Based on the headlines, many people assume that the gig economy is all about service level work on on-demand apps. But most freelancers work in independent consulting jobs that use high-level skills and extensive professional experience. The bulk of the gig economy is made up of knowledge workers.
We looked at this more closely in The Ultimate Guide to Gig Economy Data: A Summary of Every Freelance Study We Can Find. Some of the highlights include:
- Accenture looked at the state of the workforce and independent consulting and found that 85% of business executives intend to expand their use of freelancers in 2017.
- MBO Partners found that 20 percent of professional freelancers make more than $100,000/year.
But many of the websites, platforms and apps for freelancers are chaotic and too crowded to be used effectively by employers looking for high-level consultants for people looking the best independent consulting jobs.
They aren’t built for Supertemps, a description of this group in one of our favorite Harvard Business Review articles on the gig economy by Jody Greenstone Miller (Co-founder and CEO of Business Talent Group, one of the platforms discussed below) and Matt Miller.
We recently published a comprehensive list of the best freelance websites and felt that it would be helpful to develop a similar resource for sites that specialize in the kinds of freelance consulting jobs that highly-skilled independent contractors are looking for.
What is an independent consultant?
An independent consultant works on a contract or freelance basis and, in the U.S., is categorized as a 1099 worker rather than as a W-2 employee. The term “consultant” suggests work that is advisory, strategic or planning in nature. It usually doesn’t refer to direct services or creative services like engineering, writing or design. Think of an independent consultant as the highest skilled end of the gig economy spectrum.
Some companies have what they call “internal consultants.” These are utility players who work on a project basis but are on the payroll.
Related reading: How Many Different Freelance Careers Do You Know Of? We’ve Found Over 130 So Far
What kinds of jobs do independent consultants do?
- business analyst
- business development consultant
- business system analyst
- company valuation
- competitive analysis
- financial projections
- grants administration
- intellectual property investigator
- market research
- marketing strategist
- M&A advisor or researcher
- performance measurement planning
- pricing strategist
- product manager or product lead
- project manager
- quality assurance specialist
- revenue growth specialist
- SCRUM master
- solutions architect
- talent sourcing specialist
- technical engineering manager
- technical implementation consultant
- wealth management specialist
Websites where you can find independent consulting jobs
These unique marketplaces with freelance consulting jobs are great places to start your exploration and help you better diversify your income and professional network in the next year. Many of these websites mix true independent contractor jobs with job placement services for permanent roles and with interim executive services.
Freelance Rate Calculator: Know Your Expenses To Know Your Minimum
LocalSolo
LocalSolo has a very large selection of gigs for people doing creative work and direct services, so it’s on our longer list of sites for freelancers, but we wanted to call LocalSolo out here because it also provides a nice platform for strategy consultants to profile their experience for companies that need them.
Fees in brief:
No fee for the consultant; Negotiate rates with company.
Expert360
Expert360 is an talent marketplace that places independent consultants from a wide range of disciplines in high-demand roles for companies like Virgin, Ebay and Coca-Cola.
Payments are handled directly by Expert360’s clients and, while they do charge a 15-20 percent placement fee, this is handled by the client and not deducted from the freelancer’s pay (which can be anywhere from $500-$5,000/day).
Another perk for consultants looking to secure longer-term roles is that the platform also facilitates permanent hires with 15 percent commission taken on the first year’s salary.
Expert360 offers project placement services for independent consulting talent in business strategy, HR, marketing, deal advisory, finance, sales & operations and technology.
Fees in brief:
Negotiate rates with company; no info provided on the platform’s cut; marketing materials claim an average $1,500 daily rate.
Talmix
Talmix is a relatively long-standing independent consulting marketplace that connects experienced advisors in a wide variety of fields and disciplines with exciting projects.
The platform looks for many of the quality indicators premier project boards typically use to gauge fit (5+ years of experience, numerous client testimonials, a proven track record of results). But it also offers some special resources to help freelance consultants make their professional lives and use of the platform easier, like proposal writing guides and marketing video tutorials.
Some of Talmix’s big clients include Pfizer, Unit4 and Staples.
Fees in brief:
Invoice Talmix, and they add a markup to their invoice to the client; Unclear on their cut or how fees are set.
SpareHire
You’ll find a fairly traditional independent consulting platform in SpareHire — albeit a picky one. This is another addition to the “elite talent market” model like Toptal is known for in the software development world.
