[philip1209]

I run this free community for fractional tech workers - come check it out:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37419830

The reality is that being self-employed requires building business skills and being able to sell your skills. I previously founded a VC-funded developer marketplace, and the people that won all the jobs were the great communicators - not the most experienced (or inexpensive) developers.

Fractional work is a nice in-between where you ideally have a retained part-time contract, paid weekly or monthly, so that you aren't constantly looking for new projects.

[Roark66]

Exactly this. I remember back when elance was a thing I signed up and I won my first gig in 2 days. I asked my client why he choose me (charging $1k) when others were bidding to do the job for $50 and he said he liked the message I sent him... Communications is everything.