[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!