Nowadays, it seems like being a full-time employee is riskier than being an independent consultant because you're getting all your sense of stability and income from one source. If you had multiple clients and should one client project end, it's far less devastating.
The same goes for working with just one client full-time. It's great to land a long term gig that has some of the cosiness of being a full-time employee while having the benefits of being an independent consultant. But again, it's full-time billable hours from one source.
The best way to mitigate the risk of having no job, no clients is the same advise many have for investing your money--diversify.
Here are some possible permutations of client types:
- 1 main client (billing at 40 hrs/week or somewhat less) and multiple small clients.
- Multiple clients long term (2-4) billing at part-time hours.
- Multiple short term clients.
- And everything in between.
Add services to help accommodate multiple clients and generate leads: Have clearly defined short term services (i.e. training sessions, assessments or small project work) to supplement main services. Potentially services completed in 1 day/week can lead to bigger projects.
Repeatable services should have repeatable processes: If your services are repeatable regardless of the client (i.e. system administration) clearly define the service and how you engage your clients. This way you can provide consistent service to all your clients.
If you juggle multiple clients what is your approach to keep on billing? Share in the comments below....