Positioning Your Consulting Firm Before You Leave Corporate America (or Retire)

What Senior Professionals Need to Know About Website Positioning Before Launching Their Practice

If you're a senior tax executive considering launching your own advisory practice after you retire, or a quality VP thinking about consulting as you leave your corporate role, or a COO who's ready to help other business owners navigate what you've learned over 25 years—you're probably thinking about your website as something you'll "figure out later."

You'll get the business set up first. Lock in a few anchor clients. Then hire someone to build a professional-looking website that explains what you do.

Here's what I've learned working with dozens of professionals making this transition—whether they're leaving corporate positions or launching practices in retirement: that sequence is backwards. How you position your firm from day one determines whether you attract the clients you actually want to work with—or spend years repositioning because your website makes you look like everyone else.

Recently, I was meeting with my own CPA, and she shared something that perfectly illustrates this shift. She explained how she's been quietly repositioning her practice, moving away from the high-volume tax prep grind toward working monthly with a portfolio of businesses as their de facto CFO. These clients pay her to structure cash flow, plan for exits, and design tax strategies that save them multiples of what they invest in her services.

She's doing this intentionally. She knows routine tax preparation will increasingly be handled by AI, and she wants to be positioned around the judgment-heavy work that only an experienced professional can deliver. But here's the relevant part: she wishes she had positioned this way from the beginning. Instead, she spent years building a practice around tax prep, and now she's working to evolve her positioning while maintaining existing client relationships.

You have an advantage she didn't: you can position correctly from the start.

Why "Generic Consulting" Positioning Fails Before You've Launched

When you're still employed but thinking about your firm—or newly retired and exploring what's next—it's tempting to stay broad. You might be thinking:

  • "I don't want to limit my opportunities too early"

  • "I have expertise across multiple areas—why narrow it down?"

  • "I'll let the market tell me what clients need"

This sounds prudent. It's actually the fastest path to invisibility.

Here's what actually happens when you launch with generic positioning:

You create a website that says "I provide strategic advisory services to mid-market companies" or "I offer tax planning and business consulting for growing businesses." Your homepage lists your impressive corporate credentials—20 years at Fortune 500 companies, led teams of 50+, managed $100M+ budgets.

Then you wait for clients who recognize your value.

But sophisticated buyers don't hire "strategic advisory." They hire someone to solve a specific problem they're facing right now. And when they search for help—whether through Google, LinkedIn, AI assistants, or their network—they're looking for someone who has solved their exact problem before.

The executive who just received an FDA warning letter isn't searching for "quality consulting." They're searching for "medical device warning letter remediation" or "FDA 483 response consultant."

The founder of a $40M family business isn't looking for "exit planning." They're looking for "succession planning for manufacturing companies" or "how to prepare a family business for acquisition."

If your positioning doesn't match the specificity of their search, you won't be found. And even if they find you through referral, your generic website won't confirm that you understand their specific situation.

The Positioning Decisions You Need to Make Before You Build Anything

Before you hire a web designer or register a domain, you need clarity on three questions:

1. Who Exactly Are You Serving?

Not "mid-market companies" or "business owners." Who specifically?

  • Manufacturing companies with $20M-$100M revenue preparing for acquisition?

  • Medical device companies (Class II/III) facing regulatory compliance challenges?

  • Nonprofits running capital campaigns over $5M?

  • Closely held service businesses with tax complexity from owner distributions?

The more specific your answer, the more clearly you can position everything else—your website, your LinkedIn profile, your initial conversations, your content strategy.

2. What Transformation Do You Deliver?

Not what you'll do (conduct analysis, provide recommendations, develop strategy). What changes when someone works with you?

  • Books that were co-mingled and chaotic become acquisition-ready in 90 days?

  • A warning letter that threatened manufacturing operations becomes a closed FDA case?

  • A business owner who was paying 35% effective tax rate now pays 18% while remaining fully compliant?

  • A family business with no succession plan has a clear three-year path to exit that preserves legacy?

This transformation becomes the foundation of all your messaging.

3. What Pattern-Recognition Do You Bring That Generic Consultants Don't?

You're not launching a firm because you read some books about consulting. You're launching because you've solved specific problems repeatedly in your corporate career, and you recognize patterns that less experienced people miss.

