Consulting can be a rewarding experience. You have pointed out all the bad parts, and I agree. But where else can you see how so many businesses are run? Every company that is paying you to do technical work has already provided enough value to their users that they can afford to pay you. That means they must be doing something right. Learning how they provide value, how they decide to fund or de-fund IT projects, learning how it's easy to hack a small system but not so easy when you've got 12 thousand coders and a huge legacy base -- these are all lessons that you'll need to know if you want to start a business that is going to grow.
I learned a lot through my consulting work, and I met interesting people and some new friends. It is just that it is taking up too much time. Even 3 months, which might be a kind of a minimum contract, is almost 1% of the productive time I might have left in my life, if I consider another 30 years in the workforce. I hope to be productive longer than that, but who knows.
I wish I could find more interesting contracts, but I am pretty much pigeonholed into Java Web Applications.
Today I finally received the "Collective Intelligence" book in the mail, it is so much fun (I always wanted to do things like that). Perhaps if I focus my projects on doing stuff like that, I could acquire different kinds of contracts. So far most of my own projects are also just "normal" web applications, because I try to make money. Mistake? I believe in the "do what you love and you will be successful" mantra, but in reality I still tend to make compromises with the projects I choose (because of the money scare).
I'm a married guy, so I feel a little better about "selling out" and doing some consulting. I've also moved up the food chain from development into strategic technology management consulting, so when I say "consulting", it's probably a little different than when you say it.
It all has to do with risk profile -- how much risk are you comfortable with? You always hear these stories about founders who made it work just running on credit cards and family loans until they took off. But what happens if you don't take off? You can only max out your cards and family loans every so often. So there's short-term risk like "let's live on noodles and saltines for the next six months" and then there's long-term risk like "I'm going to go bankrupt, lose my house, and my wife is going to leave me". If you're single without a lot of commitments, go for more risk and chase your dream. But remember that even if you get your dream, life is always about compromise.
But if you decide to go to some kind of hourly-rate consulting for a while, take my advice and stretch your skills some. Instead of just Java Web apps, be a team lead for project, or an architect. I think as nerd we focus on the technical aspects of a project, but there are all kinds of good business lessons in there that can help you with your startup, if you go looking for them. YMMV
I don't want to demean consulting at all, I guess I just haven't managed to get into the fun consulting jobs yet. But I also feel the "family pressure", I am certainly not the "gamble away your family" kind of risk person.
I've had consulting gigs that basically made me team leader of a 5-person startup team.
Now how is that different than being a cofounder? I got paid more, and I was able to move on to other contracts without a lot of fuss.
But most of the time, selling yourself by the hour (or day or project) sucks. You're always making somebody else's dream come true instead of your own. Having said that, money is a good thing! And over time you can get better and better at your skills. I guess there is a difference between honing your skills doing stuff for other people and honing your skills doing stuff for yourself. Sure, I'd much rather work for myself, but there's no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water.
That's a really good point. If you're moving back and forth between startups and consulting, be sure you know where all o the IP landmines are. I know I have a three-page IP disclosure sheet I include with all of my consulting projects, plus I make sure that my continuing work on my startup is noted. Even then, it can get tricky. I couldn't take a consulting gig in the same industry that the startup was in unless we had a lot of legal input. And that gets expensive.
The problem is that if you're writing Web 2.0 apps then really _anything_ could be considered close to anything else. Writing a 3-D chat program for E-Bayers? Any business with a web site might could use a chat program, and if you have access to their site and their plans, who's to say what parts of your ideas you're getting from them and what parts you're coming up with yourself?
Your comment about the IP disclosure sheet is good. I'd like to see more discussion on this board about how to handle IP disclosure before taking on consulting projects. I don't have the answers but the question is very relevant to me and, I suspect, a lot of other people here.
Plus the money is good, no?