[consulting] General consultant's vent

[Domenic Santangelo]

On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 6:34 AM, Brian Vuyk <brian at brianvuyk.com> wrote:

> I agree with you in principal. If the client doesn't approach us with fully
> drawn up specification and design documents, they should expect to pay
> consulting time to get their project refined and firmed up. Historically,
> probably 10-15% or more of my hours were tied up in this aspect of business.
> However, as long as so many developers are willing to do this for free, it
> can't easily be stopped. Small shops, like mine, can't give up a competitive
> edge like that, and charging a client several days labour that another shop
> would give for free just doesn't work.


I recently needed a legal document drawn up, so I called an attorney that
came highly recommended from friends in this area. He drew up the (one page)
document, sent it over, I looked through it and said, "great, let's do it"
and he asked for a large retainer. I can't use this doc unless I pay it.
That too got me to thinking about Drupal work -- okay, fine, let's estimate
and wireframe for free, and build that cost into contracts we DO land.

I don't really have an answer here, but I think examples from other more
established industries might show good patterns that we can follow. I dunno.

-Dom
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