I wrote a beautiful business plan, one of which I was quite proud.

It was aimed at helping me to transition from consulting to large companies to coaching smaller enterprises, and in the process I would attain these benefits:

(1) I would expand my market from a few thousand large companies to hundreds of thousands of smaller ones.

(2) I would be able to concentrate on serving local enterprises, curtailing time and energy sapping road trips.

(3) I would grow my testimonial base.

(4) I could offer more attractive pricing.

(5) I would spread my client risk across multiple firms, rather than concentrating it on one or two at a time.

A few weeks into this plan, I was exhilarated, but then, quite suddenly, the downside risks became apparent.

Smaller firms were shakier and flakier, financially. You couldn