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Comment by logicalmonster | Hacker News Reader

I can't quite tell if companies you're trying to work with are locked into some exclusive provider contract with a firm or not, in which case there might be no way for you to work directly with them.

But you might have better luck approaching companies as a consulting firm rather than a freelancer.

Create a website for yourself to use for business as a small consulting firm.

Then approach the same companies offering the same exact service: you instantly seem more credible.

Make it clear if asked that you're not the freelancer. In fact, you can tell them you have a pool of expert freelancers and consultants ready to go for their own projects.

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> In fact, you can tell them you have a pool of expert freelancers and consultants ready to go for their own projects.

Don't lie. There's no need for this one, anyway. If your company presents as professional and competent, people will assume this. What you need is for your company to get a couple of initial gigs, and to get permission from the clients to mention them in marketing efforts. (That's the hard part, and it can take time if you're starting from zero. But it's only hard at the very start.)

Then do that. Potential customers aren't thinking "I wonder if they have a staff", they're thinking "I wonder if they can do the job properly". Being able to point to prior happy customers goes a long, long way.

It's not a lie unless you word your statement very poorly.

You have the exact same access as other consulting firms to 3rd party websites to find freelancers, if needed.

Do you know what these firms often do? They take any paid jobs they can get even without having the staff in place to do a project. If they need extra help, they scramble to find people at the last minute.

> It's not a lie unless you word your statement very poorly.

It is entirely possible to lie without uttering a single statement that is technically untrue.

Most companies don't care whether your company has one employee (you) or a million. So it doesn't matter whether you call yourself a freelancer or a consultant or a contractor or anything else. What matters to them is whether the entity they will be contracting with is a person or a company.

And as others have pointed out, this is usually for tax reasons: if the company contracts with an individual, the company is more likely to be viewed by the IRS (at least in the US) as your employer, and are thus subject to paying unemployment and payroll taxes.

Where does it go from marketing to lying?

“Make it clear if asked that you're not the freelancer” is that point.

I'm not sure if it even crosses over to fraud: “Material Misrepresentation means an act of intentional hiding or fabrication of a material fact which, if known to the other party, could have terminated, or significantly altered the basis of a contract, deal, or transaction.”

> “Make it clear if asked that you're not the freelancer” is that point.

What's the actual difference between a freelancer and a consultant?

If you call yourself a freelancer, you're a freelancer.

If you call yourself a consultant, you're a consultant.

You're not a freelancer by virtue of you labeling yourself as a consultant.

How is it a lie to say you're not a freelancer if you're calling yourself a consultant?

There's a difference between deciding whether you're a consultant or a freelancer today, and deciding that you're an agency of multiple people trust me bro I'm not even the freelancer that might be assigned.

How is it a lie to, if asked, say that you have access to a pool of consultants and freelancers? Is this not true?

It might be a lie if you say "I've worked with them 20 times before and trust them with my life and they're all currently on my payroll" but that's not what I suggested to say.

You can argue how many grains of sand make a pile, but that vagueness doesn't mean that one grain is a pile, especially when you _know_ and are _banking_ on the other party not sharing that meaning.

As soon as you're saying something that isn't true.

The guidance to "present yourself as bigger than you are" isn't bad, but it's not going to take any adult long to figure out that the same guy who responds to technical questions is the same one who submits invoices and receives tax paperwork.

That sort of "fake it 'til you make it" manipulation is part of the value that these middlemen provide. The hiring company gets a disposable individual contributor and the middleman puts up with silliness like what's described here.

If someone lied to get your business then you can be confident that they'll lie to keep it.

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