I have very limited experience as a consultant/independent worker so take this with a grain of salt. Have you considered doing a number of smaller projects whi

I have very limited experience as a consultant/independent worker so take this with a grain of salt. Have you considered doing a number of smaller projects while building up your reputation? If you are having trouble finding ~50K look for ~10K or even ~5K and then deliver far more value than they are paying for. At first you may be working more for reputation than money, then that will invert later.