Hi Paul, I don't think what you are seeing is uncommon at all in the current climate.
There is a lot of apathy in the market at the moment following last years downturn and we've seen bigger development projects only being implemented by the larger companies - our usual mid-sized businesses have been staying in more of a maintenance cycle. There are a lot of factors slowing things down still now, the ash cloud, the election and the imminent release of Rails 3 are all keeping things slower than they might be otherwise, everyone is treading carefully right now. With our additional resources we have done what you are thinking of doing and been investing in internal projects and improvements. I do feel that with Rails 3 there will be a pickup in the market, lots of our clients are talking about it, I think we're all going to have to be more proactive in terms of pushing it at existing and potential new customers but it will definitely get the buzz going again. We are recruiting new developers at the moment and discussing opportunities with freelancers to pickup some of our internal development, you'll probably find there is some overflow from some of the established rails businesses and it would be worth touching base with them - I'd also suggest touching base with Darragh (at) ruby50.com as he's always got opportunities for both full time and freelance rails work on the go. Finally, I'd say most companies are far more price-sensitive following last years financial pain, the market isn't saturated with Rails developers or businesses but the ticket price is being squeezed nonetheless, the majority of pitches these days are around: a. how much money can you save by doing this b. how much can you increase your margins by doing this I suspect once the election is over and people can stop thinking about 'change' we'll see things start moving again. Andy On 22 Apr 2010, at 09:44, Paul Robinson wrote: > Hi all, > > I've just had some work planned to start in June cancelled on me that leaves > me with a big hole in my work plans, and I haven't got a particularly full > sales pipeline for Rails work lined up. > > Was just wondering how other Rubyist/Rails people here in the North are > finding business at the moment? I'm seeing scraps of work here and there, but > it seems the larger projects that I've been living off for the last 3-4 years > seem to be drying up. I know that's not uniform - one local Rails company I > know seems to be picking up a fair bit of work. I'm tempted to go and find > some new pastures including finally getting around to building some of those > products I meant to do some years ago, but was wondering if there actually is > a vibrant market out there I'm just not connecting with right now. > > Any opinions on whether Rails 3 will see a new rush for Rails devs? What are > other people hearing about commissioned/service development work at the > moment? > > -- > Paul Robinson > > http://vagueware.com :: [email protected] :: +44 (0) 7740 465746 > > Vagueware Limited is registered in England/Wales, number 05700421 > Registered Office: 3 Tivoli Place, Ilkley, W. Yorkshire, LS29 8SU > Correspondence: 13 Crossland Road, Manchester, M21 9DU > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "NWRUG" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/nwrug-members?hl=en. -- Andy Piggott twitter.com/apiggott Managing Director Incutio Limited :: www.incutio.com Hugmore House, Hugmore Lane, Wrexham, LL13 9YE T: +44 (0)1978 661 666 F: +44 (0)7092 181 581 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NWRUG" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nwrug-members?hl=en.
