Going Independent Pre discussion: How many people are currently Full Time Employees? What is your interest in being an independent consultant or freelancer? Lessons Learned in 9+ Years as an Independent Consultant April 2019 Jason Haley

Why?

What is Important to You? Flexible working schedule Work on the projects you choose Complete control over your career More control over how much income you can make No ceilings imposed by anyone but you Your work schedule can be as flexible as you decide – work as much or as little as you want Work on the projects you want to and even stop working on the ones that you no longer find interesting Can make more than some arbitrary salary set once a year You get to decide what is good for your career – if you want to take time of and write a book … you can There are no limits like you can not being able to make more than your boss or pivot your business as you see fit … it is all up to you.

Monthly Income as FTE

Monthly Income as Independent Numbers are the total monthly deposits into my business account 2009 - 2017

Gross Annual Income also Varies Taking a step back from the previous chart, you can see the annual totals are starting to stabilize for me Average of $119,000 in 9 years

Are you still interested?

Get Some Advice Friends Family User groups Other independent consultants Business owners Possible future clients Getting advice serves two purposes Run your ideas by others to get honest feedback Spread the word that you may be looking for work

Find Client #1 Often times the first client is the easiest to find Previous employers Other independent consultants Friends Friends of friends … more on this later

Establish Your Company Make it legal LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp Tax ID Open Business Bank Account Checking, Credit Card Accountant Lawyer Contract NDA Business Cards, Letterhead, Envelopes Logo Website, domain name

Get Started

Work Expectations – FTE vs. Consultant Years of being a full time employee may have trained you to think: If you are asked to do something, you do it You may track your time but not really estimate that well You can always throw more work at the problem to ‘fix’ it Advice Clarify what the expectations are before beginning any work Start estimating your project work now and track your hours Learn to manage expectations

Stay Organized Invoice regularly (to have a more predictable cash flow) Know your limits and cash flow Pay yourself Build a big rainy day fund (in a personal account) Advice Use Quicken to invoice and track outstanding payments Have enough money back to live 6 months with no income Learn how much you need to earn before you have to dip into savings Work often ends abruptly

Finding the Next Client

Contractor or Consultant? Finding work can be similar to finding full time employee job Interviews can be worse due to contractors being expected to be productive very fast Is very similar to a plugin employee with a middleman If W2, you can get unemployment Recruiters or agents may be useful for finding work Consultant Finding work is completely up to you Unemployment not an option Website or marketing may be useful Referrals are very important to getting work Might want to start with a contract role first then work into more of a consultant freelancer role

Network Have two answers for the “What do you do?” question the answer for what you will settle for when you really need to work the answer for what your really want to be doing Remember that even your biggest fans are less likely to refer you business if they don’t know what sort of work you want Advice Network with complimentary skilled consultants Constantly be reaching out and ‘touching base’ with past customers and people who have referred you Try new groups, new meetups, new opportunities to meet people you don’t know

Become an Expert Find your niche and start building a brand around it Speak at user groups Write a blog Open source projects Advice Meet and network other experts in your same niche Model other experts and build your own reputation Know what your services are worth

2 + 1 Rule 2 small non time sensitive paying clients Can be things like maintenance on previous projects Something like writing articles, white papers or training 1 big paying project that you can live off of Will eventually end or slow to a smaller project Advice Multiple clients can keep your income from hitting $0 Search out smaller projects to protect yourself Don’t limit yourself to a single client, even if you are swamped

General Advice Don’t be afraid to say “no” Not all clients are compatible (look for a good fit) Look for experienced clients Don’t keep bad clients Listen to your instincts Don’t forget your support network For advice For help And of course to support and be there for them

Good Luck!