Anyone here working as a consultant/contractor or running their own firm? How did you get into it? Where do you find clients?

Find some local agencies that are looking for people to recruit. Some of them officially look for freelancers / self employed consultants, but most of them will try to hire you as one of their own first. Tell them this up front, they will still want to meet and then put you in their "pool of available consultants". Most of them you will never hear back from, but eventually you will get some offers from the few that are worth staying in touch with.

Big organizations / government departments etc use the big consultant firms (Accenture, KPGM, EY etc) to get their consultants. But these guys usually don't have enough people or the right people available at the time, so they ask their smaller partner firms which in turn have the same problem. Then these smaller firms look for freelancers that can sub contract through them.

Just get that first gig, and you will soon get to know the right people, learn how to navigate and start negotiating HARD. They are desperate for you!

Was a consultant (employeed), switched consultant company. Old Client called, I asked old company. They were fine. Started as a freelancer.

I just started my own business.

How I got my first clients:
- employers I worked for and did not burn bridges
- business cards I collected over the years
- fiverr (no shit, was wondering me)
- recommendations

I will also build a new website as an additional sales funnel.

I try to not work with agencies but instead work directly with the customer. it's harder but you have no middle man and therefore higher returns.

Yep, directly working with client is the best but the big gigs (banks, finance, government, military...) usually need to go through established agreements with larger consultant firms.

But those gigs are often better paid, longer lasting and less stressful. Currently on my 5th year now with the same government client, and on the highest rate I have ever received (by far).