Thinking About Selling Out/Consulting

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m a part-time grant writer for a midsized nonprofit. Recently a contract offer fell into my lap and I realized I could be making 3-4x what I do now as an independent contractor. I pitched her a rate so high it made me nauseated - and she accepted it. At that rate I can make in two days what I typically make in twelve days.

I have the skills. I have eleven years experience as a dedicated grant writer. I probably write 50 grants a year. In the last five years I’ve raked in about $1,500,000. I’m excellent at coordinating and executing large projects, even going in blind. I once wrote a 25-page federal grant in two weeks, on a subject I knew nothing about, with a partner I knew nothing about. I had the skills to learn quickly, take exactly the info I needed from each person and bang out that draft. I’ve been consistently told by superiors I’m the best grant writer they have ever worked with.

So as you can see, I have a lot of confidence in what I can deliver.

I have doubts, though. I don’t think of myself as a self-starter or an entrepreneur. I have a lot of social anxiety. With my current job I just sit behind my computer all day. It’s comfortable. I also have ADHD and struggle with a lack of structure, though I am working with an online coaching group right now with some success. I think the structure thing would be okay because I always meet deadlines and strive to please people.

One idea I had was to use my current job to build the social skills I’m lacking. Maybe become more involved in funder meetings and get comfortable networking with other nonprofit execs. This is an uphill battle. I have major anxiety about it and I’ve had times in the past where I’d have a shaky voice meltdown. The only way out of my self-imposed hell is exposure. But for $80-$125/hour? I think it’s worth trying.

Then there’s the simple fact I love my current job. The pay is shit but going into an office three days a week helps manage my depression. I’m in love with my coworkers. The idea of being isolated from people all the time gives me pause. I didn’t do well with the pandemic.

So I’m trying to figure out, am I suited for this, and if not, is there anything I can do to change that? What can I do in the next 1-2 years to strengthen the skills necessary to make this work? What things should I be considering? Should I create a business for this? Do you think it’s feasible to do this while working part time? Or should I transition out of the current job?

Oh, and in case anyone asks, my current income is a pittance we aren’t dependent on, so I am free to take financial risks. I could take only one contract a year and it wouldn’t make a difference.

2

I’ve been doing independent consulting for five years, and been at it full time for two. In some ways it’s very hard, in some easy.

Let me offer some advice, if I may.

  1. The idea of doing it part time for awhile is very wise, assuming your employer doesn’t consider this a conflict of interest. This allows you to make some contacts, understand what it’s like, and see if it’s for you without being totally dependent on it. Sounds like you have a spouse making decent money, though, so that helps. I have known many consultants and most of the ones who were successful at it did it this way.

  2. Your core competence is being a grant writer (a very in-demand job, btw.) It is NOT in website design, client management, and stuff like that. Understand that you will stumble at running a business even while you are good at the core tasks.

  3. Incorporate. Once you do that, get a corporate bank account and get cheap business liability insurance. It’s not expensive to do these things (there are websites to let you incorporate) and it’s worth it.

  4. Make friends with other consultants - in your field is fine, but even other kinds of consultants is good. We learn from each other, and we’re very supportive. You can start with me.

3

I don’t have any good advice for you, but what is your health insurance situation like? Does your husband have a good plan at his job that’ll cover your medical expenses no matter which job you take?

Also are there any ways other than your job to get structure and social interaction that’ll help prevent you from sinking into depression? With COVID I’m guessing there may not be, but having to make your own schedule and not being able to interact is going to probably make your mental health worse.

4

Yes. I’m insured through my husband through his business. He’s a clinical psychologist with his own practice. Because of my status as part-time, I have no benefits through my job.

This is a key question. My current job contributes so much to my mental health. I am close to my coworkers, we have a shared mission, I feel I’m living my values, and it provides me structure. I don’t really know how to recreate that.

5

Fortunately they are very supportive. I’m using three of them as references.

6

May I weigh in?

On reading your op Spice, my first thought was, “part time is the way to go.” Rick Jay is, of course, the advice I’d follow. So I’m in agreement with him, I do part time work in my industry, independent of my employer, because yes, the money is much better for both me and the customer. From the rest of the thread, it sounds like you are in a very ideal situation, part time employee with a company that is supportive of your outside work, benefits through your husbands work, etc. To me that just shouts and begs for you to do this if you want to.

7

BTW, Spice, are you getting treatment for the ADHD (chemical, therapy, etc)? Just I’ve personally seen with two of my kids a complete turnaround and better living through chemicals AND Therapy.

Jus’ saying it might be worthwhile checking out either the chemicals and/or therapy if you are not already.