SpareHire offers freelance consulting jobs for investment bankers, managerial consultants and private equity, venture capital and corporate development specialists. The competition to be on this platform is high, but the projects are lucrative. You’ll need at least two years of experience in one of the fields mentioned above and a strong resume.
Fees in brief:
25% of contract payments; 20% of salary for full-time hires.
Flexy
Flexy is a closed community and job board for independent consulting professionals in IT, management, services, creative work, training and coaching. Experts can also find speaking gigs on Flexy.
The board has a slick and easily navigable interface and offers users a wide array of perks like entrée into professional networking events and online relationship building. It charges a 10 percent booking fee for successful matches.
Like many others, the Flexy platform also offers several administrative tools to help you manage your independent contractor business like contracts, invoices and taxes.
Fees in brief:
10% flat booking fee.
Mindbench
Mindbench is a consultant recruiting platform with a strong presence in Europe. They specialize in management consulting and offer placements for strategy, supply chain, operational improvement, change management and IT consultants.
In addition to servicing a variety of boutique firms, Mindbench recruits for “The Big 4,” which includes Deloitte, EY (f.k.a. Ernst & Young), KPMG, and PwC.
The project application process works similarly to that of many standard job boards. You search for a consulting job in your field that interests you and apply by emailing a project’s designated contact. The company offers both interim and permanent positions.
Fees in brief:
No info.
Clarity
Clarity is Startups.co‘s consulting marketplace and learning platform. Clarity allows “experts” to create profiles and sell their consulting services at a by-the-minute rate that they control. The marketplace takes a 15 percent commission on whatever that number is for each e-consult.
Clarity particularly specializes in the needs of startups — customer acquisition, user growth, business development and go-to-market strategy. It’s like an unbundled by-the-minute plan for Chief Revenue Officers.
Fees in brief:
Set your own rates; No info on who Clarity charges a fee to.
Credo
Credo focuses on gig economy professionals working in marketing. These independent consulting projects are in areas like content, paid search, link-building, email marketing, social media and technical SEO. Freelance marketers will find a large selection of opportunities suited to their talents. You can even find projects in your preferred industries (travel, law, e-commerce, real estate and local business). Credo’s model is to charge the consultant or agency an annual fee to appear on the platform.
Fees in brief:
$299/year for individual consultants.
Talent Exchange
Another high-end consulting app and marketplace, but with an interesting twist: Talent Exchange is actually PwC’s new flex staffing program. Talent Exchange marks one of the first examples of a company developing a internal flexible workforce platform. Consultants apply for high-demand roles in quality control, salesforce administration and a number of other analytical positions. Then PwC’s HR team sends compatible projects to them to claim. Talent Exchange is still technically in beta, so many of the specific “focus areas” of the marketplace are not fully organized yet. According to Miles Everson, leader of PwC US Advisory, the company ultimately intends to have about 10 percent of their workforce participate as flex consultants.
Fees in brief:
No info.
Catalant
Catalant (f.k.a. HourlyNerd) promises to help companies solve the problem of getting junior associates from consulting firms who are learning the industry with the project’s budget. Large companies can select from a pool of independent consultants to find people who already know the industry and the “role” and can start providing value immediately.
Catalant is looking for some of the highest-skilled consultants out there to work on projects like company valuation, competitive analysis, financial projections, go-to-market plans, performance measurement and pricing. Ninety percent of the consultants on the platform have secondary degrees and ten years or more of experience.
Fees in brief:
Competitive bidding and escrow format (i.e. UpWork style); No info on who pays Catalant.
Business Talent Group
Business Talent Group conducts interviews and reference checks of the consultants they take on in many of the same areas mentioned above for Fortune 1000 companies — business planning, market evaluation, competitor analysis, product strategy, mergers and acquisition and international expansion. They appear to have more of a particular emphasis on international and multi-national companies than the other consulting platforms we’ve looked at.
Fees in brief:
No info.
LabMate
LabMate helps faculty, researchers and grad students in the biomedical sciences find consulting opportunities. This is primarily designed for side hustles rather than full-time consulting, though it may end up being the bridge to private market employment for scientists. This allows companies and investors to get the latest insights on developments in immunology, virology, pharmacology, molecular biology and related fields.
Fees in brief:
LabMate takes 25% of the contractor’s payment.
Blumatter
Blumatter particularly emphasizes consulting talent for unique small-bore jobs. They claim to offer experts in 70+ “micro industries.” Some of the specialist work that the consultants on this site offer include business analysis, innovation management, market research, digital transformation and mergers and acquisitions research. Blumatter promises clients that consultants are thoroughly vetted, but little information is provided on the site to experts about that before beginning the application process.
