Building a Thriving Atlassian Consulting Business: Part 14

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Multiple Revenue Streams

In 2020, LinkedIn Learning invited me to produce Jira and Confluence courses for their content library. I recorded the first of many courses in their California studios.

I also worked with a solution partner to write the Ultimate Guide to Jira Migrations. It’s a free, 210-page, guide to help organizations migrate from Jira Server to Data Center or Cloud.

If you’re an independent consultant, you know you can’t scale yourself.  There’s a limit to how much work you can personally do. That’s why it’s a good idea to explore additional ways to bring in revenue.

In the beginning I was doing 100% consulting.  But that left no time for anything else, like running the business, learning, or taking a vacation. I started developing additional revenue sources that paid royalties. If one source does well one month, it takes the pressure off the other sources. It’s also smart to diversify your work in general. 

What if Atlassian retires the product you specialize in?  It’s risky to only have one skill.

Many consultants and solution partners diversity by supporting multiple products and even non-Atlassian products.

Productizing Services

Next, think of ways to turn services into products. For example, instead of personally delivering a training session, I created recorded courses. That allowed me to remove myself from the delivery process and use the time for another activity.

Managing Growth

Finally, it’s important to manage growth. What would you do it you had more work than you could handle You can stay small and hire independent contractors to help or you can grow your company size and hire full time employees. Another option is to work with an augmentation firm that that supplies their employees to meet your staffing needs. Finally, you could fully outsource entire projects, or you refer customers to other consultants in the community.

Growth Ideas

✅ Hire independent contractors

✅ Hire employees

✅ Leverage staff augmentation

✅ Outsource projects

✅ Refer projects

There are many options, and all have their pros and cons, depending on your long-term goals.

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Part 15: Tackling Imposter Syndrome