IT consultancy

Also, it depends on what kind of consulting you are looking to provide and having experience combine with industry certification will give you a more professional and legitimate image. You can specialize in one particular aspect of IT, or you can offer a full package turnkey solution, but if you can't do it all, which I am sure no one person can, you'll have to team up with other professionals in IT and work as partners. Human networking is more important than hardware networking.

First you should know almost all the areas of the technology and then try to find and collect white papers and standards for those knowledge and also be in touch with the IT Guru's who are certified on CISA, CISSP, etc.

If you want to provide consulting services yourself (as I do) it's much easier than running a firm with employees. In the first case, you get incorporated, get insurance (I get general liability not E&O), get a business bank account and you're good to go. You could get business cards and a website but they're not critical if you're independent. I get most of my contracts by job sites and networking and rarely give out business cards.
For an actual firm with staff, you would need employment contracts and focus on the marketing/sales aspects of the business. Get partnerships with local vendors, find employees/subcontractors.

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