[rietta]

You should avoid being a "freelancer" at all costs. Do not let others use that term to label you and to downplay your worth and professional service rates. Create a services company, with a brand, and with a mission. Look at promoting your company like you would promote a business than had 10x the number of employees than you actually have. Learn how to budget time and money like you've never budgeted before. Most importantly do not try to be everything to everybody.

Learn about positioning - horizontal and vertical markets. A good resource is https://philipmorganconsulting.com/the-positioning-manual-fo....

He also has a bunch of free video interviews that you can watch https://philipmorganconsulting.com/dev-shop-marketing-briefi.... I was one of the guests, talking about long tail search engine marketing.

And finally, remember that success in this space is a marathon and not a sprint. You do not have to start out as the fastest, you just have to run longer than everyone else who drops out. In a few years the fact that you are still in the market will be seen as social proof of your trustworthiness and success.

[puranjay]

Second this.

Even if you don't incorporate and are uncomfortable presenting yourself as a brand, never call yourself a "freelancer".

Call yourself a "consultant". I've seen that people take you far more seriously when you call yourself that as opposed to a "freelancer".

[rietta]

I have misgivings about "consultant." In the Metro Atlanta area that almost universally means a solo person with the possible unstated thought that he/she is living off his/her spouses income. It's harder to get placed than it is as a professional services firm. It's a bit different if you are actually doing high end management consulting. For developers I find clients are looking for "doers" not "talkers about doing" (which is what consultant implies).

So it really depends on what business and the market that the business is going for if the "consultant" label is any better than the sub-optimal "freelancer" label.

[demygale]

As a native Atlantan and long time consultant/freelancer, this is not a thing. No one in my experience has ever characterized a consultant as a freelancer supported by their spouse.

[rietta]

Maybe I'm responding to a more direct personal experience of "so you're just consulting then". Anyway, this is not a problem I have not overcome in my own business.

There are some very huge consulting companies in the Atlanta area for sure. That is a different scale altogether.

[free652]

That was freelancers means to me. Atlanta doesn't have a large presence of consulting companies like KPMG, Deloitte & the rest?

I think the point is to have a consulting company even if you're a solo consultant there.

[gremlinsinc]

I consider myself a 1-man agency, if I land a huge client that needs 10 devs, you better believe I'll get the extra devs.

[CiPHPerCoder]

> In the Metro Atlanta area that almost universally means a solo person with the possible unstated thought that he/she is living off his/her spouses income.

In the rest of the business world, consultant means "freelancer, but professional".

If you choose to let the local stereotypes hold you back in life, then you won't succeed. End of.

[jrs235]

I think it's be interesting if someone (or a few people) ran an experiment. If they lost their years in their website what would happen if the did something like:

Consulting: $150/hr Contracting: $200/hr Freelancing: $250/hr

It'd be interesting to see if people would start referring to you as a consultant instead of a freelancer. After all, if they refer to you as a freelancer then you might charge them a higher rate!

[DyslexicAtheist]

a great book on strategy that helped me personally transition from employee->freelancer->director was Gerald M. Weinberg's "The Secrets of Consulting". It is a blueprint for how to get the best out of consultants, also shows how to market and price your skills. Consulting might not be the only way one can progress from freelancing towards more independence. But because it has a high overlap of skills needed also in freelancing (assess contracts, client interviews, marketing my brand, ...) it seems a logical (maybe easy?) path to take.

[rietta]

That is a great book! I totally need to re-read it again.

[buboard]

Even better , build your own product that will become passive income over time. The goal of a free-lancer should be to be free.

[supermw]

He's not a freelancer, he's a consultant. Freelancers are hungry and pressed for money. They are commodities competing for jobs around the world which go to the lowest bidder. They are the opposite of free, they are always on the hunt.

[mcv]

I'm a freelancer, I eat very well, and I compete for the highest bidder. I'm free, and recruiters hunt for me, not the other way around.

Good freelancers tend to be well paid. Even mediocre freelancers seem to make more money than employees.

Of course it depends on the kind of industry you work in. In art and writing, things seem to be pretty bad. In software development, however, the market is great. In Amsterdam for people with my experience, at least.

[supermw]

You would probably earn more if you marketed as a consultant or agency.

[mcv]

I'm not so sure. I don't market at all; recruiters just have my CV, which looks pretty good apparently. Writing a good CV is absolutely a valuable skill to have. Maybe more marketing improves my rate or gets me more opportunities, but it also sounds like a lot of overhead that's not the kind of work I want to spend my time on.

[vectorEQ]

being on the hunt says nothing about one's freedom :D

[rietta]

That's one dream. That is the pathway to a self-funded startup which is a different type of business. There are also excellent resources to help learn how to do customer discovery and product development in that path.

[avip]

This rings true. I’d like to add what was for me the difficultiest part - you have to become comfortable hiring other contractors. Because you’re usually expected to take a project end to end. Also - strive to be a great communicator. Customers love that

[muzani]

While I agree with most of your post, I'd disagree with the term freelancer/consultant.

Where I live, too many low quality people offer to be "consultants". It's the equivalent of a suit; while it's a way to look professional, it can also look sketchy.

I find that being a "freelancer" appears a little friendlier and also lands projects with more friendly pricing and deadlines.

[ccnafr]

I agree. Freelancing has started to mean "I work for cheap rates and you can swindle me by not paying" for the last few years.