| | By Rahul Nag
If you are currently
working in consulting as
a full-time employee and
are thinking about
starting a career as a
freelancer there are
several questions you
need to answer. While it
can be an exciting
proposition to become a
contractor in terms of
increased income, more
flexibility and choice,
there are significant
risks to consider:
• How long will it
take for you to get your
first contract
assignment?
• Can you find
freelance work while
still working full
time?
• What are the
prospective day rates
you might achieve?
• What utilisation
rate is realistic?
After three years
full time with a
strategy consultancy, I
have been freelancing in
strategy consulting and
due diligence work for
the last seven years. So
I have moved from
full-time employment to
freelance work. The one
advantage I had was that
I was forced into
freelance work through
being made redundant.
On top of this, both | |
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| | of my previous full-time
employers asked me to do
some freelance work for
them. I then worked out
some business
development techniques
to find and contact new
consultancies, which
helped me expand my
network of potential
consultancy clients.
Becoming a
freelancer - minimum
requirements
Upfront it is
important to question
whether you are suited
to becoming a
freelancer. The first
question to ask yourself
is why you want to
become a freelance
consultant in the first
place? Your reasons and
objectives will
determine how you need
to approach business
development, marketing
yourself and the
delivery of consulting
services. Is freelancing
just something to do
until you find another
job, is it a full-time
career or are you doing
this to ease yourself
into completely changing
career?
The other key
question is: are you
good enough and are you
ready to be a
freelancer? Part of this
will be ensuring you
have the relevant
skill-set and expertise
needed and are competent | |
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| | enough to do the job. I
remember meeting a
full-time employee, an
organisation development
consultant, who told me
he tried to be a
freelancer but it didn’t
work out. He later
admitted that he wasn’t
good enough at the time.
When you are a
freelancer, you can only
survive if you get
repeat work with the
same clients. You will
only get repeat work if
you are good enough to
do the job that they
require of you. You need
to have enough
experience and be at the
right level to be a
successful freelancer.
Often, people at the
very top and the very
bottom of the
consultancy ladder may
find it difficult to get
freelancing work. This
is because many
companies can either
cheaply hire in or
outsource their
low-level work. Their
very high-end work, in
particular the business
development, would
probably be done by the
partners of the company
themselves. So you need
to see whether your
current role and
expertise is suitable
for the marketplace.
How long will it
take to get your first
assignment?
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This is a completely
open-ended question and
almost impossible to
answer. It is where the
risk element of being a
freelancer comes into
play. Unless you can
arrange a freelance job
before you leave your
current employment, you
are going to have to
potentially bear some
time without an income.
My story is that I
was made redundant in
2001 and within a week
or two my ex-employer
brought me back in for
freelance work. A couple
of months later a
previous employer asked
me whether I wanted to
do a couple of days a
week, which lasted for a
few months. However,
there were other times
when I didn’t work for a
while, perhaps two or
three months in
succession.
It is very difficult
to say how long you
would need to get your
first job because
everyone’s situation is
different. I would say
that hopefully you’ll
get a good-sized project
within at least two
months, perhaps sooner
depending upon your
contacts and network.
Quality as well as the
size of your network is
critical.
Unless they are your
current employers or you | |
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| | have worked with them in
the past, most employers
of freelancers will
expect you to be free
and available for work
before they call you for
a project. They work on
the principle of ‘a
project has just come
in, who can we get to
staff it?’, rather than
‘Consultant X will be
available from his
full-time job on 13
September, what will we
have for him then?’.
Projects and openings
tend to come up at short
notice.
The other issue is
that it can be months
from the first contact
with a new potential
client to getting your
first project with them.
On average three months
or more has been my
experience although I do
remember working for one
consultancy two years
after the initial
contact. Often clients
will talk about start
dates for contracts but,
as the dates approach,
you hear nothing and the
project has disappeared:
there are no certainties
in being a freelancer.
You must be able to
accept and live with
this kind of uncertainty
over extended periods of
time.
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