Introduction
In trying to grow my business, I’ve realized I need to either A) hire a salesman or B) learn sales. Â A isn’t working out, so I’m picking up the torch. Â I wanted to write out today what I’m doing wrong in hopes to help other freelancers, contractors, consultants, and those wishing to grow their business. Â These don’t have anything to do with software. Instead they have to do with engaging with clients.
Preface
With all the economic and tech turmoil the past year, many have shown a yearning for something stable amidst it all. Some of the mobile & device hype has actually come to fruition without Flash Player taking a starring role. This has had harsh marketing/PR consequences for many peoples continued, or lack of, faith in the platform. Â This is ecspecially true for those of us in the Flash community for awhile; we’ve been hearing for a decade about Flash on mobile, and have long since been tired of hearing it.
We’ve already seen some luminaries leave the platform for iPhone like Aral Balkan & Keith Peters, some for good, some returning (welcome back sexy man Keith). Others have thrown in their joy with Unity 3D. All the while we have HTML5 deceitful propaganda biting at the heels for those of us who have stayed.
What’s next? What technology is coming that we should invest our time in to ensure a continued prosperous career? Should we stay with Flash Player? Â Is there something I can focus on that’ll help me find a niche and as an early adopter get a payoff?
Today, I want to layout what I think is coming the next 6 years to at least put your mind at ease if you’re a Flash/Flex Developer. Â These are my projections based on what I’ve read, corroborated from talking to colleagues and other reading, and based on past experience.
This post is long overdue, and I want to personally apologize to Adobe for taking so long to post it. Adobe (Macromedia?) thrives on customer feedback, early, and makes a serious effort to prioritize on it whilst comparing to their own market research data they do by proactively reaching out. I haven’t done this in a long while, focusing on business vs. the actual tools & runtimes.
It’s long overdue. Flash Builder 4 is a mess, and hopefully fixing/improving the following items will bring it up to par. Â If you are a product engineer, skip the intro.
Introduction
I made a new years resolution to double my rate this year. If you take a look at the current Flex Consulting Rates, and think double or triple, you’ll have an idea of what I’m trying to do.
In the past 8 months I’ve found three challenges to reaching my goal. First, I had some misperceptions of what level of quality of software businesses want. Second, I have been distracted from the truth by the echo chamber I participate in, specifically the Twitter followers and blogs I read. Finally, and most importantly, while I’m good at marketing, I’ve completely failed in selling the value of my services.  The following lists the failings in detail with my new goals to fix those problems.