A good friend of mine is an information technology consultant. He has worked as an independent contractor for the twenty-plus years I have known him and he acquires all of his new consulting contracts through agencies. Even when he works a year or two for the same client, the agency takes 20-25% of what the client is paying for his services. I once asked him why he didn't find his own clients, and he said he just didn't know where to look.

I was puzzled by this answer. After more than twenty years in the business, you would think he knew who his clients were. But then I listened more closely. He wasn't telling me he didn't know who they were; he was saying he didn't know where they were.

Since then, I've heard this same query stated over and over. Whenever an independent professional meets a successful person in his or her field, the newer professional inevitably asks, "Where do you find your clients?" It seems that where the clients are is a bit of a mystery.

The fact is your prospective clients are just people like you and me. They do all the things that people normally do and can be found wherever people are. Let's suppose for a moment that your clients are managers or executives who work for a corporation. Where are they at any given moment?

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