Yeah, I lucked out getting into a niche back in the day called "data migration", it is now called ETL (Extract, Translate, Load) and is used everywhere to move data around.

I'm actually taking less because it is a remote position and I like working from home. My peers with similar experience get $125-150/hr for local contracts and more if you are willing to travel to the coasts.

Quote: (05-05-2015 03:14 AM)bad guy Wrote:  

Quote: (05-03-2015 12:56 PM)SiverFox Wrote:  

Independent IT Consultant, $110/hr rate, made $201k last year.

This is a very good rate if you're subcontracting from a larger consulting/staffing firm - range should be from $80-120 per hour. If you're billing a direct client, this is the low end of the range for a DW Architect which would roughly be around $100-180 per hour ($200 for rockstars). IT techies/engineers (non executives) can make $250-300k per year (wall street and silicon valley). The takeaway here is that you're specialized with many years of exp.

Quote: (05-05-2015 11:32 AM)polar Wrote:  

Like el mech, I can't figure out your goal. Do you have a path in mind, or are you just playing twenty questions?

Quote: (05-04-2015 08:00 PM)Ice Wrote:  

Quote: (05-04-2015 07:50 PM)el mechanico Wrote:  

Hey Ice why are you mining us? I'm starting to feel like we give you so much but your response is lackluster.

Talk more or we're not helping anyone here except parasites.

lol

Yeah I don't what I should write. I don't make anything near 150k.

I'm just curious to hear if there are people who make that kind of $$ here and how.

But everyone has to make their own way. SiverFox for example is a Data Warehouse architect and makes really good $$ - sounds amazing. That's not my field and I doubt that I could get into it (and be good at it) but it's nevertheless cool to hear what people are doing.

I'm in the process of making some changes in my career. It's more about how I approach my career. I wasn't very smart about $$ in the past and now I have to shift my focus / mindset. I'm working on different things now - approaching clients, interviewing for jobs, and learning new skills.

I have been working in innovation strategy - it's a bit a vague field and I also made some mistakes in terms of how I approached it and how I presented myself. But now I'm in the process of getting things on track. I was actually quite successful in getting my name out there and establishing myself as an expert - but I wasn't smart enough to convert it into $$.

Ice: what is all this info giving you? Most guys here aren't in your industry. You're asking generic questions that Google can answer.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=careers+over+150000
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=high+paying+careers
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ICT+services

You seem to mean well, but confuse reading and action. Do your own research, then come back with specific questions like " "I want to break into A, my experience is in B. My informational interviews told me X,Y,Z, I tried it and it didn't work so well. What do you guys suggest?" Or "I have a business doing X, having issues with scaling, here's my situation, please advise.

What are you doing this week to get a $150k+ career?

Networking?
Studying for certs?
Schmoozing your boss?
Pulling back-to-back all-nighters to finish a client pitch?
Starting a side business?

You've got the goodwill of guys like Loki who pull $200k EBIT a month willing to answer your questions. Don't waste their time by showing them you aren't willing to do five minutes of Googling when you could ask them in-depth questions about how they actually scaled a business to $2m+ a year.

Primarily I was really just curious if there's people on here that make that kind of money - where is the problem with that?

The "let me google that for you" links you posted are actually not what I was looking for. Yeah, I can can google professions that make 150k, no prob - a lot of medical professions and financial industry people etc. But I was really curious about people on this forum. And what I found interesting is that there are actually very few people on here who make that much money as an employee. I think there were about one or two people in this thread. The others all either have their own business or do things like the oil sands. Working in high-end IT services seem to be a common thread amongst those who make that much $$ on this thread - I do think that's quite interesting to know.

As for ICT: yes, I can google that too - but it's a difference whether you provide the technical services yourself, or run a company that employs people who provide these services - it's a different skillset. That's why I was curious to know what role Loki has. He wrote that he doesn't have a formal education - I wonder if he just learned all the ICT skills on his own & became an expert in it (which you have to be in order to make that much $$), or if he started a company and just hired the experts that he needs. These are two very different approaches.

I myself am doing quite a lot for my career: Networking daily, working towards a cert, preparing a client presentation, and today I just finalized some portfolio pieces for a job application.

Not legally, but I am working on earning that type of legal scratch from my current active income streams and ventures.

Quote:Quote:

Yeah makes sense.

Do you already have a plan for escaping the rat race after you worked for a couple of more years?

I do. Currently buying up long term hold rental properties.

Quote:Quote:

Which industry do you work in, Sammy?

Industrial construction (oil & gas at the moment, previously mining & metals, gov't)

I think focusing on one industry and becoming great at it is the key step. Also being mobile and making sure everyone around you knows what you want. Soon enough, you'll see where the big earners in that industry are making it and you'll gravitate towards that.

Another thing to remember is that there are at least 70-80 "easy" working hours every week. Use them. Even a low hourly rate can transition into decent annual earnings when applied.

Putting in the hours is like contributing to your 401k. Once you get used to that money coming out of your check, you don't ever notice it being gone. Once you get used to putting in 70-80hrs a week, that's it, you're rolling. Anything less feels like a vacation. Meanwhile, your savings account grows...

