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Our company is a small, Eastern European outsourcing firm, focusing on PHP, .NET, and mobile development projects). As our company is trying to get off the ground, and since we don't have much money (there is a complicated background issue involving the investor) we can't have our Technology Department heads on salary, except on a per-project basis, though they have agreed to work with us and help us develop the company, and we have secured their commitment for when we can actually put them on salary and bring them in full time.

That being said, they have families to feed and wish for an income, so while they simultaneously help us, they work for other companies.

I have recently made contact with a potential client (this client is the personal friend of my personal friend, so there is relationship, albeit indirect) who is looking for a long-term dedicated development team in our city. Of course he wishes to know about our team and their background and if they would be suitable for his needs.

My question is this: How can I present these part-time (to go full-time when we actually start generating income) workers to the client? Would it be a wise move to be straight-forward with this client and just explain the whole situation as is, and explain that, should he decide to go with us for a long-term contract, these individuals would quit their current jobs and move over to our company full time. Or would it be viewed as 'stealing' developers and dishonorable in the tech sphere? And then become a deal breaker for the client?

Any advice as to the best way to approach this situation would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

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2 Answers

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I don't think you necessarily need to explain the details of their working relationship with you. Worst case they work 20 - 30 hours a week night and weekends on your projects after they get home from their normal jobs. There are lots of people who sub-contract / moonlight. As long as those resources are actually available to you and work on your clients projects I don't think you need to go into too much detail.

Even at bigger consulting firms they list resumes and bios of employees who are working on other projects or may not even be available for that specific project.

As long as you are not mis-representing your capabilities or the amount of effort those individuals can dedicate then I think that is straight forward enough.

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Thanks very much for your response. My only concern with this is that he specifically know about "who works in the office" and he will be visiting this city this summer, which means he'll most likely wish to see the office and get a feel for the place. However I suppose those details can be worked out as things move along. – DaveyBoy May 27 '12 at 21:54
YOU think he'll want to visit your office; ask him what he'll want to do and see the response you get. Besides, if people work remotely, say that people work remotely. Seems like a non-issue really. – frenchie May 27 '12 at 22:20
Yeah it may not even be an issue worth worrying about. There are more and more large consulting companies that have a completely remote workforce. Intridea.com is one that comes to mind. 40+ people and all their tech staff is remote - if I recall correctly. – Ryan Doom May 28 '12 at 15:33
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You say that you operate your business like cloud computing: you scale on demand.

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That's a concise and reasonable response, except my biggest concern is our techology heads, and if we wish to give the impression of being a good solution for his problem, I think those should be something we already have in place. Adding manpower on demand is, otherwise, very reasonable. Thank you for your response. – DaveyBoy May 27 '12 at 21:57
Often times, what matters to you may not matter much to others. In business, people care about their problems and not so much how you're running your business. If you can solve the guy's problem, you'll be ok because that's all he probably cares about. – frenchie May 27 '12 at 22:18
Makes good sense. Thank you, Frenchie. – DaveyBoy May 27 '12 at 23:03

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