Ready to Leave Consulting? Your First 5 Actions

You've been thinking about leaving consulting for months. Maybe years. You're tired of building other people's businesses while neglecting your own ideas. You're exhausted by the travel, the politics, and the pressure. You know you have valuable expertise, but you're selling it by the hour instead of building an asset.

The problem isn't knowing you want to leave. The problem is you don't know how to start.

Most consultants get stuck in planning mode. You're used to having all the information before making a recommendation. But entrepreneurship doesn't work that way. You can't research your way to certainty. This is a common trap of analysis paralysis that affects even the most brilliant strategists. You have to start with imperfect information and learn by doing.

Here are the first five actions to bridge the gap between your consulting career and your own business.

Action 1: Define Your Transition Window (This Week) Stop thinking about leaving "someday." Create a timeline with specific milestones. An 18-month window is a conservative, safe approach. Work backward: What revenue do you need from your new venture by month 12? How many paying customers by month 9? How many validated conversations by month 3? This creates urgency and a clear plan.

Action 2: Extract Your Unique Value Proposition (Next Week) Don't try to be a generalist. Pick the one area where you've seen the biggest impact or most consistent demand in your consulting work. Is it a specific analysis you always perform? A framework you've developed? Package that specific expertise into a productized service, a course, or a tool.

Action 3: Start Building Your Audience Now (Week 3) The biggest mistake consultants make is waiting until they've left their firm to build their personal brand. Start now. Share insights on LinkedIn from your work (without violating confidentiality). Comment thoughtfully on industry discussions. Build an audience while you still have the safety net of a paycheck. This is a crucial step in Building Confidence to Act Despite Uncertainty.

Action 4: Test Your Idea With Real Conversations (Month 2) This is where most consultants get stuck. You're used to formal RFPs, but idea validation requires informal conversations. Reach out to former clients, trusted network contacts, and industry peers. The goal isn't to sell; it's to ask questions and understand their real problems. This will validate your idea or give you the data to refine it.

Action 5: Create Your First Simple Offer (Month 3) Stop waiting for the perfect business model. Create a simple, fixed-scope offer that solves a specific problem and that someone can buy without a lengthy approval process (e.g., a one-day strategy intensive for $5,000). Then make that offer to five people. You'll learn more from five real conversations about a real offer than from five months of planning.

The biggest mindset shift is recognizing that staying in consulting can be the bigger risk—the risk of never building your own asset. These five actions are your first steps toward mitigating that risk.

---

The transition from consultant to founder is a significant one. The 6-week FSTEP program provides a structured, supportive environment to practice these essential first actions.

Get a feel for the process with our free 5-Day Action Challenge.