Consultant vs. Independent Contractor vs. Freelancer vs. Entrepreneur

What’s in a name?  What do you call yourself if you are an ‘independent’? 

I’m not talking about the official terminology (like being a sole proprietor), but what attitude do you have about your work (when you are an independent).

Some people say, a ‘contractor’ is basically (and unofficially) a hired short term employee where a ‘consultant’ is more than that.  Kind of fuzzy isn’t it?  How about a freelancer? 

If you read the four linked definitions mentioned at the beginning of this entry you’ll probably come to the conclusion that technically they are all the same (or can be).  So it really comes down to attitude.  Here is my attempt at defining the terms in a round about way:

Independent Consultant
Someone with a respectable reputation in their industry.  They have usually worked hard for many years to get to their ‘consultant’ level.  They make a living doing what they love to do … in fact they have to love what they do or they wouldn’t have gotten to this level.

Independent Contractor
Someone with experience but not necessarily a well known reputation in their industry yet.  Contractors can either love what they do or just make good money doing what they know … it is a mixed bag.  Some ‘contractors’ are budding Consultants or Entrepreneurs.

Freelancer
A free spirited creative personality … who is really either a contractor or consultant.  They use the freelancer term because it doesn’t sound as stuffy (consultant) or constraining (contractor). 

Entrepreneur
Someone who wants to start a business and see it grow.  They like the idea of flying by the seat their  pants and making things up as they go, when they need to.

Time for another update on how life as an Independent Consultant is going.  This one is about building the company web site.

Bringing a Company Website to Life

Today I’m hanging my shingle out (yeah I know that phrase is used for mostly law firms … so I’m overloading it for Independent Consultants).  Maybe it is better to just say, I got my company website up and going: http://www.jasonhaleyconsulting.com.

The site has gone through a few design iterations and is now looking good enough for version 1 … though the content needs another iteration or two … that’s for later.

Colors

The image to the right is what the site’s first iteration looked like.  The color combination (something I always struggle with), was inspired by a couple of things (both where suggested to me by Alex Busce):

• http://www.templatemonster.com/ – has a ton of templates … although I couldn’t find one I liked for the site. However, they did give me some good ideas on colors.
• http://colorschemedesigner.com/ – is where I ended up getting the color combinations after I found some colors I liked.

Once I got the first iteration up and going … I thought it looked ‘ok’, but sort of cookie cutter - not necessarily the look I wanted.  After getting some feedback from friends and family, I decided to put more time into the look and feel before announcing the site.

Update: After working on the site for awhile ... the brown starts to give me a headache ... so that is going to change soon.

Tabs

The image to the left is what it now looks like (or at least, as of the writing of this entry).  The tab style for the links was inspired by one of the jQuery UI themes, though the color combination was taken from the color scheme designer colors.  I created the gradient images in Paint.net.  There are still a few things I want to change about the look … but they are all minor.

Logo

The (current) logo was inspired by two things: David Chappell's logo and the Museum of Find Arts logo.  I first created the logo in Paint.net, but then recreated it in Expression Design – which was a better design experience than Paint.Net in this case.

After a couple of iterations on the look and feel (and spending quite some time on getting the colors I liked) … today I noticed that my friend Ben Day’s color scheme is close to the same one I ended up with … maybe I should have looked at his site before starting.

Images

I purchased all the images for the site from iStockPhoto for less than $20 and still have a couple I haven’t used on the site yet.  Nice that they offer the ability to buy credits and not have to get a subscription.  The original cloud image used in the first header was actually one of mine … to bad I didn’t keep it:)

The last couple of months I’ve been asking a dozen or so people I know (who are independent consultants) for advice.  Yesterday, I thought I should broaden the group that I ask advice of and maybe be help others as well … so started a LinkedIn group this morning called “Independent Software Consultants”.

If you are an independent software consultant (or interested in being one) and want to join the group, you can find it in the LinkedIn Groups directory at Independent Software Consultants.  I didn’t tie it to a region, but it will probably be mostly people in the US.

My idea of the group is for it to be a place to ask for and give advice on things like:

• setting up your own business
• finding work
• finding subcontractors
• working with clients
• networking with others
• getting your name out

So if you’re interested in helping (or need help from) other independent consultants please join the group and participate in the discussion.

I’m starting a new category of blog entries to capture some notes about being an independent consultant, hopefully some people will find these helpful.  By no means are these notes anything other than a snapshot of my opinion at a point in time … everything is subject to change and clarification.

Getting started

I guess I should first mention, that this is a new thing for me.  I’ve been interested in entrepreneurship and business stuff for a long time, but up until last year I’ve pretty much been an FTE (full time employee).

Awhile ago, I read Joe Webb’s The Rational Guide to IT Consulting (Rational Guides), which did a good job of outlining the basics of getting started and I would recommend it if you are looking for a book on the subject.

For the business entity, I went with an LLC – but I know people who are S-Corps and C-Corps as well.  To take care of all the paperwork, I used MyCorporation (An Intuit Company).  It would have been cheaper to do it myself (lesson #1).  Turns out, Massachusetts is one of the most expensive states to set up an LLC in (>$500 a year currently) … I guess that’s what I get for not doing this when I was in Seattle (lesson #2).

After all the paperwork was official, I then went down to the local bank and setup an account for the business – helps to keep the business stuff the business stuff (after all that’s the point of incorporating).

Then comes the hard part for someone new to an area: find an accountant and lawyer.  This work is still in progress.

Habits to form

Unless you are some rock star (ie. well known expert) or lottery winner … which I’m neither - the first habit you need to form is networking.  Oh and even after you find your first gig, don’t stop networking … keep doing it and doing it more.  Penelope Trunk has some great advice on networking.

Second habit, which sort of goes with the first, is to get good at communicating what you are good … how else will someone know they should use to for a job?  This work is also still in progress.