Fees in brief:
BluMatter charges a percentage-based service fee to the consultant, amount not clear.
MeasureMatch
MeasureMatch is a consulting jobs platform that matches companies, agencies and consulting firms with highly-skilled independent contractors. They concentrate on a limited number of specialized domains around marketing technology, data management, analytics and insights projects. Projects their consultants work on include brand equity measurement, concept testing, demand forecasting, pricing research and technology audits. Many of the services involve troubleshooting the analytics and reporting functions in third-party software projects, so this also might be a good site for consultants who know an unfamiliar enterprise software.
Fees in brief:
15% of the contract; You negotiate rates with companies.
Paro
Paro is a platform where companies can hire the “outsourced CFO.” That’s an example that comes up a lot whenever people are talking about how the gig economy is expanding into leadership roles, but this is the first time we’ve seen a consulting website specifically focused on that talent. They also have gigs for freelance financial analysis specialists, bookkeepers and accountants.
Paro acts more like a matchmaker, handling the business development for you to place you with particular gigs, and you negotiate your rates directly with Paro.
Fees in brief:
No info
Comatch
Comatch connects corporate clients with hand-picked, hand-screened consultants specializing in areas like change management, organizational design, supply chain management, growth strategy, pricing, financial controls and competitor analysis.
Check this one out especially if you aren’t a U.S.-based consultant. Most of the clients on this Berlin-based site appear to be from Europe and the Middle East. This consulting marketplace also operates in multiple European languages.
Fees in brief:
No fee to consultants
Remote consulting roles versus on-premises work
Independent consulting jobs take on many forms and the actual places where this work is done can vary radically from project to project.
Related reading: Demystifying Consultant Pricing Models
As with work outside of these marketplaces, you’ll find clients who you’ll never actually meet beyond the Skype window, and others who will insist upon your physical presence in their workplaces.
If keeping your work arrangement completely flexible is a top priority for you, make sure that you seek out roles that allow you to maintain this lifestyle.
By the same token, great opportunities take on many forms. If you see a freelance consulting role that truly speaks to your interests and career priorities that isn’t remote, don’t be so quick to write it off. As long as you are not signing on for a long-term position, you have the ability to experiment.
Frequently asked questions about independent consulting jobs
How do you become a consultant?
The answer to this question could fill a book, but at Nation1099, we generally encourage people starting a consulting business to think about five areas:
- Domain expertise. Be great at the skills you are selling and have a plan to keep getting better at them.
- Business strategy. Understand where in the market your services fit in, who your competitors are, how you will differentiate your business in the buyer’s mind and your value proposition for buyers. Then develop a strategy about how you go into the marketplace in a unique way that lets you capture value.
- Business operations. This is all the stuff that a boss or other people in the company were responsible for — retirement, insurance, marketing, sales, taxes, supplies , IT, . . .
- Work-life balance. You need a real plan for both growing your business and finding time to push away from your desk and live your life.
- Relationships. Plan for how you will connect to, share with and learn from other professionals.
As our colleague Jessie Kwak says, it just takes one client, and you’re in business.
How many independent consultants are there?
We looked into this in our Ultimate Guide to Gig Economy Data: A Summary of Every Freelance Study We Can Find, and it’s not an easy question to get an answer to.
Approximately 33 percent of the workforce is freelance in some way, and we estimate that 11 percent of the U.S. workforce is full-time freelance. But that includes many people providing direct and creative services who you wouldn’t count as independent consultants. We couldn’t identify any studies that count only the kind of consulting gigs discussed here.
How big is the job market for independent consultants?
MBO partners estimates that in 2016 independent workers generated $1.2 trillion in revenue, representing 6 percent of the GDP.
Independent consulting boards: intended to supplement, not sustain
Independent consulting apps and marketplaces are intended to supplement careers, not sustain them.
These platforms offer newer consultants a chance to grow their resumes or bolster their income during slower periods. They also give established consultants some potentially lucrative opportunities to increase the value of their brands and make exciting new connections that can sometimes result in full-time or recurring positions.
However, marketplaces are not intended to replace building your own business through your own network. Growing your freelance business still requires good old fashioned outreach and promotion.
Have you experienced any of these marketplaces for yourself? Do you have any advice you’d like to share about them? Let us know in the comment section below!
