Need your guidance: For an indie developer what does it really mean to do consulting?

Hello Fellow Developers,

I am entering world of indie hacking at the end of this month. I come from corporate world but I have decided to give my best effort at indie hacking for at-least a year. I am excited about what lies ahead. While working on my product, I want to evaluate consulting/freelancing as a side hustle.

I have some questions around consulting especially for indie hackers.

1. For IndieHackers especially developers what does consulting really mean? Is it like freelancing or tech strategy work or working as a contractor. How much time of week/month does it typically consume. I would be grateful if folks who have taken the consulting route share their stories.

2. How do IndieHacker developers get consulting gigs. Is it via freelancing platforms like freelancer or are there any niche communities where such work is advertised.

For some more personalized context, I have 15+ years of ml and data engineering experience in Java/Python. I am based out of India.

I promise to summarize the replies and post it back to this thread or as a separate post so that it can serve as a guide not just for me but for future indie hackers with strong development background.

Thanks in advance.