I am a fan of charging for scoping, although I call it discovery and charge more than $500. It is really the project before the project. Doing this discovery will make the project better before it starts, and makes it possible to actually work out what to charge on a fixed rate basis so that you're not arbitrarily limiting the value you capture to the number of hours you work. Likewise, a client that doesn't trust you or sees no value in discovery is a client you want to avoid. I urge you to read the Win Without Pitching manifesto, which might be the most important business book I've ever read: https://www.winwithoutpitching.com/

I don't really consider one person to be a consultancy, so I'm going to presume that there's going to be a team. What does that team look like? The dynamics, profits, risks, stresses and daily experience is wildly different for 3, 8, 15, 40, 100 and beyond. Personally, I like 8-15 people for reasons I'll explain next; but, also, because we can fit around the same big table. Some people love big companies, but I love big small compies.

Let's say that n is the number of partner founders in your new consultancy. You should aspire to stay at n for as long as possible, because that is the halcyon era... trust me. The moment that you decide to hire your first employee and become n+1, you set in motion an unstoppable chain of stressful years because suddenly instead of doing the thing that you're best at, your new job is to keep a sales pipeline full enough to provide security and stability for your team. You will have many challenges and dark times, and through it all, you must put the team first. You hire as slowly as possible, only when you can't not hire to meet the demand for your services.

The clouds will not part until you hit roughly n+6 team size. This often takes a few years, but you will finally be breaking even and even profitting more often than you will be desperately begging your clients to settle their accounts payable. The chasm between n+1 and n+6 will take a few pounds of flesh, so go into this prepared for battle. Many will fail, having come for the high rates and perceived lifestyle freedom. A talented developer who suddenly realizes that she spends 80% of her time talking to people fishing on the phone and trying to figure out how to make rent all so that her friends can do the coolest projects and not have to worry is right to wonder if it's all worth it.

It's been my experience that 9-15 people is the sweet spot you attain after swimming through the mile-long chasm of liquified shit. You're big enough that you're able to realize some profit and do a few speaking gigs, maybe even catch up on what happened in your framework community in the four years you were hustling on the phone, trying to empathize with frustrating founders. You're not so big that you have to hire HR and create a management structure. That's usually when I check out, because management structures are what I was looking to avoid in the first place.

Finally, I really urge you to hire only people that you actually like and would want to spend time with, even if you weren't at work. Bonus points if there's inherent diversity in this crew, for sure. However, you spend more time with your team and partners than you do your spouse and friends, so I encourage you to pretend that you're starting a rock band. Ask yourself: would I enjoy driving around the country with this person in a van for weeks at a time? If someone seems smart but you wouldn't drive across the country with them in a van, you probably shouldn't hire them. (Some people don't care about this and that's fine, because they are people I won't end up working with.)

Good luck! Make sure that you have good support networks and people around you that will give you honest feedback when your ideas are bad. I urge you to be financially stable going into any new venture, or else you're just multiplying the stress you will experience and dramatically shorten your miserable life.