Claire,
The companies I’ve worked for are valued at $500M and more. Most of my longer term contracts (2-3 years) have been with larger companies ($2-3Billion and more). These larger companies tend to have a “track record” of using consultants and contractors. The smaller companies I’ve targeted are subsidiaries of the larger ones; and thus what’s good for the gander (the group) is good for the goose.
Some industries use more contractor services, than others. The finance industry is one, but the market is over crowded. I’ve targeted Manufacturing/Logistics Firms in the past and recently Utilities (water, gas and electricity). BA should be domain agnostic, except the “buyer of services” dictate some domain knowledge. I stay clear of ads that want specific product knowledge (ie, ‘should have SAP MM knowledge’); these are more system analysis.
Also watch trends in the market place. Companies are still recording and mapping business process. Its good to have some specialised knowledge of some process Tools (UML-activity and BPMN) and methods. Acquaint yourself with some end-to-end business processes. E.g. Order-to-Cash (Sales), Purchase-to-Pay (Purchasing) etc.!
Lastly, “follow the smart money”. Notice what the big-4 accounting firms are doing; also what the big product vendors are doing. The companies they target are the ones that should be on your radar as well. Most of the time, these large consulting/product firms deliver BA stuff (eg. a bunch of UseCases) that the client/subject matter experts may not have the sophistication to validate; hence it provides you great opportunity to “work” on the client side.
So in a nutshell, target larger companies with your generalist BA , domain and some process tool knowledge. As an independent self-employed consultant you’d be wise to consider ‘following the smart money”.
Warm regards,
K.