September always has that “new term” feeling. The summer holidays are over, children are back at school, and many of us find ourselves slipping back into routine. For HR professionals, it can also be a moment of reflection. With the busyness of summer behind you, this is the perfect time to ask: what do I really want from my career next?
If you’ve been wondering whether now is the right time to start your own HR consultancy, here’s the thing: it’s not just about using your HR expertise differently. To succeed, you need to start thinking and operating like a business owner. That shift in mindset is what transforms an HR professional into an entrepreneur.
To bring this to life, throughout this month we’ll be sharing examples from one of our consultants, Jane Fryatt, who launched her HR consultancy in 2018. Over the last seven years she’s grown from working solo to leading a thriving team, and her journey offers some great insights into what it really means to move from HR professional to business owner.
To get started, ask yourself four key questions.
Question one – what isn’t working for me right now?
Start with honesty. Think about your current role:
- Is the commute eating into family time?
- Do you feel hemmed in by corporate structures or frustrated by constant firefighting?
- Are you using your HR expertise strategically, or does it feel undervalued?
- Do you crave autonomy, but feel you’re stuck delivering someone else’s priorities?
Writing these frustrations down can be powerful. Business owners look at gaps and inefficiencies all the time. This first step is about recognising what isn’t serving you, so you can plan to change it.
When Jane left employment to start her own HR consultancy, she had her own list of frustrations. What motivated her was the chance to create a working life that truly aligned with her values, and she’s now built a thriving business with over 50 regular clients.
Question two – what do I want my working life to look like?
Here’s where you switch gears. Don’t just think about “what job would make me happier.” Think about:
- What kind of clients would energise me?
- How do I want my working week to flow around family, hobbies, and personal goals?
- What values do I want my work to reflect?
- How much freedom do I want to choose who I work with and how I work with them?
When you think like a business owner, you don’t just design tasks – you design your lifestyle. Your HR skills don’t go away, but they become tools in a bigger vision: creating a business that reflects you.
For Jane, that meant developing a consultancy that combined retained HR support with bespoke projects like investigations and mediation, services she loved and that matched her strengths.
Question three – what might get in the way?
This is where the “business owner mindset” really shows up. Obstacles aren’t dead ends; they’re challenges to plan for. Common ones HR professionals identify are:
- Winning clients – where will they come from? How do I market myself?
- Business know-how – finance, contracts, compliance, sales… what if I don’t know enough?
- Confidence – am I really ready to put myself out there?
- Support – who will I turn to when I need advice?
Instead of letting these questions stall you, write them down. Business owners anticipate risks and prepare strategies to address them. That proactive thinking is what moves you forward.
Jane faced many of these concerns herself. She admits it took a long time to secure her first retainer and that investing in staff was a financial risk at first. But rather than seeing these as reasons to stop, she treated them as challenges to plan around – exactly what a business owner does.
Question four – what can I do about it?
This is the turning point, where reflection becomes action. If you’ve identified skills gaps, what steps can you take to close them? If confidence is the issue, who could you learn from or connect with? If marketing feels daunting, what small step could you take this month to test the waters?
For Jane, action meant committing to a structured marketing plan and staying consistent, even when it felt like it wasn’t working. She credits that persistence, plus the support of a business coach and her franchise peers, with helping her achieve a 400% increase in turnover over five years.
Stepping into the business owner mindset
Shifting from HR expert to HR business owner isn’t about abandoning your skills – it’s about applying them in a new way. It’s about taking ownership of your future, making decisions with confidence, and creating a working life that reflects your goals and values.
As Jane puts it:
“I’ve built a business I’m proud of, supported by a network that genuinely cares about my success. I now have the freedom to work on my terms while continuing to grow and develop.”
So as September begins, and routines settle back in, maybe it’s time to ask yourself; are you ready to start your own HR consultancy and think like a business owner, not just an HR expert?
If this has struck a chord, why not explore it further? You can download our prospectus for a deeper look at what it takes to start your own HR consultancy, or simply get in touch for an informal chat about what running your own consultancy might look like in practice. Sometimes the first step is just starting the conversation.