

How to get started as a contractor/consultant? - infecto

For a while I have wanted to take on work as a contractor&#x2F;consultant but I do not know where to start. I do not even know how people find jobs to be bid on. Elance&#x2F;Odesk seem to be overrun with cheap labor or impossible requirements for the allowed pay rate. Any other contractors out there care to share how they got started?
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davismwfl
I have been consulting either freelance or through owning my own firm now
since roughly 1999.

Networking is the primary way to find and win work. Elance/Odesk and the sorts
are worse than useless for a US based person as they are all a race to the
bottom. Also, you will find that the clients that pay you the least are the
biggest pain.

Everything you can do to build yourself up in the community helps. Writing a
blog, putting yourself out there, contributing to open source projects etc all
count a lot. But nothing beats talking to people and winning their trust
because then they will turn to you and give you a shot on a project. If you
can make yourself a niche where people seek you out for knowledge over some
specific in demand tech that is awesome. But that usually takes more time then
getting out and meeting people to get work. So you should do both, but just
recognize one has quicker payoffs than the other, usually.

When you are starting out stay away from RFP's, the process and overhead to
properly answer RFP's takes more than you can afford when starting. A lesson I
learned the hard way early in my consulting.

Also, find a consulting firm that needs some additional help and contract to
them a few times on their client projects. A lot of times this is a way to
broaden your network and your skills to find your own work. Plus you can see
how they are doing things and then take what's good and replicate or improve
on it.

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codegeek
1\. Build something relevant on your own time.

2\. Share that something on your website/blog etc

3\. Write about your work, what you are doing, how you are doing it etc.

4\. Go to local meetups, find people in businesses who have problems and try
to offer them to solve it for them. Do this offline in person if possible.

5\. Write more online about your stuff.

6\. Be part of open source community and try to make contributions to projects
that interest you.

Pro tip: Odesk/Elance etc are great if you want to compete with low cost
programmers from all over the world and there is a reason for it. You are not
really showing anything special to a prospective client other than your
"portfolio" which is very similar to most other freelancers on those sites. Of
course, there are some gems to find but very rare. Any good freelancer will
have their own setup, own website, own blog, own showcase etc. Again, it takes
time to do this.

This takes effort but doing this will increase your chances
significantly.There is no magic wand to this really. The best
freelancers/contractors are those who do most of the above steps on a regular
basis. It takes effort to show you want know AND build a reputation for how
good you are. But people will never know unless you show them.

I will give you an example. Whenever I am searching for a technical issue on
google and if I come across someone's blog/github explaining those issues, I
immediately have them in mind as potential freelancers who _could_ help me in
future. Doesn't matter if they are in NY or Maldives.

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aaq
Network network network, your business comes through your networking efforts,
if you don't have the solid relationships you'll need to offer either a high
demand speciality/certificate (for an IT pro it could be SAP HANA or CSM ) or
an innovative products/services. It's either you have the market (through
networking) or the product. Value is not your option.

~~~
gearoidoc
^ This - I should mentioned this in my reply.

I haven't looked for work in about 2 years. I'm lucky enough to get referrals
these days.

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mohsinr
I would say find a niche in your skill set, and then only do projects in that
niche, while you are waiting for the projects, write tutorials about the nice,
be the person whose blog comes up at google for related queries in that niche.
Release free code/template/anything in that niche, let people use that and
come to you for more.

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CyberFonic
You don't give details as to how much experience you have nor where you are
located. Both these would assist HN readers to give you more pertinent advice.

In many contexts "consultant" is somebody who has specialist knowledge in some
area and is able to advise / guide the client to accomplish a desired outcome.

A contractor, on the other hand, is somebody with a specific skill-set who
undertakes to produce and deliver some deliverable to the client's
specification / requirements.

Unless you are already known for in demand skills, you need to prospect for
work. Yes, it is selling and many of the other comments here have great
suggestions on how to do the marketing.

In my experience, you need to work in a job to build up your skills,
experience and contacts. Without that background you are probably only going
to get small jobs and take a long time to build up your profile to be demand
for the better paying gigs.

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gearoidoc
I built an app (www.hipsterceo.com) to gain attention - make sure you focus at
least 50% of your time on marketing to get your name out there. Don't be
afraid to be controversial.

My experience with elance/odesk is pretty terrible. Focus on quality not
quantity clients (even in the early days).

Nothing wrong with taking a full time job and doing said contracts on the side
either - so long as the client understands, of course. And once you've built a
portfolio app/site on the side then they'll have some degree of confidence in
your ability to deliver.

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brudgers
Consultants are just high-falutin contractors. Contractors subcontract. Since
consultants are easier to identify than other qualified leads, subcontracting
is a good way to start. It will also help you see the business from Texas
inside.

Good luck.

