I've been a salaried employee my whole career. All these patio11 articles are inspiring, but the main thing that intimidates me is I have no idea how to get started. How do you transition from an employee to a consultant?
As for how to "get started," find something you're good at, find someone who has a related problem, offer to solve it for them at a discount because you are learning how to do this "solve problems for money" thing. Then, lather, rinse, raise your rate, repeat.
I'm Jevin, the guy referenced at the end of Patrick's email. In my ebook coming out in two weeks, I have a lot of actionable stuff for employees interested in transitioning to freelancing.
Also, for most of the 10 people I interviewed, I asked them for specific advice for people interested in starting to freelance. I hope it will help you!
Many do the transition by having the former employer become the first consultancy client.
There's also agencies that can help you, though this will typically get you into the role of a contractor, basically a hired temp, than of a consultant. But it's a common path to go from contractor for a client through an agency -> consultant for own clients.
Yeah I tried oDesk before, but I never got a job from that. It's demotivating to be competing with people from foreign countries that are willing to work for $3/hour. I get the sense that the employers on that site are looking for the cheapest hire, not the best hire. Maybe oDesk is completely different from typical agencies though.
oDesk is really tough. You need to find ways to differentiate yourself from all-those-other-guys.
For starters, things like:
- Having a higher rate ($100+) gives perceived value.
- Calling yourself a software consulting vs. developer I've found to be a big deal.
- Being able to nail down the expertise you have (or want to have) and articulating it in a sentence. For example: I specialize in rapid development of web and mobile apps with the first iteration delivered within two weeks.
