For an experienced HR professional, starting an HR consultancy can look like a natural next step.
You already know HR. You have years of experience solving problems, advising senior leaders and making decisions where there is rarely a perfect answer.
Surely running an HR consultancy is simply a case of doing more of that, but for your own clients?
Not quite.
One of the biggest adjustments when moving from a senior HR role into consultancy is developing a business owner mindset. Your HR expertise is still fundamental, but you are now responsible for building a business around it.
Stop waiting for someone else to set the priorities
However senior you become in employment, there is usually a framework around you. There are organisational objectives, budgets and deadlines helping determine what matters most.
As a business owner, you decide.
That means becoming comfortable making decisions without having all the information you might like. You could be deciding:
- whether a networking event is worth your time;
- whether to follow up a contact again;
- where to focus your marketing; or
- whether an opportunity is worth pursuing.
Waiting until you are certain can become a surprisingly effective way of standing still.
Practical tip: Instead of asking “What is the right decision?” try “What is the sensible next decision based on what I know today?” Most business decisions can be adjusted as you learn more.
Learn to value work without an immediate result
In HR, much of your working day has an identifiable purpose and outcome. Business development doesn’t always reward you so quickly.
You might attend a networking meeting without getting a lead, write useful content that generates no immediate enquiries or have a promising conversation that apparently goes nowhere.
It is easy to conclude that the activity “didn’t work”.
Vivian Adeyemi, who launched face2faceHR Bury St Edmunds in June 2025, experienced exactly this. She didn’t make any sales during her first three months. Rather than stopping, she continued networking and following the advice available to her, supported by her business coach and the face2faceHR team. Clients eventually followed.
A business owner mindset means recognising that today’s activity may be building tomorrow’s pipeline.
Don’t confuse being busy with building the business
HR professionals are generally very good at getting things done. That can become a trap when you’re running your own consultancy.
There will always be useful things to do. Refining a document. Researching something. Tweaking your website. Preparing for a meeting.
But ask yourself: what did I do this week that could lead to a new client?
Once client work becomes busy, protecting time for growth is even more important. Otherwise today’s successful consultancy can quietly become tomorrow’s empty pipeline.
Practical tip: Keep a short weekly “business owner list” alongside your normal tasks:
- one action to create a new opportunity;
- one to develop an existing relationship; and
- one to improve the business for the future.
It’s a simple check that being busy hasn’t replaced building the business.
Become commercially curious
You don’t have to transform yourself into a stereotypical salesperson to become commercially successful. Curiosity can be far more valuable.
Start paying attention to questions such as:
- Where do your best enquiries come from?
- Which conversations turn into meetings?
- Which services are most profitable?
- What problems are local businesses repeatedly talking about?
- Which activities are actually creating opportunities?
Senior HR professionals already know how to listen, diagnose and ask good questions. The shift is applying those skills to your own business.
Vivian, for example, has focused on building her local reputation through networking and developing referral relationships with accountants, business advisers and other complementary providers. She also has a clear goal of reaching 15 retained clients by June 2027.
That’s more than looking for HR work. It’s deciding what you want your business to become and taking deliberate steps towards it.
Use support as a shortcut, not a safety net
Nobody starts a business knowing everything.
Vivian has spoken about the things she didn’t know when she started, from company registration and registering with the ICO to networking and the practicalities of running a business. Part of the appeal of franchising was having systems, templates, training and people to help with those unfamiliar areas.
But there is an important distinction between having support and using support.
A franchise can provide a tried and tested model, training, tools, coaching and advice. What it cannot provide is the action.
It cannot attend the networking meeting for you, make the follow up call or put you in front of prospective clients.
Perhaps a better question than “What support do I have?” is “What am I doing with it?”
Developing a business owner mindset doesn’t mean losing your HR expertise
Years in senior HR have probably already taught you how to:
- make judgement calls without an obvious answer;
- build relationships and earn trust;
- influence people;
- handle difficult conversations; and
- adapt when circumstances change.
Those are business skills too.
The difference is where you apply them. Instead of using those abilities solely to help somebody else’s organisation succeed, you begin using them to make decisions about your own direction, clients, reputation and growth.
That’s when you stop simply working in HR consultancy and start thinking like a business owner.
Could your next step be business ownership?
If you’re an experienced HR professional considering what comes next, becoming a business owner doesn’t mean having all the answers before you begin. It does mean being prepared to take ownership, make decisions, build relationships and consistently take action to grow something of your own.
If that sounds like the challenge you’re looking for, download our prospectus or get in touch to find out more about building your own HR consultancy with face2faceHR.