This is one of the tensions I've always needed to deal with. My inclination (for a different type of consulting) has always been to lean towards being something of a generalist but I've always had to temper that with being legitimately expert on a relatively small subset of technology and the market.
One recent example I've discussed with someone I know is that it's probably better to be an expert on AWS (or even AWS billing, for example) than "expert" on public cloud platforms generally.
Get your name out
Especially at the beginning--but really in general--expect to spend quite a bit of time that isn't "on the clock." Beware of doing too much free work (like keynoting events) just for the "exposure," much less pay for your own T&E to do so. But you're going to have to invest time in getting known and just word of mouth is likely not enough.
AWS is a great example of a topic that used to be specific, but has now grown too general to have a great consulting practice. AWS billing, by contrast, is a fantastic topic; I actually know someone who specializes in this, and he's making a killing by saying, "I'll save you hundreds of thousands of dollars each month on AWS fees."
Comments
Lots of good advice.
This is one of the tensions I've always needed to deal with. My inclination (for a different type of consulting) has always been to lean towards being something of a generalist but I've always had to temper that with being legitimately expert on a relatively small subset of technology and the market.
One recent example I've discussed with someone I know is that it's probably better to be an expert on AWS (or even AWS billing, for example) than "expert" on public cloud platforms generally.
Especially at the beginning--but really in general--expect to spend quite a bit of time that isn't "on the clock." Beware of doing too much free work (like keynoting events) just for the "exposure," much less pay for your own T&E to do so. But you're going to have to invest time in getting known and just word of mouth is likely not enough.
AWS is a great example of a topic that used to be specific, but has now grown too general to have a great consulting practice. AWS billing, by contrast, is a fantastic topic; I actually know someone who specializes in this, and he's making a killing by saying, "I'll save you hundreds of thousands of dollars each month on AWS fees."