Ok, interesting thread. I hear some people complaining about payments, deadlines, etc.
When I started out designing, I worked for 2 companies too. And both always seemed to be late with payments. The first one a bit more but however, after doing a few things for them I decided to give it a try and started working on my own. Now this was the best thing I ever did. No more begging for payments and stuff like that.
Only got 1 man not paying me for design sofar, as we agreed totally on the work. He is a GFY visitor too, but who cares anyway, he probably won't pay me after all.
What I am trying to say is, if you are the one who won the private gold contest, then why the hell don't you work on your own? The winning design was great and definetely the best off all. So start your own biz, I guess if people know you made the winning design finding work shouldn't be too hard.
Q.