| I just wanted to chime in and say that I have exactly the same problem. I'm working on my own software project, and don't want to go to work full-time. It's my dream to turn my project into a little business that will support me. I've worked on it for a couple of years and I still can't figure out how to make that happen. Based on prior experience, I could devote a few months to interviewing (which we agree is no fun!) and find a full-time job with a good salary and benefits. That would also lock me in to working all the time, with a couple of weeks of vacation per year. If I pushed it, maybe I could get 1 month of vacation. The salary associated with a full-time job is very attractive, but far more than I need at this point in life. A few years ago, I found contract work using craigslist. I've been able to generate about $2K/year on that (Boston area is not good for craigslist tech gigs). Other than that, I've found it impossible to make the ~ $20K/year that I need for my living expenses. I wish I could advise you. I've heard you can make a low-stress "lifestyle business" that requires moderate work, but I have yet to figure out one that works. For example, the "retire early extreme" guy reported that he spent 4 hours per week typesetting articles in LaTex - http://earlyretirementextreme.com/my-4-hour-work-week.html I could do this! But I've never seen work like this offered. I've looked for similar opportunities (mostly on craigslist) but never saw anything like that. I've heard you can work on open-source projects and find nice contracts that way. I'm sure it happens, but does it happen reliably enough to just pick some OSS project, start working, and wait for clients to call? I don't have the time put a lot of work into a project, and then after months find it does not lead to contract work. If you have time to burn like this, you may want to try it. There are people here at hacker news who sell ebooks and info services and seem to do very well. But for every one who is successful, I suspect there are tens or hundreds of others who did poorly. So, it's something you can try... but like OSS work, it seems to have a high risk of failure. The usual response for getting contract work seems to be to "network". I have a very small network of people that I know and trust. This network has helped me find FT work in the past, but it has never generated contract work. I wish I could be more positive, sorry! |