1) Find a single large client with a steady stream of work. Quit your job to contract with this client, use new freedom to solicit additional clients. Avoid becoming entirely dependent on this single client, though.
2) Establish enough savings that you can reasonably coast for 12 months while building up the business. Make acquiring new clients your #1 priority.
The biggest challenge with consulting is not doing the work. It's getting the clients. It's an entirely different skillset than engineering, which is why so many freelancers fail. You should start networking and building relationships with potential clients long before you quit your job.
> Avoid becoming entirely dependent on this single client, though.
I watched a friend grow his business over the course of 10+ years from a sole proprietorship to a small LLC to a great digital agency which employed dozens.
One of his first contracts, somehow, was doing design work for a Fortune 100 company. As his agency grew his relationship with them did as well. His company ended up essentially becoming their outsourced design shop, and 65%+ of his revenue came from them. Towards the end he and his team were being flown to Dubai to set up exhibition spaces and shows, then flown around the country for meetings, and times were great.
Then Covid hit. Nobody wanted on an airplane, which tanked his client's financials. Costs needed to be cut, so his client axed their design projects for the next few years. 65% of his revenue went away – along with a huge chunk of his pipeline. The ending wasn't pretty.
1) Find a single large client with a steady stream of work. Quit your job to contract with this client, use new freedom to solicit additional clients. Avoid becoming entirely dependent on this single client, though.
2) Establish enough savings that you can reasonably coast for 12 months while building up the business. Make acquiring new clients your #1 priority.
The biggest challenge with consulting is not doing the work. It's getting the clients. It's an entirely different skillset than engineering, which is why so many freelancers fail. You should start networking and building relationships with potential clients long before you quit your job.