I'm coming to the end of a fixed-term employment and am thinking of going independent. However, I'm aware I'd need to do alot of contracting whilst working on my own projects to make ends meet. I was wondering how you guys have went about this in the past? I'm a programmer with experience in C#, C++ and Flash (AS3 mainly). I'm not eniterly sure on where to look for work or how much I should charge for my services. I'm really just looking for some general advice from those that have done it and what steps they took to achieve it?
If you go onto a freelancing site, and you are new to the site which relies heavily on ratings, you'll have to FAR underbid your prices to get any work. Your BEST bet is to have a portfolio and website and find local businesses in your area who need a web page upgrade, or a web page to begin with. Freelance sites might get you $500 in a month, whereas you could be pulling that much in a week pretty easily just looking up businesses in the area and fulfilling small orders. The local businesses will be happy with almost anything whereas the freelance sites will want you to run their entire company. Best bet, go with small companies.
Get your CV on some of the job websites that technology contractors use - start here and follow some of the adverts :- http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/contracts/uk/flash.do If you are a really skilled AS3 dev then you can get anything from £300 to £500 per day. A really skilled C++ dev can get £500+ per day but I guess C++ contracts are harder to come by.
I'd looked at some of those bid sites and, in all honesty, felt that the budgets considered for most of the contracts were ridiculous. I'd be on the streets within a month if I were to work for those rates - I also struggled to fathom how much work some of these people want done for next to no money. It was a real eye-opener and is one of the reasons I thought I'd ask here. Regarding local companies, that isn't something I'd actually thought of and I feel it is worth exploring. Thanks! I wouldn't call myself really skilled, but judging by some of the postings I saw on itjobswatch I reckon I could command in the £200-275 bracket quite comfortably. I think both posts have been a great starting point, many thanks!