Ex consultant here, like many of you, I decided to quit consulting and start a small business. Would anyone be interested in following my journey if I post here and continuously update the thread ? I want to do it to keep myself accountable and hope I get insights / advice from you guys as well.

likeupliftinghelpful
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Yes please. I think this is a dream for many of us - to buy back our own time. What is your small business?

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I would love to know about your journey. As someone who is inspired to take this route in the future Id like to hear all about it! Congratulations for taking this step :).

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In the last two years I have also entertained other ideas basically all ideas are pain points in my life and products I wish existed. All below ideas dropped for various reasons.


- sell extraordinary kitchen knives - e-commerce ( discovered made . In and they are so good) dropped.

- sell custom vitamins for people - especially high quality probiotics - found out ritual and they are doing a good job. There is another one personalized medicine and dropped the idea.

- corkbased foot massage ball - too small total addressable market. Dropped.

- thin crust pizza. Indian style. ( my first job was a bus boy / everything boy in a multi cuisine food court - so hard, low return ) dropped.

- A2 milk based yogurt . Have a friend who owns a farm. Maybe can invest but people are so moving away from cow milk. Iffy idea, dropped.

- e learning for sap ( niche e learnings ) super scalable but I think it’s difficult to execute. Drop.

- tennis ball machine with a camera stuck on top of it. I have a mechatronics friend who got super excited about this. With machine learning and what not. Small total addressable market also very difficult to get it right. All or nothing business. Drop.

- amazing small batch hand made leather shoes. This is an idea I may try some day. Especially now that I see some images of 2000 year old shoes coming out. Such an awesome , niche business. I like it. Also many new players, Markhor, Rothys, allbirds, atoms, Feit.

- cloud software for X. I don’t want to deal with venture capitalists, Silicon Valley yahoos. Frat boys. Whatnot. Drop.

likehelpfulfunny

D9, I know with soccer there is an aspect of touch/weight on the ball that isn’t able to be emulated within a VR environment. Is that the same with tennis?

POST # 1 - Wow, this blew up. Thanks everyone for writing in. Alright let’s get started, since there are fairly enough number of people interested in this, I will go ahead and do this and I really hope that you will gain something out of this. I will try and keep this generic so you all can pick and pull apart ideas and use it in your area.

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I can help write the content if you need help

Hey OP, am writing an ultimate guide to consulting exits. Would you be open to sharing your story? Can I drop a DM?

likehelpful

Hey folks, it’s up on my website now- TheAbundancePsyche.com

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POsT #3 - for about a month I did not do anything, just bounced ideas with friends and family. I have 100k in the bank ready to invest and 6 months to come up with a business ( not just a plan ) Here is the list I came up with

1) drive Uber - risk 1 reward 1 complexity 0
2) write chatbots for enterprises devsecops- risk 7 reward 5 - complexity 7
3 ) enterprise security tools ( my area of expertise ) - risk 5 , reward - 5 complexity 9 ( enterprise sales is hard )
4 ) buy vacation rental properties - risk 4 reward 4 complexity 5
5 ) niche marketplace for my technology
Risk 3-4 , reward 5-8 , complexity - incremental.

likeupliftingsmart

POST #2 - background - couple of months ago I said bye bye to project work and decided to do something myself. This has been brewing for a while but the pandemic accelerated it. My background is in tech consulting and ran a team I am kind of an expert in my area with 15 years of experience, but I was open to any business idea and my goal was 150-250k yearly and want to be close to home / family.

likeuplifting

I decided to split cash into 2 50’s invest 50 into a rental property and the other 50 for the business. Wife said she can take care of mortgage for 6 months. I sold our car and I am ready to go.

likeupliftingsmart

POST # 9 - I just purchased the Web domain TheDeck.House. For years I wanted to do something like getaway.house but with more comfortable housing. Combining my interest in meditation with potential for passive income. One burnt out ex consultant inviting other ex consultants to come become one with nature lol.

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I do something very similar to this. It’s been incredibly challenging (mostly due to legal/regulatory issues) but early results have been positive. DM if you want to discuss.

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POST 5 - I decided to pursue/ take a stab at the marketplace idea first, see if I can validate the idea in a few months. I am working on a name , our angle, the value proposition. I decided due to the following

1) more companies moving to cloud.
2) more companies moving remote / open to hiring remote - geographic limitation is gone.
3) highly inefficient / fragmented market.
4) quick wins will bring cash fast.
5) growth / complexity can be tweaked based on my appetite, I have no interest in becoming the next Mark f/zuckerberg but maybe I may need to raise funds in the future so want to keep options open.


Thanks everyone. Once I have made more progress i will update this thread.

likeuplifting

POST # 8 just wrapped up a tough week people. I spent weeks researching rental property trends. Vacation rental destinations and impact of corona on the industry, finally put an offer on a 500k property with 10% down ( my first 50k) and my offer was outbid by someone with full cash. Man this sucks. But whatever. Tomorrow is a new week, let’s all wake up and bring it !

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Which city, CapOne1?

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Prior to starting I did some planning. Maybe this applies to everyone.
1) get ready to work hard.
2) sell car or close loans - I had 2 lux cars, sold one.
3) clear or close credit cards.
4) think long term and get ready for a rough ride ahead.

likeuplifting

Instead of a thread, a bowl will suffice the needs better. Following.

likesmart

Would love to be subscribed to updates. I also do growth/marketing/content consulting for start-ups and small businesses, happy to chat if advice in those areas would be helpful

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I just discovered substack. I am going to be writing on it and will keep everyone updated including sending out business ideas, exit ideas that other ideas from people who have contributed to this thread and in private with me. I’ll try and push it out this weekend. Cheers !

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Will definitely subscribe!

Hello there ,

Here is an update. I have ended up with 3 “projects”
1) short term - for immediate cash flow, I purchased an Airbnb, this was when the rates were really low last year, this investment basically made me ramen profitable.
2) signed a contract with a company to help them sell their cloud software. I wanted to pick up some biz dev skills and couldn’t think of a different way to do it without working.
3) working on prototyping a cloud SAAS software tool I have been thinking about for a while, its kind of a micro business, no plans of raising funds or VC / Silicon Valley style play,

The above is my short, medium and long term plays. I have picked them up based on their ability to pay while being semi passive. Cheers and enjoy !

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Glad to hear it!

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Happy to help and support if needed. Good luck to you.

likehelpful

POST #7

POST # 7 I am working on a name. Trying to find something which suggests nimble/ speed/ agile/ able/ expert . Dot coms for most variations are already gone. So now looking for two word combinations

When looking for a business name I have a two step formula
1) search google if name taken. Especially if you made up the name.
2) look for a dot com. Or a super short dot something else. Example I own su53.com ( niche consulting firm for sap , I paid 3 k for it) and it’s almost instantly recognizable for any sap guy /gal in the world) i purchased it when I was thinking about writing a sap tool for security people.

3) invent a word . I own www.parsnyp.com which is a variation of parsnip , paid 10 bucks. If I tell this to someone once, they will remember it forever - parsnip with a y. That’s what I called it back then. I was trying to create a social network for yoga enthusiasts. Failed after 1 year.



. Let’s see.

likeuplifting

Subscribed..

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Subscribed

Great idea. Would love to know more and support in anyway I can!

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