When you say "consulting"...

[tentons]

...just what is it that you do part time to keep afloat? I see lots of people do "consulting" work on the side, but what does that entail, exactly? Do you call people and ask if they need advice, do contract programming, or what?

[FlySim]

Gigolo :D

I really do contract programming for several former employers. Havnt had to do any cold calling yet (4+ years). Downside is the commute - 10 long steps to the office!

-J.R.

[svero]

I think it depends. I use to do consulting work before I started Twilight, and in my case I had various different arrangements with companies. Sometimes it meant going to their site and doing some work, sometimes I'd work from home. The jobs varied. I did everything from medical to stock market software. Often it's hard to consult unless you have a specific skill set that's high in demand, or a lot of experience and contacts.

[GBGames]

I know someone who basically does general tech support on site. Some people are not familiar with their computers at all and need help to update it, clean it of viruses, trojans, and worms, and configure it to "just work".

I've actually done things like setup printers and clean out over 800 viruses per PC for something like $50 or more. And these were just friends or family members so I wasn't expecting to get paid. Small businesses where there is just one or two people will probably pay much more.

I never called it consulting, but I've found it isn't much different from what some "consultants" do.