[tedmiston]

Hey cosmorocket — I've gone on a similar endeavor last year starting my own full-time, one-man company focusing on contract software development. Most of my work is independent contracting vs freelance though I'm starting to experiment more. I'm also doing related work such as (paid) technical writing. Having this flexibility is perhaps the biggest advantage to me. So far all work is purely contracting, not consulting, though the terms seem to be thrown around interchangeably these days. My business website is sparse but is at [1] for reference.

I've found that finding clients is not as big of a challenge as envisioned. Marketing / sales / and all that turned out to be pretty irrelevant in my use case. I also didn't bother making a portfolio — my best work is private low-level backend dev that can't easily be shared and often not even discussed (this is a challenge). So far I've received most work based on personal reputation as opposed to any type of proposal or competitive process.

Partnerships are very helpful — being able to recommend a front end dev or graphic designer on a whim is a big service to your clients. This one I underestimated initially and am still working on developing a nice organized rolodex (and currently seeking software to simplify the approach).

Feel free to reach out if I can provide any other relevant thoughts from my experience (email in profile).

[1]: http://www.edmistonsoftware.com/