Atlassian ecosystem has changed a lot in the last two decades. When I started using Jira there was no concept of an Atlassian Marketplace or Partners. I remember one day I received an email from Atlassian that they would like Sparxsys to become their partner and they asked to go through the onboarding process and complete some exercises. When I learned more about the program back then I realised become a partner requires you to have a team of people who can do things like Sales, licensing, client management etc. These days it is just impossible to become Atlassian partner as a small company.
So can't you run a small independent consulting Atlassian consulting business?
I think you can but it is tough to compete with the big companies/partners. I believe there is something for every company - big or small. There is always someone somewhere looking for consultants or admins. You just need to ensure that you are reachable and you are constantly shouting about what you do.
As a small company you are always looking for ways to stay in the business but at the same time as a founder you want to do what you feel like is the right thing to do. That was the whole point. I could have stayed in job working for someone else but I wanted to do something different for myself.
Anyways back to the point. It is 2026 and Sparxsys is doing good. I am happy that we have 15 employees, have office in the UK, India and UAE as well. However it is lot of hard works that went into building a company and much more work that we need to do on a daily basis to stay in the business. Majority of our revenue comes from providing services, it is fine but there is a risk.
Some challenges and risk for a small Jira consultancy company
- You need a pipeline of work. That means constant effort on sales and marketing.
- You need good resources.
- Growth is not fast.
- Retaining clients is tough.
- If one or two big client goes away then you are in trouble.
- As a founder you have to do all the accounting, paper work, compliances yourself. Even after hiring dedicated accountants.
- Getting into product development is not easy.
After a while the service that you provide to your client becomes your day job and often you would feel like no different from working for someone else in a full time job :)
In this blog post I am just trying share my experience.
BTW if you are looking for great Jira Consultants then reach out to me. You can also book a free 1-1 call with me.