Odd to watch drugs I abused as a teen, come to rescue as my kids become teens. YMMV.

8

I did consulting for a while and the tricky part is finding customers. It’s also where anything like ADHD comes into play.

Do you have a good handle on how to find your clients? Can you discipline yourself enough to do all the sales work to find them and do your pitch?

Mental health is the most important thing. Make sure to have a good way to get your needs met.

9

Several thoughts on the snips above.

  1. Depression is totally antithetical to being a successful consultant. As @Rickjay 's point 2 has it, you’ll need to get very good at some stuff you’re totally inexperienced with and at other stuff you say you’re very scared of. A depressive will usually fail at that effort through procrastination and other self-defeating behaviors.

    As anyone who’s ever been stuck in a job from Hell knows, the job itself drags you down so bad you can’t successfully interview for another. Don’t ask me how I know. Interviewing for a better job is a molehill compared to the mountain of prospecting for customers. That’s not to say you’re doomed to fail, but IMO you need to defeat (or at least majorly control) the depression first via meds, therapy, etc., before getting serious about starting consulting. Otherwise your consulting career will be one gig one time. And far more importantly, you’ll feel like you’re a failure for even having tried. That is one large rock you don’t need to voluntarily add to your already bulging mental backpack.

  2. A “shared mission” and “living my values” implies to me that you care about the non-profit you work for and their purpose, whether that’s greenery, social justice, animal rescue, or whatever. As a consultant you simply won’t have that most of the time. Some of your work will be for outfits whose goals you at least share a smidgen. You may well approached by lots of groups you’re indifferent to or that you’d actively rather not work for. You can’t succeed economically, especially at first, by turning away any work. The negative reputation will spread faster than the positive one.

    Many lawyers have a similar problem. They start out trying to do only good, and quickly realize that keeping a pipeline of customers requires simply taking the majority of whatever work walks in the door. That way lies attitudinal burnout: it’s no longer a calling, it’s just a job.

  3. “I’m in love with my coworkers” … You need to be able to replace that totally with being in love with some other social group that is not work related. And get that set up before you start separating from (or even soft-pedaling) your current gig.

I am NOT trying to rain on your parade. None of this is meant as thread-shitting. But this here is wisdom:

It’s certainly wonderfully helpful that your husband, his income, his health insurance, and your current employer are all supportive. But as hugely valuable as those items are, they are necessary but hardly sufficient conditions for this to be a happy, successful, or ideally both, experiment.

I wish you only the best as you chew on this decision.

10

I would point out though that not every successful consultant is in perfect mental health. Let’s not go too far in suggesting you can’t have a solid career, even as an independent contractor, if you happen to have a few things to work in in the ol’ bean. These are things you can deal with and still be successful in your career.

11

Yes, finally. I started an online coaching program called Focused which has helped me a great deal, and I recently started meds. The meds are damned near miraculous. Unfortunately I screwed up my med schedule by missing a psychiatry appointment, but that’s hopefully a minor hurdle.

Thanks everyone. A lot to chew on.

12

I would argue that being a successful consultant requires NOT being in perfect mental health.:smiley:

In my profession, I work with a lot of independent consultants. A couple of things the OP said did strike me as potential hurdles that she will need to seriously consider before following that path:

  • Not thinking of oneself as a self-starter or entrepreneur (assuming one’s perceptions are accurate)
  • Anxiety and depression
  • Struggling with ADHD and lack of structure
  • Preferring the stability and camaraderie of an office environment.
  • Lacking social skills / uncomfortable with networking

As a “solopreneur” the OP isn’t going to have a “boss” telling her what to do and when to do it. She is going to have to work through a lot of rejection, “ghosting”, slow months/quarters, and isolation.

Also, the problem with this sort of consulting IMHO is that it doesn’t “scale”. You can’t be in two places at once or do two things at the same time. That can make it challenging to sell while you are working and work while you are selling.

Which is not to say the OP shouldn’t do it. Just that these are some of the challenges that need to be addressed.

13

All the successful consultants I know, have their lizard brain constantly filling the pipeline with the next project.

Shoot, I’m blanking on the name of the Spanish woman that consults? Used to be a very entertaining and prolific poster. Spent a lot of time in the US. Dang, someone help with a username please?

14

Nava?

15

Yup, that’s her. I miss her. Paging @Nava just in case somehow Discourse has her email and she’s not staying away deliberately.

I’m embarrassed to admit how many names I remembered wrongly without ever settling on the right one. But I recognized your right answer immediately. Human memory be funky shit. @Nava.