Anyway, lots of good info in this thread. It's always good to feel like a small fish, keeps me hungry & growing.

Quote: (05-05-2015 10:36 AM)Ice Wrote:  

Thanks.

I'm guessing the services you are providing are very technical right? I.e. programming, network architecture and the like.

Do you yourself have a background in the technical aspects? Or are you managing employees who do?

I have a very technical background and am self taught as well as holding multiple (now expired) certifications. However I have found learning to effectively manage people and manage a business to be 100x harder than learning how to design and deploy mid-scale (up to 20000 node) networks.

$110/hr for remote work is on the high end. Well done. Are you limited to working in the area or within your timezone? If not, $200k can get you a hi-roller mobile lifestyle as discussed & dreamed of in this forum. Can you share stories of how you - and perhaps your peers/friends - met your clients and closed these sweet deals? Everyone talks about getting into this line of work or learning this skillset, but it's not often that someone gets into this detail of their story. The one post that stands out was the one from a painter that talked in detail about how he ran his business. He even got into talking about the psychology of his clients and how to finesse these situations.

Quote: (05-05-2015 03:40 PM)SiverFox Wrote:  

Yeah, I lucked out getting into a niche back in the day called "data migration", it is now called ETL (Extract, Translate, Load) and is used everywhere to move data around.

I'm actually taking less because it is a remote position and I like working from home. My peers with similar experience get $125-150/hr for local contracts and more if you are willing to travel to the coasts.

Quote: (05-05-2015 03:14 AM)bad guy Wrote:  

Quote: (05-03-2015 12:56 PM)SiverFox Wrote:  

Independent IT Consultant, $110/hr rate, made $201k last year.

This is a very good rate if you're subcontracting from a larger consulting/staffing firm - range should be from $80-120 per hour. If you're billing a direct client, this is the low end of the range for a DW Architect which would roughly be around $100-180 per hour ($200 for rockstars). IT techies/engineers (non executives) can make $250-300k per year (wall street and silicon valley). The takeaway here is that you're specialized with many years of exp.

I'm planning to build a business around a tech product I've been working on and my small efforts at marketing it has kicked my ass completely. I can't even imagine how challenging its going to be to manage the business and people if/when it does grow into a real business. What would you consider the top 3 or 5 things to learn and get good at? Any learning resources you recommend or this is something one only learns by doing? I've downloaded the Lean Startup and am starting into it though I don't think it gets into this type of learning.

Quote: (05-06-2015 12:42 AM)loki Wrote:  

Quote: (05-05-2015 10:36 AM)Ice Wrote:  

Thanks.

I'm guessing the services you are providing are very technical right? I.e. programming, network architecture and the like.

Do you yourself have a background in the technical aspects? Or are you managing employees who do?

I have a very technical background and am self taught as well as holding multiple (now expired) certifications. However I have found learning to effectively manage people and manage a business to be 100x harder than learning how to design and deploy mid-scale (up to 20000 node) networks.

Quote: (05-06-2015 09:48 PM)bad guy Wrote:  

I'm planning to build a business around a tech product I've been working on and my small efforts at marketing it has kicked my ass completely. I can't even imagine how challenging its going to be to manage the business and people if/when it does grow into a real business. What would you consider the top 3 or 5 things to learn and get good at? Any learning resources you recommend or this is something one only learns by doing? I've downloaded the Lean Startup and am starting into it though I don't think it gets into this type of learning.

[quote] (05-06-2015 12:42 AM)loki Wrote:  

(05-05-2015, 03:36 PM)Ice Wrote:  I have a very technical background and am self taught as well as holding multiple (now expired) certifications. However I have found learning to effectively manage people and manage a business to be 100x harder than learning how to design and deploy mid-scale (up to 20000 node) networks.

Hmm top points that I think are relevant, thats a hard questions to answer but lets take a shot and keep in mind this is my opinion only.

1. Do not be afraid of making mistakes, they happen and when they do its critical you learn from them or you will be destined to repeat them again. Always remember in life you keep repeating the lesson until the lesson is learned. Its also actually worse to make no decision over a sub standard one in business.

2. Get a good mentor

3. Network like your life depends on it, because your business life well does.

4. Read read read some more, then when you are done read even more. In fact never stop stuffing your head with new information because this is a very powerful weapon as well as valuable asset (knowledge). In this context it should be related to what you are doing, want to do , plan to do and think might come in handy. Yes its time consuming but it pays massively in the long run. So many people today are just lazy or think they can look shit up on wikipedia and its correct. You need to make a substantial investment in your on going education through out life if you are going to be successful in my humble or not so humble opinion.

5. Be prepared to make sacrifices, like going out on Friday nights or making yourself work weekends until the machine is running itself. This is a real art (creating a machine that's runs itself) and i will explain more in a bit. If you are not interested in making sacrifices, investing both capitol and time as well as many other required ingredients then being in business is not for you. It takes dedication, balls, brains,obsession, passion, belief, funding, backing, a solid ideas, well thought out plans and a few other things to make it work like a bit of luck and good timing.

