions anyway. Avoid this time
suck. Your time is much better spent doing something else. The client you’d
gain from this RFP has deep pockets. You’d be working with a system
whose gatekeepers won’t accept your most creative self. They’ll tear your
work down until it’s something you’re not proud of. They’ll flood you with
documentation, meetings and politics. While Allan never won an RFP bid,
he did work with a lot of large corporations. That work always ended up
just circling around various departments and never saw the light of day.
Steve says:
“Because these types have spent so much time thinking about what
they want, they’ve added every feature to the RFP that you can
possibly imagine and probably have used language that will limit
how things are implemented, how pages are structured, how things
are navigated, etc. In the end, you may have a big-name website
you can point to, but it will likely be an unusable piece of crap that
you’re not proud of. ‘Look what I built for the U.N.!’ you’ ll say and
then spend the rest of the conversation saying, ‘I know, I know, but
that’s what they wanted.’”
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Tips:
• You’ll find that your client types will change as you gain popularity in
your particular industry. The more popular you become, the more the
client’s expectations of you will increase. They’ll also start giving you
more creative/technical freedom. Popularity equals respect.
• If someone emails you looking to hire/contract you, and they don’t
write more than three sentences, it means they have no money, that’s a
promise! Anyone that doesn’t take the time to write you a thoughtful
email is just contacting you because they’re bored or doing research.
Below are some ideas on how to handle the first response (which should
help you quickly figure out if a potential client has very little money or
none at all).
Let’s figure out the type of business you want to build.
Picture the type of company you want to lead. How many people are
involved? Just you? How about fifteen people? How about a hundred? Do
you imagine yourself working in an office?
The size of the company you envision will also determine the types of
clients you’ll need to attract. The larger you grow your company, the larger
the clients you’ll need to seek out. Your team might need managers, project
overseers, a billing department, etc.
Six years ago, Allan and Steve envisioned a company that had a center office
that they would work from periodically, but now they see more value in
working from home. Seeing their children grow up is more important to
them than being forced to go to an office every day.
LessEverything is run pretty lean. There is little wasted money. Allan and
Steve do travel to conferences and spend money buying dinners and having
fun, but those are things that spur creativity and grow the company’s
circle of friends. LessEverything hopes to build a company of friends that
vacations together, laughs all day and works hard to create things that
people love and talk about.
What is your ideal project?
You’ve narrowed down the types of clients that you want to stay away from
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and the type of business that you want to build. Now, close your eyes and
picture the perfect project for you. What type of business is this project
for? What kind of projects do they want you to take on? Perhaps you’ve
already had an awesome client/project experience. What about them did
you like? Was it the creative freedom they gave you? Maybe it was the fact
that they wanted detailed progress reports and maybe you need that kind
of structure. Was it the client/management process you had with them? Do
you like clients that require a daily progress call? Is there an industry you
enjoy working in?
Decide now how you’re going to locate and target your ideal client.
Pinpoint what they’re looking for and how you can can be the go-to source
for them. Figure out what they’re noticing when they browse your portfolio.
Learn what they need to read/see on your website to before they decide to
call you. Find out what their trigger is.
When Allan was a freelancer, he wanted clients that gave him complete
creative freedom. He worked best when they’d have a phone call every other
day, and the work he enjoyed the most was conceptualizing web interfaces.
These clients were paying for an opinion, and they needed to see that he
could speak his mind about the proper way to design an interface.
Allan says...
“I wanted a client that liked to joke around. I scattered my sense
of humor all over my site. That was my filter. People would only
contact me if they thought I was funny.”
Filtering Clients
The story you tell, the website you design, the copy you add to that
website, the way you talk on the phone, etc... will attract a certain type of
project and client. One strategy that has worked well for LessEverything
is filtering clients by basically trying to make them go away. This is how
you begin to only attract those extremely valuable clients that have been
through the gauntlet and have truly sought you out. After that, it’s all about
learning when to say “no” to projects or clients as your workload gets too
big to handle. In the first email reply, the company will ask the potential
client about their budget and launch date. During the first phone call, the
company will reveal that they’re very expensive. Besides whittling down the
list of people who are constantly in pursuit of LessEverything’s help, it sets
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up an interesting psychology regarding who is being wooed, and it makes it
easier to close deals later in the sales process.
