How To Start An Independent Consulting Company In 2026 | How To Start Freelancing Part 1

Where do you even start your consulting or freelancing journey? That is what we'll be discussing in this video. We're going to go over a couple key concepts when you're just getting started. Now, this is before you even start answering the question, you know, how are you going to land clients, how much you're going to charge, you really need to answer some key questions first. And here's the different sections we'll be going over for this video. One, we'll be discussing high-value skills and why people even hire consultants. Two, we'll be discussing, you know, how you can pick a niche and really take you through that process that I hope you can kind of pause the video and actually reflect on what you're trying to do. And then three, we'll talk a little bit about like the business aspect. So, things like LLC, S corps, sole proprietorships. We'll just discuss that lightly so you kind of know, hey, here's how I can kind of start heading in the direction of setting up a business. But before we dive too much in that, first off, I want to say, hey there everyone, my name is Ben Rogojan. I have been consulting and freelancing since uh the end of 2021, when I quit my job at Facebook. And to give a little more background on that, since a lot of people probably are wondering, you know, how do you get started? I actually got started several years even prior to that uh in 2017, when I got my first consulting client. But I slowly realized there was a ton of other stuff that I needed to learn along the way, like how to actually land clients, how to uh price projects so that you can actually have some predictable income, and just a whole other set of skills, and I'm now aiming to share that with you. I at this point have again not worked anywhere since Facebook back in 2021, when I was trying to juggle both consulting and freelancing uh for a little bit. I actually came in to Facebook with a client already, and worked with them to make sure that, you know, all of the stuff that I was doing in terms of consulting was above board. But eventually, I kind of ended up having two full-time roles where I was trying to still get a promotion at Facebook, and I was trying to actually run a consulting business, and had to kind of make a decision. So, since then, I have been doing this. So, let's talk about the basics. First off, when it comes down to consulting and freelancing, the very thing that I think everyone needs to understand is you need to have some sort of skill that solves a business problem. Some of that early on can be more like, hey, we're solving a technical problem that is maybe not super connected to the business, but like that is, you know, parallel to the business, so maybe it solves the fact that they're trying to build a basic website, you know, they have these clear problems. But eventually, I think the more you kind of grow as a consultant, you try to uh be attached more and more to business outcomes. In order to do that, you need kind of that first kind of a lot of people call it a high-value skill, just something that people are willing to pay you for, right? For some people, it's data engineering, marketing. Like all of these can be skills if you are really good at it that someone is willing to pay you for, right? Like that is the idea. Right, whatever it is, it needs to solve some key problem that the business has, right? Landing clients, analyzing data, whatever it might be. Now, I think some people might argue that, you know, with AI, some of this stuff is going out uh the window, right? You're not going to be able to consult on some of this. My view of it is one, if you look up on how a lot of the other consulting companies are making money right now, in many cases, it is because of AI, because they're taking on projects. We'll have a few newspaper clippings here where a lot of these companies are actually taking on projects that are trying to solve these AI problems, right? Like people want to use AI, they have no idea like AI, or more specifically LLMs, are still so kind of new. People don't know how to implement them towards business problems. So, that is arguably a whole space that if you are good at, could be where you focus on consulting. But even if you're doing something like data engineering that feels like it will be replaced, I still get so many prospect calls weekly, you know, anywhere from like two to three, where people are looking possibly for at least advice, if not hiring someone to do data engineering work. So, there's still a ton of work, and there's a ton of rework, and a ton of migrations that need to happen. So, just in our space, there's work, and I imagine that's the same in plenty of other spaces as well. The truth is, the way I look at it and when you ask like, why do people hire consultants? It's when there is things like ambiguity, or tons of decisions that people don't feel confident in making. That is when people maybe start looking for people who've done it before, which is often a consultant. They're looking for someone to kind of give them certainty. come in, share their experience. So, there is still that gap. I do not think that is going anywhere anytime soon, at least. So, that kind of gives you maybe a little bit of the why. Now, I think it's important for you to start answering some questions about yourself in terms of what problems you can solve uh and what niche you're going to focus on. So, this is where I recommend you actually take a moment and start to answer the questions of one, what skills do you actually have that people are willing to pay for? If you can't answer that question, that's going to be a hard place to even start. Two, are there specific business outcomes you've actually driven at your current job that you feel like you could do a really good job of driving for their companies, and that you know other companies have said problem? Right? I reference fraud detection, maybe it's like a Snowflake implementation, maybe it's, you know, migrating from Snowflake to Databricks. Maybe there's something you're really good at that you should focus on. So, I would take some time and