6. Keep investing your profits , endlessly, and pay yourself only what you need to live the life you need ( not want, at least for the first 10 yrs). You need to learn to make your money work for you instead of you working for your money.

Back to the making the machine run itself, this ones a tough one and it took me over a decade to work it out. There is a difference between being in business for yourself and owning a company. Being in business yourself is basically a job that you control because its your show. You can pick and choose how where and when you work as well as what you charge ( whatever the market will bear). However its still a job because you have to be there doing it to make money. Even if you have some staff its still a job.

Owning a real business/company, is like owning a machine that runs all the time no matter if you are there or not. Sure you still have to tend it like a garden so far as if you look after your garden it will flourish as will your business... like cutting away the dead wood (bad staff), nurturing it with fertilizer (cash, talent) and making sure its its got enough water (leads and customers). Over time once you get settled in you will place key people in these roles as you employees to tend to your garden the way you want it kept.

Hope this helps and I wish you all the best pf luck in your endeavors.

Quote: (05-05-2015 11:32 PM)sammybiker Wrote:  

Quote:Quote:

Yeah makes sense.

Do you already have a plan for escaping the rat race after you worked for a couple of more years?

I do. Currently buying up long term hold rental properties.

Quote:Quote:

Which industry do you work in, Sammy?

Industrial construction (oil & gas at the moment, previously mining & metals, gov't)

I think focusing on one industry and becoming great at it is the key step. Also being mobile and making sure everyone around you knows what you want. Soon enough, you'll see where the big earners in that industry are making it and you'll gravitate towards that.

Another thing to remember is that there are at least 70-80 "easy" working hours every week. Use them. Even a low hourly rate can transition into decent annual earnings when applied.

Putting in the hours is like contributing to your 401k. Once you get used to that money coming out of your check, you don't ever notice it being gone. Once you get used to putting in 70-80hrs a week, that's it, you're rolling. Anything less feels like a vacation. Meanwhile, your savings account grows...

Anyway, lots of good info in this thread. It's always good to feel like a small fish, keeps me hungry & growing.

Hey Sammy,

thanks a lot for the info & advice - definitely very good points.

Quote: (05-07-2015 05:30 AM)loki Wrote:  

Quote: (05-06-2015 09:48 PM)bad guy Wrote:  

[quote] (05-06-2015 12:42 AM)loki Wrote:  

(05-05-2015, 03:36 PM)Ice Wrote:  I have a very technical background and am self taught as well as holding multiple (now expired) certifications. However I have found learning to effectively manage people and manage a business to be 100x harder than learning how to design and deploy mid-scale (up to 20000 node) networks.

Hmm top points that I think are relevant, thats a hard questions to answer but lets take a shot and keep in mind this is my opinion only.

1. Do not be afraid of making mistakes, they happen and when they do its critical you learn from them or you will be destined to repeat them again. Always remember in life you keep repeating the lesson until the lesson is learned. Its also actually worse to make no decision over a sub standard one in business.

2. Get a good mentor

3. Network like your life depends on it, because your business life well does.

4. Read read read some more, then when you are done read even more. In fact never stop stuffing your head with new information because this is a very powerful weapon as well as valuable asset (knowledge). In this context it should be related to what you are doing, want to do , plan to do and think might come in handy. Yes its time consuming but it pays massively in the long run. So many people today are just lazy or think they can look shit up on wikipedia and its correct. You need to make a substantial investment in your on going education through out life if you are going to be successful in my humble or not so humble opinion.

5. Be prepared to make sacrifices, like going out on Friday nights or making yourself work weekends until the machine is running itself. This is a real art (creating a machine that's runs itself) and i will explain more in a bit. If you are not interested in making sacrifices, investing both capitol and time as well as many other required ingredients then being in business is not for you. It takes dedication, balls, brains,obsession, passion, belief, funding, backing, a solid ideas, well thought out plans and a few other things to make it work like a bit of luck and good timing.

6. Keep investing your profits , endlessly, and pay yourself only what you need to live the life you need ( not want, at least for the first 10 yrs). You need to learn to make your money work for you instead of you working for your money.

Back to the making the machine run itself, this ones a tough one and it took me over a decade to work it out. There is a difference between being in business for yourself and owning a company. Being in business yourself is basically a job that you control because its your show. You can pick and choose how where and when you work as well as what you charge ( whatever the market will bear). However its still a job because you have to be there doing it to make money. Even if you have some staff its still a job.

Owning a real business/company, is like owning a machine that runs all the time no matter if you are there or not. Sure you still have to tend it like a garden so far as if you look after your garden it will flourish as will your business... like cutting away the dead wood (bad staff), nurturing it with fertilizer (cash, talent) and making sure its its got enough water (leads and customers). Over time once you get settled in you will place key people in these roles as you employees to tend to your garden the way you want it kept.

Hope this helps and I wish you all the best pf luck in your endeavors.

Hey Loki,

thanks a lot for your answer - really great advice.

