The 'secret' - as in almost any business - is to get the word out: Talk to a lot of people / businesses that might need your help and expertise. Go to conferen

The 'secret' - as in almost any business - is to get the word out: Talk to a lot of people / businesses that might need your help and expertise. Go to conferences and relevant industry meet-ups. Which ones depends on your niche and focus, your USP if you will. If you don't have a USP already: Find it. Generic Java / C# / JavaScript coders are ten a penny. Finding either a business niche ("I solve problem X for industry Y"), offering services complementary to mere coding skills (e.g. teaching, coaching, business process analysis) or a very specific technological niche that's in high demand and low supply (beware though, that tends to change rather quickly) is key to differentiating yourself. If you have personal contacts from businesses in your target market already you'd want to talk to those to see if you can help them with a current problem they're having. Other than that it's really all about continuous and consistent networking. It can take some time to build a sustainable business so long-term contracts via recruiters might help to make up for occasional dry spells. The trick with these is to negotiate a workload of less than the usual 5 days a week (I'd go for 3 days at the most), so you can take up additional work at any time.