Register a company. Don't do anything with it, other than keeping it alive. When asked what you did, just say that you wanted to become an independent contract

Register a company. Don't do anything with it, other than keeping it alive. When asked what you did, just say that you wanted to become an independent contractor, but in the end you realized that you were a much better programmer than a salesperson, so you had really happy clients but not enough of them. Or maybe you wanted to start a SAS, but again couldn't get enough customers. Companies die all the time, take your pick.