Maybe you've managed FDA remediation under regulatory pressure five times, and you know exactly which responses satisfy regulators and which ones escalate enforcement. Or you've led three successful exits as COO, and you can spot the operational issues that derail acquisitions during due diligence. Or you've structured tax strategies for owner-operators for 15 years, and you know the exact scenarios where S-corp vs. C-corp vs. LLC matters.

This pattern-recognition is your differentiator. Your website needs to demonstrate it, not just claim it.

What Your Website Actually Needs (And What It Doesn't)

You don't need a 12-page website with every service itemized and every credential displayed. You need four strategic pages that make it immediately clear who you serve and what becomes possible when they work with you:

Homepage: Reflect Their Situation, Not Your Credentials

Your homepage should make someone feel understood within five seconds.

Compare these two approaches:

Generic (what most new consultants write):
"After 25 years leading quality operations for Fortune 500 medical device companies, I now help mid-sized manufacturers improve compliance and operational excellence."

Specific (what actually converts):
"When your medical device company receives an FDA warning letter, your manufacturing operations are at risk, your shipments may be delayed, and your executive team needs a remediation plan that satisfies regulators without shutting down production. I've managed 40+ warning letter remediations for Class II and Class III device manufacturers, and I know exactly which responses move you from enforcement risk to sustained compliance."

The second version doesn't open with your credentials. It opens with the reader's reality—the moment when they realize they need help. Your credentials support the narrative later, but they're not the headline.

About Page: Pattern-Recognition, Not Resume

Your about page isn't your LinkedIn profile converted to paragraphs. It's where you demonstrate that you've solved this specific problem enough times to recognize the patterns that others miss.

Walk through a scenario you've managed multiple times. Show the complexity, the common mistakes, the stakes. Then explain what 25 years of experience changes about how you approach it. This demonstrates expertise in a way that listing your former employers never will.

Services Page: Decision Framework, Not Feature List

When someone is deciding whether to hire you, they're not choosing between you and a competitor. They're deciding whether to:

  • Hire anyone at all

  • Handle it internally with existing staff

  • Wait and hope the problem resolves itself

  • Invest in specialized expertise

Your services page should acknowledge this decision framework, then make clear why specialized expertise solves problems the other approaches don't. Only then do you explain what working together actually looks like.

Contact Page: Make It Easy

This seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how many new consultants make it complicated. Clear email, phone number if you're comfortable with it, simple contact form. No barriers.

The "X for Y" Positioning Formula That Makes You Findable

The most effective positioning for boutique professional services follows a simple formula: "I do X for Y"

  • "I provide fractional CFO services for medical practices preparing for private equity acquisition"

  • "I help manufacturing companies structure exits that preserve wealth and legacy"

  • "I manage FDA warning letter remediation for Class II/III medical device manufacturers"

  • "I lead capital campaigns for faith-based organizations raising $5M+"

This formula works because it immediately signals:

  1. What you do (the transformation/service)

  2. Who you do it for (specific enough that the right people recognize themselves)

It also makes you findable. When someone searches for your specific expertise—whether through Google, AI search engines like ChatGPT or Perplexity, or LinkedIn—specific positioning surfaces in results. Generic positioning disappears.

Why This Matters More Now: The AI Search Shift

Five years ago, SEO was about keywords and backlinks. Today, AI-powered search engines parse your website's content to understand your actual expertise and match it to specific queries.

When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity to "find consultants who help manufacturing companies prepare for acquisition," these engines analyze:

  • The specificity of your positioning

  • The depth of your content on that topic

  • Whether your site demonstrates pattern-recognition or just lists services

  • How clearly you articulate the transformation you deliver

Generic positioning makes you invisible in AI search results. Specific positioning makes you discoverable to exactly the people who need what you offer.

And here's the important part: you're building your website right now, before launch. You can position correctly from day one. You don't have to spend years repositioning like my CPA is doing.

Content Strategy: Build Authority From Day One

You don't need a blog with 50 articles when you launch. You need strategic content that answers the specific questions your ideal clients are asking when they're researching solutions.

