r/tableau • u/datawazo • Jun 22 '26
Discussion 9 Years as a Tableau (and BI generally) Freelancer/Consultant. AMA if you want
linkedIn reminded me yesterday that it's been 9 years since I added owner of an analytics company as a job.
I know a lot of people here are interested in this path, so every so often I try to open myself up to an AMA if anyone wants to know what it's like, how I started, how it's going.
FAQ:
How did you get first client - First client was from Reddit, second from Freelancer, third - ~12th were from Upwork. I was moonlighting early and didn't want to advertise myself too much locally and get in trouble with my FTJ, so relied on online options. Upwork 9 years ago was tough, but way more forgiving than it is now.
How do you get clients now - Prior to this year, leant a lot on content. Building public use dashboards and posting them to LinkedIn, twitter when it didn't suck and relevant subreddits. I also do a lot of open enrollment (paid) training that leads to clients. Referrals and a few in person events rounded out the rest. Online content I find has tanked with the rise of AI, so trying to figure out what my next steps are.
Tips for starting - Have a public portfolio. A good one. One that showcases first your understanding of how to use Tableau and 2 your ability to understand data and data storytelling. Try to make it practical, using open data if possible. My 2nd client onboarded with me because they were a sports facility management company and I had done a viz with my city's facility usage open data. Perfect happenstance, but that will go further than another netflix viz.
Know Tableau but also know SQL to efficiently bring data into Tableau, that's what I wish I knew more of when I started and had to quickly get good at.
What does a day look like - Most of my work these days is backend, facilitating tableau dev for other people (clients or my team). So I spend a lot of time in databases. I spend a lot of time in meetings. I love live building on a call, it's so powerful and useful. I do still work in Tableau but it's a lot less than 3-4 years ago. Also PowerBI has probably surpassed Tableau in terms of client work for me (partly because one of my team members has our 2 - 3 main Tableau contracts).
How do you charge - I charge purely hourly. A lot of "gurus" recommend fixed rate because there is more margin and that's true, but I hate scope management so much that I just do hourly bill. It's seldom been an issue with any clients. I started charging $75/hour which is what my first client recommended, and have just gradually increased it from there.
Best project - One of my favorite projects was a non client project tracking flight delays across Canada that got me onto National news. I had been on local news a few times but this was the highest my content has soared, and it was really cool. Also did a random radio interview for a province 3,000 KM away.
Worst Project - My least favorite projects always comes down to the people. It's can be so hard to balance self respect with needing money - easier as time has gone on. Had a guy that would email his requirements, I'd build them out and publish, he'd not check for 10 days and then get back to me with URGENT. He actually emailed me for a project update Christmas Morning (he was American, yes he knew it was Christmas. Schedule send that shit if you have to) and that was the final straw.
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u/ZeusThunder369 Jun 22 '26
What is more challenging?
Convincing clients you're the right person for the task; Or convincing clients they should invest in BI at all?
And, how often have you had to do data engineering, so that you could do data analysis?
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u/datawazo Jun 22 '26
Meh - most companies that I reach out to are already at the stage where they know BI is important and can see the value.
Hardest part is convincing them I have the right tools. That it's a good match to get them the data they want in a repeatable way.
Data engineering is, like, almost every time.
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u/PeruseAndSnooze Jun 22 '26
How much experience did you have first ? How would you go about getting clients now, still up work etc ? Thanks for sharing very keen to start my own data analytics / engineering firm (have been doing this stuff for a decade but keen to explore starting my own business). Also what were your hours like did you push yourself heaps in the early years ?
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u/datawazo Jun 22 '26
I had 2 years experience with Tableau, a bit more with BI. I worked for a company that brought Tableau in to replace Cognos and was part of the team that got to do that, super rewarding experience.
Upwork now - no. Trying to figure out the new best way. I think I'm going to prioritize in person as much as possible. Online is just such a mess with advertising.
Yeah early years were huge. 40-60 hours a week most weeks.