Also congrats on your success - sounds like you worked hard to achieve it & you're in a very good position now.

I knew from a young age that I wanted to be an IT consultant. A friend of the family did IT work for oil companies. He made a shitload of money, banged hot bitches, drove nice cars and never spent more than six months with one client. I went to a small engineering school, one of the top ten in the country, got a comp sci degree, started with a small shitty trucking company and got recruited out of there to do some consulting for a telecom (rate was $28/hr and I thought I was set for life!), the largest in the country at the time. There I met several seasoned consultants and we made a great team, so we started our on consulting company to try to sell project work. Project work is hard to find if you are an unknown so we mostly just use the LLC to share benefits like group health, 401k, and a part-time bookeeper. By 26, I was making more than $100k/yr My technical progression went something like this:

C++ > Unix shell -> Sybase -> PowerBuilder -> Perl -> Informatica -> Oracle -> Teradata (my favorite DB)

I have never gotten a certification and have learned every skill on the job. I have always been good at solving problems and enjoy solving technical problems. If this is something you are good at, I would encourage getting a STEM degree and perusing some kind of specialty.

"Hi-roller mobile lifestyle" might be a stretch. This is one project that I lucked into. I was working a contract for a large sporting goods retailer and it was starting to wind down. One of my business partners sent me the lead for this, which was a small BI shop looking for a developer. I interviewed with them and phone interviewed with the client. I was able to part-time both until I finished with the sporting goods client. Three yrs and three months later, still working on this project, subbing through the BI shop. I keep my ear to the ground but don't see many good remote projects.

This is the 17th project I've done in my 20+ years of consulting. Of the 17, most are local. I did do some work for a pharmaceutical company in San Diego and would have to spend a week in La Jolla every month. It was more like a vacation. That rate was also $110 and the project lasted eight months until they missed an FDA trial and the stock tanked. Of the 17, many have been repeats. Three times to a major defense contractor, four times to the local telecom, twice to a horrible health insurance company. I always try to better my previous rate but the economy and the job market has a say in the rates. Right now the market is good, especially in healthcare. I will look at a lower rate if the work is interesting and the technology is something I like. All of my work now is from word of mouth or clients wanting me back. The BI community here is very small and you cannot burn bridges.

My game plan is always to go in, solve a major problem for the client, bust my ass for six months and then coast until they stop paying me. I am very personable and treat every client professionally. I have been told by a manager that I do the work of three developers. I use that line to hustle up new work when the time comes. It is very much like game were you need to maintain frame, talk through your ass and sell yourself.

Kind of a rambling reply and I'm not sure if I answered your questions. Want to know anything else, please ask.

Quote: (05-06-2015 09:35 PM)bad guy Wrote:  

$110/hr for remote work is on the high end. Well done. Are you limited to working in the area or within your timezone? If not, $200k can get you a hi-roller mobile lifestyle as discussed & dreamed of in this forum. Can you share stories of how you - and perhaps your peers/friends - met your clients and closed these sweet deals? Everyone talks about getting into this line of work or learning this skillset, but it's not often that someone gets into this detail of their story. The one post that stands out was the one from a painter that talked in detail about how he ran his business. He even got into talking about the psychology of his clients and how to finesse these situations.

Quote: (05-05-2015 03:40 PM)SiverFox Wrote:  

Yeah, I lucked out getting into a niche back in the day called "data migration", it is now called ETL (Extract, Translate, Load) and is used everywhere to move data around.

I'm actually taking less because it is a remote position and I like working from home. My peers with similar experience get $125-150/hr for local contracts and more if you are willing to travel to the coasts.

Quote: (05-05-2015 03:14 AM)bad guy Wrote:  

Quote: (05-03-2015 12:56 PM)SiverFox Wrote:  

Independent IT Consultant, $110/hr rate, made $201k last year.

This is a very good rate if you're subcontracting from a larger consulting/staffing firm - range should be from $80-120 per hour. If you're billing a direct client, this is the low end of the range for a DW Architect which would roughly be around $100-180 per hour ($200 for rockstars). IT techies/engineers (non executives) can make $250-300k per year (wall street and silicon valley). The takeaway here is that you're specialized with many years of exp.

Quote: (05-08-2015 10:41 AM)SiverFox Wrote:  

I knew from a young age that I wanted to be an IT consultant. A friend of the family did IT work for oil companies. He made a shitload of money, banged hot bitches, drove nice cars and never spent more than six months with one client. I went to a small engineering school, one of the top ten in the country, got a comp sci degree, started with a small shitty trucking company and got recruited out of there to do some consulting for a telecom (rate was $28/hr and I thought I was set for life!), the largest in the country at the time. There I met several seasoned consultants and we made a great team, so we started our on consulting company to try to sell project work. Project work is hard to find if you are an unknown so we mostly just use the LLC to share benefits like group health, 401k, and a part-time bookeeper. By 26, I was making more than $100k/yr My technical progression went something like this:

C++ > Unix shell -> Sybase -> PowerBuilder -> Perl -> Informatica -> Oracle -> Teradata (my favorite DB)

I have never gotten a certification and have learned every skill on the job. I have always been good at solving problems and enjoy solving technical problems. If this is something you are good at, I would encourage getting a STEM degree and perusing some kind of specialty.

