> are you paid by then directly? yes. > what is the nature of the business relationship? i do work for them. they pay me to do it. > how did it start? i answered an ad and sent them my resume. > how much control do they have over exactly how you do your job?  day to day activity? zero. i'm the expert (lol). no supervisor. no timeclock.  my only performance metric is to have my tasks completed on time, and even that has quite a bit of wiggle room (anything from being hit by a bus to supply chain problems to conflicting priorities between projects, etc). they frequently come to me with harebrained ideas and ask > is this possible? and i'm like  > well i'd have to dream it up > custom make many of the needed parts > spend thousands on the stuff that's available commercially > have to spend a couple months prototyping and refining > but yeah give me like a year or year and a half and i'll give you 50 of them.  i charge them my rate, keep the interested parties updated of progress, and they pay me once a month.
United States