I'm trying to get out of the Corporate game and go indie. I've always prided myself on being a jack of all trades so I think it suits me.

If you're a freelancer or independent, what's the best advice you could give me as I start down this road?


Get everything in writing upfront.
Never do anything for free. Sets a bad precedent for you and your peers. It destroys the local market.
If a customer misses a payment, even one, stop work until they get current. Be professional and un-emotional but be firm. They are already into you for 30 days of work or more, don't dig a deeper hole. You aren't a bank, you are lending them money interest free at this point.
Bill customers that miss payments, interest on the time the payment was late. Send as many invoices with LATE on them as you think you need to, don't be shy about the money.
Get everything in writing upfront.
If a potential customer won't agree to your terms, what makes you think they will be reliable and easy to work with on their terms. Be prepared to professionally walk away.
Be willing to turn down work that won't be profitable. Or worse will cost you money or time being profitable.
Never work on a break even project thinking you will make it up on the next the customer gives. You won't, you have set a precedent for them to expect to be able to low ball you.
Get everything in writing upfront.
Cheap customers are always cheap customers and will only get cheaper, more demanding and suck up all your time.
Learn what a change request is, put this in your contract that they cost money and they push the schedule. Bill at least 25% more for change requests to make sure the client really needs them, just 1 or 2 change requests can sap all your profit off a single project.
Learn to do Agile Methodologies, SCRUM in particular is a good way to manage customers, especially the ones that become difficult.
Get everything in writing upfront.
Never deliver anything sub-par, even if it is going to be late, crap on time is still crap. Crap gets you a worse reputation than late and quality.
Your reputation is everything, it isn't what you know or do, it is what people say about you.
Plan on networking at every user group meeting and the like to get the good paying jobs.
Get everything in writing upfront.
Get paid for every hour you work, don't be shy about the money, watch this video.
Professional relationships are not you bending over backwards to please irrational customers with unrealistic expectations, they are about respect, your customer should see you as an expert and a professional, not a warm body filling a chair costing them money, don't take those jobs there is no profit in them.
Breaking your own rules, even once sets a precedent to the customer that the other rules can be bent or broken, this leads to misery and loss of profits.
Get everything in writing upfront.
Fixed price jobs aren't the fixed price you will make, they are usually the amount that you will lose X 2.
Spend more time learning about marketing and sales techniques and effective communication patterns that technology. As a consultant you should already be an expert in what you do. The other things you need to be an expert in now as well.
Networking is important so you can delegate some things you might not be an expert in to a sub-contractor friend or associate, or at least lean on them for advice and education. You won't know everything but will be expected too.
Charge enough for you time, your customers are not doing you a favor by having you work for them, you are doing them a favor by selling them your time and expertise. Low balling never helps you or your peers or the market.
No matter how good the relationship with the customer is get everything in writing up front and never break this rule or do anything by word of mouth.
Never work for friends, they won't be your friends anymore, especially not for free
Never work for family either, see above.
Never do anything free.
