1. 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

2. Why?

3. 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.

4. Monthly Income as FTE

5. Monthly Income as Independent
Numbers are the total monthly deposits into my business account

6. 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

7. Are you still interested?

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Get Started

12. 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

13. 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

14. Finding the Next Client

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. Good Luck!