[itamarst]

It's quite hard to say whether it's a sustainable career path in the abstract. The real question is whether you have the additional skills you need (marketing and sales) or can learn them, and whether you are interested in spending your time on doing it. Would you be happy spending 25-50% of your time just working on getting clients?

It helps a lot if you can position yourself as a specialist (doesn't mean your skills have to be specialized; technical skills are distinct from positioning: https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/01/19/specialist-vs-genera...).

I've done some consulting, tied to a specific technical niche, and switched back to being an employee. There were two problems:

1. The niche was slightly too small, so there was little competition and steady work, but not enough demand to be able to fill a pipeline completely.

2. I stated missing the engagement of actually continuing work on a project, instead of just showing up, doing a bit, and moving on.

These days if I became a consultant I would spend a lot more time on choosing a positioning that would still be specific, but allow for a broader set of clients. And ideally one where I'd feel a sense of accomplishment within the bounds of each engagement.

[drogonmead]

Great advice. Thanks for sharing.