Looking at the other side of yesterday’s coin, there are some drawbacks to being an independent Salesforce consultant.
Here are a few for your consideration.
You need to be a one-person business
Instead of entirely focusing on discovery, design, or implementation, you need to manage every aspect of your business. This includes marketing, sales, support, and accounting.
Some of these tasks aren’t particularly interesting or enjoyable. They might not even be desirable. But you need to manage them. Outsourcing them is a possibility, but there’s a cost associated.
Constantly looking for clients
As a one-person army, you need to have a healthy sales pipeline. Remember that part of your time is working on your business, instead of working for your business.
If you don’t have a constant stream of clients and stable work, you could become financially distressed. To mitigate this concern, consider not having an anchor client (a single client that provides more than 50% of your overall income) and having multiple simultaneous clients.
Gaps between contracts
There’s a strong chance that even with all your talent and multiple clients, you’ll have some down time between projects. Planning for this helps, such as maintaining a big safety net (i.e. 6 months worth of expenses in your savings account).
You can also take advantage of slower times by updating your skillset. Consider additional Salesforce certifications, or learning more about negotiation and communication strategies.
The takeaway
Being aware of the cons of a solo consultant allows you to be better prepared before switching from employee to freelance.
As GI Joe says, “knowing is half the battle”.