Replying here, but also to the other response: I don't really have a formula (and if I did, I best be trying to sell it!) but for my case, it came down to letting friends and colleagues know that I'm open for work, and settling in to work on an interruptable bootstrapping project. The bootstrapped work has never come to fruition though it has been useful and may still become viable IP. But by word of mouth I came into working for a MedTech organization that needed a sizeable data normalization and analysis pipeline built. This could have been full time W2 work, but by that point (and after more than one burn-out) I had made up my mind that I was more of an 'outside cat' engineer that comes and goes as they please, and I asserted that I would work on a 1099 basis. This may or may not have been wise, but it did set the groundwork for being independent. It also introduces a subtle but impactful change in one's relationship to the organization that they are working for.

Case in point, about a year into the MedTech work, I was contacted by someone I knew at a large local cyber-charter school who was looking to build out a SWE team (as leverage with the other contractors they were working with). If I were a full time employee, the answer would have been 'Sorry, I'm busy'. But, as a 1099 worker with no set hours, I was happy to help them do interviewing to build out a core team. This lead to a long term advisory relationship with them, firefighting when things exploded, and also building a ton of automation and data governance back office utilities.

There have been some other tasks too, but if I had to boil it down to a few pithy points it would be to: play HARD to your strengths and be flexible.. But also don't be afraid to turn down work if you don't think you can hit it out of the park. Let everyone know that you're open for business too. A lot of organizations would be happy to have a problem solved without having the overhead of onboarding an employee.

This is predicated on you cultivating the level of experience and autonomy needed to get things done without oversight, or, in-fact, providing oversight of others trying to do 'the thing'.

My current challenge is in trying to move away from hourly billing and on to project-scoped contracts. Eventually I would like to build productized services and IP that make money while I'm asleep.. but who doesn't?