I just made the transition to contractor/consultant/freelancer. Some thoughts more on the consultant side: - Logistics: set up a domain with a one-pager landin

I just made the transition to contractor/consultant/freelancer. Some thoughts more on the consultant side: - Logistics: set up a domain with a one-pager landing page[1], get some simple business cards, and get a work email. I ended up spending $50 for an LLC and getting a business bank account and card. I use Freshbooks for tracking time, expenses, and sending invoices. - Legal: Get a lawyer (and a tax person) who understands what you're doing. It's worth the <$1000 you'll spend just for peace of mind. I found mine through a local startup incubator. Your lawyer can draw up a Master Services Agreement you sign with clients once that goes over IP etc. Then for each project, you simply sign a one-pager Statement of Work that has your rate, scope of work, duration, etc (which can be updated and expanded as you go by re-signing). - Getting clients: this is literally a sales/marketing funnel. Share your business with your network [2], start getting incoming leads from folks, screen clients [3], closing contracts. This is actually one of the reasons I decided to consult, I want more hands on sales experience. Advice from a friend: spend min 1h each day emailing or whatever else necessary to land new clients. - Doing work: take on a customer-facing mindset (like you would in a support role)--make them feel comfortable, make them look good, and make them successful. Obviously makes sure your work is incredibly good--your best sales channel should be referrals. Maybe this goes without saying, but all of the above is MUCH easier if you have genuine experience and expertise. I wouldn't recommend this for someone in their first 5y of being an engineer/designer etc--build specific experience in an area and make the jump later (for ex, I lead a design team at a YC startup and taught design at UM, not sure I would have done this 5y ago). [1] http://directedworks.com http://directedworks.com [2] https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6401496572122718208 https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6401496... [3] https://muledesign.com/designbook/screener.html https://muledesign.com/designbook/screener.html (from https://abookapart.com/products/design-is-a-job https://abookapart.com/products/design-is-a-job)