Anessa Fike

Anessa Fike didn't just enter the world of Fractional HR—she helped build it.

Starting a Consulting Business as a Mid-Level Manager

Walking through overhead costs, how quickly people can ramp up, and what you really need to start a consulting business

Starting a consulting business isn't as hard as you think!

That thing you see before everyone else, the tweak that's needed, the thing people come to you for - that's the skill.

You ABSOLUTELY have skills people would pay for!

There are so many people who get tied up in what they are "supposed to do" instead of what you need to do. 

Sometimes NOT being in corporate for long can save you!

Go from full-time tech worker to successful solopreneur and launch your client-ready business in 2 weeks.

Tech pro who replaced salary going solo

GitHub

Neo4j

Vail

Clair Sullivan

20+ year tech veteran who who created a successful solo business from scratch.

Cohort 3

Cohort 4

You're competing with thousands of applicants for every role, submitting hundreds of applications that go nowhere. Meanwhile, going out on your own feels terrifying because no one's shown you how to make money at it. You've got the skills companies need, but you're stuck applying instead of converting your expertise into income.Here's what I learned: I started my GenAI business in less than 24 hours and replaced my corporate income in less than a week. That timeline might not be typical, but here's what is: building your own business is often faster than landing another corporate job when you have the right framework. Most tech professionals waste months figuring this out alone. This course gives you the exact system. You'll learn how to calculate your required income, design the right business model for your expertise (freelance, consulting, fractional, or product), set up operations, develop a client acquisition strategy, and set rates. Complete the optional capstone and you'll go live with your business by the end of the course! Whether you're employed or laid off, you'll have everything you need to start generating revenue from your expertise.

Tech layoffs keep coming, and the job market is a nightmare

Apply the Financial Readiness Framework to determine your income requirements

Design your personalized solopreneur model for your tech expertise

Set up your business operations and infrastructure

Develop your client acquisition strategy and set competitive rates

A big portion of what we will be talking about is leveraging your network. So it will help to have worked a corporate job or two already.

Tech workers with a few years of experience working for a company/in corporate

Senior ICs and managers who are worried about layoffs and want to build a business that replaces their corporate salary.

Tech workers between jobs who want to replace their salary through independent work, not through another vulnerable corporate role.

Managers and ICs creating career stability who want to build a side business now that can become primary income if they get laid off.

The business fluency course for product & design leaders.

Learn how to speak the business language

eBay

X15Ventures

Amdocs

Roam Digital

Corinna Stukan

Product exec turned Fintech CEO. Amazon #1 Author & Speaker.

Maven Cohort 1

Cohort 2

Most product and design leaders I've worked with are smart, capable, and genuinely care about building great products. But when the conversation turns to revenue drivers, cost structures, or what's actually moving the needle for the business - they go quiet.What I've learned after 17 years leading product, and now running my own FinTech company: this is not about having a business degree. It's a confidence and language gap.<blockquote>Commercial acumen isn't about reading every line of a P&amp;L. It's about understanding the core mechanics of how your business makes money - the key revenue drivers, who your most valuable customers are, and where the biggest costs sit. Get that right, and your product decisions sharpen, your roadmap ideas get heard, and your influence as a leader grows.In this half-day workshop, we bridge this confidence gap. I've run this session with teams at Westpac, Visa, WooliesX and NZ Post - and the shift is immediate.People who walked in saying "I'm not a numbers person" leave with a clear framework for understanding business metrics, a one-pager that connects their work to business strategy, and the confidence to walk into any commercial conversation and hold their own.</blockquote>

Leave with a clear one pager linking your product work to business metrics, and the confidence to walk into any commercial conversation. 

Learn how to read business performance updates 

Understand how your business actually makes money

Connect your product metrics to business strategy

Build your Metrics One Pager in the workshop

Speak confidently in any commercial conversation

Shift from product manager mindset to business owner mindset

<blockquote>Product Managers &amp; Designers who get told "you need more business acumen" but have never been shown what that actually means in practice.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Product &amp; Design leaders who build great products but freeze when asked to "explain the business impact". </blockquote>

<blockquote>Product leaders who often present roadmap recommendations to stakeholders but lack confidence in commercial conversations.</blockquote>

Learn how to become an entrepreneur by acquiring a small business & achieve financial independence.

PM → CEO. Bought a 45-year-old business.

The Home Depot

U.S. Army

Cadence

Unilever

Stanford University

Rocky Sharma

Bought a 45-year-old business. Ran $1.3Bn P&L at Home Depot. CEO at 3 companies.

