Hey, thank you soooOooOoo much for taking the time to write such a well thought out response.

I already have done some of the things you mentioned.

• I used to be a subcontractor in the past so I do understand the rates, invoicing, saving up for tax time, etc. I also have worked with Quickbooks, and I also have an LLC. Fortunately I have not dealt with late paying clients yet though I have had a couple of crazy clients who claimed I didn't do my work right and the bastards put a stop pay on the check -- I get a feeling the guy was ripping contractors off like this all the time.

-I have expertise in nationwide IT (hardware/software) deployments with up to 10 simultaneous sites on my own. This is from beginning to end: gathering requirements, writing out guidebooks, sourcing the right techs, training them, monitoring their work for compliance, documenting, etc. I also have done Vendor Management Office (VMO) work to ensure contract compliance, so I could act as a middleman between the organization outsourcing the work and the supplier. I am just now getting into datacenter type of work but I'm not very happy about it. I could technically tell my boss that I hate it and just go back to VMO work but something in me wants to test out datacenter work since usually those jobs pay a lot more but I am stressing out a lot because it's not my area of expertise.

• Can you give me more details on branding myself? Are you talking about releasing articles on how to do my actual work or discuss industry trends that LinkedIn would pick up and feature on their front page? I already have 500+ connections. I did write a book on how to become a PM recently, maybe I could kill two birds with one stone with this and promote the book while giving advice. Your thoughts?

• How do you network exactly? Do you just send out random invites? How do you talk to people in the industry? Are you talking about joining groups and getting discussions going and somewhat giving them advice on how I would do things better? I am friends on LinkedIn with several of my co-workers and I worry they may see that I'm getting too active.

• Any chance I can see your consulting agreement? That would be killer!

• I don't think my current employer will care about the non-compete to be honest. They are a huge company and they are quite disorganized about this and I highly doubt anyone will follow up with me on it. I also could do the contracts with an alias name that I use to go unnoticed. I've done it countless times when I was a contractor.

• I guess where I do fall short is how to actually sell or find new clients. Are you approaching big, medium or small sized clients? Can you give me an example story of how you sourced one or two contracts? That would be very helpful.

If you're too lazy to type out a response, let me know if you want to do a voice call. I promise not to be weird, clingy or to take away too much time from you.