Deciding to become a contractor or consultant could be one of the most rewarding decisions you’ll ever make. Discover the challenges of a real-life independent professional, plus hints and tips to help you decide if an independent career is right for you and how to get started.

1. Are you a contractor
or consultant
at heart?

2. Employee
Contractor

3. What does it take to be
a contractor or consultant?
• Business management
• Resilience
• Confidence
• Effective communication
• Interpersonal skills
• Dedication
• Hard work

4. “In my first year of trading I was worried about how it
would affect my business if I simply refused work.
Now I’m more confident so I discuss areas that don’t
fit with my business and if we aren’t a good fit for
each other it’s more of a mutual decision.”
Julia Beeton
Confidence
As a consultant there is the
added conundrum of how to
cease working with clients that
no longer fit with your business.

5. Resilience
You need to be
comfortable with the word
‘no’. Not just hearing ‘no’
but saying it too (a lot).
“Saying “No” to another contract
extension was more difficult than I’d
thought. I was uncomfortable doing
it. Now I’ve moved a couple of
times, it’s easy.”
James Hollis

6. Tenacity
It takes a good year to get your feet
under the table and it takes hard work
and dedication to do the ground work
to build a successful contracting or
consulting career.

7. Focus
It’s easy to get side tracked but
you need to ensure you can focus
on your short and long-term
business plans.
A clear vision of what you want to
achieve and remaining focused on
how you are going to do it goes a
long way to becoming a success.

8. Interpersonal skills
Managing your core relationships is critical to your business success.
You are your own marketing professional, client manager and debt
collector as well as project manager and worker so you need to be
comfortable in wearing many hats and fulfilling multiple roles.

9. Management &
organisational skills
Keeping on top of the admin is the difference
between getting paid and going broke in
many cases.
Logging hours, chasing clients, balancing the
books, invoicing and the other daily elements
of running your own business can take
minutes a day if you are really organised.

10. Being your own boss
is exciting and rewarding
Working on your weaker skills and personal
development goals will help you become
more successful, more efficient and
ultimately happier as it leaves you with more
time to do the things you really want to.