diff --git a/content/posts/2024-09-02-juggling-delivery-admin-and-leads-monthly-biz-recap/east-moreton-island.webp b/content/posts/2024-09-02-juggling-delivery-admin-and-leads-monthly-biz-recap/east-moreton-island.webp new file mode 100644 index 000000000..33b31aefa Binary files /dev/null and b/content/posts/2024-09-02-juggling-delivery-admin-and-leads-monthly-biz-recap/east-moreton-island.webp differ diff --git a/content/posts/2024-09-02-juggling-delivery-admin-and-leads-monthly-biz-recap/index.md b/content/posts/2024-09-02-juggling-delivery-admin-and-leads-monthly-biz-recap/index.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..c28f537d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/2024-09-02-juggling-delivery-admin-and-leads-monthly-biz-recap/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,124 @@ +--- +title: 'Juggling delivery, admin, and leads: Monthly biz recap' +author: Yanir Seroussi +type: post +date: 2024-09-02T02:30:00+00:00 +url: /2024/09/02/juggling-delivery-admin-and-leads-monthly-biz-recap/ +cover: + relative: true + image: east-moreton-island.webp + caption: Most of my month wasn't this calm. + alt: winter day on a boat off the east of Moreton Island +summary: Highlights and lessons from my solo expertise biz, including value pricing, fractional cash flow, and distractions from admin & politics. +tags: + - business + - career + - consulting + - personal + - startups +--- +Last month, I posted [an overview of my first year lessons from building a solo expertise business](https://yanirseroussi.com/2024/08/05/first-year-lessons-from-a-solo-expertise-biz-in-data-and-ai/). +I plan to write on this topic every month, leading to shorter and more timely posts. + +As a reminder, _solo expertise business_ means: (1) _solo_ – no employees other than myself; (2) _expertise_ – the value comes from packaging my skills and experience; and (3) _business_ – value capture isn't limited to selling my labour. +I believe that some of what I'm learning would be useful to other business owners, as [the lines are blurry between my type of business and early-stage product startups](https://yanirseroussi.com/til/2023/09/25/the-lines-between-solo-consulting-and-product-building-are-blurry/). + +This post covers five highlights from August 2024: + +1. Discovery package delivery +2. Fractional cash flow and potential product direction +3. Company admin rabbit holes +4. Political distractions +5. Opportunity flow and time constraints + +## Discovery package delivery + +One path towards high profitability is through value pricing, i.e., setting prices for offerings based on the value to the client rather than based on costs. +When it comes to selling services, the main cost is my time, so the idea is to move away from hourly billing. +This idea has been drilled into me by following Jonathan Stark – [his website](https://jonathanstark.com/free) is a great place to start if you only bill by time. + +The idea of value pricing is simple: If something is worth $500,000 to a client, they'd happily pay you $50,000 _if they trust you_ to deliver it quickly. +However, it's not easy to create packages, discover value, and build trust with strangers. +It takes time. + +In my case, I started experimenting with offering a paid discovery package, where I work with a client to define their problems and create a roadmap. +Given the limited scope of such an engagement, I'm comfortable with the risk of putting a fixed price on it. +The interesting thing is that the price is somewhat arbitrary, e.g., the package I sold in August was priced at $7,000, but it could have easily been $1,000 more or less. +And if I were more established as a consultant, it could have easily been double the price and half the work to deliver. + +As I'm inexperienced in delivering such engagements, it took me much longer than I would have liked. +But I suppose that's a part of the learning process. +Fortunately, some of what I've learned has yielded reusable artefacts – posts on [the AI/ML lifecycle](https://yanirseroussi.com/2024/07/29/ai-ml-lifecycle-models-versus-real-world-mess/) and [the idea of a universal minimum viable data stack](https://yanirseroussi.com/2024/08/19/giving-up-on-the-minimum-viable-data-stack/). +I keep trying to remind myself that I'm working on building long-term value, so what I'm learning now should pay off eventually. + +## Fractional cash flow and potential product direction + +One problem with learning how to deliver value-priced packages is that it's all too slow, all along the funnel: +- marketing is a long-term investment; +- converting prospects to clients rarely happens overnight; and +- delivering a high-quality service is time-consuming because I'm far from systematising my packages. + +Given enough time, I believe that I can speed up execution and increase the quality of every step – and thereby make my business more profitable. +However, in the meantime, the lack of stability (aka feast-famine cycle) has been influencing my morale. +I'm also acutely aware of the opportunity cost: While I could be making much more money as a full-time employee, it would come at the price of dedicating significant mental space to a single employer. + +As a compromise, I've been talking with several contacts about fractional work – the trendy name for part-time work (or retainers, when not billed only by the hour). +I recently signed one such contract that will be billed hourly, but will allow me to build the rest of the business while enjoying the peace of mind that comes with _some_ revenue. +We'll see how it goes in practice. + +One thing that has emerged from the new contract and from other chats is a new product direction. +So far, I've been aiming my marketing at well-funded startups in the climate & nature tech space, with services that cover the same responsibilities as those of [a first Data-to-AI