>>I'm interested to hear stories from consultants about when they realized the time was right to go out on their own.
>
>When my last employer said "we've decided to switch you from salary to as-needed-hourly - let us know your rates". So I really didn't have to think about it, decision wasn't mine :).
>
>> What were the major factors in your decision?
>
>Mortgage. Scholarships. Dinner. Lunch.
>
>>What would you have done differently?
>
>Ask for written instructions on everything from that big fat customer who turned out bad in the end... but was quite good for a while. Owes me $2K and I'm happy that it's so.
>
>> How did you approach it?
>
>"Finally, no bosses! Oh, stool, now I have to talk to the users myself..."
>
>[update, after reading the rest of the thread up to this point]
>- telecommuting is the only way. This country is just too big and we aren't producing anything physically too thick that it wouldn't go through the intertubes, so it goes that way and we don't have to.
>- I can smoke on the job. Well, not really (they started picking on our kids, so I gave up, but for the first five years I did)
>- I won't be sued for any sort of misconduct by the rest of the staff, because she's my wife
>- I don't need any security protocol, any Cerberus at the door, any codes to type in, any cameras to smile at, nothing, I can just sit and work
>- the commute is a killer they say, but I take care to be sufficiently awake; haven't missed a single stair yet
>- you can wear anything on the job; shorts and a T are just fine
>- you can play any music without anyone complaining (well if it were too loud for the neighbors, I wouldn't be able to work anyway :)
>- you get to pick the furniture and the ambient yourself, no matter the wrath of style gods (and it's tax deductible, I think)
>- you can buy all sorts of gadgets and cool toys and justify them as business expense; half of them will actually be so.
>- you finally have a good reason to soup up that tin can at home and give it all the memory, disk and processor horsepower you want
>- and you finally can play with any technology you like, because your today's toy is your technological edge tomorrow morning.

You forgot to say that you also have a lot of time on your hands to write long replies to many threads! :-)