Electronics Consultant Impedance Matching

Welcome (counterclockwise) Piotr, Eric and Dave!

• Dave is 30% local to 70% remote, 75% fixed, 25% hourly
  • 0h 16m 20s
• Eric is 80-90 local, 10% remote. 50-50 split on hourly vs fixed.
  • 0h 17m 55s
• Piotr was 100% remote and , but his remaining job is local and hourly
  • 0h 19m 21s
• Client archetypes
  • 0h 20m 34s
• Stability
  • 0h 22m 34s
• Past guest Philip Freidin wrote about being a consultant
  • 0h 24m 04s
• "So you want to be a consultant?"
  • 0h 25m 43s
• Do you bill for software?
  • 0h 27m 17s
• Time tracking
  • 0h 28m 51s
• Consulting specialty
  • 0h 29m 31s
• Dave: likes diversity and depth of work
  • 0h 29m 47s
• Eric: smaller projects beginning to end
  • 0h 30m 36s
• Piotr: Vertically integrated
  • 0h 31m 4s
• 0 hour billable weeks
  • 0h 36m 51s
• Let's figure out what's best for that
  • 0h 37m 59s
• Learning the personality of a client
  • 0h 40m 58s
• Playing the timeline all the way forward
  • 0h 41m 37s
• Client communication
  • 0h 43m 16s
• Setting expectations
  • 0h 43m 22s
• Firing a client
  • 0h 43m 52s
• 3 strikes
  • 0h 43m 56s
• Growing empathy for customers
  • 0h 45m 24s
• Language barriers with clients
  • 0h 47m 37s
• "This SHOULD be done by..."
  • 0h 48m 2s
• Dealing with impostor syndrome
  • 0h 51m 58s
• Known risks
  • 0h 53m 18s
• Communicating to the client about lack of knowledge
  • 0h 53m 39s
• When your startup client who suddenly gets funding, is woo’d and ultimately stolen by a bigger design firm promising the world....how does one manage ones anger?
  • 0h 55m 22s
• Working through some of the design houses
  • 0h 56m 57s
• Focal points - distributor FAEs, design houses, contract manufacturers
  • 0h 58m 32s
• Getting recommendations from past clients
  • 0h 59m 38s
• How to get started
  • 1h 0m 36s
• Judging potential hires by their pull requests
  • 1h 2m 56s
• Insurance
  • 1h 8m 51s
• Usually on a product basis and not the design basis
  • 1h 9m 35s
• LLCs all around
  • 1h 10m 53s
• Good resources from IEEE
  • 1h 11m 31s
• Consultant survey
  • 1h 12m 28s
• What I really want to know is: why engineers feel they must *undercharge* for time as a consultant? No one should be blanching at $100+/hr.
  • 1h 14m 4s
• Hourly rate goe down for billing more hours
  • 1h 14m 18s
• Dave changes billing for if there's more risk
  • 1h 14m 35s
• Lowering hourly rate for things you like. Piotr does this for open source hardware.
  • 1h 16m 25s
• Should you work for equity?
  • 1h 17m 18s
• Working with startups
  • 1h 18m 12s
• Changes the nature of the relationship
  • 1h 18m 38s
• Rainy days cash
  • 1h 20m 17s
• Getting personal finance stuff in order
  • 1h 21m 42s
• Check out our guests' sites to learn more:
  • 1bitsquared.com
  • LowVoltageLabs.com
  • YoungCircuitDesigns.com