Well....I do, and have been doing for around 11 years. I have worked both ways and I have found that working freelance with companies provides 2 obstacles:
1. You have to find your own work. This is not a big deal. The more work you do for different customers, the more referrals and reputation you will gain. 2. Pay. Do yourself a favor and sign a W2 Contract through a firm. Customers pay the Firm, and the Firm pays you regularly, with your taxes taken care of. A lot of companies have really long pay schedule, so unless you want to get paid Net 90, let a firm take a percentage to arrange and manage the contract and your pay. I have worked projects where 25% of my time was spent attempting to collect payment. Work a little longer hours to make up for what you loose in peace of mind from a firm. One thing you need to be very mindful of is that as a freelance consultant, you are responsible for Marketing and Promoting yourself. You are only as good as your list of references. Another downside is that things follow you when you do this type of work. If you work on a high-profile project that goes poorly for whatever reason, the outcome of the project will follow you for a long time. If you already have a shaky reputation, you might find it difficult in this line of work to recover it. Everyone in this forum can reference a few people whose continued participation in this field of work baffle us, but we do nothing to disparage that person publicly; so, it might be a good idea to obtain some self-assessment or peer assessment before diving into this head-first. The final step in this process is a serious introspection on weather you have the personal or professional skills to be deemed an "Expert" by customers. When I look back to when I started doing this, I was 23 years old. I did know my stuff, but I am astonished anyone listened to me much less hire me in a "Consultant" role; just because of my lack of overall work experience at the time. By the way......You have to build up a lot of trust with a lot of customers before "Remote Work" is an option. Examples: One guy I met has 5 different people signed to "Remote" projects where they show up on the conference calls while he does the work. ALWAYS GETS CAUGHT. Another example is a guy who works on a remote project as he travels around the US on his own version of a beer drinking tour. People like this RUINED remote work a few years ago. Timothy Button Remedy Systems Consultant [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Scott Ames Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 9:05 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Freelance vs Consulting Firm ** Is anyone here doing Freelance Remedy consulting rather than working for a Consulting Firm? What I mean by that is: You take on Remedy jobs in your own name as a one person shop either on site or remotely. Upsides? Downsides? Realistic? __20060125_______________________This posting was submitted with HTML in it___ _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at http://www.wwrug.org
