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Past life I worked with hundreds (maybe thousands) of ICs at BTG (now part of Heidrick On-Demand Talent). There are good resources out there, like Umbrex. Check out marketplaces like BTG, Catalant.
Few themes consistent with successful independent lifestyle: 1) war chest to get through early lean times, 2) better to start with 1 client than 0 - platforms/marketplaces can be an opportunistic source, but you need to keep a BD funnel, 3) smart day rates vs fixed fee - think 1.7-2x your annual divided by 260 working days to you if via a marketplace or 2.5-3x / 260 if sole sourced - fixed fee work can go very wrong, very fast if your clients aren’t sophisticated buyers of consulting.
Some thing to consider: 1) you can make more money and have better QoL, but your consulting grade is often terminal - being your own Partner for next 3 years is not the same as making Partner at your firm in next 3 years (not the rule, obviously, but many, many ICs work super EMs for decades and never build their own leverage) 2) health insurance, etc. is a real cost to get parity with cushy consulting benefits, 3) you lose knowledge infrastructure - tooling, templating, subscription data services, internal experts - depending upon the industry you support, this can matter a lot if clients don’t have it themselves or expect you to bring it.
It’s a serious discussion & I’ve typed the above with a feral 3 year-old hanging off of me, so feel free to DM me if helpful to chat.
Thanks a ton!
Second hand experience: don't jump without at least one client and a clear strat/path to bring more
My friends who followed those guidelines did fine. The ones who started completely from scratch gave up.
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I did it and it was great but cam take a full year to actually hit a stride. But once you do its actually very rewarding and you build your len direct relationships.
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Chief
Seems like a pretty big step down tbh
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