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How to start a consulting business
Honest answer: I don’t know yet. But we’ll figure it out.
I’ve been working on the web since 2005 and freelancing since 2015. It was an awesome career so far, I enjoyed each step of it.
Last year (2020) I hit a huge milestone in my life which lead to some kind of burnout. I worked non-stop for so many years.
No, seriously. I didn’t take days off. I brought my laptop to every “vacation”. I worked on Saturdays and Sundays.
I may have been addicted to work.
The freelancing dream
Freelancing was a dream for me. I always remember talking with a colleague in one of my first full-time jobs. I’d told him: “Being a Designer is great - I’d work freelance if I’d be one”.
He would answer: “Yeah, freelancing sounds good, but you need to have money and contacts to start a freelancing business”.
Even if it’s true that it may be easier to start freelancing with money and contacts (like anything else in life) it’s also true that you can start any endeavour from nothing.
You need to believe in yourself and keep pushing forward.
In 2015 I went full-time freelancing and it was amazing.
It was what I always wanted.
I took as much work as I could.
The problem was that at some point along the road I was so focused in making money that I forgot to enjoy the view. I was trying to work as much as possible. All the time, every time.
Time vs money
For about 6 years I worked as many hours as I could. At some point I knew that working per hour was putting a roof to my salary, but at the same time, since it was a good salary (more than I’ve ever dreamed of) I kept going on.
I din’t care about time. I wanted money.
Money, it’s a gas.
You see, the problem of wanting money is that, as Paul Graham describes better than me: Money Is Not Wealth. But I didn’t know that before.
And of course, the problem of selling time is that it’s a limited resource.
Let’s be more precise: time is not just a limited resource. It’s the most valuable thing in life. Our only real possession we don’t possess.
Time is life. Life is time.
And now I want to live as much of it as I can.
I used to want money and didn’t care about time. Now it’s backwards.
From freelancing to consulting
During my last years of freelancing I started to feel the burden of working without rest nor spare time. I didn’t realize at that time, but I can see it now in retrospective.
I always had the idea of becoming a consultant in the horizon, but of course, I didn’t have enough time to work on that.
A lot of things had happened to me personally during the last year - long story short: I decided to try a leap of faith, one more time.
I want to become a consultant.
I don’t know how yet, but, as always, I’ll do my best.
These are exploratory articles. I’ll keep writing about this life goal and how it goes. Hopefully there’s a long road ahead.
Whish me luck (good luck!)
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