Oct 2026

Most PMs are taught one job: ship what the customer asked for. Owning a business asks for three.Deal fit: the business has real customers, real margins, and a seller ready to walk. Capital fit: the structure works for your savings, your risk tolerance, your timeline. Operator fit: you can run it after close without burning out.Most searchers solve one fit and discover the other two on the hard side of close.Rocky bought NECI, a 45-year-old business with no personal savings, ran a $1.3B Product P&amp;L at Home Depot, and has been CEO at three companies. He teaches all three fits because he's lived all three. The capstone is a bankable deal memo on a real business (yours, not a case study) ready to take to a banker the week the cohort ends.You've already done the cheap homework: the books, the podcasts, the Reddit threads. The gap is structured practice with someone who has actually closed a deal: a 4-week sprint walking you from sourcing to a bankable deal memo.$2,500 buys access to the playbook and to Rocky during the cohort. For context: that's roughly 1% of the smallest deal you'll close, and less than the legal fees on the LOI you walk away from.

The 15-hour playbook for PMs who want to own the cash flow, not run the roadmap.

Find and close a real deal in 8 weeks without quitting your day job (ACQUIRE)

Run the business leaner than the previous owner ever did (OPTIMIZE)

Open the growth levers the previous owner ignored (GROW)

Build the moat using the product judgment you already have (INNOVATE)

Walk out with a bankable deal memo on a business you actually want (CAPSTONE)

Owners who adapt fast win. $50K–$250K in savings · 6–18 month window · Intent to operate · US/Canada residency · P&L experience

You're willing to sit across from a 60-year-old seller and listen for 90 minutes

This course moves fast. A business background means you'll apply frameworks immediately instead of learning basic concepts from scratch.

You can read a P&L well enough to spot a margin trend.

Small business ownership requires influence and accountability. If you've done this at work, you're already ahead of most first-time buyers.

You have 6+ months of runway to spend on sourcing without panicking.

Ambitious PM. You can run the business. You want the equity, not another title.

Quiet earner. Side-income while you keep the W-2. A weekend asset, paid for in cash flow.

Layoff-tired operator. You will not bet the next decade on a manager mood. You are buying durable cash flow.

Learn to handle the conversations that shape team performance, trust, and your success as a manager.

Leadership & Communication Coach

Google

U of Digital

Amazon

Yahoo

Stripe

Brian McCaffrey

Ex-Google leader helping new managers become great managers.

October Crew

Most of us were promoted into management because we excelled as individual contributors, not because we were taught how to lead people.Almost overnight, we're expected to set expectations, give feedback, manage performance, and represent our team to senior leadership. Most of us never had the chance to practise these conversations before we were expected to have them for real.Over time, you realise something important: your team won't judge you by what you know about management. They'll judge you by the conversations you have.Great management comes to life in conversations. The expectations you set. The feedback you give. The questions you ask. These are the moments that build trust, create clarity, and define your effectiveness as a manager.This programme takes a different approach. Rather than learning management through theory alone, you'll analyse realistic workplace scenarios, prepare for difficult conversations, and receive practical coaching as you practise the conversations you'll soon be having in your own role.By the end of the programme, you won't just understand these conversations. You'll have prepared for them, practised them, and be ready when they matter most.

Master the conversations that define your success as a first-time manager.

Set clear expectations that build accountability and trust.

Deliver feedback that drives performance

Create team rituals that strengthen trust and engagement.

Support high performers and tackle underperformance early.

Deliver performance conversations that motivate

Communicate upwards with clarity, confidence, and influence.

You've just become a manager and want confidence in the conversations that matter most.

You're leading a team but have never received practical management training or coaching.

You're applying for your first management role and want to be ready before day one.

Agentic AI

Coding with AI

AI Workflows

Claude Code

OpenClaw

Vibe Coding

AI Evals

AI Transformation

RAG & Search

AI for PMs

AI for Engineers

AI for Designers

AI for Marketers

AI for Founders

Product Sense

Product Discovery

User Research

Prototyping

Growth

Analytics

Tech Foundations

Strategy

Influence

Leadership

Career Growth

Machine Learning

LLM Ops

Context Eng

Security

System Design

Figma

Design Systems

Visual Design

Design Strategy

Automation

Content Marketing

Demand Gen

Go-to-Market

Product Marketing

Positioning

Social Media

Brand

B2B Marketing

SEO & AEO

AI for Leaders

AI Governance

Communication

Management

People Operations

Exec Presence

Storytelling

Goal-setting

Personal Brand

Fundraising

Everyone

Operators

Data Scientists

Business Analysts

User Researchers

Customer Success

Project Managers

HR Professionals

Sales People

Lawyers

Finance

Investors

Real Estate

Educators

Creators

Broad professional audience — content relevant across many roles and functions.

Startup founders building new businesses, from MVP to scale.

Getting promoted, navigating job transitions, and advancing to the next level in your career.

Starting a Consulting Business as a Mid-Level Manager

What you'll learn

Why this topic matters

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Anessa Fike