Overview

10 Smart Moves & 10 Mistakes I Made Going Solo is a practical, experience-based course for professionals considering the move from employment into contracting or consulting, as well as those who have already made the move and want to operate more deliberately.

Rather than presenting independence as the goal, the course looks at the decisions behind it.

You’ll explore the choices that helped me build greater stability, commercial capability and control, alongside the mistakes that created unnecessary risk.

The objective is simple:

Learn from my experience before you have to learn everything from your own.

Going solo is not about removing responsibility.

It is about taking ownership of your income, risk, decisions and future.

Practical lessons from moving from employee to contractor and consultant

Going solo can look straightforward from the outside.

Leave employment. Find work. Charge a day rate. Build a business.

The reality is very different.

Over the years, I made decisions that strengthened my position, created opportunities and gave me greater control. I also made mistakes that increased risk, created unnecessary pressure and taught me lessons I could have learned much earlier.

This course brings those lessons together.

Not as a formula for quitting your job, but as a practical guide to understanding what actually matters when you start taking greater responsibility for your income, reputation and career.

Module 1: The Reality of Going Solo

Understand what really changes when you step outside employment

Going solo is about more than changing where you work.

As organisational support reduces, responsibility increasingly transfers to you. What may once have been handled by an employer — sales, pipeline, cash flow, administration, development and commercial risk — becomes part of your role.

This module introduces one of the central ideas behind The Solo Move:

Risk does not disappear. It moves.

More control can create greater opportunity, but it also brings greater responsibility and greater consequences.

You’ll Explore:

• Why freedom is only part of the independence story
• How risk progressively shifts from employer to contractor to consultant
• Why sales, pipeline, cash flow, administration and development increasingly become your responsibility
• Why being technically good at your job is not enough to operate independently
• The identity shift from completing tasks to creating outcomes and value
• Why competence, reputation, positioning, relationships and commercial skills all contribute to sustainable independence

Focus:

Understanding how responsibility, risk and commercial expectations change as you move from employee to contractor and consultant.

Module 2: The 10 Mistakes I Made

Understand the mistakes that can make solo work unnecessarily fragile

These are not hypothetical warnings.

They are mistakes I actually made — and some of them more than once.

The useful part is that most are avoidable once you recognise the pattern.

This module looks at the decisions that can quietly reduce your control, increase financial pressure and leave you more exposed than you realise.

You’ll Explore:

• Leaving without enough runway — why cash buys time, negotiating power and options
• Assuming the work would continue — why performance does not guarantee continuity
• Underestimating financial pressure — why your day rate is not the same as your salary
• Trying to do the same job under a different arrangement — why the expertise may stay the same while the commercial model changes
• Underpricing early work — how price establishes expectations and signals value
• Saying yes to everything — why every opportunity consumes finite capacity
• Relying too heavily on one client — how concentration can quietly become dependency
• Ignoring the pipeline — why looking for work only when you need it is usually too late
• Avoiding difficult conversations — why clarity around scope, price, payment and expectations protects relationships
• Focusing on delivery instead of positioning — why doing good work today does not automatically create tomorrow’s opportunity

Focus:

Recognising the behaviours that create dependency, financial pressure, weak positioning and unnecessary commercial risk.

Module 3: The 10 Smart Moves I Made

Build the quieter foundations that create control over time

The decisions that helped me most were rarely dramatic.

They were often fairly boring things done consistently.

That matters, because sustainable independent work is generally built through discipline rather than boldness.

You’ll Explore:

• Building a financial runway so money creates decision-making space rather than immediate pressure
• Maintaining genuine professional relationships before you need anything from them
• Entering through trusted channels where reputation and introductions reduce buyer risk
• Positioning for continuity by understanding what sits beyond the immediate task
• Controlling early risk rather than trying to remove risk completely
• Learning how work is actually won by starting with the client, problem, buyer, timing and risk
• Pricing risk and value, not simply time
• Managing expectations early around outcomes, scope, responsibilities, assumptions, timing and change
• Building pipeline while delivering so tomorrow’s opportunity develops alongside today’s work
• Learning to say no when the work, rate, risk, timing or fit is wrong

Focus:

Creating greater control through financial space, trusted relationships, commercial discipline, pipeline and deliberate decision-making.

Module 4: From Expertise to Commercial Value

Connect what you do with why it matters

Most experienced professionals understand delivery.

They know how to solve problems, execute work and produce outputs.

The gap many people underestimate is learning how that expertise translates into commercial value.