write down first, kind of maybe the higher-level skills. Second, more of the clear problems that you've either solved, that you like solving, that you think you can solve uh next. And then from there, I would think about what are two or three niches, or two or three areas you really like to focus on. These don't have to perfectly guide you forever, right? I think some people get overly stuck here and think, I need the perfect niche uh day one. I don't think that's the goal at all. I think you want to kind of have a general idea, so that when you're doing marketing, when you're doing sales, you have something that when you go to people and you talk to them, you kind of can tell them who you are, what you're about, what problems you solve, because then they start to connect you as the person that solves that problem, and then whenever that problem arises in the future, they connect it to you. So, I would focus on that. Don't spend months overthinking it, spend out some time. It will probably adjust. Like I have definitely had my adjustments as a consultant. Early on, I wanted to focus a lot on data science. I found a lot of data science projects were actually data engineering projects, so I focused more on that. And then through that, I found that Airflow was a big need for a lot of companies, as well as just setting up initial data stacks. You will start to learn um as you kind of go through the process of talking to more people, working on more projects, you'll start seeing some patterns. And the final thing I'd probably write down is trying to figure out what your why is, right? Like, what is the why for why you want to maybe start your own consulting business. Um obviously, there is an aspect of money. That will never go away. We all need to pay for bills, we all have things that we need to get covered. But if that is the only reason, I think that can be a little weak in the sense that as you go on, if you're just trying to make money, the first few months, or maybe even year or so, may or may not be better than, you know, you just working at a job. It might either equal or be a little less than that as you're trying to get better. And so, if your only reason for working for yourself is money, it might eventually be too fragile if it takes a little too long. But if you have other reasons as well um on top of that, such as, you know, wanting to work for yourself, thinking that you can drive more value not being an employee, but instead being an external consultant and freelancer that maybe can drive projects faster. You know, those I think are reasons that you might want to consider. Or maybe you like working on multiple types of projects, and you get bored easily, right? Those are reasons why you might consider consulting, I think, that are a little stronger. But you might have a completely different reason, right? Why you might do it. Maybe it's just a side hustle where you're trying to make a little extra money. But find a legitimate reason that isn't just money. Obviously, money always plays a role. But it might falter if it's just that. All right, now that you kind of know, again, your why, you kind of know what problems you want to solve, now you can start thinking about your business, right? Start thinking about what do you want your business to be? One, you got to think of a name. For me, I ended up picking Seattle Data Guy, which now I live in Denver, so that's always an interesting uh conversation uh starter as most people are like, how is Seattle? And I have no idea. I mean, I can check the weather, but I have not been there other than here and there for a vacation. But, you know, pick a name that tells a little bit about what you are, problems you solve, maybe just even a little bit like about your personality, uh if you'd like. But I pick a name that you want to set the tone. From there, I do like to think about like, what's the general vibe you want people to feel, right? Like, how do they want them to experience the business? Uh and then finally, you got to start figuring out how are you going to set up the business in the sense of, is this an LLC? Is this a sole proprietorship? Is this a S corp? E. g., which is kind of also connected to an LLC. What I usually recommend people, and this is my personal take, again, you should always talk to an accountant, is if you're just getting started, and you have no idea if you're even going to make money this year, maybe it's probably better idea just to go the sole proprietorship route. Just because if you go down the routes of accounting and setting up an LLC, there are fees and costs, etc. And if you get zero business at all, you spent money, and you don't have anything to show for it. Sole proprietorship, you know, you have to you basically take that money as income, and so if you make $100,000 um and then you make another $10,000 on top of that, now that's your total income is 110, and you get taxed on it like income. On the other side, if you go the LLC route or S corp route, uh that's where things get a little more complex. You obviously have some benefits in terms of liabilities, and in terms of how they go. On the other side, you'll often hear people talk about like S corps. The reason people often do this is because then they don't get double taxation, which means you don't get taxed on the business, whatever your income was from the business, you know, whatever your net take home is. And then you don't get taxed again when it gets paid to you, essentially. So, that's one reason people like to do it. Uh they do pass-through income on the S corp side, so you actually just get the money straight to you, and then you have to whatever's left over from the business or after you've paid expenses, it goes straight to essentially your income, and now you pay the tax just on that. But even in there, again, there's more depending on the types of corps and how you set everything up. Uh so, do talk to an accountant. My recommendation generally is one, if you're just getting

started, don't make it too complex, but as soon as you start, you know, making over 10 or 20,000 dollars in a year, that's when it's worth to talk to an accountant, I think, and figure out, "Hey, what am I taking on? " The other thing, as you're doing all of this that you need to consider, is insurance. Especially if you start touching very private and like, you know, PHI, so healthcare data, or just data that needs to be kept private, right? Or anything that you're setting up a business that could, you know, if something went wrong, could lead to a negative outcome for you, right? You need insurance. There are a few types that people often get. Most people get like general liability insurance and like some sort of professional liability insurance. Somewhere in the range of 1 to 2 million dollars. I've only occasionally been asked for like above 2 million dollars of basically coverage, but usually 1 million should be sufficient. But again, talk to a lawyer and accountant as you're setting up your business to ensure this. This is just my experience. So, we've covered kind of the basics of starting your business, right? Kind of got your why, you've got your general niche at this point, and then hopefully, you know, you've got some idea of where to head with your business. Again, hopefully that just gets you started in the right direction. Um feel free to ask some questions below. If you have any other questions, again, you can join the TFA, it's free. Uh there's tons of free resources already there that you can look into. And if you want to help support us, that's great. You can become a paid member, but if not, just come in, chat, say hi. Uh we'd love to see you there. Thanks so much for joining us in this video, and I'll see you all in the next one. Thanks, all. Goodbye.