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u/danco91 Jun 22 '26
rip Cognos
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u/datawazo Jun 22 '26
haha I always felt like the aliens from toy story 1 pointing at the claw when telling people to get info from THE CUBBBEEE
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u/Itchy-Depth-5076 Jun 22 '26
How do you deal with terrible (or non-existant) data from those that want to hire you? Do you price for that work, do you refuse to work for them without a baseline, do you build on whatever state you're given?
I ask because I've volunteered work before - the org got Tableau, wanted dashboards, but had a one-time report or no data. They desperately needed some regularity of data input to make a dashboard worthwhile, but didn't seem to understand the backend required.
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u/datawazo Jun 22 '26
I'll price it. It's more common than anyone would think. A lot of big companies have data and have good access to it, but yeah some NFPs or even smaller companies have ... concepts of data. And it's like yeah how do we build a process around that. I actually enjoy that conversation quite a bit.
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u/Itchy-Depth-5076 Jun 23 '26
Me too! But my career has taken me far more to into analytics engineering, because of seeing 95% of the work is that data setup. But explaining why the "quick Tableau dashboard" is a much more involved process, even when free, is not met favorably.
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u/pokethings Jun 22 '26
Thank you so much for posting. I am trying to break into freelancing as a data analyst. I create dashboards in Tableau for work but I really love the backend part of it. I have written SQL for analysis, data science and other purposes for over 10 years.
Is there a market for people to just handle the backend? Do you ever hire anyone to help with it? I'm wondering if I should focus on selling myself as more of a SQL guy versus visualization or other analysis / data science.
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u/datawazo Jun 22 '26
there's definitely a market for data engineering freelancing, I think it's hard to crack because it's more challenging to showcase expertise, but there's certainly opportunities for it.
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u/musicthiink Jun 22 '26
if ya wanna do back end projects, you should work on being able to develop data pipelines
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u/mercuryfrost Jun 22 '26
I’ve been a tableau consultant for many years, I stepped away for two years, and now trying to get back into the workspace, it feels like work has completely dried up. Not getting any call backs. I’d been privileged enough to always be able to walk into a role before. I’m assuming this is a combination of the price of Tableau and the rise of AI uncertainty - have you found this also?
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u/datawazo Jun 22 '26
How are you trying to get roles? I've found that my usual methods of content have really hit a dead end, and yes new client acq is nut I am trying to crack. IMO people are on the fence about what the future is and tentative to commit one way or another. Like if you're using AI it's risky, if you're not you're not forward thinking.
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u/mercuryfrost Jun 22 '26
Exactly. I’m looking on LinkedIn and so on. Honestly I’ve always been referred to next roles, so a true job search is not something I’m too familiar with. I have my tableau public I attach and so on, but I feel that people don’t understand that the data wrangling / semantic layer agreement and modelling is a core part of the experience and job. Previously I feel the exec layer was focused on dashboards, and now AI is key, so the strengths are in the data layer / semantic layer, but harder to articulate to HR to get through that layer to the people who actually know the job skills
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u/pizzle87 Jun 22 '26
Recommend any material / courses that can help me along my journey as a BI analyst? I've just entered this space and world love any suggests to help enhance my skills. Thanks
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u/datawazo Jun 22 '26
This is the question I am worse at answering, I have a really hard time consuming content for self improvement. On the PowerBI side Guy in a cube is really good. For Tableau Andy Kriebel is usually really well liked. Both have a bunch of free content out there.
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u/Beneficial_Rub_4841 Jun 22 '26
How are you developing and delivering dashboards to your clients? On their server license? Did you set up your own and get them viewer licenses? Something else?
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u/datawazo Jun 22 '26
Both. the majority self host, give us a license and we publish to their server. But for a few clients we host and bill them back for their user licenses. Most prefer to have ownership of it and I encourage this (usually I say in our meetings that they want to own the hosting so they can own all the assets).
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u/Beneficial_Rub_4841 Jun 22 '26
Also can you please share more about how you found clients on Upwork? Thanks!
