I've been in claims my whole insurance career. Can I be a consultant?

You start by looking at your skills and abilities. What do you do that people will find valuable? Value is an improvement in some aspect of life:

Thinner,
Richer,
Less Expensive,
Smarter,
Easier
Time Saver
Anxiety Reducer

Who are the people that will find your skills valuable?

Talk to them.

How are they handling the situation now? What can you do to help? What do you bring to the marketplace that is new? How do you show value to your market? How to you convince the market that you have value to offer?

Focus on the needs and wants of your client. Focus on the value you can provide.

Think about the above using a notebook. Write out your thoughts on the above. Spend time over a week or so thinking about what value you can provide to people -- write your thoughts in the notebook.

Allow your mind to mull the issues over time. Several short writing sessions of ten minutes are more productive for most people than a long, "I'm going to spend six hours thinking about this" session.

I find that my mind turns things over and over as I go about other activities when I approach issues as I have outlined above. Thoughts and ideas come to me several hours after a five minute session of pondering a specific issue. Having paper and pen handy helps capture the ideas.

Review my white paper on issues to consider before starting a consulting business.

Buy and read Alan Weiss's book, Million Dollar Consulting. Others have found good information in the CD's of my teleseminars and handbook.