Don't turn down a lunch offer.

It is very, very rare for a piece of software to go on to be a huge revenue generator for a company. As such, it's a bad idea to get in to an arrangement where your services will be paid via future profits from the project. The numbers may sound very attractive, but neither you or the client are likely to be in a good position to truly assess the risk of failure.

A CTO blogger made some observations about consulting and how to maintain a respectable level of professionalism. The 5 areas of focus he discussed are described below with my own perspective thrown in to the mix.

You're a consultant and you need to be paid like one.

At some point you're going to be tempted to work for free. That is, a potential client will subtly or not so subtly request a freebie. This could be in the form of recommendations or even a plan of how you would proceed with a certain project. And why shouldn't client's try to get something free? We all do it, after all.

Unless you're asked of course.

No matter how good the people are to work with at your client's location, office politics will abound. That's the reality of corporate America. As a consultant you will have choices to make as to how to deal with the political issues that come your way.