Building a brand and marketing yourself versus relying on recruiters.

[mattfx]

I have run a couple of fixed fee pieces of work around some of my contract work in the past year.

+ You will double, or triple your day rate
+ You feel like a boss doing it
+ The jobs are often more exciting because you have to be "in and out" unless it's a very lengthy piece of work which, as a one man band, I doubt many of us would get

- Invoicing is a ballache. Chasing accountants is a ballache.
- Clients always want something more than the scoped deliverables. You will always end up giving it to them, in most cases.
- No-one has any sympathy when it does (and will) go wrong: "You're charging enough, what's your point? Quit moaning, consultant" - even nearest and dearest!

Personally, I have ambition to build up that type of business and try to gain momentum off the back of the work I've done this year. But it's hard, clients are demanding, midway through one implementation a client got a massive ransomware attack. It destroyed one of my pre-built servers, they didn't have backups in place for the new stuff yet, that was the next weeks work. Naturally, that server had to be skipped and I had to start again and lose half a day to a day rebuilding it.

As others have said, when all is said and done it is higher risk and arguably, not really much more of a reward unless you've got a very loyal customer base, or support contracts backing you up. To make the project work more secure, I think you need that security of £XXX per month coming in off the back of supporting previous efforts.

It won't stop me from trying and it shouldn't stop you OP, but just know it's a very very tough market out there. Good luck!

[WordIsBond]

OP, I did it. The core of the problem is this -- you have to find a way to make yourself known as an incredibly valuable resource, valuable enough that they think of you rather than just calling an agent. There are different ways you can accomplish that, but if you don't, you'll never succeed.

I did it through decades in my permie job, and I was lucky in several ways that led to me being known in a niche sector as an expert. I went independent just over three years ago, I have five employees and three very part-time subcontractors (retired guys). I've had to keep raising my rates over and over because the demand is so high. It's because I was lucky in my opportunities and good enough to take advantage of it.

When the decision-makers know you or have read articles you've written or heard you speak at conferences, they have confidence that you'll be the guy. You may never have those opportunities, but you will have to find some way to be known as being so good and so valuable that they'd be stupid to have an agent bring in some bum to fill a seat. The only way I can think of to do that is to have really niche expertise (that an agent will never be able to source) or be the guy who charges a day rate but works extremely long hours so you always deliver ahead of schedule. Unique knowledge or unique work ethic / effort, those are the only two ways I can see to get there. Without one of those, they'll just do the safe and contact an agent.