Discussion on:

IT consultants, keep your pipeline healthy

Are you hedging your bets against the current economy? Or are you preparing to get by on less? Or both?

of the colo-rectal health type.

On my personal blog, I always queue up a link to what I write here. My subtext for this post was "I hear that plenty of fiber and fluids can help."

My editor was a little worried about the sewage and plunger lines in the post -- but I convinced her to keep them. After all, I'm making a subtle point about how your pipeline isn't just incoming business, it's also your responsibility to produce, um, stuff.

I hope the analogy breaks down before you get to the point where you describe the "stuff" you produce.

.. on how much effort you "waste".

he "Attends" to it well.

Oh, crap. I guess that wraps things up nicely.

I'll just walk away now -- before the potty humor really starts to stink.

As I was writing this post, we were having our septic system pumped. Perhaps I was inspired by what I inhaled.

I guess "inspired" is better than "expired".

I would suggest that right now is not the time to be aligning your chakras

It could be a good time to "clean up" your whole system.

...getting the jobs done and paid before everyone goes out of business.

There's more than one spot where leakage can occur.

It's also the quality.

Sure you can fill up your pipeline with plenty of work but a) will you get paid for it, b) is it the type of work you want/need (or is it just keep busy) and c) is the rate appropriate

I'm sure each of us can fill in other elements of quality.

As you say, there's no point in getting work, finishing it and then having your client go bust still owing you money. In today's world an unsecured creditor is lucky if he/she/it get's a taste of the money owed.

And there's always the possibility that you'll take work into your pipeline that leads to you "****ing in your nest". Your nest being your niche. One of the concerns has to be will you have unintentionally changed your niche at the end of this recession. (Of course, that presumes your niche still exists during and at the end of the recession .... ) Again there's not much point in keeping busy today if you starve tomorrow as a result.

Glen Ford
http://www.trainingnow.ca

Feeling forced to take on work because there's nothing else available, but not wanting to redefine themselves as the neighborhood legacy systems expert, either.

Sorry, couldn't help the poem ....

Being the legacy systems expert may not be the worst thing you could do. Remember that a lot of the "legacy systems" people are retiring in the next 5 years. And those systems tend to be installed where there is money. Also the reason mid-rangers and mainframers haven't reacted to being labelled legacy is that they have no correlation with PC legacy ... mid range and mainframe programs don't turn into legacy, just the hardware. And that's hot swappable. I know of systems that are still running (on the web yet) which are 30 years old at this point on several models of equipment later. Wise man say "Don't get fooled by your own hype".

I would be more concerned about picking up small tasks (e.g. web design for a small business or a specialty banking package) where it's going to label you as concentrating on a small or low-pay market which won't be able to pay your way.

The trick is to identify small markets that normally wouldn't be worth your while and then determine a method of monetizing them without spending an inordinate amount of time/reputation on them. Someone later in this thread mentioned museums. The problem with that market is that there isn't any money (my wife is a museum tech). One solution is to develop a low cost package for the market but if you become known as an IT consultant to the market you'll starve. So while accepting a project in that market might make financial sense in the short term, accepting (or worse chasing) contracts in that market is suicidal. The trick, instead, is to determine how to exploit the work available to generate future income without becoming focused on that niche (in your mind or the customers).

The other side of the coin of course, is that now is a good time to chase markets where you can see a future market but the current market isn't strong yet. An example might be a solar power marketing support package. Right now there isn't much of market but as the "green tech" improves and reduces in cost, that market will increase. So a marketing support package for the "green tech" market might make sense for the future. (NOTE: I JUST GRABBED AN IDEA SO IF YOU TRY TO EXPLOIT IT DON'T BLAME ME IF IT DOESN'T WORK ... on the other hand if you make a killing at it you owe me a royalty :> )

Glen Ford
http://www.TrainingNOW.ca

Yes, there certainly can be a lot of money in legacy systems -- it's only a question of whether that's the type of work you really want to be doing.

With all the shake-up in the economy, I expect that there will be many emerging markets that are hard to spot right now. Good time to keep one's eyes open for opportunities.

Chip -- I spend time every month drumming up new business. I don't always get new business from the effort, but I put in the time. Unfortunately, for a while, new clients were simply replacing older ones -- some going out of business, others cutting budgets, but that seems to have stopped, at least for the moment. And, the new clients seem more open to additional work and fees than the clients they've replaced.

Another thing I'm doing is diversifying and advertising (well, a bit) -- these are areas I never thought too much about. The truth is, I can do a lot of things to make money and I might need to before this is over. So, I'm setting the stage now. Also, remember the discussion about web sites? Well, I should have one up this quarter. I'm starting with an informational site, but now that I'm thinking in those terms, I actually have a few web ideas that might generate some passive income. Finally... I reviewed a book on turning a project into a saleable product. You know what -- had one fall into my lap this last week.

It's about opportunities Chip -- they're everywhere and we just have to train our eyes to see them. The truth is, a year from now, I could be in a completely different place, consulting-wise -- which is Okay as long as I'm paying the bills and I'm relatively happy.

I don't watch football, but I do knit!

... be sure to add it to your TR profile and to your byline on TR posts -- you'd be surprised how many visits you'll get from that alone.

This is the dawning of the ?age of Kaizen? . No longer are we accepting of n-tier system designs that enable service silos. 2009 is the year of optimizing infrastructure utilization, better data life cycle management, and utilizing technology to improve business process management. This is the year of enabling those few employees left at a firm to do more work quickly and efficiently. Last year my company had a hard look at our projects & initiatives list for 2009 and did a great deal of cutting. ?Capitol expense? has become a curse word but with that said we are moving forward with some project and initiatives that adhere to the new paradigm of this brave new world we find ourselves in today. There?s an old Klingon proverb that says ?That which does not kill us makes us stronger? (okay I know Niche said it but I like the Klingon reference better) and 2009 is the year we will burn away the chaff and focus on what lies left in the ashes.

This reminds me of the old story of the programmer who made himself an expert in a narrow and very lucrative technology. He decided to go independent and suddenly found himself in very high demand.

He soon realized that a good night's sleep cost him $8000, dinner $1500, and breakfast and lunch each $750. Then, he figured out that even his morning ablutions cost him more than he could afford.

So, he gave up eating and sleeping and, as a result, everything else.

He died an early death but left a large inheritance.

I do not enjoy getting involved with low-return jobs at low cost, but always keep an eye for long term benefits. I just picked up support for a local museum, they are dirt poor but belong to several museum associations. OK, this is a LOSS LEADER if they will open the door to live presentations at these associations!!! I have a background in sales so I can speak well to large groups. Thus, I will gladly work with this account PROVIDED they introduce me to these associations for more business!!!

Quality and Quantity are a varied match sometimes.

... free software projects. No money, just reputation. But that reputation can take you a long way sometimes.

. . . skill development.

Think of all the thousands of dollars you spend on training each year that you could save if you find equally valuable skill development through open source software development. You just need to find the right projects.

Yes, what projects you choose may determine a lot about where your career goes in the near term.

It could also improve your employability.