[pjungwir]

I'm also an independent contractor trying to find one or two trustworthy partners to go to the next step. I haven't found sales, collections, etc. to be so onerous. In fact usually I'm turning away work.

A few years back I tried forming an LLC with a couple friends, but they both have full-time jobs and they keep getting promoted, so it's never gone anywhere, and we're talking about winding it down. I'd love to try again with someone who is already independent and is ready to try something bigger.

I haven't read Developer Hegemony, but another great book about the dynamics of such a partnership is Managing the Professional Service Firm by David Maister. It's pretty dense, but it's full of great ideas.

I went into freelancing in part to avoid becoming a manager, and I think with the right kind of partnership you could still practice your craft while still helping to lead a small team of people---or maybe even just mostly collaborating with other partners. The Maister book has helpful things to say here about whether your firm focuses on work that is repeatable & leveragable (e.g. making Wordpress sites) vs unique, challenging, and done mostly by partners (which sounds more fun to me).

I'm in Portland, Oregon, if anyone is interested in talking about something like that. :-)