If you are not in top 1 percentile of programming abilities, you better move to management. This is hard for someone who isn't verbally aggressive. Positions for management require X years of managing Y employees so if didn't make the move early on, you are doomed. Given that there isn't a puzzle/test type of way to rank managers, the management positions get doled out as opposed to competed for. You have to be in the shoes of a 40+ programmer who is not in top 1 percentile to know this :-(

As to your own circumstances: there exist many clueful companies which would hire you. Find my email if you want to talk specifics. This is not a market where anyone skilled should be hurting for offers.

Even so, this isn't rocket science. Just like any other skill, effective communication can be taught. Like many other pursuits, it doesn't take long to distinguish yourself just because there's so much rubbish out there.

Interesting. I wasn't aware of an age breakdown of HN readers. Could you point me to it?

Most of the people I personally know on HN are over 30... but that may be selection bias on my part :-)

Given that there isn't a puzzle/test type of way to rank managers, the management positions get doled out as opposed to competed for

That may be true of some organisations, but certainly not all. Managers get judged on a bunch of metrics in many organisations... often bad ones unfortunately (then again - so are puzzle questions for developers :-)

Thanks. (Although I do like puzzles as much as the next HN member)

False. The test is: how much money did your team make? (For the truly crafty, the test is: how much money did your team make relative to the initial investment and risk?)

This is not how good managers are assessed in other forms of capitalism or business.

Consistent long-term business growth is far more important in some, e.g. in Germanic and Scandinavian countries.

In general, you could say a good manager meets the targets that have been set by higher management, whatever they may be.

Yes, I am a manager.

What should we be doing to "rebrand" ourselves in a way that will get us more money?

I ask this here and not in email in the hopes that your answer will help other people as well.

We solve businesses problems and, in the process, make them gobsmacking amounts of money by increasing revenue and cutting costs.

Computers and telephones are sometimes involved.

It's pretty easy for me to market us as "we do freelance programming". It's something most people that I talk to understand. I'm not sure how to market myself as a "solver of business problems".

Keep in mind we don't really know SEO that well.

Though you may not think you know much about SEO or conversion, explaining the benefits that you pick up from casual reading on HN tends to bring the business cards out pretty quick.

Instead talk about increased ROI, more conversions, decreased support costs, better PR, etc. Talk to potential customers about their problems first. Then give them solutions to their problems.

Ideally have stories from previous customers about those areas. Stories sell much better than skill lists.

For example a while back I sent this letter (lightly edited to removed some identifying material).

<quote>

Hi $joe,

Thanks for talking to me last week about $company. From our chat it looks like your biggest problem was transitioning from startup geeks to long term customers. I think we can help.

We worked with $similar-company who had the same sort of issue reaching their long-term market. After helping them re-build their on- and off-line marketing materials their sales team saw a big increase in qualified leads, which helped them save money and focus their sales folk on some new markets. Conversions also increased significantly.

If you like I can put you in contact with their CTO and head of sales who can talk about their experiences with us.

If you'd like to talk about this further we should meet up. I could come and meet you next Friday afternoon in your offices. Drop me a line if this sounds interesting or if you have any further questions.

Cheers,

Adrian

</quote>

Note how I'm not talking about user interviews, analysing their search engine results, a new visual design, user testing, new CMS, web design, HTML5, jQuery, agile development, etc. Despite the fact that we did it all for $similar-company.

Instead I'm saying "You told me this was you're biggest problem. Look we solved it for $other-company. Here are some people you can talk to for verification. Here is what you should do next".

Find out their biggest business problems. Show them you can help them solve it. Leave out the details of how until the last possible moment.

What we aren't doing is going to companies that already have systems, and improving them. We're more focused on building products from scratch.

It's possible that the problem is with our focus - but this seems the most natural fit for us right now.

So I guess these are the questions:

1. Should we be focusing elsewhere?

2. If so, how do we find the kind of customers you're talking about?

3. If not, how do we take a customer, who's a lone guy or a company with a new product, and use the techniques above to present ourselves differently?

You might find it helpful to think about your customers as people with problems that mean they have to build systems. The customer doesn't care about the "system". They care about solving the problem.

1. Should we be focusing elsewhere?

No idea. Are you finding customers for what you're offering now?

