Vadim Kuhay

A humble system designer, team builder, and player-coach

5 minute read

Not everyone should build a SaaS. There, I said it.

Maybe you’ve got kids in college. Maybe you need predictable income. Maybe you watched too many founders crash and burn. Whatever your reason — consulting might be your path. For now.

But let’s be clear: This is about doing consulting right in 2025, not becoming another body shop refugee.

At the end of my previous article I explained "bedrocking."
This is bedrocking too, just with more risk and fewer benefits.

Why Consulting Isn’t Always Wrong!

Three legitimate reasons to consult instead of building:

  1. You Need Intelligence — Every client teaches you what NOT to build.

  2. You Need Capital — T&M at $200-500/hour beats ramen.

  3. You Need Confidence — Some developers need to see they CAN deliver value.

One terrible reason: "It’s safer." NOTHING about trading time for money is safe!

The Modern Consulting Landscape (2025 Reality)

These are the actual claims and numbers from my communities, June 2025.

What’s Dead:

  • "Digital Transformation Consultant" — everyone claims this.

  • "Full Stack Developer for Hire" — commodity race to the bottom.

  • "Agile Coach" — please, just stop with this cr@p already.

  • Generic anything — you’re competing with offshore at $5-25/hour.

What Pays What?!

  • AI Failure Recovery Specialist — $250-450/hour — low specialty.

  • Legacy System AI Integration — $200-350/hour — high commodity.

  • Expert FullStack Subcontract — $70-135/hour — low commodity.

  • Domain Context Architect — $300-650/hour — high specialty.

  • Technical Due Diligence (for AI claims) — $500-1300/hour.

Notice the pattern?
Specific expertise in fixing expensive mistakes.

The New Consulting Stack:

Client Acquisition:

  • Contra — High-end enterprise overflow. (not yet tested)

  • Upwork Enterprise — Yes, really. They’re desperate! (won’t test)

  • Your Blog — Write about AI failures, they’ll find you! (I have)

  • LinkedIn — But talk about solutions, not your availability. (questionable)

Operations:

  • Cal.com — Professional booking without the SaaS price. (love it!, can run your own!)

  • Toggle Track — Bulletproof time tracking with reporting.

  • Wise / Mercury — International payments without the BS.

  • Documenso — Open source contract signing.

  • FreshBooks — Simple invoicing that works.

  • Bench — Bookkeeping without thinking.

Positioning Tools:

  • GitHub — Your portfolio of fixes, not just code.

  • Loom — Async explanations save meeting time.

  • Notion — Client portals that don’t suck.

  • Linear — Show them what real project management looks like.

The Three Consulting Models That Work!

1. The Surgeon ($500-1000/hour):

You come in, diagnose the specific problem, fix it, leave.

  • Duration: 1-4 weeks max.

  • Clients: Enterprises with bleeding wounds.

  • Example: "Your AI is hallucinating because your domain boundaries are garbage."
    Here’s the fix.

Personal Note: For myself this is only possible with in-person sales! Some of my peers were able to sell this T&M. I was not. Just FP. My longest duration was 2 weeks.

2. The Architect ($300-500/hour):

You design the solution, they implement.

  • Duration: 2-8 weeks; rare peer examples for 12 weeks exist.

  • Clients: Companies with good teams, bad plans.

  • Example: "Here’s your AI integration roadmap. Follow this or fail."

3. The Advisor ($200-300/hour or retainer):

Ongoing strategic guidance, no hands on keyboard.

  • Duration: 3-12 months with 3 months most common.

  • Clients: Startups who can’t afford you full-time.

  • Example: "Monthly AI strategy reviews and team mentoring."

Personal Note: One of my most frequent gigs, usually as Fractional CTO. Try for a limited retainer, if you can — often possible.

The Consulting Trap (And How to Escape):

Every consultant becomes one of three things:

  1. A Product Founder — You see a pattern and productize it.

  2. A Boutique Firm — You hire others and become a manager.

  3. A Lifer — You consult until you can’t.

If you’re not actively planning for #1 or #2, you’re defaulting to #3.

Personal Note: Here is a very important point I need to make:
to consult effectively, to find a niche, and to be able to sell directly — you need A) intel, and B) channels! Getting both is easy if you stay in the same domain for a while, like big-pharma, for example. But breaking into a new domain is hard — use ANY means necessary. I have subcontracted for peanuts before (~$100/hour), just to get my foot in the door. One time I even did this as an employee of a decrepit insurance company that failed every transformation since 2000. The rates above apply to experienced consultant with more than a few trips around the block. If you have nowhere to start, a subcontract is your good first foot in the door — just DON’T forget why you’re subbing!

