Ask HN: How do you get started as independent consultant or contractor

Hi, an independent contractor who helps others to become independent too. Congratulations on this life changing journey, a difficult decision to make.

Before COVID when I was more active I wrote a comprehensive free guide on this. It's titled for project managers but it really applies to a lot of independent consultants. Here's the link: https://iqoach.com/ultimate-guide-to-becoming-a-well-paid-in...

I tried to distill my experiences from myself and my clients, hope you find it useful.

Good luck!

Sidar

first step. develop a first idea of your value proposition. then tell EVERYONE about it. third, begin reading alan weiss :-)

My advice would be to target a situation where clients search for you, rather the other way around (everything else I find unsustainable). For that you need to put your work out, like breadcrumbs - so the interested party gets curious and reaches out.

Has worked for me for the past seven years. The cost of putting your work out is basically zero these days - all you have to do it put the time in, which you have to do in one way or another anyway.

Not my field of expertise, but if I were a data science consultant I'd make sure I'm a top ten (%) kaggle person, and so on.

Hello, i have written "the freelance guide", which unfortunately is written in swedish and is adapted to the swedish system and how things work here, but many parts are probably general as well. There are essentially 17 steps you need to take in order to become a freelancer and i explain them all here: https://annaleijon.se/frilansarguiden-hur-du-blir-frilansare...

I was a hired it consultant, but have now been self-employed for four years, which has been truly great! I create a lot of content on the topics of freelance, self-employment and tech. I have also started a forum in which anyone can ask questions around these topics: https://annaleijon.discourse.group/

Best of luck!!

Try to get your first client before even starting. Call people you know that might need help. Once you actually take the plunge, make sure you tell everybody you know and be visible where it counts, online and offline. Try to build a name. It takes time. A consultant broker or similar could help you find gigs at the start too. Good luck!

From someone who started this journey a few years ago before the pandemic:

1. (for now) Ignore all the "read this, study that". If your goal is to be "independent", then I take that to mean you want to make money. "Reading this, study that" does not immediately make you money. It's important, but not THE most important thing right now.

2. Network with other independents and get on jobs they are on. Focus on getting paid and making money as quickly as possible so you can start to get a feel for how much you can charge and how steady an income you get.

3. Let go of your fear of putting yourself out there or getting a "no". Don't worry about telling "everyone" you are independent. Focus on telling people / circles / influencers who are most related to your client base.

Again, I'm not saying the "read this, study that" advice is not important. My advice is that there is a lot out there and your single most important focus should be on your goal: getting paid for your work.

Keep running experiments, different rates, different jobs, different emails, different job boards and get hired. See what works, get paid, rinse and repeat.

If you're just looking for a quick and dirty solution, find the full-time posting of the job you want to do, and apply to the job with your cover letter being honest about how you want to help and work with them, but ask if they are open to a freelancer. You'd be surprised how many people will kick those tires and get you off and running.

I started doing a lot of contracting through recruiters which could be anywhere from a few days work to 6-12 month longer contracts. This allowed me to meet a lot of different people in my industry/city and build a reputation as someone reliable. After that's done then it's a matter of growing those relationships and once the recruiter lock-in period ends you can start to approach them directly and offer your services. This can be either independent if you want or it could be with a team.

The most important thing in contracting is being reliable and showing up. So many contractors just don't show for work or leave before the signed end date so if you avoid that you're already ahead of the pack.

I saw someone give speech on how to make your ux better and increase user retention then they were approached by few people asking to hire their services

I started by getting a contract with a recruiter and resigning from a full time job. I had done a lot of research to find out different ways of getting clients, such as writing, presenting, networking at user groups. Essentially, doing things for other people to enhance the community around your specialty. These types of things result in referrals. Over time, the people you meet move on to other companies and the source of referrals grows. The important thing to remember is that you're running a business and doing things like finance, marketing, and continuous training to keep up with technology are as important as the time you bill.

I think the best is to transition from current role to contracting role or by going for a long-term contract, often presented as salaried position. One way to do it is to offer the current company a contract with less hours. If you were an important contributor, they will say yes.

You can slowly get used to it, learn how to invoice, build a network, present yourself as independent while actually having work and not starve to death.

Start by working at a consulting firm to get used to that sweet consulting life without having to worry about finding clients. Then transition to hang your own shingle.

I shared everything I’ve learned working as a contractor for 12 years in this video series - https://learnetto.com/tutorials/why-should-you-become-a-cont...

I've been independent going on 8 years now, I started with letting some trusted contacts I had made in the industry know, and one of them came to me with an opportunity a few months later. It was a terrifying jump at the time, but I have no regrets and was glad I pushed through my fear.

These days I still do direct independent client work, and new clients come through a consulting / MSP firms I work with, and from my existing network. I get better paid with direct work, but the work coming from the firms is usually more interesting.

Eventually you get to the point of turning down work just because you have too much already, and deciding what you really want to be doing with your time.

