I would suggest you set aside your aspirations of starting a consultancy until you adjust your perspective. You seem to be thinking alot about yourself without much regard to your client. You’ve stated that you want to work part time but not tooo part time, you want to be with your family but you need to make ‘x’ amount, me, me, me. I’m not being a dick, its just that your are providing a service and your success will be determined by how great your service is. Being self employed has very little to do with “self”. Start thinking more about the other guy (your customer).