Hey guys, this seems like the place to ask...

I was wondering how many of you work as freelance consultants, and how long it took you to establish your consulting business -- particularly how long it took before you could jack in your 9-5 and make a decent living off consulting alone.

Do any of you have any advice for someone looking to start? I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with politics at work and considering other options at the moment.

Thanks!

If you really want to get into kissing people's ass then you must become a consultant.

You will have kiss, fight, lie, cheat and feel bad to get your short consulting contracts extended every time.

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Save water, drink beer

That definitely does NOT mirror my experiences.

I support a number of companies on the side. I was usually called to fix one thing, usually something like "internet slowness", they've all led to long term work and ongoing support. I have turned down a customer or two for longer term support because of their constant corner cutting and lack of a will do to things the right way.

I don't plan to ditch my 9-5. I really enjoy mastering a platform (or at least trying to), and you don't get that by jumping around to different environments, you get that by doing long term support.

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http://networking.ventrefamily.com

That's my experience in Banking and Healthcare sectors. OTOH that's been going on for more than 14 years now

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Save water, drink beer

This is very true.. and I work for a bank too.

I got my start in the networking world doing freelance 1099 contract work. It was defiantly a different approach from everything I had been used up till that point. The biggest hurdle I had was getting into the mindset of how to properly bill. By nature I didn't want to bill clients for being on-site if I couldn't identify and fix a problem right away. It took me a while to really get over that hurdle and if it wasn't for being able to work under an amazing mentor I would still fumbling about tearing myself up over simple and stupid issues rather then focusing on the work that I loved.

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The Cubicle Wizard
http://cubiclewizard.blogspot.com/

if I were to start freelance work, I'd start looking at places like this

http://www.onforce.com/professionals

If you're doing it on the side, do you keep it a secret from your employer?

I am required to disclose it. I would look at your employee manual and/or HR policies for your requirements.

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http://networking.ventrefamily.com