To get to the life that you envision, it’s important to reflect on what you have to offer and to identify your area of expertise based on your experience and what you’ve learned over the course of your professional life.

Talk to your colleagues or other people who have had the opportunity to get to know you and how you work, how you do what you do, and also understand the extent of your knowledge. Seek input from people who know you well – colleagues, co-workers, even clients – because you may not see things that they see. Their observations about your strengths and weaknesses can be really valuable.

Tell people what you’re doing.

Share with your network what it is you’re doing and who you want to do it for. Make it as easy for people to help you by being as specific as possible so they know how they can help. Identify what each person can potentially do for you and then ask them very specifically for that. Most people are happy to do that.

Connect with others doing similar work.

Look at other consultants as partners who can help you move forward in your own business. They have a lot of perspective to share on client engagements, how to build relationships with clients, and how to know when the relationship is not working. Again, most people are happy to share this information if we ask and you have to be plugged into a community in order to have the opportunity to do that.

Understand that there will be a learning curve.

While you may have the technical expertise in your subject matter, learning how to be an effective consultant is, in itself, a pretty steep learning curve. It requires you to play a different role with clients than you may have played in the past. What worked or what was appropriate for your role within an organization are not exactly the same things that are going to work or be appropriate as a consultant.