I was let go by my previous company 18 months ago. All I knew was that I didn't want to end up in another ship of fools so I decided to strike off on my own as a consultant.

THe first thing I would say to you is 'take heart.' I had no idea how I would survive and yet I find that I have. You will too.

The second thing I would say to you is 'network, network, network.' I have no idea about your industry but my observation is that people tend to hire consultants they are friendly with and, if they have no friends, from a corporate consultancy.

The key question for me would be: Do you know enough people, today, to give you survival-level business for 12 months?

The closer you are to being able to answer 'yes' the easier it will go for you and, in that time, you will be able to grow your network into a sustainable business.

If you want another view speak to Terry Frazier of Blog Cognosco. He is much more experienced than I am and will likely give you a much better perspective.

I wish you the best of luck.

Matt

This week's Computerworld has Eyes Everywhere: Business activity monitoring offers a constant watch on business processes, which immediately struck me as quite similar to the John Parkinson talk on the Real-Time Enteprise that I wrote about the other d... [Read More]