A few months ago I got an email from a family member (one of my wonderful aunts) who had just learned that she would be losing her job due to a company-wide layoff. She told me that while she would normally be “freaking out” about this, instead she recognized it as an opportunity to try something that had always been itching at the back of her mind: launching a solo consulting business.
My aunt has worked as an exec in the healthcare space for years, and recognized that she had some unique skills and experience that could make her an excellent consultant. She loved the industry and didn’t want to leave it.
We chatted back and forth over email about how to best get started, and at the end I realized that our conversation should be shared publicly in case there is anyone else out there looking to make the leap out of the corporate rat race into the advisory space.
What makes this particularly challenging is how much noise there is online about consulting. There are hundreds of articles with vague advice like “find your purpose” or “build your brand,” but very little that walks you through the actual steps. The stuff you need when it’s 10 PM, your job is ending in a few weeks, and you’re staring at a blank Google Doc wondering how to begin.
So let’s fix that.
If I had to start from scratch today, here’s how I’d build a solo consulting business. No fluff. Just the parts that matter.
(Note: this advice can be applied whether you’re looking to do this as a full-time career switch, or if you’re just simply looking to start a “side hustle” to earn some extra income. The principles will help in either situation. In fact, I highly recommend starting small, getting your feet wet, and then “leveling up” the scale of your consulting efforts as you start to build a pipeline of clients and revenue).
Tip #1: Get Ruthlessly Specific About Your Niche
The hardest—and most important—part of starting a consulting business is deciding what kind of consultant you’re going to be. And “strategy consultant” doesn’t count.
Consultants don’t get hired because they’re smart. They get hired because they solve specific problems. The narrower the niche, the easier it is for people to say, “Oh, I know someone who does that.”
You don’t want to be the person who “helps companies grow.” You want to be the person who “helps early-stage e-commerce SaaS companies cut churn by 20% in 90 days.” That kind of specificity builds trust before you even meet someone. It signals expertise. It shows clarity. And more than anything it helps you stand out from the thousands of other freelancers and consultants who are still clinging to buzzwords.
Here’s a simple exercise:
Make a list of the problems you’ve solved in your last 2-3 roles. Look for patterns. Look for areas where you consistently added value—especially where you saw results. That’s the raw material for your niche. Turn it into a sentence that starts with, “I help [who] do [what] so they can [why it matters].”
Your entire pitch, content strategy, and pricing will come out of that one sentence.
Tip #2: Sales Is Not a Dirty Word—It’s the Job
This part surprises people. Most consultants imagine that they’ll spend their days solving problems and talking to clients. And yes, you’ll do some of that. But if you’re a solo consultant, at least half your time—especially early on—will be spent selling.
Sales are the lifeblood of consulting. This is one of the things that I learned very early on as a young consultant at Deloitte during my first post-MBA job. The partners at the firm were first and foremost salespeople, not problem solvers. Their primary job was to bring revenue into the firm. Despite spending years and years developing the expertise to solve very specific problems, they instead leveraged that expertise to develop credibility with clients that they (and their team) could solve the problem the client was looking for a solution to.
Sales is not just how you keep the lights on. It’s how you build momentum. It’s how you test if your offer is working. It’s how you build confidence and gather feedback from the market in real time.
There are three reliable ways to generate sales when you’re just getting started:
1. Your Existing Network
This is your lowest-hanging fruit. Let people know you’re doing consulting. Not with a vague LinkedIn post, but with a personal email or invite for lunch. Via email is easy and you can reach out directly: “Hey, I’ve just started consulting focused on [your niche]. Let me know if you—or anyone in your network—could use help.” Inviting someone to lunch is also natural and lets you discuss it in more detail. Usually a combination of email/lunches is the best way to engage your network.
2. Consulting Marketplaces
Platforms like Catalant and Upwork can help you land your first few projects, especially if you’re okay with smaller contracts at first. Don’t make this your only channel, but use it to build credibility and get reps. I personally think marketplaces like this are the 2nd best place to get started as there is already a designated buyer for a service. All you have to do is prove that you’re the right person for the job to get a shot at your first engagement.
3. Cold Outreach
If your network is small or tapped out, go outbound. Cold email works (kind of), but my recommendation is to go a different route: LinkedIn. Get a LinkedIn Premium subscription and use its tools to search for individuals you know would benefit from your service (ex: if you’re an expert in helping HVAC businesses scale their operations, use it to find HVAC operators/owers). Send DM reachout to these people via the messaging feature. Keep your message short and to the point, but send over a short PDF/Video/PPT/Website (whatever you feel is best) that explains your services and what you can do.