hire](https://yanirseroussi.com/2024/07/15/learn-about-dataland-to-avoid-expensive-hiring-mistakes/). +However, it may be that I'm better placed to help bridge the divide between data science and production-level engineering, or between engineering and science, as most of my work has straddled both areas. +I'm not sure what this direction would look like in practice, but if you're a data scientist who's struggling to ship valuable work or a software engineer who's starting to navigate AI/ML, [I'd be happy to hear from you](https://yanirseroussi.com/contact/). + +## Company admin rabbit holes + +With the fractional contract lined up, I've been feeling increasingly uncomfortable about the risks involved with my simple business setup. +In Australia, a common way to get started in business is as a sole trader. +From an admin perspective, it isn't much more complicated than being an employee – you're essentially an individual who can also issue invoices. +However, this means that legally, there is no separation between your business and your personal assets. + +To create the legal separation between myself and the business, I decided to form a company. +Figuring out the correct structure for my situation involved a bit of rabbit-holing, as a company can be owned by a trust, or it can be owned by a holding company that's owned by a trust, etc. +I ended up opting for a simple structure, and _Yanir Seroussi Pty Ltd_ is now its own legal entity. +The downside is that there's _a lot_ more to do to set up the accounting and other aspects of compliance. +While I'm happy to pay to get some of this work done for me, I need to understand what I'm paying for – which consumes time I could be spending on other aspects of the business (like delivering the discovery package and building my pipeline). + +The whole setup and admin side has been somewhat stressful, and I'm not done yet. +But once things settle, I should be in a better position to scale up the business. +For example, having a company opens the door to working with clients who wouldn't deal with sole traders. +It feels like it's in the far future, but at least I'll be ready when the time comes. + +## Political distractions + +As noted in [my previous reflection](https://yanirseroussi.com/2024/08/05/first-year-lessons-from-a-solo-expertise-biz-in-data-and-ai/#q4-2023-war-and-hate-are-powerful-distractions), being an Australian-Israeli of Jewish descent has meant that the ongoing war in Israel and political reactions in Australia have been impossible to ignore. +While I've mostly been successful in controlling my exposure to the news, the last week of August presented two new challenges: + +1. I was approached to help with a quick analysis of [submissions to a Senate Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities](https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/AntisemitismBill/Submissions). +2. [My local Brisbane City Councillor has used her platform to send a disinformation pamphlet to all households in the area](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/yanirseroussi_thanks-to-trina-massey-councillor-of-the-activity-7235051092303093760-Ch2Y), which I view as [modern blood libel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel) against Israelis and Zionists (i.e., people who believe Israel should continue to exist as a sovereign state). + +Between delivering the discovery package and dealing with the company setup, I had little time to deal with either of these challenges. +However, we live in unusual times, and I'm well-aware of the historical precedent where Jews went from the top of society in places like Germany to a persecuted minority – all in the space of a decade. +Therefore, I cleared some time to help with the analysis. +I also filed complaints against my councillor with [the Queensland Office of the Independent Assessor](https://www.oia.qld.gov.au/make-a-complaint) and [the Queensland Human Rights Commission](https://www.qhrc.qld.gov.au/complaints/making-a-complaint). +I believe her actions violated [the councillors' code of conduct](https://www.localgovernment.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/45170/code-of-conduct-for-queensland-councillors.pdf) and constituted racial vilification. + +Abstracting away from my personal challenges, the principle I follow is that life comes before business. +While the current wave of hate doesn't feel life-threatening yet, I'm not going to sit and do nothing as it gets worse – even if it costs me a few followers and a bit of business. + +If you're reading this and you think I'm overreacting, please feel free to [contact me](https://yanirseroussi.com/contact/). +I'd be happy to take you through the details of the pamphlet and other instances of hate. +What I and others are seeing is completely different from a legitimate criticism of Israeli government actions. +As [one non-Jewish, apolitical lecturer put it](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/yanirseroussi_submission-273-to-the-inquiry-into-antisemitism-activity-7236138260014448640-G5Rr): + +> In my entire career, I have never before witnessed such an explosion of political extremism and antisemitism at our universities. + +## Opportunity flow and time constraints + +To end this post on a more positive note, the busyness of August also included increased interest from potential clients. +Much of this can be attributed to my consistent marketing efforts. +However, I don't see how I can deliver all the potential projects without employees or contractors, which leaves me with my preferred approach: do less and charge more. +Also, as I'm actively trying to think like a business owner, I could generate some revenue through referring leads to other consultants I trust. +That's not something I'm set up to do yet, but it's important to keep an open mind and expand beyond hourly billing and doing all the work myself. + +Bring on September!