Delivery asks:

“Can I solve it?”

Commercial thinking asks:

“Why does solving it matter?”

Strong independent professionals learn to connect both.

You’ll Explore:

• Why excellent delivery is only one part of an independent business
• The difference between technical execution and commercial thinking
• Why capability gets you into the conversation, but value influences what happens next
• How context, communication, trust, relevance and outcomes affect perceived value
• Why clients frequently value the change created rather than the deliverable itself
• How value can appear through reduced risk, better decisions, lower cost, greater confidence, faster outcomes or improved capability

Focus:

Move beyond describing what you do and clarify the outcomes, impact, and value your expertise creates.

Module 5: Build Tomorrow While Delivering Today

Develop pipeline before you need the work

Pipeline has a delay built into it.

A relationship or conversation today may not become an opportunity for weeks or months.

That creates a problem for people who become completely absorbed in delivery.

When the current engagement finishes, it is often already too late to start thinking about what comes next.

You’ll Explore:

• Why pipeline activity produces delayed results
• The progression from relationships to conversations to opportunities
• Why full calendars can hide empty pipelines
• How delivery urgency can crowd out future business development
• Why relationships, visibility, conversations and useful ideas compound over time
• How to remain commercially visible without turning every interaction into a sales pitch

Focus:

Delivering today’s work while continually creating the relationships, visibility and conversations that support tomorrow’s opportunity.

Module 6: Assess Your Readiness

Decide whether your right move is Stay, Prepare or Move

Going solo is not automatically the right decision.

There are three legitimate positions:

STAY
A deliberate, informed choice.

PREPARE
Strengthen the foundations before moving.

MOVE
When readiness meets the right opportunity.

All three can be good decisions.

The purpose of this module is to help you look beyond confidence or enthusiasm and consider your actual position.

You’ll Explore:

• Whether you have sufficient financial runway
• Whether there is genuine market demand for what you offer
• Whether trusted relationships already know and value your work
• Whether you can win, price and manage work commercially
• Whether you are personally ready for the responsibility independence creates
• What the consequences would be if things did not go to plan
• The signs that may indicate “not yet”
• The signs that may indicate you are closer than you think

Focus:

Assessing readiness across financial, market, relationship, commercial, personal and consequence dimensions rather than relying on intuition alone.

Module 7: Create Options Before You Move

Strengthen the foundations before creating urgency

One of the most useful lessons I learned is simple:

Don’t resign first. Create options first.

Before worrying about logos, websites or business names, strengthen the foundations that actually influence whether independent work can become sustainable.

You’ll Explore:

• How to understand your real financial position and required runway
• How to test whether your proposition makes sense to people who may actually buy it
• Why reconnecting with professional relationships should happen before you need work
• The risks of excessive client dependency
• Why competing purely on price can weaken your position
• Why unnecessary overhead reduces flexibility
• Why relationships should never be casually damaged on the way out of employment
• The difference between revenue and genuine security
• Why finances, relationships and proposition should come before the visible brand

Focus:

Creating financial, commercial and relationship options before you create the pressure to make the move work.

Tools and Resources Included

• Participants’ Handbook
• Reflection Quiz to consider your readiness
• Practical prompts to apply the lessons to your own situation
• Over 50 insights earned from someone who has made The Solo Move

Who Is This Course For?

This course is designed for experienced professionals who are:

• Considering leaving employment for contracting
• In the early stages of contracting
• Thinking about moving from contractor to consultant
• Trying to create more control over their career
• Interested in going solo but want the reality rather than the hype

You do not need to have decided to leave employment.

In fact, one of the most useful outcomes of the course may be deciding that now is not the right time.

Outcome

By the end of this course, you will have a clearer understanding of:

• What going solo actually changes
• Which decisions can strengthen your position
• Which mistakes can unnecessarily increase your risk
• Why relationships, runway and reputation matter
• Why pipeline needs to exist alongside delivery
• How to think more commercially about your career
• What you should start doing before you make your move

Most importantly, you will be able to look at going solo as a structured career and commercial decision, rather than simply a leap away from employment.

This Course Is Not About Quitting Your Job!

Going solo is not for everyone.

And it does not need to be.

The Solo Move is not about convincing you that independence is better than employment.

It is about giving you enough perspective to make a better decision.

You may decide to STAY.

You may decide to PREPARE.

You may decide to MOVE.

What matters is that the decision is deliberate.

Preparation creates options.

Structure creates control.