4 ms·
What distinction do you mean to make between freelancing and consulting? Those terms usually describe the same thing. http://typicalprogrammer.com/how-to-start
by gregjor 6y ago
What distinction do you mean to make between freelancing and consulting? Those terms usually describe the same thing.
http://typicalprogrammer.com/how-to-start-freelancing-and-get-clients http://typicalprogrammer.com/how-to-start-freelancing-and-ge...
- elric 6y agoNot OP, but in my book consultant and freelancer are orthogonal terms. You can be both at the same time. Consultants are brought in to address specific problems -- often on a freelance basis. I believe what OP is trying to avoid is being "expensive furniture", "body shopping", essentially being a long term employee without any of the benefits, that sort of thing.
- artembugara 6y agoIMO, freelancer is someone who resolves a well-defined problem. Consultant is someone who finds a solution (then, usually, resolves it). So, hiring a freelancer when you do not understand what a solution should be is usually a misstep.
- emerged 6y agoConsulting to me carries connotations of much higher skill and much higher pay by orders of magnitude.
- Chris2048 6y agoThen call yourself a consultant and raise your prices ;-)
- emerged 6y agoPretty much, although with high paying consulting jobs you usually are hired because you're trusted for some reason. Either through friends / friend of friends and/or industry fame.
- luckylion 6y agoMultiple orders of magnitude? Work for a month, relax for a decade? It's funny how people understand terms differently. To me, consultant says mostly "working for a large-ish consultant company on large projects for large companies", while freelance is "self-employed", working on your own.
- gregjor 6y agoThe terms have nothing to do with skill or pay. Freelance means working for different companies as an independent resource or expert, as opposed to an employee. Consultant means someone who offers advice professionally. One can do both at the same time. Orthogonal, as someone else wrote. People who get jobbed out by “body shops” to fill chairs or boxes in an org chart are called temps, or contractors. Contractor can also refer to anyone who works according to a contract rather than an employment relationship. In the real world the terms get used interchangeably.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 6y agoI aim for 3:1 or so when working alone, work real hard for three months then have the rest of the year to pursue my own projects.
- luckylion 6y agoDon't you get tempted to just work the whole year (and the next two or three) and just retire?
- jacquesm 6y agoToo many side projects... I get tempted not to work at all and cut my expenses even further. Also, I'd rather just cherry pick the good jobs instead of lowering the price to be busy all the time.
- Spearchucker 6y agoThe distinction between freelancer and consultant is irrelevant. What is relevant is what consulting is. Consulting typically means solving problems for clients. Often that starts by assessing the client's environment to gain insight into the client's stated problem, then defining an appropriate solution which the consultant may or may not lead/drive or be involved in implementing. That of course comes with a lot of additional skills such as strategy, managing stakeholders, risks and so on. Best book I can recommend is "Designing Solutions for you Business Problems" by Betty Vandenbosch. Because great consulting is not just about efficient problem solving. It's just as much creative problem finding and building relationships to make a solution happen. As for finding customer 1 - I did it by demonstrating the inefficiencies of the software development practices at a civil service I was contracted (freelance, I guess) by. That was 14 years ago. After that it's been word of mouth.