Excellent advice! This is exactly what I'm doing and I'm busier than ever. As budgets tighten, companies are looking for better (cheaper) ways to get the same work done. It's times like this that enable major shifts. OP has it exactly backwards. I can't imagine releasing a free app right now when the pickins' are so good.
A couple of recent examples:
One company has a lot of clerical work but a hiring freeze. I automated their intranet-->fax function, freeing up enough time to get more work done with the same number of people.
Another company had to push out all of their purchase orders for the next 18 months because their revenue stream was slowing down. A nice little 3 week project for me.
Another company had planned on getting a new Oracle product for $500K until I showed them how to get the same output from their existing system for one fifth that amount. (Hopefully they'll have me do that work.)
Notice the pattern: slowing economy --> more IT work --> everybody happier.
A couple of recent examples:
One company has a lot of clerical work but a hiring freeze. I automated their intranet-->fax function, freeing up enough time to get more work done with the same number of people.
Another company had to push out all of their purchase orders for the next 18 months because their revenue stream was slowing down. A nice little 3 week project for me.
Another company had planned on getting a new Oracle product for $500K until I showed them how to get the same output from their existing system for one fifth that amount. (Hopefully they'll have me do that work.)
Notice the pattern: slowing economy --> more IT work --> everybody happier.