I had a product management job and was thinking about getting back to programming fulltime. One day I went on job site and there was ad that reads "Looking for programmer" no body, nothing. I replied just for fun, went for interview and took it as a freelance gig which let me quit my previous job, work on my own various projects and travel the world for couple of years.
It was ERP programming for construction company that bought assets of software company which went out of business. 11 years later, I am still working with this customer for couple of hours each month and I can still lean on it and make it pays all of the bills for my 4 person familly. It basically works as a basic income for me.
if he's been consulting with the same company for 11 years, he must have a very deep knowledge of how everything works and be very productive. I wouldn't be surprised that he just has a retainer kind of deal with this company for maintenance, which could be a few 000s a month and for him only take a couple hours, but would be a lot of trouble for the client to find someone else.
It was ERP programming for construction company that bought assets of software company which went out of business. 11 years later, I am still working with this customer for couple of hours each month and I can still lean on it and make it pays all of the bills for my 4 person familly. It basically works as a basic income for me.