The other thing that's hard to explain about consulting to people who don't do it is that even when you do have work managing the pipeline of new work is very h

The other thing that's hard to explain about consulting to people who don't do it is that even when you do have work managing the pipeline of new work is very hard. You don't always know when the current contract is going to end. (And will they be able to pay for this month?) So you may have more work than you can handle - but you also have to keep fishing for more work to ensure that you won't have unexpected down time. And that puts you under pressure because you are creating demand you often can't fulfill. It may be easier if you are Yet Another Generic Common Technology Contractor because you can always trade leads with a pool of friends/colleagues.