The sales process of building web products for clients is literally this: flip
the conversation on its head. They need you. Tell them that. They need
your experience and talent. You’re not being a dick; you’re being honest.
The client needs to feel you’re confident enough to take their $$ and turn it
into a business.
An important thing to understand is that other web shops are trying to sell
the same projects you are. It’s important to identify their sales tactic and
then find a way to convince those clients to believe in you instead.
Allan and Steve have worked on over 100 Rails applications and are listed
in the top 100 at working with Rails. People often ask, “Why Rails?” The
answer Allan and Steve give is that the language used on the project isn’t
what will make or break it; the right people will. You can pick a horrible
Rails team or a terrific PHP team. You are most likely to have a successful
outcome if you choose the people you want to work with and use whatever
technology they prefer.
This type of interaction forces the client to trust you and your opinion of
the right technology.
Allan says...
“In some conversations, we’ ll point out to prospective clients that
they themselves are unable to judge good code, so they’re putting
a lot trust in the team they pick. They’re judging the development
team by reputation, conversation and vibe. Acknowledging this will
build further trust in your relationship.”
Some shops will insist on doing a story-carding phase which is usually a
40-hour project and involves 2-4 weeks of project documentation-writing.
Does this amount of documentation-writing time sound crazy to you?
You’re right. It’s insanity. You should be able to write documentation for
a 2-4 week project in less than eight hours time (if you want to charge
for this time, it’s up to you). When up against story card companies,
point out to clients that most companies ask to be paid for 40 hours of
documentation-writing time (equalling to about $5,000). Suggest that you
and the client spend an hour writing documentation on Google Docs and
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see how far you get. You can probably write the whole document in that
amount of time. If it really takes you 40 hours to write documentation,
you’re either Forrest Gump or your writing style is too formal/wordy. Only
spend time like this with a client if you know a general amount they want
to spend, they have the money, and they can pull the trigger on the project.
Avoid spending hours and hours of free time helping clients who are still
seeking funding.
Pricing Your Services
Use your hourly/project rate to throttle your client workload. If you’re
simply too busy, tell the client you can’t start for X amount of weeks or
perhaps raise your rate 1.5x. Make it worth your while to miss those nights
of sleep. If you need work, discount your services in order to land a client.
Warning: There’s a Monster Ahead!
Say you’ve landed your first $500,000 project...now what? Well, you need to
hire some help. Let’s say you add three employees or contract workers. The
momentum feels good enough to justify the additions, but as the project is
winding down, you’ll ask yourself what do you do with these people you’ve
hired? You’ll look for the next big project. You’ve created a monster--your
business. You’re now the boss. It’s your responsibility, and you must work to
keep your monster fed.
When you run a company, the most important thing is your happiness. If
your business can’t make you happy, then you need to seek other means to
support your family and make money.
Being Remarkable
There are a couple ways to be successful in business, but you need to figure
out how you’re going to compete. You can be one of the following:
The Cheapest:
Your service/product is “okay.” You have a lot of clients, but you can’t spend
much time with them. People on tight budgets that can’t afford the other
guys will come to you. They won’t care about your opinions. They’ll want
the work completed the way they specify. You must bow to their wishes.
You won’t be able to care about your clients and product/service as much
because time is money, and you need to move to the next project quickly.
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Steve says...
“You can clearly infer that we don’t like to work this way, but that
doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t. You should find the project/client
that works best for you and excel there. Maybe you started your own
company just to have more free time or to take days off when you
want. Being the cheapest might be the perfect fit for you.”
Just Good:
You offer good service and have a solid client list. Most people are right
here. Being “just good” is the kiss of death. You’re Applebee’s. You’re Bud
Light. You’re Mazda. You’re Sprite. You’ve got competition.
Remarkable/Different:
You’re highly-talented and highly-priced. You have fewer clients. Clients
will want you, your opinions and your remarkability. You will be able to
tell your clients how “it” should be. Being remarkable means not being like
anyone else. It means your prices will scare some people off, and you’ll need
to bring real passion to each project. You can’t fake being remarkable; you
just have to be it.
Businesses fail for many reasons, but it usually has something to do with
the following: The company doesn’t decide who or what they want to be.
They try to appeal to everyone. They try to land every client and have an
hourly rate that everyone thinks is affordable. When you try to appeal to
everyone, you appeal to no one.
Be notified of the next chapter release,
http://tinyurl.com/lessbooksignup
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