Start with 3-5 pieces of content that demonstrate your pattern-recognition:

"When should a family business start exit planning?" (if you help owners prepare for acquisition)

"What triggers an FDA warning letter, and how do you respond?" (if you do medical device compliance)

"How do you structure a capital campaign when major donors are fatigued?" (if you lead fundraising initiatives)

"What entity structure minimizes tax for a service business planning to sell?" (if you do tax strategy for business owners)

Each piece should demonstrate that you've seen these scenarios play out multiple times, you know the complexity others miss, and you understand the stakes involved.

This content serves two purposes:

  1. It helps prospects self-educate and assess whether you understand their situation before they contact you

  2. It signals to search engines (including AI) that you have genuine depth on these specific topics, not surface-level knowledge

The Hub-and-Spoke Strategy: Building Authority Around Focused Expertise

Once you have your core pages and initial content, you want to build authority strategically. The hub-and-spoke content model is perfect for boutique firms with deep expertise in a focused area.

Here's how it works:

Your hub page targets the core problem you solve. For example: "Tax Strategy for Closely Held Businesses" or "FDA Compliance for Medical Device Manufacturers" or "Exit Planning for Family-Owned Manufacturers."

Your spoke pages address specific scenarios, questions, and decision points within that core topic:

  • Entity structure optimization

  • Estimated tax planning for owners taking distributions

  • Preparing financials for acquisition due diligence

  • Managing personal/business expense separation

Each spoke links back to the hub, and related spokes link to each other. This creates a semantic cluster that signals to search engines: This person has comprehensive expertise on this focused topic.

This is vastly more effective than writing scattered blog posts on random topics. It concentrates your authority where it matters most.

LinkedIn: Your Professional Proof Before Your Website

When you launch your firm, your LinkedIn profile will often be the first place potential clients verify your credibility—especially if they heard your name through referral.

Your LinkedIn presence needs to reinforce your positioning, not contradict it.

Your headline shouldn't be "Founder & Principal" or "Independent Consultant." It should communicate the transformation you deliver:

  • "Helping family business owners structure exits that preserve wealth and legacy"

  • "Fractional CFO services for medical practices preparing for PE acquisition"

  • "FDA warning letter remediation for medical device manufacturers"

Your profile summary should mirror your website positioning: specific about who you serve, clear about the transformation you deliver, grounded in the pattern-recognition you bring.

AI as Your Accelerator (If You Know the Right Questions to Ask)

Here's the advantage you have that consultants launching five years ago didn't: AI can help you build sophisticated positioning and content infrastructure in weeks instead of months.

AI can:

  • Draft website copy based on your positioning framework (which you then refine)

  • Generate content outlines for articles that demonstrate your expertise

  • Analyze how competitors position themselves and identify gaps

  • Suggest FAQ questions your prospects are likely searching

  • Help you test different positioning language quickly

But AI cannot replace your judgment about whether the positioning actually reflects the complexity of what you do, whether it resonates with sophisticated buyers, or whether it differentiates meaningfully.

You're the human at the reins. You ask the right questions, you provide the strategic direction, and you ensure the output actually makes sense to the people you want to work with.

What AI enables is speed and iteration. You can test positioning approaches, refine your messaging, and build content infrastructure without the months of delay that used to make new consultants settle for "good enough" websites that never quite captured their expertise.

Special Considerations for Professionals Launching in Retirement

If you're planning to launch your practice as part of your retirement strategy, a few additional considerations matter:

Your positioning should emphasize the depth that comes with decades of experience, not position you as "semi-retired" or "consulting on the side." Sophisticated clients want full commitment to solving their problems, even if you're only working 20 hours per week.

Frame your availability as intentional selectivity: "I work with a limited number of clients so I can provide the depth of attention that complex regulatory remediation requires."

Your website should reflect current relevance, not past accomplishments. Lead with the problems you solve today and the clients you serve now. Your impressive corporate career supports your credibility, but it's not the story—the transformation you deliver is.

Consider whether your firm name includes your personal name or stands independently. If you plan to eventually bring on partners or sell the practice, an independent firm name may serve you better long-term. If this is purely your retirement vehicle for 5-10 years, your personal name works well.

