I know I absolutely can't sell software, as that model is really a hard push

The bad news is that being a freelance consultant is a hard push too :-) You can look forward to spending a lot of your time marketing yourself and looking for clients. Not to mention all the time, paperwork, legal, etc. that your employer used to do. All this will eat up a third of your time. Nearer half for the first year while you get into the swing of things. Find a good accountant. Find a good lawyer.

Evil things can happen and, because of your limited resources as an individual, there is not a lot you can do about it. I've had clients disappear owing me large chunks of cash - and had to just swallow it because chasing the small possibility of them actually paying up wasn't worth the time and money it would have cost me to take legal recourse.

Now's not the best time in the whole world to go freelance. There are a lot of skilled people out there and pay is nowhere near the levels it was 5-10 years ago. Competition is stiff.

The other bad news is that clients can be just as bad as the worst management you've every encountered. Clients make just as many seemingly illogical decisions.

Being a successful consultant is about people skills as much as technical skills. If you cannot communicate well with people without a technical background you're going to hit problems. It can be quite a culture shock. I know a few people who have tried freelancing and not liked this side of it at all.

As an alternative to consulting you might want to consider finding a smaller company. Working with 10-20 people is very different from working in a large organisation - although it also brings its own set of problems too :-)

Now the advice / good news :-)

Depending on your expectations it can be a better life. After four and a bit years of working for myself I'm a lot happier consulting from my nice country cottage than I was being the technical director of an up and coming media company. Do I earn as much as I would have if I'd stayed - nope. Swings / Roundabouts.

Finding clients is really down to two things:

1. Knowing people: Network away. A lot of work comes my way through people I've worked with in the past.
2. Doing something different: Everybody and their pet dog codes in Java - so knowing Java doesn't help you a great deal in finding work. Be good at something different. Have an odd combination of skills that other people don't have. That way clients are more likely to find you.

Random tips:

• Being paid by profit sharing is gambling. Never gamble unless you can afford to lose.
• If a client stops paying, stop working. No matter how reasonably the excuse sounds.
• Never lie to the client.
• Find a good lawyer. Find a good accountant (worth repeating)
• Join a union - but then I'm the pinko-commie liberal type :-) I've found mine useful when dealing with the occasional evil client.

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