An alternative to hanging up your own shingle is to join a platform; if you're into ML/Data stuff I recommend tribe.ai which is a bit more focused on that, you'

An alternative to hanging up your own shingle is to join a platform; if you're into ML/Data stuff I recommend tribe.ai which is a bit more focused on that, you've got Braintrust on the more general side with an interesting approach, Gigster I'm not sure what's happening anymore but they were good some years ago, Expertlead is solid for Europe, and you've got Toptal and Upwork but they crush you on rates.