For example, I was told by someone who started a project without taking an advance, only for the client to decide not to pay. So he now refuses to take on a project without at least 30% advance.

What lessons did you learn the hard way?

I'm setting up my own consulting practice: kartick.org and would like to learn from other people's mistakes rather than repeating them myself.

I also don't really want to be anywhere near cryptocurrency for a while... and to make matters worse I live halfway around the world from my home in a country that doesn't speak English - I'm a reliable remote worker but I know that's going to put people off, how to alleviate concerns here?

I'm planning to fly home tomorrow, I rented somewhere for a month and I'm already printing business cards and trying to get myself out there on local subreddits. Perhaps other social media too?

Anything I've missed? How can I advertise myself out there? I absolutely kick ass on cloud migration and architecture (and while I know they're not everything, had the certifications to prove it).

Sysadmin stuff, troubleshooting and cloud work was my thing for a decade but I'm trying to catch up with two years worth of developments as well - I can also code but it's mostly hobby stuff.

I think I've reached an upper bound as a grunt programmer. I tried management as a new direction but it didn't work out, I just can't do it, it makes my life miserable. I noticed however, that I have a unique ability: I really like talking to people (including business folks), wrapping my head around their problems and figuring out robust solutions for them including all the models, documentation and preliminary implementations (POC/MVP). I'm also good at sharing the knowledge (right now I'm working as a tech trainer).

I did this a few times as part of some contract work and everybody was very happy with it but I don't know how to scale this into a consulting business. What I want to keep doing is getting projects from 0 to POC/MVP state. I can help putting together teams, figuring out the architecture, and concrete solutions / algorithms, but if I keep doing the grunt work instead, it won't pay that well. So to sum it all up I can apply my skills in an area that has higher returns, but I don't really know how to get there.

What should I do to achieve this? What makes this harder is that I'm not living in the USA (I live in Hungary, Europe).

Edit: I quit my day job half a year ago. I was thinking about a sabbatical, but people from my network started to appear and now I'm swamped with work. What my goal is to streamline all this and turn regular grunt programming into a specialized format where the ROI is much better.

I also have a business partner who has similar ideas but a different skill set, and I'm trying to shape this into something that's more effective.

I already have a blog, a GitHub portfolio, and I'm regularly talking on meetups, but you are right, I need to focus on this much more, thanks for this tip!

Another previous employer is launching a startup and has recently pinged me because they need to build a series of data pipelines and ML models for their product.

I've to talk to them about specifics but I don't see myselft having enough available time to make it work.

I've been thinking about starting my own data/ml services company for a while but I don't really know when to make the jump. I think (is a guess for the time being) that the income from this new job, in addition to the income of my current client, could be enough for my living expenses of this year, so I'm thinking if this is a good time to make the jump or not.

The problem that I see is that this new lead is from a previous partner of my current client, so both jobs are related to my previous employer, I don't have a pipeline of possible prospects for my service, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to generate a pool of prospects while doing the work for this customers.

My guess is that I should wait until there is a sign that I could probably get a stream of clients to keep the wheel going, and try to find the time to take this new job, maybe negotiating terms to make it possible.

What do you think?

Edit: I've savings already as I plan to buy a new home (I'm in Argentina, we buy it cash, no mortgage). I need three more months of salary to accomplish the home budget.

I do plan onto pursue independent contracting in feature. I would love to hear the thoughts of the community on how to pursue independent consulting. For instance, how do you find clients, how do you pursue a niche and keep yourself updated as a contractor

My friend's first startup took a dive after spending $80,000 to work with a local development company. It turned out the development firm was just a front to outsource all of the work overseas and take a big cut.

Long story short, 5 months later he ended up with no app, no money, and a lawsuit that he couldn't much afford.

Has anyone else had an experience like this?

Is there any historical data on this? What have you seen in your own workplaces?