Getting This Right From the Beginning

Whether you're leaving Corporate America in your 40s to build the firm you've been planning for years, or you're retiring from a Fortune 500 role and launching a practice to stay engaged with the work you love, the decisions you make about positioning now will determine whether you spend your first year attracting the clients you want—or repositioning because your website made you invisible.

You have specialized expertise from decades of solving high-stakes problems. Your positioning should reflect that precision. Not "strategic advisory" or "business consulting," but the specific transformation you deliver for the specific people who need it.

When you get this right:

  • The right prospects recognize themselves in your positioning immediately

  • Your website converts referrals into clients because it confirms you understand their situation

  • Your content attracts organic search traffic from people facing the exact problems you solve

  • AI search engines surface your expertise when people ask for specialists in your area

  • Your LinkedIn profile reinforces your positioning instead of diluting it

And you build all of this correctly from day one, rather than spending years repositioning.

Ready to position your firm strategically from the start? Whether you're planning your exit from Corporate America or launching your practice in retirement, we help senior professionals translate decades of expertise into digital presence that attracts the clients you're best equipped to serve. See how we work with professionals building boutique firms →

About Jared

Jared Redick is a San Francisco-based brand development consultant, executive coach, and communications strategist with more than 25 years of experience helping companies and people position themselves for growth and change. Get career coaching here, or co-develop your professional identity here.

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Launching Your Consulting Practice

  • Start positioning and building your website 3-6 months before you leave your corporate role or retire. This gives you time to get positioning right, create foundational content, and have a professional digital presence ready the day you launch. Many professionals make the mistake of setting up their LLC first and treating their website as an afterthought—then spend the first year repositioning because their initial messaging was too generic. Your website positioning determines which clients you attract from day one.

  • Yes. Even referral-based businesses need websites because referred prospects will verify your credibility online before contacting you. When someone receives your name through their network, they immediately search for you on Google and LinkedIn. If your website is generic, outdated, or doesn't clearly communicate who you serve and what transformation you deliver, you lose credibility—even with a strong referral. Your website confirms that you understand their specific situation and have solved their problem before.

  • The biggest mistake is positioning too broadly. Professionals leaving corporate roles or retiring often think "I don't want to limit my opportunities" and position as "strategic advisor" or "business consultant." This makes you invisible in search results and indistinguishable from thousands of other consultants. Sophisticated buyers hire specialists who have solved their exact problem before—not generalists. Specific positioning ("FDA warning letter remediation for medical device manufacturers") attracts the right clients and makes you findable in both traditional and AI-powered search.

  • Choose the area where you have the deepest pattern-recognition and the highest-value transformation to offer. Position your firm around that core expertise initially. You can offer related services to existing clients once they trust you, but your public positioning should be laser-focused on one clear problem you solve for one clear audience. It's easier to expand from a position of focused authority than to gain traction with generic positioning. Think of it as: position narrow, serve appropriately.

  • It depends on your long-term vision. If you plan to eventually bring on partners, build a firm you might sell, or create something that exists beyond your personal practice, choose an independent firm name. If this is your retirement practice that will last 5-10 years and you're leveraging your personal reputation, using your name works well. Either way, your positioning and messaging matter more than your firm name. A clear "X for Y" positioning statement outweighs any naming decision.

  • Your homepage reflects where your prospect is when they arrive—their current problem, situation, or pain point. It should make them feel understood within 5 seconds. Your about page demonstrates your pattern-recognition and expertise—why you're qualified to solve their problem. Think of it this way: homepage addresses their situation, about page builds credibility that you've solved it before. Most consultants make the mistake of leading with credentials on their homepage. Save that for the about page, after you've earned their attention.

  • Very specific. The "X for Y" formula works best: "I do [specific transformation] for [specific audience]." For example: "Tax strategy for closely held businesses preparing for exit" or "FDA remediation for Class II/III medical device manufacturers." This specificity makes you findable in search results (both Google and AI engines), signals immediate relevance to prospects, and positions you as a specialist rather than a generalist. You can always expand your positioning later, but you can't build authority from a generic starting point.

