I have been working in the same (highly specialized) area of software engineering for nearly 20 years
First question: how many potential customers have you come in contact with? Presumably, after 20 years you know the niche: how many companies are there out there that would be interested in hiring your services?
Next question: Any way you can build any "name recognition" in the niche? This is where "personal branding" becomes a good idea-- I'd start blogging, if I were you, and participating in conferences, etc.
The hardest part about being a one-man consultancy is customer acquisition. If you can create a situation where the customers are coming to you, asking you to work for them, you're golden. So: start from there, and work backwards-- how can you make that happen, in two years?
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I have been working in the same (highly specialized) area of software engineering for nearly 20 years
First question: how many potential customers have you come in contact with? Presumably, after 20 years you know the niche: how many companies are there out there that would be interested in hiring your services?
Next question: Any way you can build any "name recognition" in the niche? This is where "personal branding" becomes a good idea-- I'd start blogging, if I were you, and participating in conferences, etc.
The hardest part about being a one-man consultancy is customer acquisition. If you can create a situation where the customers are coming to you, asking you to work for them, you're golden. So: start from there, and work backwards-- how can you make that happen, in two years?