In my first post to this blog ("The Six Month Startup"), I talked about doing some consulting on the side to help pay the bills while I got the tech startup and six-month startup off the ground. Yesterday, I met with a former colleague who now has her own consulting business about my plan.
The good news: It's very easy to get started -- basically hanging out your shingle (including putting up a website), mentioning your services to everyone in your network, and starting the sales process with your first leads.
The bad news: Getting into consulting will suck energy from the startups, even if I am strict in my plan to allot just 10 hours per week to consulting. The reason: There are a lot of follow-up and back-office tasks related to marketing, sales cycles, collection, accounting, etc. that not only take up a lot of time, but require attention throughout the day, which distracts from anything else that's going on and reduces the paid consulting hours out of the planned 10-hour weekly allotment.
My colleague asked me: Is it worth it?
I didn't have to consider the answer. No, it's not. I want both startups to have a real shot at success and get the right start in life, and if it means pulling the belt a little tighter, so be it.
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