I'm located in France where the market is a bit special because permanent jobs are overprotected and companies are begging to contact instead of hiring.
Basically as soon as you go over the edge of creating your company, you can start searching. The same "meat traders" who want to recruit you for a permanent job on a service company, they will be willing to hire you as a contractor. Rates go in Lyon from 270€ per day to 550€ for the same mission as a perm job, and upnorth of 600€ in Paris, for very basic Java skills, like the guy who doesn't know Maven.
The same recruiters. They just try not to tell you about contacting when they think they can hire you as a perm for half the price. It's ok to take a commitment on a few months for the first mission, so you get some credentials. Then you can follow patio11's advice ;)
Basically as soon as you go over the edge of creating your company, you can start searching. The same "meat traders" who want to recruit you for a permanent job on a service company, they will be willing to hire you as a contractor. Rates go in Lyon from 270€ per day to 550€ for the same mission as a perm job, and upnorth of 600€ in Paris, for very basic Java skills, like the guy who doesn't know Maven.
The same recruiters. They just try not to tell you about contacting when they think they can hire you as a perm for half the price. It's ok to take a commitment on a few months for the first mission, so you get some credentials. Then you can follow patio11's advice ;)