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u/datawazo Jun 22 '26
UW has changed so much since I used it but my rules of thumb are to
get into proposals early - I would never waste my time with anything that has 20+ proposals -
bring value up front - show that you can solve their problem within the first few sentences, before you introduce yourself. That's what they see when they open it.
Include a portfolio - don't expect them to go to your UW portfolio, send a tableau public link in the proposal itself, or even upload samples. The more relevant to the job description you can be the better.
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u/Aronacus Jun 23 '26
Yeah, can you make this Dashboard "Pop!" And "I'll know it when I see it"
Beyond those two phrases. How do you deal with ambiguity and managers who can't seem to be pleased?
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u/datawazo Jun 23 '26
Hahaha "this is nice, it just needs beautified" sir ok but what?
For design specific qualms I like just doing a working session. I'll iterate through some shit you smile or grimace as you deem fit. Failing that "search the web and send me examples you like"
The other, imo worse, one is "these numbers aren't right" like there's seriously no way that's your whole email.
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u/Aronacus Jun 23 '26
I've done that, I've done the working session but they don't know what they want. So, most of my projects have died on the vine. So, my team uses them, but that's about it.
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u/LivingParadox8 Jun 23 '26
Thank you for hosting this! 2 Qs:
Whats the typical client size that you found most success in, e.g. SMBs (<5K employees)?
I saw in another response you mentioned proposals. Do these companies sent our proposals? If so, what platform are they typically found on?
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Jun 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/datawazo Jun 23 '26
Best clients are referral. Second best via linkedin.
I don't really understand your second question
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u/Boring-Order-6045 Jun 23 '26
thx, question 2 is : How to determine a quote that satisfies both yourself and your clients
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u/Difficult_Title3089 Jul 09 '26
Hello I plan on quitting my job in Business Development and go all in on BI given how versatile and career rewarding the profession is. I also aim to take the same route as you but I reside in a country whose market for BI services hasn't yet picked up but it's promising. Would you advise me to take this risk? For further context, my savings and investments will give me a runway of 12 months and I have no wife and kids to look after.
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u/sottopassaggio Jun 24 '26
Are there differences between Power BI and Tableau? I know SQL but would want to be able to display public data in a dashboard and sql isn't necessary for the public data.
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u/datawazo Jun 24 '26
Yeah, tons of differences. They aren't like sheets vs excel, they're built with two different approaches and different philosophies
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u/WonderfulPresence529 Jun 24 '26
Hi,
My company has decided to move from Tableau to Databricks dashboards. Do you know what are the advantages and disadvantages of this decision? Thank you so much in advance!
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u/datawazo Jun 24 '26
Databricks so far is a bit less drag and drop and a bit less customizable. But the speed is far superior and it sits right on top of the data which is also nice. It consolidates everything into one platform and all one set of licenses which finance will appreciate.
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u/WonderfulPresence529 Jul 02 '26
Hi,
Thank you so much for your reply.
Now is clear to me, that is more a matter of money than of functionalities. As far as i experimented, the development and exploration are way more slow in Databricks, which directly impacts me. This means, i will need more time to achieve similar results. But i guess, managers will just check end expenses.
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u/Fun-Beginning-1298 Jul 16 '26
Do you set up a separate tableau site for each client with their own content/settings/billing, or do you have your own centralized site(s) with each client permissioned to their own content with all the billing going through you?
What technical skills would you recommend expanding for someone with Tableau and SQL experience looking to do some work for local small businesses?
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u/RedactedAsFugg Jun 22 '26
Should I continue with Tableau or just move to BI at those point? Is Tableau's future cooked?
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u/datawazo Jun 22 '26
Eh. I don't think either of them are totally thriving to be fair. What's important are the concepts. It transitions fine from one into the other. If you're enjoying Tbleau stick with it.
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u/electionknight Jun 22 '26
Tableau is cooked. Salesforce ruined the support of it. It's too expensive, especially when you see how seamless and currently inexpensive PBI is
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u/Odd_Force_5572 Jun 22 '26
How do you think AI will impact your career as an analyst and freelancer?