Ask HN: How will I know when I'm ready for contract work?

If you can fog a mirror, you're ready.

I think he means if you're breathing/have a pulse (breathing onto a mirror - could be wrong though!)

After I got my bachelors and moved in with my girlfriend I figured I would make a living freelancing. I had a few contacts from having done moonlighting and part time contracting work while in school. First thing I do is I call this guy I know out Arizona. We'd work together when he was doing some contract work before his current stable gig. Two days later he called me back with a great project that was kicking off "next week". That was May of 1995, it still hasn't kicked off so far as I know.

I took a regular job three weeks later. We'd talked, it was still "a week or two out." Eventually over the years, my Rolodex expanded to where I could take another stab at it when an economic down cycle made my job evaporate and I was kind of more or less able make it work.

You're ready to start when you have a signed contract and the retainer check has cleared. Software contracting is no different from any other type of contracting. 80% of it is sales. The other 80% is doing the work. Nobody who hasn't already asked you to do a project for them is likely to care on the day you open the doors and hang out a shingle. The three most important things are:

  1. Get the job.

  2. Get the job.

  3. Get the job.

Good luck.

Just please don’t tell that to a person that hired you :)