"Hi-roller mobile lifestyle" might be a stretch. This is one project that I lucked into. I was working a contract for a large sporting goods retailer and it was starting to wind down. One of my business partners sent me the lead for this, which was a small BI shop looking for a developer. I interviewed with them and phone interviewed with the client. I was able to part-time both until I finished with the sporting goods client. Three yrs and three months later, still working on this project, subbing through the BI shop. I keep my ear to the ground but don't see many good remote projects.

This is the 17th project I've done in my 20+ years of consulting. Of the 17, most are local. I did do some work for a pharmaceutical company in San Diego and would have to spend a week in La Jolla every month. It was more like a vacation. That rate was also $110 and the project lasted eight months until they missed an FDA trial and the stock tanked. Of the 17, many have been repeats. Three times to a major defense contractor, four times to the local telecom, twice to a horrible health insurance company. I always try to better my previous rate but the economy and the job market has a say in the rates. Right now the market is good, especially in healthcare. I will look at a lower rate if the work is interesting and the technology is something I like. All of my work now is from word of mouth or clients wanting me back. The BI community here is very small and you cannot burn bridges.

My game plan is always to go in, solve a major problem for the client, bust my ass for six months and then coast until they stop paying me. I am very personable and treat every client professionally. I have been told by a manager that I do the work of three developers. I use that line to hustle up new work when the time comes. It is very much like game were you need to maintain frame, talk through your ass and sell yourself.

Kind of a rambling reply and I'm not sure if I answered your questions. Want to know anything else, please ask.

Hey SiverFox,

thanks a lot for the info.

Really cool progression.

I myself work in the design/ research /strategy field, and am planning to focus more on consulting in that field in the future. Your advice is definitely applicable to that field too. I will have a client meeting next month, hope I will be able to close the deal.

Quote: (05-05-2015 07:58 AM)loki Wrote:  

That's how I am making bank and you can too if you're willing to make the effort, build a business and stick with it.

Great posts. I have a question, how would you describe your motivating feelings regarding the money? I.e. did you have a great hunger to have lots of money before you started, and if so what do you think contributed to that? Or did the hunger grow as you first started to make money? Also, do you feel attracted to the money itself, or do you visualize having things the money can give you, and link that motivation to the money?
Hope that's not too vague a question, I'm trying to work out why my motivation to make money is so weak.

For another career idea, here's one that directly benefits from the decline:

Psychiatrists fully licensed with an M.D. I've got some people in my extended family who do that and they're looking at clearing well over 250k next year....and there's aggressive recruitment from headhunters in the field. There's just not enough of them to go around.

No.

Thank you very much for your advice. This post belongs to the top posts on business advice and should be 'stickied' - if that's possible on this forum.

Network like your life depends on it, because your business life well does.
This one's a tough one for me. Like most people, I'd rather have business fall into my lap and not have to ask favors or suck up to people to get it. Like having a product that sells itself as opposed to having to cold call people who don't reply to your calls or emails. I also don't like politicking. However, I have begun to attend networking events and build a contacts base.

I've got #s 1, 4, and 5 covered. I've fallen, gotten up and dusted myself off countless times. Only God knows how hard I work and how much I've dedicated myself to building a successful business and being my own boss.

The part about the business running itself is something I like a lot and am focused on doing after having read the 4 Hour Workweek book. Being an hourly IT consultant I am keenly aware that my making money is directly tied to me getting work done and having only a limited number of hours per day to do it.

Thank you again for your response.

Quote: (05-07-2015 05:30 AM)loki Wrote:  

Quote: (05-06-2015 09:48 PM)bad guy Wrote:  

I'm planning to build a business around a tech product I've been working on and my small efforts at marketing it has kicked my ass completely. I can't even imagine how challenging its going to be to manage the business and people if/when it does grow into a real business. What would you consider the top 3 or 5 things to learn and get good at? Any learning resources you recommend or this is something one only learns by doing? I've downloaded the Lean Startup and am starting into it though I don't think it gets into this type of learning.

[quote] (05-06-2015 12:42 AM)loki Wrote:  

(05-05-2015, 03:36 PM)Ice Wrote:  I have a very technical background and am self taught as well as holding multiple (now expired) certifications. However I have found learning to effectively manage people and manage a business to be 100x harder than learning how to design and deploy mid-scale (up to 20000 node) networks.

Hmm top points that I think are relevant, thats a hard questions to answer but lets take a shot and keep in mind this is my opinion only.

1. Do not be afraid of making mistakes, they happen and when they do its critical you learn from them or you will be destined to repeat them again. Always remember in life you keep repeating the lesson until the lesson is learned. Its also actually worse to make no decision over a sub standard one in business.