The Escape Hatch Strategy:

  1. Document Every Pain — Observed and studied client problems are great product ideas!

  2. Find the Pattern — Three clients with same problem = opportunity you must explore.

  3. Build While Billing — Use client work to validate ideas; code is theirs — knowledge is yours!

  4. Test the Transition — Launch MVP while keeping top client. DON’T cut loose after work.

  5. Cut the Cord — When MRR > 50% of consulting income — switch tracks hard.

Personal Note: Point #4 has done wonders for me!
Simple example: In 2007 I consulted for Merck & Co through Glemser Technologies modernizing a custom Documentum-based product. The neighboring team I befriended suffered greatly trying to send encrypted messages to doctors' smartphones. People hammered away hard trying to make square Guidewire peg fit through the oval problem hole. I offered a shoulder to cry on. After coming home I didn’t grab a brewsky — I prototyped. A year later my engagement on the DMS concluded. And Guidewire peg still didn’t fit. In the end — I made three times my other engagement value TWICE: once by licensing Merck & Co a product they needed. And the second time — selling that same product to the Guidewire molesting people. My total manufacturing time was only 640 hours. Making it one of my most profitable moonlighting time — about $2350/hr. It won’t happen every time. But if you pop that brewsky — it will never happen.

Practical Client Management:

NEVER Do These!

  • Work without a contract.

  • Accept equity as payment (unless you want to).

  • Discount your rate (raise it instead)!

  • Take meetings without agenda.

  • Work weekends (that’s sacred time for YOUR product only).

Always Do These:

  • Invoice weekly (not monthly)!

  • Require 50% upfront for new clients.

  • Fire bad clients immediately.

  • Document everything in writing.

  • Raise rates every 3-6 months.

The Money Reality Check:

These are current market rates for consultants already in the trade.

Good T&M Rates (2025):

  • Junior (fixing bugs): $75-150/hour; median: $90-110/hour.

  • Senior (solving problems): $130-300/hour; median: $135-225/hour.

  • Expert (preventing disasters): $300-500/hour; competition dependent.

  • Specialist (saving companies): $500-1500/hour; most shoot for $1000.

Bad T&M Rates:

  • Anything under $75/hour (go W2 instead).

  • Anything requiring 40 hours/week (that’s a job).

  • Anything with a 6-month commitment (that’s prison).

Understand This: If you accept customer’s rate card — you are a commodity!
In other words, you are not selling — you are being sold. Does this mean competent hackers don’t go commodity? No, it doesn’t mean that! I have done this too. My record is well over a hundred engagements in my career — I lost count. I’ve accepted a few assignments while on payroll at Glemser. And I held 3 W2 jobs in 36 years, two of which were not even consulting. And on my own I’ve taken almost a dozen commodity jobs. But most of my sales were hardcore competitive rates — FP, not T&M. Yet up to 20% were definitely crappy deals. There will be many reasons why you would take a commodity job. Most often life circumstances get to even the best of us — I’ve been there too. But even in the good times, myself as an example: I needed to learn how to sell; I needed to break into an unknown market; I needed to profile a prospect from the inside, etc…​ Beggars are no choosers — if you must, then you will. But no matter what — understand that commodity work can only be temporary — you MUST learn how to market and sell![1] Without selling — stick to your cheap W2 jobs.

Finding Clients That Don’t Suck!!!

Where They Cry?!

  • LinkedIn posts about "AI initiatives".

  • HackerNews "Who’s Hiring" desperation.

  • Industry Slack channels (remember the CTO story?)!

  • Conference hallways (especially after failure talks)!!

Personal Note: I never learned to sell on LinkedIn. I just use it to investigate prospects. And even then, my record is pathetic with LinkedIn. Most of my best customers aren’t even on LinkedIn. Right now I am researching laggards, so LinkedIn may prove useful. However, laggards are almost always bad customers — they band together, sheeple, and even when you’ve sold, they will call each other endlessly to "compare rates" and discuss consultants. My best sales come from conferences. Yes, it costs to present. But you have a window of time to really dazzle dilettantes with all you got. Outside of partner marketing firms I have found no better way to find clients than to take them by storm. However, many in my communities develop elaborate and extremely effective funnels. In my previous article I explained communities and mentors — it applies equally to consulting. You won’t nail this alone.

How to Approach?!

Don’t: "I’m available for consulting"
Do: "I see you’re struggling with X. I fixed this for Y. Quick call?"

Don’t: "I’m a full-stack developer"
Do: "I specialize in unfucking AI integrations"

From before — you are business — learn marketing!

The Bridge to Product:

Every consulting engagement should teach you:

  1. What problems are worth money.

  2. What solutions people actually BUY.

  3. What promises make them buy.

  4. What mistakes everyone makes.

Use consulting as paid market research.
Build your SaaS on their dime and pain.

Remember: they NEVER buy on needs and wants!

The Hard Truth:

Consulting is just a job with extra steps.
It’s trading time for money with more paperwork.
But it can be a strategic stepping stone IF you:

  1. Choose clients that teach you something.

  2. Pattern match across engagements.

  3. Build your product knowledge systematically.

  4. Have an exit strategy from day one!

If you are thinking about consulting because you want freedom — read this article.

Insider Wisdom:

The best consultants are building their replacement. Every engagement should make you less necessary. Every solution should be productizable. Every client should teach you what to build. And never leech on a customer — "a good horse doesn’t eat the same grass twice."

If you’re not getting closer to product with each invoice, you’re just an expensive employee — expensive to yourself, first of all.

Choose your path.
But choose it consciously.

Oh, and one last thing: even if you did everything right — pride will kill you. Doing business? — check your BIASES at the door.

Toodles!

1. Forget what you know about selling; Jeff Gitomer is all you need → The Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatness

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