Well, Marvel has really capitalized on super heroes, and when they run out of stories going forward, they go backwards and tell you where they came from. Because of this, I thought I’d do a little post to tell you my origin story 🙂
In 2006, I had spent the past few years working for Deloitte and then SAP. I spent so much time working with other independent consultants. They started to take me under their wing and show me just how easy it was to be independent. All the things I was scared of including insurance, medical benefits, 401k etc had been shown to me to be so easy to handle on my own. So, I went online and started my own company. One of the first things I needed to figure out is what I should call my company. Of course, there was the simple of name of Mike Piehl Consulting, but I didn’t like that approach. So I went to my favorite movie, Fight Club. In that movie, Ed Norton and Brad Pitt have the Paper Street Soap Company. Well, I wasn’t making soap, so I decided that Paper Street Consulting would be perfect. I submitted my name and got accepted. (To this day, very few people recognize the reference, but I don’t care… still love that movie).
Once I had my company formed, I did my homework to find out what insurance I would get (health, business, life, etc.) and I started looking for my first contract. I spent maybe a month looking, but it was no big deal, I was finishing up a client in California, so I was still employed. When I accepted my first offer, I gave my notice and started my adventure.
Needless to say, my first contract was no piece of cake. The work was easy, but the logistics were awful. First off, I accepted an AI (or all inclusive) contract. This meant that I got an extra $23/hour to cover travel, lodging, food, etc. In my head, this looked great. I was traveling to AZ and it was May. Well, little did I realize how much prices fluctuated depending on the season. When I did my research, everything was cheap since it was summer in Arizona. Well, with each passing week, prices kept creeping higher. I had already accepted the contract, so I needed to figure out how to live on a budget. I flew Sun Country from MSP to PHX every week. I rented a room from a guy who also traveled, so we never crossed paths. I went grocery shopping, bought a bed, some cheap linens and rented the smallest possible car from Enterprise. I ended up making it work… but just barely.
Now, the biggest issue I had with this first gig was getting paid. Payment terms were the biggest thing I paid no attention to. It turned out it was net 30, from time of invoice, which meant 60 days before I got paid. Well, I had enough saving to make this work. The problem was that the company I contracted through kept telling me the “check was in the mail”. At one point, I waited 4 months before I got my paycheck. I did eventually get all my money… but I exited the contract after 3 months and took a great local contract. Believe me, I learned a lot about negotiating from my first contract. If you ever think about getting into this game, feel free to reach out to me, I’d be happy to give you some pointers =)
Thanks for reading,
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike