One of the advantages to a small conference is the ability to take attendee feedback and put it in place during the conference. We actually made time for the attendees to pick topics they wanted to discuss and this episodes comes from one of our attendees Aaron Hayes.

It can be very tempting to think of the good life of consulting. I almost liken it to playing the lottery--what am I going to do with all that time and money? While the odds on successful consulting are a bit higher than the lottery, just saying you are a consultant won't automatically bring in the clients.

The reasons data professionals get into consulting are varied and in this episode we are joined by Randolph West and Jonathan Stewart, former podcast guests, to talk about the reasons we started consulting and some of the challenges along with our decision.

From my own personal experience, working for yourself--whether you consider yourself a contractor or a consultant--is very rewarding but demanding work. There is no one to tell you want to do, but there are very few security nets as well. One of the most important ideas I can suggest for those who want to own their own business is--forget the technology, how are you going to help other people? If you are ok with the idea of focusing on others, then there are great opportunities in store.

Do you have thoughts about jumping into technology? Let us know in the comments below.

The show notes from today's episode can be found at http://sqldatapartners.com/2017/10/20/episode-114-how-do-you-start-consulting. Have fun on the SQL trail!