Security Career Strategy: Self-Employment as a Next Step

Security practitioners often have security careers that include experience in both public and private sectors. Barring a large inheritance or winning a major lottery, most people will work for 40+ years of their lives. You will likely make a dozen or more job changes during that security career timeframe. Some may be due to significant responsibility shifts within a single organization. In today’s environment, however, it is more likely you will be changing companies. Perhaps even the type of responsibilities of your various roles.

In addition to working for private or public sector employers, you may find a time when you are considering working for yourself. Circumstances that influence that direction are not always planned or by choice. If you make the decision to own and manage every aspect of what is best described as Me, Inc., you will need to develop a strategy for success.

If you decide to continue seeking work with an employer other than yourself, you will be running two companies with different objectives and marketing strategies. And they may be competitors for each other. While not entirely mutually exclusive due to cross over exposure of you as a brand, I would recommend that you concentrate most of your efforts on one or the other.

If you decide that you want to be a consultant working for yourself, you have two possible directions. In the first, you make yourself available as an independent third-party contractor and work on projects on behalf of the firm who has the contractual relationship with their client. On the second path you take the lead in developing and executing contracts for services directly with clients and do the work yourself, have employees on staff, or hire other independent contractors to perform the work.

To execute either of these approaches effectively even on an interim basis you will still need to develop a business plan. Determine what your legal structure will be. Obtain the necessary registrations, licenses, and insurances before you begin operations. Other key elements in your planning should include…

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