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Working for yourself advice.

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dietert1:
More than once i got a contract as freelancer responding to job offers online and in newspapers looking for employees. If one can make an interesting offer, why not. During recent years it seems they became more afraid of IP leakage. Again, if they give you a good contract, why not. Also it happened they provided an office in their building during the first three months, to better know each other.
Financial reserves can be invested in other places as well, instead of founding a company. Anyway, it depends a lot on the family. Without family working independent is a health risk.

Regards, Dieter

nctnico:

--- Quote from: nigelwright7557 on October 02, 2022, 03:31:38 pm ---As well as other jobs I have worked for myself for about 15 years.
Do I make a fortune ? No pretty much most years a small loss.
So not much point doing it other than to fill my time and keep my hand in with software and electronics.

The main problem is competition driving down prices.

--- End quote ---
That is a sign you are in the wrong business. One of the most important parts of being self employed is to find customers to whom your expertise is most valuable and thus you can charge a tariff that makes it worthwhile. Before I started being self employed fulltime, I made a spreadsheet with all my ongoing expenses and from there calculated the number of hours I needed to work annually while charging a certain tariff. Some may call that a business plan  8) .

mikeselectricstuff:

--- Quote from: Wilksey on September 27, 2022, 11:33:09 am --- I did ask him to think about viability of starting a company whilst the chip shortage

--- End quote ---

of course that could be an opportunity - consultancy work redesigning existing products to use available parts

Unless you find a good niche & a ready market producing products yourself is very high  risk as there can be substantial outlay with uncertain returns - consultancy/contract work is probably the best option to explore.
If he is very familiar with particular chip families, see if the manufacturer has a registered consultant type program ( e.g. Microchip design partner) - not sure how common this is with other manufacturers.


Wilksey:
Hi All,
Thanks again for all of your replies, quite a lot of information to pass along.

He is familiar with 8051 micro's, but that was more due to the fact they are used in legacy equipment rather than anything else, plus he has used them for "years".

There is a lot of talk about consultancy work, where would one go to find said consultancy work?  Is it these "6 month" contracts you see on job sites or is it some other avenue to explore?

He is UK based near Bristol(W-S-M to be more precise).

Thanks.

nctnico:

--- Quote from: Wilksey on October 04, 2022, 12:33:16 am ---Hi All,
Thanks again for all of your replies, quite a lot of information to pass along.

He is familiar with 8051 micro's, but that was more due to the fact they are used in legacy equipment rather than anything else, plus he has used them for "years".

There is a lot of talk about consultancy work, where would one go to find said consultancy work?  Is it these "6 month" contracts you see on job sites or is it some other avenue to explore?

--- End quote ---
Look on freelance websites, forums, make a LinkedIn page, call former employers / collegues, etc and you'll find jobs. Personally I'm not keen on long term contracts; they smell too much like regular employment to me but they could prove useful.

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