Yes it’s scary to put yourself out there (and yes, the conversion rates are much lower than any inbound lead), but this is something many, if not all, freelancers have had to do to get started.
If you’re especially brave, you can even start publicly writing content on LinkedIn (or a newsletter 😉) to start building a brand and helping people discover you and what you’re good at. This can be especially helpful for generating inbound requests for your services.
Tip #3: Follow People Who’ve Already Built the Thing
One of the biggest cheats in business is simply learning from people who are already doing the thing you want to do. You don’t need to invent your own roadmap. Just borrow someone else’s until you know enough to draw your own.
There’s a whole ecosystem of solo consultants who share exactly how they’ve built their businesses—down to their pricing models, pitch decks, client onboarding, and proposal templates. These folks have spent years testing what works so you don’t have to.
A few standout resources:
- The Solo Consultant by Sean O’Dowd — An ex-BCG consultant who built a thriving solo practice. His archives are packed with brutally practical advice on how to find clients, write proposals, and price your services. I don’t think Sean actively publishes anymore (as he’s moved on to real estate investing), but his website is still active and the articles are gold.
- “The Unwritten Guide to Earning Extra Income” — This one was written by my co-author (Jason Alleger), and is especially good for people trying to balance solo consulting with a full-time job. Includes details on practical things like setting up an LLC, determining how much to charge, and step-by-step guide for creating invoices.
- David A. Fields — Author of The Irresistible Consultant’s Guide to Winning Clients, and one of the most client-centric thinkers in the game.
Spend a weekend reading these. Take notes. You’ll have more clarity in two days than most people get from a $5,000 mastermind. More importantly, these are free resources so you can save yourself from making some early on mistakes.
Tip #4: Hire a Virtual Assistant Sooner Than You Think
Here’s a truth I didn’t learn until I was deep into consulting: the fastest way to multiply your output is not to work more—it’s to delegate better.
The most overlooked productivity hack in consulting is hiring a part-time virtual assistant. You can find incredible talent in the Philippines or Latin America for $3–$7/hour. And they can take 10–20 hours of low-leverage work off your plate every week.
Tasks you can delegate:
- Research for client work or marketing
- Managing your inbox and scheduling meetings
- Formatting PowerPoint decks
- Sending follow-ups or invoices
- Organizing files and creating proposals
Think of it like this: if you bill clients at $150/hour, every hour you spend formatting slides is a $143 loss. Fix that.
Platforms like OnlineJobs.ph, Upwork, or virtualofficeassistants.com are great places to start. You don’t need a full-time employee. Just someone to take 5–10 hours/week off your plate so you can focus on clients and growth.
There is a lot of advice online about where/how to hire these resources + manage them. Similar to “follow the experts” advice given above, I would also spend some time on Reddit / Twitter / X / etc.. looking for people who have used VAs to great effect and see what you can learn from their experience.
This can be a gamechanger given how you will now be a “1 person shop” and it can easily 10X your productivity if you do it right
Tip #5: Use the Tools the Pros Use
You don’t need fancy software or a six-figure brand. But you do need a few professional tools to punch above your weight
- Consulting PPT Template — PowerPoint is what many consultants live/die by. You’ll want to have a PowerPoint template that allows you to create very professional looking decks very quickly. I highly recommend using some from slideworks (which has a lot of templates developed by ex-consultants from places like McKinsey and Bain).
- Analyst Academy – If you want to uplevel your PPT skills (and communicate insights to clients extremely effectively) I would recommend taking one of the courses from Analyst Academy (something I recommend all consultants do). You’ll develop world-class presentation / data visualization skills that your clients will love and will set you apart. Here’s the link to the courses.
These are the invisible things that make your work feel professional—even when you’re still figuring things out behind the scenes. I know we all laugh at PowerPoint (and the eye-rolling business cliches it evokes), but it still remains one of the most powerful 1-2 punches in the consulting world (in addition to excel spreadsheet modeling).
Final Thoughts
Starting a solo consulting practice isn’t easy—but it’s not nearly as complicated as most people think.
You don’t need a logo. You don’t need a website. You don’t need a polished brand or a massive following.
What you do need is clarity. Clarity about what problem you solve. Clarity about who it’s for. And clarity about how you’ll find those people and convince them to work with you.
Start small. Land one client. Learn fast. Iterate. Build systems to scale what works. Use leverage—tools, templates, and teammates—to create more value with less effort.
Over time, you’ll stop feeling like a freelancer and start thinking like a firm. That’s the shift that unlocks everything.
And the best part? You don’t have to wait for anyone’s permission.
