The Numbers: Two Years into a Solo Consulting Business

More like 2.5 years, actually.

Joe Naso

May 05, 2025

blue and white heart illustration — Photo by Richard Horvath on Unsplash

I’ve been delaying posting this update for a few months. Life and work have have kept me pretty busy.

But, I know you’re here for the numbers first and my commentary second, so let’s get those out of the way.

Here’s where we (the Royal we, of course) clocked in at the end of a 2nd year full time operating on my own.

Money:

Profit Margin: 85%

I 2x’d my 2023 revenue. Not bad for a one man show.

I did not bill 2x the hours of 2023. This is a good thing.

Clients:

I had 9 clients throughout the course of the year.

Of that total, 3 were repeat customers. And 2 were referrals.

1 client found me.

I was ghosted by a handful (3 I think?) prospects after talking multiple times, proposing a plan of attack, and getting into the weeds on pricing.

Projects/ Engagements:

I worked on 10 different engagements throughout 2024. Some took up less than 1 full day of billable time. Others lasted the entire year.

3 projects did not include writing code.

4 of the projects involved Airflow, with 3 of them requiring HEAVY usage of it.

2 projects involved Dagster.

5 of the projects used dbt to some degree. The implementations varied wildly in terms of maturity and complexity.

Ok, now it’s time for the commentary.

Crossroads

I offer a service that generates some decent cashflow. I sometimes hesitate to call it a business. Some of you might think that’s a dumb distinction, and you might be right.

There is a myth that some people tell themselves when they do independent consulting. The myth that you’ll work on a handful of projects, find the common thread across some problem-space or industry, and build a product from it.

I do not know a single person who has pulled this off.

But I know plenty of people who have lasted a few seasons trying to be a contractor, or a fractional Head of X, or an independent consultant. Then they stop.

Maybe they can’t sell, maybe they can’t market themselves as well as they thought, or maybe their personal lives changed and they need more stability. More predictability.

Maybe they just got bored.

The challenge with transitioning from being a consultant to building a product is that if you’re any good at solving problems, you’ll be making a fair amount money. And switching gears from doing that to building a product is hard.

Not to mention expensive.

And this is the crossroads where I find myself.

Professional Attention Span

This might ruffle some feathers.

And I may run the risk of coming off the wrong way with this comment, but my professional attention span has plummeted.

You might be able to re-label it as professional patience or even tolerance, but the short of it is that I have learned to value my time, energy and attention at a much higher level than when I was not working for myself.

Illusions (Delusions?) of Grandeur

I used to post on LinkedIn regularly. I stopped a couple years ago because my feed was turning into an echo chamber of self-aggrandizing and unhelpful commentary all centered around data.

Actually, my feed is still an echo chamber.

I stopped posting on Twitter (or even logging in for that matter) for mostly the same reason. Similarly, my attempts at BlueSky lasted all of a few months.

That’s not to say that I was gaining little from these platforms.

They provided value at times.

But they are tiring.

Not everyone can be an expert. That’s just reality. If everyone is an expert, no one is.

I’m fairly knowledgeable about the world of data and analytics. I do not consider myself “an expert”.

The breadth and depth of knowledge needed to be considered an expert is prohibitive to most - there are too many nuances, too many subcategories, too many parts to the whole.

But whenever I log into LinkedIn, it sure seems like there are a lot of experts.

And they all know how that problem - your problem - should be solved. How to do it the correct way.

There are many known solutions to common problems we see as engineers of any discipline - data engineers, backend engineers, frontend engineers, even machine learning engineers.

But things aren’t quite so cut-and-dry as many online want you to believe.

Problem solving is an art. The application of specific solutions is the science.

Middle of the Pack

At the risk of sounding overly simplistic, there are two types of people I see everywhere online.

One is the previously mentioned expert; sometimes they have a strong personal brand. They have the answers. They know their stuff!

The other is the newcomer. Wet behind the ears, and figuring things out. They have questions. They want to learn.

As you could probably guess, I consider myself to be neither of these, but I can relate to both.

But, the group I most closely identify with professionally are also not found in either bucket. And they’re really hard to find online.

Am I doing $1M annually? Not yet.

Am I struggling to pay the bills? Also no.

Those two “profiles” are all over the internet, especially in the “solopreneurship” and independent consulting communities. Where are the people in the middle?

Turns out, they’re just getting shit done and living their lives.

If this is you, it can feel like being in the middle of the pack. But that likely means you’re comparing yourself against the wrong group.

Because the people really crushing it are often the ones you’ve probably never heard of.

On Operating Solo

I spend a lot of time thinking.

Too much time, in fact.

Past a certain point, this is one of the most dangerous places to spend time when working alone.

I’m not talking about the instances when you’re in a “flow state”. I’m talking about an mundane Tuesday when there is not a ton going on.

The biggest downside of working independently? The opportunities for serendipity are lacking.

But the opportunities for over-analysis and preoccupation abound.

Sure, I talk to client teams every day. And work closely with them.

But that’s not the same as working with your immediate team. I do miss some of those things.

What I’ve come realize is that my ability to understand clients needs, execute on the technical components, and communicate with clarity are the things that have helped me along this journey.

Those are inherently social activities.

But my current setup is not particularly conducive to fostering the social aspects of professional life, at least not on a daily basis.

Which brings us full-circle to the crossroads I mentioned towards the top of this post. Funny how that works.

Unprecedented Times! Uncertainty! Fear!

The current state of the market - globally, in the US, and more specifically within tech - is volatile. There is no question.

But, volatility breeds opportunity.

I have no idea how things will play out, but I am operating under the assumption that I can take advantage of the current market conditions.

There really isn’t much of an alternative.

At this point in my career, I strongly prefer to be making the decisions than being told what decisions were made.

Regardless of which direction the economy may head, these things will always remain true:

Companies will still have problems they do not know how to solve
Knowledgable and trustworthy outside experts will be the fastest way to address those problems

Does that mean it will always be smooth sailing?

Of course not.

But it does mean that knowing how to solve problems is how you weather the storm. And if the storm never comes, you keep on solving those problems just the same.

If any of this resonated with where you find yourself professionally, I’d love to connect.

If you’re doing it on your own or part of a small team, that’s even better.

You can find me on LinkedIn (even if I’m not posting regularly).