Two years ago I left a $230K salary to start a HR consultancy from my spare bedroom.
The bet was simple.
I wanted to build something that gave me control over when I work, where I work, and how much I earn.
And I wanted to prove that an HR person could do it without a co-founder, without funding, and without living in a capital city.
That business now does over $500k in revenue per year (and now I live by the beach).
I sat down with
The Modern People Leader recently to break the whole thing down. Year one, year two, all of it.
Year one was about getting from 0 to 1.
I had one marketable skill (compensation consulting), no pipeline, and a spreadsheet I used to convince myself the numbers would work.
Most of that year was spent learning how to actually run a business, because being good at your craft and being good at selling your craft are two completely different skills.
I worried over my pricing. I said yes to work that didn't fit. I tried to do everything 'compensation' instead of doing one thing well.
Year two was about building beyond consulting.
Once I had a stable client base, I started layering in revenue that didn't require me to trade hours for dollars.
- A newsletter (
FNDN Series, now 5,500+ subscribers).
- A virtual summit (
Startup People Summit).
Sponsorship revenue. Content partnerships. A guide for HR people who want to do exactly what I did.
Each one started small. Each one compounded.
And I'm open sourcing all of it.
Every number. Every mistake. Every decision I made along the way.
Because when I was sitting in a People leadership role wondering whether I could do this, I couldn't find anyone in HR sharing the real details.
Revenue breakdowns, pricing models, what actually worked and what didn't.
So I'm being the change I want to see.
If you're in a People role right now and you've thought about going out on your own, this interview covers the full picture.
- What year one actually looks like when you have no clients.
- How to diversify once consulting is stable.
- And what I'd do differently if I started again tomorrow.
Full interview here:
https://lnkd.in/dt5RY4aN
289 - How to build an HR consulting business (And Scale to $500K Fast)
289 - How to build an HR consulting business (And Scale to $500K Fast)