Joe,

>This is my first post here but I will say that this forum has been a real help to me in the past, researching for projects. I work for a small company here in Columbia,SC. We had a pretty good client who we were customizing scale software for in which I had maybe 2 more years of projects. Unfortunantely for me they were bought out by a larger fish who of course has an IT department working on the same things I do. So now what ? I am forced to look in directions I have not looked before, not only that but I do not consider myself a salesman either. In order to continue here I will have to find some projects. I have been designing custom scale(weighing) applications for the last 8 years or so from Foxpro 2.5 Dos to Visual 6.0 and it seems at least for now there aren't any prospects. Anyway what I guess I am asking for is maybe a little advice or if someone has a project that they can't get to now maybe I could help. The work I was doing required some travel and teleconferences mostly on
>the east coast.

Do you *want* to stay at your current company, or have you considered being your own boss? If you've got to bring in the business yourself anyway, you might benefit from developing your own client base.

It can certainly be scary, but there seems to be a good bit of work out there. You idea of posting here is good, since forming strategic alliances with other one-person developers is a benefit.

I don't have work to offer you now, but I'll give an encouragement: Just over a year ago, my major long-time client said, "Sorry, but we have to cut your hours back drastically". This was after 6+ years of 50 hours a week. It was one of the best things to happen to me.

I had no resume, so went to work on one and put it up on the internet at www.computerjobs.com. Within 4 days I had several possible offers, and within a week was hired as a contractor at a much better rate of pay. As that 10-week contract was about to end, I posted the resume again, and was hired with no interview for a 6-month contract, which was extended for another 6 months.

All the while, I still put in about 10 hours a week for the original client. Now, with the end of the contract coming up next month, I am already doing another web project for one client, and working on strong possibilities for another right after it (which came from a lunchtime discussion at the New Orleans DEVCON).

It's a little scary when the contract end is approaching, but this approach has worked out well for me so far -- so I guess I'm saying to check around on the various job sites, post your resume, and see what happens.

Good luck, and keep us posted.