I Want to be a Consultant in .NET

Introduction

So you've made up your mind to get out of the rat race and work as a consultant.  Or perhaps you just decided to supplement your income with some consulting work.  What are the steps you need to take to get things running?   What are the risks?  This article should put you on the right path.

The Birth of a Consultant

Before you become a consultant, you want to ask yourself a very important question, "Am I a Risk Taker?".  If you are a very skilled developer and you have some good communication skills, the risk factor is lower, but there is still risk involved.  Here are some of them:

     As a consultant you are far more expendable than an employee.
     Once your contract ends, you need to find another contract.
     You often need to provide health care for you and your family.
     You are forced to become a businessman, a salesman, a marketer, and an accountant.
     You have to be careful about legalities in receiving payment
     You need to create a business entity or work for an existing business entity.
     Employees of a client might treat you differently.
     You may go a long time before getting another contract.
     The time you collect payment from a client may not be for a while.

Those are the risks.   Still want to be a consultant?  Good!  I think you made the right choice and here is why.

    You control your own salary and set your own rates
     You answer to the client and not a boss who could be falsely evaluating your performance.
     You are not subject to the whims of the performance of the company you work for.
     You don't have to settle for whatever the benefits of the company throws at you.
     You are paid for the hours you work.
     You can work for multiple clients at once.
     You can sometimes set your own hours and even work a few days a week.
     In a virtual world, you can often work from home.
     You do not have to sit in politically driven and HR meetings any more, and for some reason if you do, the company must pay you for the hours they are devoting to these activities.
    You are your own boss and can pick and choose your clients.
    Should your consulting business grow, you can hire people to do the administrative work.
    You get to work on a variety of different projects and get to learn about technology in all different kinds of fields.
 Now that we are fairly sure we want to be a consultant, what are the steps you need to take?

Get a Business Entity

First of all you will need some sort of business entity whether it's a s-chapter corporation, limited liability corporation,  sole proprietorship, or just a registered business.  Why do you need to a business entity?  Other business are much more likely to deal with you if you have one.  You can get a business entity online such as an LLC.  Once you've got your certificate your ready for the next big step.

Read more: C# Corner

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