Kath Pelletti
kp at sdsonline.net
Wed Jun 27 08:03:26 CDT 2007
yeah, good point Chris....... it sounds like you now have a good structure in place - well done. Anyway, there isn't really any need for me to suggest being on-site, is there? I am thinking that I am selling them a minimum amount of time (x no days) which they can use in chunks or when/as needed and that will help me to stay in business. If you go the custom software route (as opposed to maintaining a product for an industry) then it would be good to get some ongoing committment from those clients who need you to be there for further customisation...... I find it difficult to charge a % of original cost as an ongoing maint. fee. For example, a client originally commissions a system which costs, say $20,000. The following year the business grows / changes and they get a rewrite which costs $35,000. Over the next few years they may ask for only say $3 to 5,000 per year in changes. What's a fair maintenance cost? Is it 10% of the original 20,000? One of my clients has done this sort of thing with big re-writes / enhancements every couple of years as they acquire other businesses / see new opportunities and expand their level of automation. I have never charged an annual cost as I know they will be back with more work. With others, after the original system was written they have *never* asked for changes (for 2 clients this means that after 5 years they are still using exactly the same system which I find extraordinary). So to me they bring in nothing. But if it is a quiet year for all of my clients and not much new work comes in then I have to wonder whether this is the way to go. Surely there is some value to them in ensuring a commitment to/from me.....and that is what I would like to approach in some way. It won't necessarily mean more money in the end but it would mean that I *know* that at least x amount will be coming in for the next 12 months......and that pays the bills. Kath ----- Original Message ----- From: Christopher Hawkins To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 8:58 PM Subject: Re: [AccessD] The Business Side Of Databases Well, yeah. One of the main reasons I stopped coding on-site (aside from wanting to build a team instead of being a solo operator) is that when you do the coding off-site and just deliver the finished solution, you're able to maintain at least a little mystique regarding what went into the work. When you work onsite, the client has a much easier time developing a sense of contempt for what you do. After all, you're only typing. Why aren't you done yet? What are you doing? Why are you doing it like that? And so on. Plus, you can't easily bring your dev team into play when you're working on-site - why is he here? Why can't you do this? What are we paying you for if he's doing the work? Why do we need you? I don't want to pay for two people to do the same task. Now, I only go on-site for meetings and for implementations. It works out much better. I still write about 40% of the total code my firm produces, but I do more project management than anything else these days. I'm the guy on the front lines, interacting with the client and making sure that things get done. You can't really get to that place when you work on-site. -C- ---------------------------------------- From: "Dan Waters" <dwaters at usinternet.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 7:41 PM To: "'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'" <accessd at databaseadvisors.com> Subject: Re: [AccessD] The Business Side Of Databases Mystique?! Respect?! If Me.Confused = True Then GoTo www.dictionary.com Else Me.ReallyIsConfused = True GoTo www.dictionary.com End If varReturn1 = Developer NotIn(Mystique) varReturn2 = Developer NotIn(Respect) ;-) Dan -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Christopher Hawkins Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 7:55 PM To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com Subject: Re: [AccessD] The Business Side Of Databases That sounds both smart AND dangerous. Smart, because you're securing a guaranteed income and being on-site gives you a lot of opportunities to up-sell. Dangerous, for numerous reasons. What if Client A has an emergency on a day when you're at Client B? How are you ever going to grow your business beyond yourself if you're doing what amounts to staff augmentation? And doesn't doing the work on-site remove much of the mystique/respect that you normally get as a hired expert? It could work brilliantly or it could turn out to be a PITA. I suppose all you can do is give it a try and see! -C- ---------------------------------------- From: "Kath Pelletti" Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 5:05 PM To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" Subject: Re: [AccessD] The Business Side Of Databases It is tricky.......They *need* you to stay in business for the next set of changes that will inevitably come but how do you afford to stay in business if you have a quiet period? I have 3 or 4 main clients at any one time who provide most of my income and then other small stuff. A friend of mine (contract programmer) suggested to me the other day that I consider selling a day to each of my main clients. It wouldn't have to be a whole day but it might be, or it could be one day a fortnight .......so they agree to pay 1 days salary for the entire year. It's a pretty ambitious idea but he feels that the clients would see it as an opportunity to keep their system more dynamic / you could offer to be on-site for all/many of their 'days' and they would have a secure agreement. It feels like a big ask but I'm going to sound it out to one client (also a friend) and get some feedback. Then I'd have the security of the pay check whilst working for myself......ain't that the holy grail? Kath ----- Original Message ----- From: Christopher Hawkins To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 1:34 AM Subject: Re: [AccessD] The Business Side Of Databases I'm another one who needs to do a better job of selling ongoing business, Kath. It seems like a chicken-and-the-egg type of problem though - once you write (or re-write) a complete system, if you've done your job correctly the client probably won't *need* any maintenance. So what do you sell? It's tricky. -C- ---------------------------------------- -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com