I'd say the most difficult thing is trying to find that sweet spot between too little work, and too much work. Sometimes the sales pipeline from initial interest to actual engagement can be measured in years.

I searched project aggregators for interesting projects that take longer than 3 months

Wrote a few applications.

Got one of these projects.

Repeated it when the project came to an end.

This may not help a lot, but I did a good job at my regular employer and connected with coworkers. One of my coworkers introduced me to people that needed some side work. That turned into a steady stream of contract work so far.

Been doing it as primary income source for about a year and I enjoy it. As long as the work keeps flowing in I’ll stick with this path. I lucked out in that one of the contacts I made runs their own consulting agency so they bring me in on jobs I’m good at when they need help.

So networking, your work ethic, and integrity demonstrated to others seems important..

I was fortunate enough to make the move after a layoff that left me with a bit of a runway. I basically made phone calls and met with people, telling them what I was interested in doing (X.500 mostly, some PKI (hey, it was a long time ago!)) and asking them not if they had work, but if they knew who might.

I made sure to get at least one strong contact from each call/meeting. As time went on, the quality of referral got higher, until I was talking to two people who had work and no one to do it.

I ended up getting both contracts, and they kept me busy for my first year (making better money than I had ever made as an employee).

Your network has more value than you might think, and working that network can be as simple as “hey, who do you think would be interested in...”

I’m a consultant and bootatrapped it into a profitable firm. First, understand the difference between a contractor and a consultant. Though not all differentiate the two, many do and that’s reflected in the market rates associated with them (consulting == contracting + hard-to-find expert advisory). Convert a single existing FTE role into a consulting engagement to get you started if you can. If not, your ability to sell yourself is highly variable and something you’ll need to try and fail at a few times — this is highly dependent on your personal social strengths and weaknesses in my experience making quality general advice hard to give. Have 3-6 months living expenses in the bank, at least. This will help smooth out cash flow inconsistencies. And perhaps the most important thing is to not waiver on your rates. There are many leads that won’t pay for value; avoid them for the many who will. It will seem at times that lowering your rates is necessary, but its far more likely to be a symptom of looking in the wrong place for the right clients; recognize this as a fail in the try/fail cycle, and try again.

Happy to answer more questions if you can narrow down your ask to specifics.

From my experience social skills are most important. Way more important than technical skills. If you can connect to upper management you can make very good money.

You can go on Hired and Triplebyte to find contracting gigs.

I’ve been doing this for the last 7 years. It’s quite common and not much different than an employee as a contractor. They pay your company that you set up and you pay yourself however much you want to offset on taxes and such.

Interestingly there are contracts for full-time employees too nowadays for non-tech related roles so companies can save on not having to spend on benefits.

Main thing I learned is pay yourself a fixed amount and don’t treat your business bank account as your own. I ended up having owing my business money in the first few years lol.

Also the good thing is some of the stuff I buy I use it as a business expense.

Move out of California if want a Freelance Engineering gig for tech companies. Lookup Assembly Bill 5 aka AB5 for more info.

Soon to be move out of the United States if the Democrats pass the Pro Act.

Most people who get started as an independent contractor “steal” their first client from their employer.

People will say this is wrong, people will say they didn’t, but I’m telling you this is just how the world works.

It's the hustle and the exposure. The more people know that someone like you exists and has "unique or special" skills or "is amazing and flexible to work with" then word of mouth will carry you a long way before you have to pay for advertising.

But remember, it's feast or famine.

And the moment you need to add employees and other people to the mix, be prepared for the complaints to start as just like when you have houseguests or someone borrows your car, it's never treated the same as you would treat it.

This issue above is really the limiting factor for most entrepreneurs because we're willing to do all the hats to get it done/sold.

An employee only has vestment up to their compensation and once they figure out what their time is worth, you are screwed paying more and more.

Finding solid people willing to do the job is what we site for the cause of shuttering a 35 year old family business as it was too difficult to hire and train and retain people constantly wanting to level up, or just get their buck for least possible effort/education or not discuss/engage more connection into the business and desire to grow it along with them... as that's how businesses are built, people get invested in it.

But I do keep a consultancy up and running even if idle. The business taxes and bookkeeping if idle can be automated and take seconds to do and it's a legal functioning producer of tax deductions in just maintaining it's existence.

I've gained more connection and "side" opportunity/money just networking and being open to offer sellable good products and forward thinking services for those that want a "solution" and a confidential, personalized service for "projects" or "consultancy" that needs a experienced individual to work with them addressing concerns you wouldn't want to get a RFQ or do a parade of estimation/bidding for.

But again, it's the hustle and contact that get you gigs.. gigs that all eventually end as time is money and when it's on their time, it's not your money anymore. Remember that. :P

An alternative to hanging up your own shingle is to join a platform; if you're into ML/Data stuff I recommend tribe.ai which is a bit more focused on that, you've got Braintrust on the more general side with an interesting approach, Gigster I'm not sure what's happening anymore but they were good some years ago, Expertlead is solid for Europe, and you've got Toptal and Upwork but they crush you on rates.