Largely by a leap of faith. I had considered it for the 2 years prior, but it didn't really happen until I set up the business and I started pitching myself as an independent contractor. I do have a bit of a niche skill set that is somewhat regional to energy hubs so having a network helped. Also there were bumps along the road and a few times I had to tighten the belt as there wasn't much work out there. Ads will usually only care about FTE, so you will have to start with either a consulting company (and sleeve through their services agreeement) or contact people in your network.
A few other tidbits I learned:
- The client that wants you to cut your rate significantly is going to be your worst and most difficult.
- Don't adjust your rate significantly for any "extended contract". A vendor I worked with didn't want to give me my normal rate after cutting it for a long contract. You may not get a gig for being too expensive but when the project is funded a difference of 30/hr means a lot more to you than it does to the vendor/company paying you.
- There is a lot of experience to be gained if you can find multiple part time gigs. I had a lot of fun last year as I worked 3 clients about 10-15 hours per week. Lots of variety and it seems like your presence is appreciated even more than just being the 6 month contractor.
- Stay in touch with your network even if you just signed a 12 month contract. Churn in business is real, so you need to know who can still hire you and who you need to meet to get hired. Pipeline management is essential to staying busy.
- LinkedIn is pretty much useless for my level of contracting. I get tons of inquiries and the second I mention my rate they either laugh or think that I'm being difficult. Most of the companies that would contract you wont go through LinkedIn to find you. I always lead with my rate for those interactions as it generally ends with that and the contracting company will mostly leave me alone for a while.
- Ive had to learn to say "no" a lot more. Even to paying clients. Generally I say it as something like "Anything is possible, but given time and budget constraints you cant do this. We could do alternatives such as...."
- Enjoy the gaps between employment. If you put away money and dont act like you make your hourly rate you can be less than full time and not live hand to mouth. Most of the work I do is always a project that is way too large in scope for the time allotted. The stress is real(last year I billed 320 hours in a month) so enjoy when you aren't working.
>"LinkedIn is pretty much useless for my level of contracting. I get tons of inquiries and the second I mention my rate they either laugh or think that I'm being difficult."
I've found this to be the norm for me also. I have highly specialized skills and I know I'm top 5 in the world in my skills with this specific software. I know this because I know basically everyone that does this type of work. When these recruiting firms contacted me they always wanted like $60 an hour rate when the company I used to work for would charge up to $300 an hour for my time. I would always start at like $120/hour, which I feel is actually kind of low for an enterprise software consulting, and they would either try to get me to $60 or ghost me. I finally took a job as a full-time employee doing gov consulting work at a pretty good salary for me.
Sorry for the delayed reply. I'm getting the sense that your network is the most important source of steady work. Second to that would be having a niche skill. Is that accurate?
A few other tidbits I learned:
- The client that wants you to cut your rate significantly is going to be your worst and most difficult.
- Don't adjust your rate significantly for any "extended contract". A vendor I worked with didn't want to give me my normal rate after cutting it for a long contract. You may not get a gig for being too expensive but when the project is funded a difference of 30/hr means a lot more to you than it does to the vendor/company paying you.
- There is a lot of experience to be gained if you can find multiple part time gigs. I had a lot of fun last year as I worked 3 clients about 10-15 hours per week. Lots of variety and it seems like your presence is appreciated even more than just being the 6 month contractor.
- Stay in touch with your network even if you just signed a 12 month contract. Churn in business is real, so you need to know who can still hire you and who you need to meet to get hired. Pipeline management is essential to staying busy.
- LinkedIn is pretty much useless for my level of contracting. I get tons of inquiries and the second I mention my rate they either laugh or think that I'm being difficult. Most of the companies that would contract you wont go through LinkedIn to find you. I always lead with my rate for those interactions as it generally ends with that and the contracting company will mostly leave me alone for a while.
- Ive had to learn to say "no" a lot more. Even to paying clients. Generally I say it as something like "Anything is possible, but given time and budget constraints you cant do this. We could do alternatives such as...."
- Enjoy the gaps between employment. If you put away money and dont act like you make your hourly rate you can be less than full time and not live hand to mouth. Most of the work I do is always a project that is way too large in scope for the time allotted. The stress is real(last year I billed 320 hours in a month) so enjoy when you aren't working.