The 'Nike' approach: I just did it. I wasn't independently wealthy, but I am pretty good with money, and had a fair bit of capital tied up in my house, so I ha

The 'Nike' approach: I just did it. I wasn't independently wealthy, but I am pretty good with money, and had a fair bit of capital tied up in my house, so I had enough runway to last a few years without earning a penny. Although I am first and foremost a software engineer, I had also worked a bit with sales in a software consultancy, and had also had a few years as a CTO where I had to hire consultants (its not super common to have experience in all three of these areas). Additionally I had a few semi-successful projects on GitHub (~2k stars, 1m+ downloads a year), so I had a modicum of tech-credibility. So as it turned out getting work was super easy. I knew the sales process pretty well from a vendor and customer perspective, and I could also do the work myself. I had expected it to be harder than it was. What was a bit unexpected was getting somewhat "stuck". 2-3 years in I began to realize that being a "super consultant" is a bit of a poisoned chalice. If you are always billed out 100%, then it doesnt really make sense to work with other people because you either have to partner up, in which case you can only make the same or less money; or you have to run a stable of less qualified consultants, which basically means a lot less money until you have got 10-20 or so, and then going hard after government contracts or subcontracting to more established consultancies. Consultancy is a bit of a grind, and thats a shame, because the exciting thing about software is that you can make stuff that can become really popular and really lucrative, really quickly. Tech consultancy is quite similar to corporate law- you make _quite_ a lot of money, but you wont get properly rich, and you will really have to work for it. If I was to do it again, I would partner up with some like minded people, get financing for a couple of years and build a product company. It might do well, it might not, but it would be more fun. (Also, practical advice for being a consultant: ask for much more that you think is reasonable- they quite often say yes to whatever terms you suggest)