Why My Career Coaching Service Didn't Work

Last year, when I was consulting, I had an idea: in addition to selling my service to companies (B2B), can I sell coaching to engineers to get them to the next level of success in their career (B2C)?

It didn’t work out, and looking back, the idea was flawed in the first place:

The fee, while reasonable for a company, was too high for an individual. I myself never paid any consultant what I was asking. How, then, can I expect others to pay me that? Particularly people who are junior to me and have less money than me.

The related point is that in B2B, businesses can be rational, such as paying large amounts of money if they’re going to get even more. But in B2C, customers are typically not rational. They don’t think that paying $100/hour can be a good deal if the value they get is $1000. They just think, “Oh my god, $100?!”

So tech consultants should focus on serving companies, not individuals.