chris_kottom.brain.dump()

Two and a Half Years Freelancing: A Report Card

05 Jul 2010

I've been working on my own for just over two and a half years. That's the sort of occasion that probably could've passed without noticing it, but I've been in a mood lately about my work. The project I've been working on has been on the verge of collapse since I joined it 8 months ago, and it's got me pretty worn out. Worn out to the point that I feel like taking a close look at where I am in the process and what adjustments need to be made in the future. Objectively speaking, here's what I can say.

• My total income has been almost 50% higher as a consultant than it would have been if I'd continued as an employee (assuming only basic salary increases and not counting other benefits received).
• Over 85% of that has come from working on projects for medium and large corporate clients as a subcontractor for other consultancies. This has been partially due to the overall volume of work and partially because of the higher rates that such work brings in (50-100% higher than the rate I usually charge small web-based businesses).
• Most of these types of engagements have been for work other than development or implementation - usually architecture, analysis, and project management duties.
• A really rough estimation of my personal utilization during that period showed that I've been working on billable projects about 65% of the time, but it should be said that there were many more long days and late nights during that period than when I was an employee.
• I've had two engagements that were for more than 6 months each. Most others have been measured in days or weeks.
• If I measure my client base during that time as the number of people who've paid me, it has not cracked double-digits. If I measure it as the number of end clients who I've produced work for, it has.
• I've not made any significant progress on realizing any of my own non-consulting business or application ideas.

On the whole, the effort has been successful. The concept was far from a safe bet when I first started thinking about it seriously in 2007, and since then, I've managed to prove that it's viable. I've earned more and worked less overall, and I've done all that during a period when economic circumstances haven't exactly been rosy. I'm not the type to sit around congratulating myself, but it's satisfying to know that I've been able to support myself and my loved ones, live and without a net, using nothing but the stuff in my head and the handful of professional friendships and contacts I've been able to collect over the past few years. So good job, me.

But.

I've spent just under three-quarters of my working time on enterprise / corporate type projects, and having done so full time for the past 8 months without many breaks, that feels like a lot. Spending too much time in Word and Visio and not enough time in emacs and bash was a big part of what drove me to make this change in the first place. Looking at the raw data above, it would be easy to come away with the idea that not all that much has changed.

The last bullet is a bit disturbing, especially in light of all the thoughts I have lately about the basic model of consulting and where it leads. (Blog post soon to follow, I'm sure.) But even in the case that I continue to do do project work as my primary source of income, and this is likely to be the case for the the foreseeable future, building out a few projects would go a long way toward scratching some personal itches that others might have as well.

It's going to take a little bit of time before I'll be able to really put maximum effort into shoring up these weaknesses. Given my current situation, the hours in the day just aren't there. Still, this is a pretty nice set of problems to have.