2. Get a good mentor

3. Network like your life depends on it, because your business life well does.

4. Read read read some more, then when you are done read even more. In fact never stop stuffing your head with new information because this is a very powerful weapon as well as valuable asset (knowledge). In this context it should be related to what you are doing, want to do , plan to do and think might come in handy. Yes its time consuming but it pays massively in the long run. So many people today are just lazy or think they can look shit up on wikipedia and its correct. You need to make a substantial investment in your on going education through out life if you are going to be successful in my humble or not so humble opinion.

5. Be prepared to make sacrifices, like going out on Friday nights or making yourself work weekends until the machine is running itself. This is a real art (creating a machine that's runs itself) and i will explain more in a bit. If you are not interested in making sacrifices, investing both capitol and time as well as many other required ingredients then being in business is not for you. It takes dedication, balls, brains,obsession, passion, belief, funding, backing, a solid ideas, well thought out plans and a few other things to make it work like a bit of luck and good timing.

6. Keep investing your profits , endlessly, and pay yourself only what you need to live the life you need ( not want, at least for the first 10 yrs). You need to learn to make your money work for you instead of you working for your money.

Back to the making the machine run itself, this ones a tough one and it took me over a decade to work it out. There is a difference between being in business for yourself and owning a company. Being in business yourself is basically a job that you control because its your show. You can pick and choose how where and when you work as well as what you charge ( whatever the market will bear). However its still a job because you have to be there doing it to make money. Even if you have some staff its still a job.

Owning a real business/company, is like owning a machine that runs all the time no matter if you are there or not. Sure you still have to tend it like a garden so far as if you look after your garden it will flourish as will your business... like cutting away the dead wood (bad staff), nurturing it with fertilizer (cash, talent) and making sure its its got enough water (leads and customers). Over time once you get settled in you will place key people in these roles as you employees to tend to your garden the way you want it kept.

Hope this helps and I wish you all the best pf luck in your endeavors.

Thank you for sharing your personal story. It is very insightful and it's great to read a fellow consultant's journey into this profession. There's quite a lot here and I'll probably reply back with more comments as I have time to read it in more detail.

Knowing/wanting to be an IT consultant from a young age - this one I would have never guessed. I didn't have any family members or relatives that could have been a role model in this regard. I actually didn't know I was an IT consultant until I was already one. Just started contracting until I became an expert on some areas.

$110 per hour doing remote work as a subcontractor is definitely on the higher end. Back in 2010 I made $110 per hour on a project and last year I did a project milestone-based pay that came out to around $200 per hour. Both were fully remote. I got lucky on this I found a shortcut to do one of the tasks. Every day I get contacted by so many agencies/shops who offer remote work at $50-60 per hour max. For example, I got contacted today for an Architect/Sr Developer for a global financial company in Manhattan for $700 per day. At market this should be around $1100-1200 per day. I've ended up just passing on these jobs and putting my time into building my own product - and hopefully build a business around it - so I'm not tied into an hourly model for making money.

Regards

Quote: (05-08-2015 10:41 AM)SiverFox Wrote:  

I knew from a young age that I wanted to be an IT consultant. A friend of the family did IT work for oil companies. He made a shitload of money, banged hot bitches, drove nice cars and never spent more than six months with one client. I went to a small engineering school, one of the top ten in the country, got a comp sci degree, started with a small shitty trucking company and got recruited out of there to do some consulting for a telecom (rate was $28/hr and I thought I was set for life!), the largest in the country at the time. There I met several seasoned consultants and we made a great team, so we started our on consulting company to try to sell project work. Project work is hard to find if you are an unknown so we mostly just use the LLC to share benefits like group health, 401k, and a part-time bookeeper. By 26, I was making more than $100k/yr My technical progression went something like this:

C++ > Unix shell -> Sybase -> PowerBuilder -> Perl -> Informatica -> Oracle -> Teradata (my favorite DB)

I have never gotten a certification and have learned every skill on the job. I have always been good at solving problems and enjoy solving technical problems. If this is something you are good at, I would encourage getting a STEM degree and perusing some kind of specialty.

"Hi-roller mobile lifestyle" might be a stretch. This is one project that I lucked into. I was working a contract for a large sporting goods retailer and it was starting to wind down. One of my business partners sent me the lead for this, which was a small BI shop looking for a developer. I interviewed with them and phone interviewed with the client. I was able to part-time both until I finished with the sporting goods client. Three yrs and three months later, still working on this project, subbing through the BI shop. I keep my ear to the ground but don't see many good remote projects.

This is the 17th project I've done in my 20+ years of consulting. Of the 17, most are local. I did do some work for a pharmaceutical company in San Diego and would have to spend a week in La Jolla every month. It was more like a vacation. That rate was also $110 and the project lasted eight months until they missed an FDA trial and the stock tanked. Of the 17, many have been repeats. Three times to a major defense contractor, four times to the local telecom, twice to a horrible health insurance company. I always try to better my previous rate but the economy and the job market has a say in the rates. Right now the market is good, especially in healthcare. I will look at a lower rate if the work is interesting and the technology is something I like. All of my work now is from word of mouth or clients wanting me back. The BI community here is very small and you cannot burn bridges.

