I'd love to hear more about the frontend people who excelled in consulting, as being independent / my own boss would be my ideal path.

I've done my share of contracting, but unfortunately as I've gotten more experience, I haven't found it any easier to find work (could be the market), and wages haven't gone up at all. It seems like no one wants to pay above $100/hr for frontend contract work and I was making that almost 5 years ago.

Prob hurts a lot that I've been remote for the last 5 years, and thus haven't built much of a network.