>>>I'm interested to hear stories from consultants about when they realized the time was right to go out on their own. What were the major factors in your decision? What would you have done differently? How did you approach it?
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>>Hi Mike,
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>>I worked for others for 24 years. Army 7 years, Rollins (Atlanta) 4 years, Polaroid (Boston) 3 years, DEC 10years. I was never really happy in any of these positions. I took an "early out" from DEC in 1990 and left with 1.5 years worth of pay. My wife asked what I was going to do and my shrug of the shoulders did not sit well.
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>>In my 24 years of employment I never had the computer support I felt I needed, even at DEC. So I decided to become a consultant and application developer. Eighteen months later, money gone and no clients, I landed my first gig. 17 years later I still have that client and a handsome monthly retainer from them.
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>>I spoke to a young man the other day and I told him I was self employed. He said that is what he wants because he could not see himself in an 8 to 5 job. I laughed and told him the water is fine, jump in and work from 6am to midnight !!
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>>A lot of people who become consultants leave their employment and keep doing the same job with different pay. Not in my case, but that would have been nice.
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>>You already have an offer for a consulting gig. May not yield a lot of revenue but it is more of a start than I had. BTW, one of the main contacts there also has labs, and a recent litter. You may fit right in.
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>>My $.02,
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>>Ken
>
>Hey Ken,
>Thanks for the advice. As far as that offer, I'm just worried that I won't be able to provide the adequate service while still pulling an 8-5. If it wasn't for that, I would be all over it. I'm usually pretty adamant with clients I freelance for that I am not available at all between 8-5 and I cannot sacrifice my main job to satisfy freelance clients. I had another gig that paid fairly well, but with the economy the way it is all of those project are on hold. I have another guy that I do some website work for, but that doesn't amount for much more than about 500 bucks a year.

One of the larger companies I worked for had a contract developer. He worked 3 days a week. The other two he worked contract for another company.