My game plan is always to go in, solve a major problem for the client, bust my ass for six months and then coast until they stop paying me. I am very personable and treat every client professionally. I have been told by a manager that I do the work of three developers. I use that line to hustle up new work when the time comes. It is very much like game were you need to maintain frame, talk through your ass and sell yourself.

Kind of a rambling reply and I'm not sure if I answered your questions. Want to know anything else, please ask.

Quote: (05-06-2015 09:35 PM)bad guy Wrote:  

$110/hr for remote work is on the high end. Well done. Are you limited to working in the area or within your timezone? If not, $200k can get you a hi-roller mobile lifestyle as discussed & dreamed of in this forum. Can you share stories of how you - and perhaps your peers/friends - met your clients and closed these sweet deals? Everyone talks about getting into this line of work or learning this skillset, but it's not often that someone gets into this detail of their story. The one post that stands out was the one from a painter that talked in detail about how he ran his business. He even got into talking about the psychology of his clients and how to finesse these situations.

Quote: (05-05-2015 03:40 PM)SiverFox Wrote:  

Yeah, I lucked out getting into a niche back in the day called "data migration", it is now called ETL (Extract, Translate, Load) and is used everywhere to move data around.

I'm actually taking less because it is a remote position and I like working from home. My peers with similar experience get $125-150/hr for local contracts and more if you are willing to travel to the coasts.

Quote: (05-05-2015 03:14 AM)bad guy Wrote:  

Quote: (05-03-2015 12:56 PM)SiverFox Wrote:  

Independent IT Consultant, $110/hr rate, made $201k last year.

This is a very good rate if you're subcontracting from a larger consulting/staffing firm - range should be from $80-120 per hour. If you're billing a direct client, this is the low end of the range for a DW Architect which would roughly be around $100-180 per hour ($200 for rockstars). IT techies/engineers (non executives) can make $250-300k per year (wall street and silicon valley). The takeaway here is that you're specialized with many years of exp.

Quote: (05-10-2015 10:35 AM)Phoenix Wrote:  

Quote: (05-05-2015 07:58 AM)loki Wrote:  

That's how I am making bank and you can too if you're willing to make the effort, build a business and stick with it.

Great posts. I have a question, how would you describe your motivating feelings regarding the money? I.e. did you have a great hunger to have lots of money before you started, and if so what do you think contributed to that? Or did the hunger grow as you first started to make money? Also, do you feel attracted to the money itself, or do you visualize having things the money can give you, and link that motivation to the money?
Hope that's not too vague a question, I'm trying to work out why my motivation to make money is so weak.

OK lets get this straight, I hate money plain and simple. I hate what it does to people and I hate even more what they do to get it. Quite frankly I just don't care for it which is why I give so much of it away...sounds crazy don't it but its true. I used to chase the dollar when I was a younger man and guess I loved it as well as the power it brings but it damned nearly killed me and cost me every relationship I cherished as well as a lot more which I don't care to go into as its very personal.

The harder you chase money the faster it will run away from you! You guys need to realise that money is simply a side effect of being good at what you do and is not the root cause for doing what you do. Please do not go pick careers based on potential earnings because its a stupid way to go about it and you will end up working a job you hate like a lot of people I and you probably know as well.

Find something you love doing and turn that into a business like I have with ICT. For me ICT is very easy because my brain is wired that way for reasons only our good lord can explain. I am also gun at sales because I am very personable and I can talk to anyone about anything with a degree of authority because I am well read and stuff my head with new information constantly (always have). My other love after tech is business and I have loved business since I was a little kid aged about 8-10. All I did was combine the two I loved when I was forced to change career direction (long story).

See this is why it works so well for me and is also so damned easy, because I quite simply love it and therefore I excel at it. I am doing exactly what I want to do each day and whats even better is the side effect of doing what I love is it makes money, a reasonable amount at that

See what I am saying?

However success is a double edged sword, when you start making major bank its oh so fucking easy to go sideways and crash with booze, coke, women, gambling and fast cars for example (don't ask me how I know this). This is another key reason why I pay myself so little now days compared to before because it keeps me out of trouble...I also keep myself constantly busy at all times ....idle hands and all that jazz.

I was also cursed with a very high IQ as well as ADHD, so I had to teach and or re-learn (read beat into myself) the art of self control, being humble, being responsible and discipline for example. It hurt to do it but it was worth it as I am now back in control of my life and my future.

You lot actually helped me fix one of the few remaining work packages I had left in my internal game review that I have undertaken since going redpill and for that help I will be forever thankful which is why I made a decision to share some of what I am sharing with you all here.

Try and remember guys if you truly love what you do for work you will never work a day in your life.

Making money is dead easy, the hard parts are hanging onto it and making it grow but we can cover that another day.

Hope this all makes sense.

