Starting a Business as an Open Source Consultant

After a long absence, two programmer friends met at a party. One proudly declared, "I've gone into business for myself as a computer consultant!" The other looked at his business card, with the ink barely dry on "John Smith & Associates." And asked, "When did you get laid off?"

I first heard that joke (it's a joke?) in the 1980s, when I became active in CompuServe's Computer Consultant Forum. It's equally true today. It takes more than a business card and a website to make it as a consultant — a real consultant, not someone scrambling to generate income while looking for a "real job" — and few of those rules have changed. But many of the basics bear repeating (I wish I had a dollar for every time I've answered, "Should I charge clients for travel time?"), especially when the economy forces us to re-evaluate what we want to do with our lives.

That's one reason that last week's Open Source Bridge conference, held in Portland Oregon, had more than one session about the business of open source. Brian Jamison, who founded Open Sourcery in 2004 (now at 24 people), spoke about "How to earn an open source living without taking on investors or selling your soul," and Nate Aune shared "How to build a successful open source software consulting company" based on his experiences with Jazkarta, the Boston-area company he founded in 2004, which now employs three full time staff and ten subcontractors.

They reiterated many of the same points, most of which had less to do with running an open source company than with Computer Consulting 101 rules. That makes perfect sense, since your area of specialization is irrelevant if you can't market or pay your bills on time. So I could write a whole blog post about "the 19 things you ought to know before you hang out your consulting shingle" (and with any provocation, I shall), such as embracing crisis, why not to listen to your friends and family, and finding a way to differentiate your business from others'.

But I want to focus on the points these guys made about making a living in open source. Or you'll get cranky, since that's what I promised in the title.

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