[Updated 1/24/2018]
Wow, it looks like this type of freelancing is exploding, thanks for putting together this list of sites.
Thanks Charlie. BTW, we’ve updated it a little and keep adding sites. Let us know if we missed any. N.B. Freelance sites that are for less strategic and more creative gigs are on this related list: https://nation1099.com/freelance-websites-need-know/
As a software engineer who’s been freelancing for the past 3 years, I have been part of Toptal, Upwork, Freelancer.com and Flexy among others.
For a long time Toptal was my primary choice of work, but just like most other platforms, I’ve had one big problem with them: They do not have the interest of the freelancer expert at heart, but rather the companies/clients. When ever there’s a dispute on whether enough time was spent on a project, the company would get the benefit of the doubt and there is no way to measure whether the work was actually done as the actual work is confidential IP.
When an expert works overtime on a project, there’s no compensation for it, but when an emergency occurs where in a certain week the expert is not available to do the work, he/she has to take a cut.
I’ve searched long and wide for a platform that is truly transparent with the work and all the fees being charged. The closest to it I could find was Flexy, but it was far from perfect, so after signing up and having a look around the platform, I reached out to them and gave my 2c on what can be improved. As it turns out, they needed an engineer with the exact same skillset that I have at my disposal, so I joined their team and we are doing a complete rewrite on the project to truly create the best experience based on a vast amount of research, but also from personal experience.
The entire team at Flexy works on demand & remotely and the majority of us come from a background of using these other platforms.
Keep an eye out for Flexy Product 2.0 coming to you this Fall (or Spring if you in the Southern Hemisphere like myself).
Thanks for your perspective Pieter. One of the things that freelancers should educate themselves about and consider is the nature of “two sided marketplaces.” They work effectively when they are in balance so that the interests of both sides have a shot.
For example, if a flea market operator rents stalls to too many vendors, there is too much supply for the demand, which depresses prices, gives buyers the upper hand and gives a poor impression by making the foot traffic look too thin. Make the marketplace too exclusive, and prices will be too high for the market to work effectively.
The same issues apply to online platforms like these. I know I had the experience in a completely different domain — peer-to-peer lending — where the terms of service changed to give some lenders favorable terms over other lenders and therefore over the debtors. That broke the balance in the two-sided marketplace in my view and made it a place I didn’t get a value out of visiting anymore.
My own specialty is in edtech where many platforms for selling online courses have emerged, and one of the issues that learners and course creators have to deal with is that some of the platforms are chaotic bazaars with little transparency about pricing.
Freelancers and consultants looking at these websites shouldn’t have impossible expectations, but they should think about if the marketplace is in balance so it bring them fair value for their time.
Thanks Ben and the entire team for sharing this! It’s a great and informative article for independent consultants like myself.
Having been in consulting for about 4 years, and serving clients like BCG, Carrefour, Bel,.. among other top clients, the biggest challenge one faces when he/she decides to go independent is getting clients, especially in developing regions like Africa.
Are there specific marketplaces or networks for consultants where one can get Africa-focused projects?
I recently identified one marketplace based in South Africa called LinkdPro, but it’s still new in the market.
Any suggestions will be very helpful. Thanks.
Great question Rodgers. Hopefully other readers will have some specific insight on this. Here’s what I can tell you for now:
-One other platform discussed above that is based in Africa (in South Africa) is Flexy, though I don’t know that the jobs they list are focused there. Take a look and let us know what you discover.
-LocalSolo, also listed above, organizes gigs by city, because many of the companies hiring freelancers from their platform need people who are local. They are always expanding and adding new cities, so keep an eye out there. I see 3 South African cities on their platform right now.
Thanks Robert for the suggestion. I will share a conclusive feedback on the same.
Hi Rodgers, LocalSolo does support South African freelancers. If you live there, and your profile with LocalSolo is approved, then you are able to apply to any remote or South African based job on the LocalSolo job board.
Very well documented article. Yes, This marketing is growing very fast and soon more and more professionals will join freelancing model of providing services.
For High End Top Management Expertise, “Get Me Experts” ( http://www.getmeexperts.com) is emerging as a strategic consulting marketplace. The focus is more on Demand Generation from developing world. Infrastructure and Smart Cities as a specialised services given at the moment to global customers.
Check out Stubii – new marketplace in Canada for connecting qualified consultants with small businesses and startups.
Thanks Robert for putting together this list. Have you heard about COMATCH? They are a rising star in the German consulting market right now..