From 1996 1997 I made very good money selling timeshares and hustling (not illegal, but a combination of small hustles like writing papers pre-internet everywhere) I actually cleared $150,000 before taxes but the economy was booming then. I went back to finish school and made just under $120,000 a year once after law school, I am hoping to do very well post medical school but I am only going to actively try really hard to get rich for ten more years, after that I will say fuck it and coast, if it happens it happens. I have worked at a boutique intellectual firm before and the partners were clocking roughly 1-1.5 million a year each and they worked their asses off and drank a fucking lot. One took care of himself physically the other one did not, I did not want to be either of them. My gamble is getting with a large biotech company and getting in before the IPO or getting with a publicly traded Drug Company and getting paid a lot to wear many hats for them. If I am not rich in ten years or making real significant progress, then fuck it, buy a condo where it is warm and look forward to overseas travel and figure out how and where I am going to reproduce.

Knowing what I know now if I could go back: I would have taken high school sports seriously, played lacrosse gone to Yale(or Harvard, or Princeton, or the best school I could but Yale first.), Majored in Math with an electrical engineering minor, gone to work at Goldman Sacks(or a good finance job). Plan B would be take the patent bar first and then apply to Law School and only go to a top 5 school preferentially Stanford Law be a patent attorney in Electrical Engineering in Silicon Valley. Plan C go to medical school. These plans A-C all assume I cannot go back knowing lotto numbers or stock market trends, If I had to work hard and earn it. Any of plans A-C ,if you work hard and don't marry or have kids(or gamble), would equal millionaire status before 29.

Quote: (05-12-2015 12:24 AM)loki Wrote:  

Try and remember guys if you truly love what you do for work you will never work a day in your life.

What if you don't love to do anything, especially if it's something you have to do because your boss or client tells you?

Quote: (05-12-2015 07:15 AM)Brodiaga Wrote:  

Quote: (05-12-2015 12:24 AM)loki Wrote:  

Try and remember guys if you truly love what you do for work you will never work a day in your life.

What if you don't love to do anything, especially if it's something you have to do because your boss or client tells you?

I think you may need to fix your inner game because it sounds broken somewhere along the line if you are working a job you hate. Every person has things they love to do. Everything that falls into that catagory can be monetized, the art is working out how to convert it into a business.

I love beer, so i started a micro brewery and got real good at it, and as a side effect made decent bank doing what i loved..making and drinking beer. This is just an example of what I am talking about.

Getting my shit straight in my head was hard work and its still a work in progress but I was struggling for many years because of inner game issues and issue with my self.I also fell out of love with my work for a while (years) as well due to a bout of serious depression. Once i got those issues somewhat cleaned up, shit went ballistic and in a good way. Also you will notice above in a post higher up in this thread, i said don't go doing a job because you think it makes a lot of money, do the job because you enjoy it. Otherwise its just painful and shitty requiring lots of effort and fuck all satisfaction.

hope this helps.

Or sometimes you need to think outside of the "things" you love to do, but also include personality attributes that different careers demand. For example if you're the type of personality who gets restless in one place and always has to be tackling a new problem you might want to look at traveling consulting jobs, and if you're introverted and analytical there's a lot of research jobs in different fields that, although you may be indifferent to the actual content involved, allow you to get paid for what you like to do best: analyzing an opinion and writing it down presentably.

IT consulting / Software sales / Hardware Sales / Business Owner $125 per hour plus $75 just to show up $750,000+ in a years time 3rd year since quitting my job however the bulk of work I dont actually do. I use sub contractors and in house technicians that way I can book multiple jobs a day, the majority of in house technicians I hire and train. Give me someone from Odesk / Elance in another country Ill pay them $4-$5 per hour(Philippines, Slovenia, Ukraine, bangledash) withe a general understanding of networking, computers etc we train them on how to use a few very specific software packages (some open source some not) I sale and its that easy. Or for some more specialized software packages I'll go as high as paying subs $25 per hour, and some onsite guys $50-$60 per hour. Some instances depending on what the software or system in place, I know and have worked with contractors whom charge me $300+ per hour in which case I can easily go up to $500 per hour unfortunately those projects are far and few in between but they do come around.. It just takes balls, and thinking outside of the box not a huge amount of education, money, or specialized skill set but the ability too learn, think on the fly, and product management (finding the right solution to sale and whom to sale it to is key) THIS IS TRUE FOR ALL BUSINESS NOT JUST TECH!!!!.... I've been thinking about starting a thread titled "How to build and run an online business Like a Boss"..... This same conversation was going on in another thread maybe what I've learned could be of assistance to others men here on the forum. I'd go as far as to say fuck the corporate life fighting, clawing, kissing ass, and playing politics on the chance to make $100,000 per year. Theres alot more that comes with those positions than you can ever imagine or want I learned that the hard way in my former life doing sales for the man.

Quote: (05-13-2015 03:15 AM)ElJefe1 Wrote:  

I've been thinking about starting a thread titled "How to build and run an online business Like a Boss".....

I would read that thread. Very much so.

Quote: (05-13-2015 06:26 AM)Phoenix Wrote:  

Quote: (05-13-2015 03:15 AM)ElJefe1 Wrote:  

I've been thinking about starting a thread titled "How to build and run an online business Like a Boss".....

I would read that thread. Very much so.

Agree!