16

I’malive…

Second mention in less than a week, ok ok…

  • To be a successful consultant, you need to understand your business model and the legality very clearly. Many of your clients won’t know the difference between a contractor, a subcontractor, an employee and a serf. Be prepared to work with and within those differences.
  • Get an accountant; if possible, one who’s willing to handle your billing and not just file your taxes.
  • READ the goddamn contracts as if your life depended on them. It does.
    I’ve returned contracts for:
    Having my name wrong (as in, “are you sure you can read” wrong, not just “sorry, you left out the second lastname”),
    Indicating a %VAT to charge instead of saying “VAT according to current legislation”,
    Contract did not clearly indicate who did I have to invoice.
  • As a contractor you’re not dealing with HR but with Purchasing. You don’t hire yourself but your services.
  • “You won’t have a boss” my ass. You have clients, which are more petulant than bosses; depending on the type of consultancy they’re doing and on which projects they’re called for, a consultant may have multiple bosses competing for their resources, which means for their time; they may not even realize they’re doing it. Not only do you need to be able to distribute your time and effort, you need to be able to defend why and to know when to hold onto your guns like they were your own arm. Grant-writing has multiple deadlines to manage, and a lot of them are quarterly or yearly, with a ton of stuff due on exactly the same date to different agencies; you may be writing grants for the same or close deadlines for multiple clients. YOU need to be able to distribute the work, and you will have each of those clients calling “how’s mine? How’s mine?” just when you’re trying to concentrate.
  • A resounding +N on “get non-work-related social groups”. Sure, you want to have good relationships with the people you work for or with, but they will be part-time relationships and they’re not your… your social equals. You probably don’t go bowling with your favorite supermarket cashier; you won’t be going bowling with your clients either.
  • I know many consultants who as China_Guy says are always thinking about the next project. I’ve had coworkers who were always chasing “one €/hour more” and the rest of us got tired just hearing them, plus it’s often counterproductive, but even if you’re not searching you need to keep your resume out there, answer emails, answer calls… You have to be the mannequin on the shop’s window even if sales are not ongoing.

My last projects have been:

  • one in the UK which I left because the grandboss was giving me anxiety attacks at night and murderous feelings by day,
  • three months of zero activity. I had an agent ask “why haven’t you done any work since Christmas?” “because I haven’t received any offers” “but it is very strange. Are you sure that’s the reason?” Yes dear. I’m also sure I’d love to stick you back into the slit you came out of, but your mother probably isn’t 100% at fault you’re an asshole.
  • a project which was a direct consequence of the pandemic, reinforcing a consulting team which was working from a different country. This one was funny because for those few months my brothers and I all worked in the same sector; different companies, different positions. There’s some large objects which can be seen from my mother’s window, built as part of a project involving all three of us. That one ended because the person who had to sign off on my hours kept forgetting to do it; eventually her boss found out, looked at my hours, decided he didn’t know who the heck I was or like the way I reported time (uh, as per instructions received!) and terminated the contract effective immediately.
  • another one where they were pretty nuts (they kept asking for stuff that simply wasn’t compatible with itself) but hey, I can say I helped make COVID vaccines :smiley: You gotta admit that’s cool.
  • and the current one, where I just got extended “for the duration of the project” and that could mean years. And they’re not insane, and well, I’m already spending an absurd amount of time being my coworkers’ patter-of-backs but I’ve got a couple who are also happy to pat my back when I need it so it’s ok.
    I’m now effectively “retired from being a road warrior”, but if my first consulting jobs had involved a dude like that one in the UK I would have tried for a career in toilet cleaning. I’ve cleaned toilets for pay before and it didn’t kill me.
17

Too late to edit (why do I keep doing that?):

Given that your current job doesn’t just have you going to the office part-time, it is part-time, you may be able to combine both. The part-time job will give you emotional and financial safety/security/tranquility; its projects are your core projects. The consulting jobs are totally an extra: you only take them if and when you believe you can fit them nicely in your off-time, you’re under no obligation to accept any of them, and they’re a nice present for the piggybank. This will still need adjusting (every change does), but for many people it is less stressful than going full solo.

I’ve had some projects that were part-time and the project manager had the bollocks to be surprised when I took a different part-time project and wasn’t available any time he wanted me there. I wouldn’t have taken “his” offer if it didn’t cover my needs, but the other stuff was “a nice for the piggy” and hey, if he wanted exclusivity he should have paid for it :stuck_out_tongue:

Off to do some work and later to read what have y’all been up to while I wasn’t looking…

18

Yaay! Welcome back!

19

Hey! What LSLGuy said! I just saw your post in DocCathode’s thread, and wanted to say Welcome Back — but didn’t think a thread about death and lymphoma was the right place to do so.

20

Thanks guys!