  • No. AI is automating routine, repeatable work—standard compliance documentation, template analysis, basic tax preparation. What AI cannot replace is the judgment-heavy work that defines boutique consulting: pattern-recognition from solving high-stakes problems repeatedly, understanding organizational politics and stakeholder dynamics, and making strategic recommendations based on nuanced context. AI actually increases the value of specialized expertise because it eliminates the justification for staying generalist. Position your firm around irreplaceable judgment, not commoditizable tasks.

  • AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) analyze your website's content depth, semantic structure, and topical authority to match you with specific queries. Generic positioning makes you invisible. When someone asks "find consultants who help manufacturing companies prepare for acquisition," AI engines surface consultants with specific positioning, detailed content on that topic, and clear demonstration of pattern-recognition. To optimize for AI search: use specific "X for Y" positioning, create FAQ content answering questions your prospects actually ask, and build content depth around focused topics using hub-and-spoke strategy.

  • Start with four core pages (homepage, about, services, contact) and 3-5 foundational content pieces that demonstrate pattern-recognition. Answer the specific questions your ideal clients ask when researching solutions—questions that show you understand the complexity they're facing. For example: "When should a family business start exit planning?" or "What triggers an FDA warning letter and how should you respond?" Each piece should demonstrate you've solved this problem multiple times. Quality and specificity matter more than quantity.v

  • It depends on your skills and timeline. You can use website builders (Squarespace, WordPress, Wix) to create a professional-looking site yourself, but the harder part isn't the technical build—it's the positioning and messaging. Most professionals struggle to translate their expertise into clear positioning that resonates with prospects. Consider getting professional help with positioning strategy and copywriting even if you build the site yourself. Your messaging determines whether your website converts prospects, regardless of how it's designed.

  • Both are critical and should reinforce each other. LinkedIn is often where prospects verify your credibility first—especially if they heard your name through referral. Your LinkedIn headline should communicate the transformation you deliver, not just your title ("Helping manufacturing companies structure exits that preserve wealth and legacy" not "Founder & Principal"). Your profile summary should mirror your website positioning. Your website provides depth and demonstrates expertise through content. Think of LinkedIn as professional proof and your website as comprehensive authority—prospects need both.

  • Hub-and-spoke is a content architecture where your hub page targets the core problem you solve, and spoke pages address specific scenarios within that topic. For example, a hub on "Tax Strategy for Closely Held Businesses" might have spokes on entity structure optimization, estimated tax planning, and preparing for acquisition. Each spoke links to the hub and related spokes. This creates a semantic cluster that signals deep expertise to search engines rather than shallow coverage of many topics. It's far more effective for boutique firms than blogging about random topics.

  • If you have clear positioning, 4-6 weeks for a foundational site (core pages + initial content). If you're still clarifying your positioning and messaging, add 2-4 weeks for that strategic work. The positioning clarity is the hard part—the actual website build is straightforward once you know who you serve and what transformation you deliver. Rushing to launch with unclear positioning means you'll spend months repositioning later. Take time to get the strategy right first.

  • AI can help draft content based on your positioning framework, but it cannot replace your judgment about whether the messaging accurately reflects the complexity of what you do or resonates with sophisticated buyers. Use AI to accelerate the process: generate initial drafts, test different positioning language, create content outlines. Then refine the output to ensure it demonstrates your actual pattern-recognition and speaks authentically to the clients you want to serve. AI is your accelerator, not your replacement.

  • Building is for professionals launching their first practice—leaving corporate or starting post-retirement. The focus is getting positioning right from day one so you attract the right clients immediately. Evolving is for established consultants whose positioning no longer reflects their expertise—they've outgrown "generalist" messaging or their practice has shifted toward higher-value work. Both require strategic positioning, but building starts with a blank slate while evolving must navigate existing client relationships and market perception. Most professionals find building from scratch easier than repositioning an established brand.

  • If your homepage could describe dozens of other consultants in your field, it's too generic. Test: Remove your name and credentials from your website. Could this copy describe your competitors? If yes, you're positioned too broadly. Specific positioning includes: the exact transformation you deliver, the specific audience you serve, and clear indication of pattern-recognition from solving this problem repeatedly. Generic: "I help businesses improve operations." Specific: "I help medical device manufacturers remediate FDA warning letters while maintaining production schedules."

Jared Redick