2. If so, how do we find the kind of customers you're talking about?

I think we're talking about the same customers. Or were anyway (we're in the process of moving to doing more consulting/teaching/coaching ATM since it gives us more options). We build things for people who needs things built :-)

You find customers for consultancies in the same way you find customers for software products. You need to start going to where the customers are. On-line and offline. Try adding some business meet ups to your technical ones. Listen - don't sell (at first anyway).

Talk to them. Figure out what their problems are. Solve them. Do a reasonable job. Figure out what worked and didn't. Tweak your offering. Go talk to more potential customers. Solve more problems. Do a better job. Start getting references. Repeat.

I've found the Business Model Canvas a useful tool for brainstorming ideas on my own business - looking for alternate revenue streams and markets - http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas - as ever YMMV :-)

3. If not, how do we take a customer, who's a lone guy or a company with a new product, and use the techniques above to present ourselves differently?

I don't know - how do you present yourselves now?

We present ourselves as a software freelancing company. We ask our connections to refer people to us who need web applications built. We've also looked at something like Elance (but that targets the Israeli market, specifically). Most of our customers and potential customers were either: 1. people looking to build a new startup (or webapp), and want to outsource the development to us. 2. Freelance shops who represent customers looking to build webapps, and who are outsourcing the actual technical work to us.

Good :-) That's the right attitude to have.

We present ourselves as a software freelancing company

To whom? Addressing individuals or organisations? Shop floor? Middle management? CEO level? What kind of project are they looking for? What kind of budgets? What kind of timescales? What do they expect during the project? Long-term or short-term relationships? Do they want to collaborate or expect you to do everything by yourself? In any particular industry?

How? Do you just have a website? A blog? In conversation? Advertising? Cold calling? References? Magazine articles? Press? Raising a personal brand or a company brand?

If you don't have answers to these sorts of questions off the top of your head you don't have a strong model of what your customers are like, and how to get yourself in front of them.

We ask our connections to refer people to us who need web applications built.

Are your connections people like you - or people like your customers? While any work is obviously good it's the references from customers that you really want to try and get. They're much more likely to be convincing to other potential customers, and to know more potential customers.

Flip it around. Whose recommendation would you trust more for a development role. Another techie or a sales guy?

We've also looked at something like Elance

The folk who go to Elance et al tend to be extremely price conscious, and often the kind of client ends up being... difficult... I steer clear of them myself. Also clients tend to think of their solutions coming from "elance" rather than from yourself. If you look how elance et al are mentioned online you'll see folk recommend "elance" not "this great company I found on elance".

I have heard of people using Elance to bootstrap themselves to a client based. They used them to explore different kinds of client, collected references and testimonials, etc. Then used those to get more work outside of the elance system. It's not something I've tried myself.

Obviously don't throw work away - but think about how it helps you in the longer term.

Most of our customers and potential customers were either: 1. people looking to build a new startup (or webapp), and want to outsource the development to us

They sound useful. How did they find you? Were they happy with what you did? Have you asked what you could have done better? Have you asked for references and testimonials?

Have you looked at your most successful projects and asked "How can we find more people like this?"

Have you thought about how to get repeat and ongoing business from these folks? Are you keeping in touch?

2. Freelance shops who represent customers looking to build webapps, and who are outsourcing the actual technical work to us

This is mostly a lousy business to be in too - since: * the freelance shops are the ones who get the biggest slice of the pie. * the freelance shop is the one that gets the recommendations and references - not you

Again, if it's helping cashflow now - don't throw work away. But think about how it helps you in the longer term.

---

I'm hoping this is coming across as vaguely constructive criticism rather than a grumpy rant ;-)

I guess if you want it wrapped up into a bite sized piece of advice it would be to: 1) Have a goal; 2) Have a plan that moves you towards that goal.

Write down a brief one page description of your ideal company. Write down a brief one page description of the clients you would need to support that company. Write down a brief one page description of the ways you would get those clients.

You may find that you can't do anything to get those clients at the moment. The market or the channels may be out of your reach for various reasons. Fair enough. Start thinking about ways to get to that market or those channels. Use that as a goal. Think about what you'd need to get there. Repeat until you find something you can try.

It's easy - especially when you start - to just jump from client to client with no overall aim. I know I worked that way at the start. Which is great while you can find work. But unless you take a step back occasionally and think a bit more strategically - you're either going to stay the same, or get gutted by the next guy who comes in a bit hungrier and leaner than you are.

Have a plan. Feel free to change it every few months - but have a plan.